Spider-Boy (Marvel)
Spider-Boy is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Bailey Briggs was a male human who was born on Earth in the modern age. (Spider-Man v4 #7)
One day, he and other children were kidnapped by the evil scientist known as Madame Monstrosity who intended to splice the boys genetics with a spider thus turning him into a Human-Spider Hybrid. During his imprisonment, he came to befriend a fellow kid named Eli. To lift their spirits, Bailey would often make jokes that made Eli laugh with one asking what would one get if an elephant was crossed over with a rhinoceros with the answer being 'Hellifino'. This gave Madame Monstrosity the idea to actually use Eli to make a hybrid of two animal organisms mixed with a human. Thus, Eli was transformed into a hybrid with elephant and rhinoceros traits who was named Hellifino. Bailey came to feel a great amount of guilt over giving Madame Monstrosity the idea for this experiment. (Spider-Boy v2 #1)
During one of their adventures, Peter once tried to alter his Spider-Sense so it would be similar to Bailey's. However, it did not work and Spider-Boy had to save Spider-Man in the process. (Spider-Man v4 #10)
After Doctor Octopus took over Peter's body and became the Superior Spider-Man, he decided to finally grant Bailey his own pair of web-shooters. However, while swinging through the city, he saw that his mentor was currently fighting Mister Negative and beating his goons to near death. Spider-Boy attempted to intervene, telling who he thought was Peter that he was taking it too far, only for Mister Negative to take advantage of his distraction and corrupt him with his touch. On Mister Negative's order Spider-Boy began to fight Spider-Man who could have easily beaten him hadn't been reminded of his traumatic past. Eventually, as Mister Negative attempted to escape, Otto knocked Bailey out. Declaring that he was better off without a sidekick, Spider-Man left Bailey in the care of the Fantastic Four who had just arrived to help detain the criminals. (Superior Spider-Man v3 #1)
Spider-Verse
At an unknown point in time, after making a great sacrifice for the sake of the Spider-Men, Bailey was supposedly erased by the Totem Dagger by an unknown Spider corrupted by Shathra. He was restored to the Web of Life by Neith following Shathra's defeat. Frustrated that his friends did not remember him, he swung off in a fit of rage. (Spider-Man v4 #7) Bailey explored New York City trying to find scraps of proof that he existed, but was unsuccessful. (Spider-Man v4 #8) Rebuilding his reputation, Spider-Boy saw an innocent girl being threatened by the Inner Demons and intervened. He fought the criminal gang and rescued the girl named Christina Xu, and befriending her he revealed his identity to Xu. With Xu's help, Briggs sought to reinstate his presence in New York. (Edge of Spider-Verse v3 #3) Suddenly, he felt that Peter had heightened his Spider-Sense using Oscorp's technology, and remembering that he did this same thing previously, Briggs went to intervene. He was too late as Peter was having a breakdown from the immense amount of information overflowing his mind, and with no other choice Briggs went to Norman Osborn, who had become the hero Gold Goblin, for help in reverting the process. The two arrived to Peter's location where they found him fighting Electro. (Spider-Man v4 #9)
Spider-Boy
Overview
Personality and attributes
Among Madame Monstrosity's experiments, she came to label him as Subject Five. (Spider-Boy v2 #1) As a masked superhero, he went by the name of Spider-Boy and claimed to be Spider-Man's sidekick. (Spider-Man v4 #9)
As a result of a Multiversal incident, Bailey came to be erased from the timeline of Earth-616. Even after his return, all knowledge of him was gone from the memories of everyone on the world to the point that no one had heard of him. (Spider-Man v4 #8)
He knew both Peter Parker and Miles Morales being Spider-Man with him having many adventures alongside the two superheroes. (Spider-Man v4 #7) As Spider-Boy he classed himself as Spider-Man's partner and had been working with him for years. (Spider-Man v4 #9) In fact, he claimed that he was known as Spider-Man's sidekick. (Spider-Man v4 #10)
Despite her status as a villain, Screwball was said to be one of Bailey's favourite streamers. (Spider-Woman v8 #5)
Powers and abilities
He was shown to be strong enough to break through a stone wall with a single punch. (Superior Spider-Man v3 #1) Briggs was also able to break iron chains restraining him with little effort. (Spider-Boy v2 #6) His physical strength also extended to his legs, enabling him to jump heights of several stories in a single bound. (Edge of Spider-Verse v3 #3)
One of his natural traits was being able to cling and climb any surface by sticking to them. (Spider-Man v4 #9)
Another unique trait of Bailey was that he had the ability to communicate with spiders. This even extended to spiders from other worlds and dimensions. In one case, he was able to communicate with a giant monstrous spider from the Asgardian realms. (Spider-Boy v2 #3)
A unique trait of Spider-Boy was a psychometric sense where he could witness past events in his mind. This involve him touching an object or person whereby he would then experience visions of danger relating to the item or person. In some cases, this went as far to the point of him experiencing the pain of the person he saw in his vision. (Spider-Man v4 #8)
Bailey seemed to be immune and undetectable to Peter's spider sense, since his spider-sense wasn't triggered by Spider-Boy's surprise attack. (Spider-Man v4 #11)
In the past, Bailey received some martial arts training from Daredevil to improve his fighting skills. (Spider-Man v4 #11)
As a superhero, he wore a special costume similar to Spider-Man's Suit. (Spider-Man v4 #7) At one point, Spider-Boy was provided some Web-Shooters by Spider-Man though these had been taken from him by his mentor. (Superior Spider-Man v3 #1
Notes
- Spider-Boy was created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos where he made his first appearance in Spider-Man v4 #7 (April, 2023).
- As noted on his Twitter, a prior character named Spider-Boy was part of the Amalgam Comics universe with that version being Peter Ross who was part of a collaboration between Marvel Comics and DC Comics which merged Ben Reilly with Superboy Kon-El. Dan Slott would create the Marvel Comics Spider-Boy when he found out that he could legally use that name, though he had had the idea for the character for 'some time'.
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Spider-Man v4: (2023)
- Edge of Spider-Verse v1:
- Spider-Boy v2:
- Superior Spider-Man v3:
External Links
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