I went into this comic totally “blind”, as I have not been keeping up with the current Spider-Man titles, and had no idea who this new character was. But I was intrigued by the cover. When Miles Morales was brought over from the Ultimate Universe to the mainstream Marvel Universe, I wondered why they didn’t have him take on the name Spider-Boy, to differentiate him from Peter Parker’s Spider-Man. And I like this costume a lot more than Miles’. To his credit, Dan Slott manages to write this book to catch up and follow along, even without knowing all of this character’s background.

The main premise is that they’re doing something similar with this character that Marvel had previously done with The Sentry and that DC Comics had done with Triumph. This is a character who existed and was active in the MU, in this case for 3 years in which he acted as Spider-Man’s sidekick, but then some kind of magical/sci-fi shenanigans happened (it’s not clearly explained here, although it’s not completely necessary), all memories and evidence of his existence were wiped out, so absolutely no one remembers who he is and he has to try to rebuild his life, including his superhero career.

Bailey Biggs is a young boy, his age isn’t mentioned by his looks about 13. He’s an orphan who was once abducted by a supervillain named Madame Monstrosity, a mad scientist who merges people with animals or insects, turning them into hybrids dubbed Humanimals, which are under control and she uses to commit various crimes. Bailey was merged with a Spider, and this gave him powers similar to Spider-Man, he’s got the strength, speed, agility, and ability to stick to walls. He doesn’t have any web powers, nor the ability to create mechanical web-shooters, but he also has a spider-sense except unlike Spider-Man his spider-spense alerts him to when other people are in danger.

The problem is when he uses his powers, his face transforms to look, well, spider-like? He spouts several extra eyes on his head, and fangs in his mouth, which makes him look quite gross. During a previous battle, his face mask was ripped, revealing his freakish face to the public and making people think he’s a monster. Spider-Man has taken the kid under his wing, although they’re not official partners quite yet.

The issue opens with Spider-Man and Spider-Boy facing a new supervillain named Gutterball. He’s a man whose head is literally shaped like a giant bowling ball and, armed with two large guns, is trying to rob a bowling alley. Spider-Boy assures Spider-Man that Gutterball is one of their deadliest foes, despite how silly he looks, although of course neither Spider-Man nor Gutterball remembers ever facing each other before. Thanks to Spider-Boys’ experience, they defeat Gutterball. But the public is still scared of Spider-Boy. So Spider-Man arranges for the owners of the bowling alley to have a special presentation the next day where they present Spider-Boy with an award for his heroics.

But Madame Monstrosity has been monitoring Spider-Boy’s activities from her secret HQ, dubbed The Farm. She can he’s one of her creators, except she doesn’t remember creating him. So she takes the opportunity to unleash one of her other Humanials, a hybrid human/elephant/rhino, to attack and capture Spider-Boy, who recognizes the monster and has a close connection to him. The story ends with Spider-Boy victorious, but still with many questions left to answer.

The story also introduces Spider-Boy’s friend Christina Xu, a young girl who knows his secret identity, and whose family watches out for him while he lives in what appears to be some kind of homeless shelter.

In addition to the main story, there’s a 9-page backup story, where Bailey and Christina attend the Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC. But while their Bailey ends up having to turn into Spider-Boy and team up with Squirrel Girl to face Professor Emilio Helio, The Balloon Man. This is a supervillain who has to wear a helmet to breathe in helium gas to survive and has an army of killer balloon animals, which he uses to attack the city.

Seriously.

This story ends on a cliffhanger.

I really enjoyed this issue, it reminded me of the comics of my youth. Both of the stories Dan Slott writes are fun, with a hint of danger, but still suitable for all ages. Paco Medina draws the main story, while Ty Templeton draws the backup and both of their art styles fit the light-hearted town of the stories. This is the type of book I’d use to attract new young readers. I can’t wait to learn more about this new superhero.

Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

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