Characters / Spider-Boy

Main Character

Spider-Boy

Spider-Boy II

^{Click here to see him unmasked}

Alter Ego: Bailey Briggs

First Appearance: Spider-Man (2022) #7 (April, 2023)

"I get it. And you're right. Spider-Man doesn't need a sidekick. But this sidekick really needs a Spider-Man."

Following the events of End of the Spider-Verse, Silk was able to undo the damage Shathra had done to the Spider-Totems. However, they were surprised when a young boy appeared out of nowhere. Calling himself Spider-Boy, young Bailey Briggs claims to know both Peter Parker and Miles Morales and was actually the former's sidekick. While he is part of Earth-616, being severed from the Web of Life and Destiny for so long has erased him for history, thus making him a young hero without a home or a past.

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• Alliterative Name: Bailey Briggs.
• The Aloner: Due to being a case of Remember the New Guy?, Bailey has been Ret-Gone from reality and none of the people he knew, including Peter, Aunt May, and the workers at F.E.A.S.T. recognize him. Part of the reason why he reveals his Secret Identity to the girl he saved is because he wants someone to know who he is. Luckily, the girl, Christina, is thankful for him saving her life and vouches for him so he can stay at F.E.A.S.T. with her family. And at the end of Spider-Man #11, Peter decides to hear Bailey out despite not remembering Bailey at all.
  Spider-Boy: My name is Bailey Briggs. And I'm all alone.
• Artificial Animal People: He's a spider/human hybrid created by Madame Monstrosity.
• Attention Whore: He very clearly loves being in the limelight, calling himself NYC's "short king" and posing for social media and screenshots. Bailey is also offended when Hellifino crushes the trophy that Bailey was going to get for saving a bowling alley from Gutterball.
• Badass Adorable: He's a cute kid with Youthful Freckles, curly red hair, and the usual suite of spider-powers that allows him to wipe the floor with hardened gangsters without much hassle.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Bailey was given his powers to act as a Human Weapon for Madame Monstrosity. His powers include paralyzing fangs and the ability to take on a monstrous man-spider form. But he's a good kid choosing to help others and encouraged by heroes like Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Disoriented by his eight extra eyes and his other powers, Bailey needed extensive training from Daredevil in order to get a handle on his abilities.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: During Otto's time as the Superior Spider-Man, Bailey is affected by Mr. Negative's corruptive touch and made to fight Otto. It lasts until Otto hurls Bailey to the pavement and calls him an impostor unworthy of his powers and destined for failure.
• Child Prodigy: Subverted. Bailey uses web fluid dissolver to get out of Peter's webbing when Peter tries to ditch him. Peter's first assumption is that Bailey made the dissolver. Bailey balks at the notion. He's only ten years old and wouldn't have the know-how to make something like that on his own. He shows the dissolver's capsule to Peter to prove that it's Peter's handiwork as evidence of their previous partnership.
• Combat Parkour: Given his lack of webshooters, Bailey performs parkour and acrobatics even more frequently than other Spiders. He often makes an entrance by Wall Jumping into frame and fight scenes typically show him jumping, flipping, and somersaulting past attacks whenever he's not throwing punches or kicks of his own.
• Commonality Connection: Captain America sympathizes with Spider-Boy after hearing about his Unperson predicament. He tells Bailey that he knows what it's like to be stuck in a world that's moved on without him and promises to be of help to Bailey if he ever needs it.
• Cursed with Awesome: Bailey was mutated by Madame Monstrosity into being a spider-human hybrid for the sake of being a living weapon for her. While this left him looking inhuman at first, Bailey got away with a suite of useful spider-powers and no permanently deforming side effects. This is in stark contrast to his friend Eli, who was converted into Hellifino, a four-eyed elephant-rhino hybrid with no signs of being able to turn back into a normal kid.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Bailey and his mother were poor enough to move into a F.E.A.S.T. shelter while struglging to make ends meet. At some point, he was separated from her and kidnapped by Madame Monstrosity when he was seven years old. Madame M. turns him into a monstrous spider-human hybrid with the express goal of making him a weapon for her ends. He's saved by Spider-Man and taught to control his powers and restore his human appearance, but is Ret-Gone from memory and record a few years later. This forces Bailey to rebuild his life almost from scratch even though he's only been gone a few days from his perspective.
• Depending on the Artist: Bailey's physique is largely dependent on the artist. Paco Medina, Humberto Ramos, and Luciano Vecchio all give Bailey a lithe build reflective of his past as an impoverished kid who was imprisoned in a scientific facility. Meanwhile, the reprinted cover◊ of Slott's Spider-Man #7 gives Bailey much more muscular arms and legs, as does Kaare Andrew's variant cover and Tyler Kirkham's ComicXposure variant cover for Spider-Boy #1.
• Disappeared Dad: Bailey mentions his mom and is heartbroken to find that no pictures of the two them together exist anymore. However, not once does he mention having a dad, implying that Bailey's father left them or is otherwise indisposed.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Invoked. Bailey tries to come up with a theme song for himself akin to Peters' while saving a woman and her cat from falling off a fire escape. He admits halfway through that he's no good at rhyming, especially while he has his hands full doing superhero stuff.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Bailey's Unperson status erased any evidence of his time as a superhero. This frustrates him, as he's treated as Just a Kid by civilians, criminals, and heroes alike apart from being known as Spider-Man's sidekick, to the point that people don't get his name right and refer to him as "Spider-Kid".
• Expressive Mask: Like with Spider-Man's, his mask acts like an extension of his face. Also, somehow, his extra eyes also appear in the mask when he activates them.
• Extra Eyes: He has ten eyes: a pair of eyes, like a normal human, and eight more, like a spider's. This gives him virtually 360 degrees of vision because of the extra eyes on the sides of his head. He can also retract his extra eyes to appear normal when unmasked.
• Everybody Has Standards: Spider-Boy scolds Squirrel Girl for laughing at Professor Helio's squeaky voice, pointing out that he can't help it due to the accident that gave him his powers. Though he also is aware of how the villain reacts to such mockery, so it could have just been a practical attempt to keep the situation from escalating.
• Fatal Flaw: Impatience'. Bailey is a ten-year-old saddled with power and responsibility. But he also wants desperately to be recognized for his accomplishments and is only as patient as someone his age can be. After being Ret-Gone, he quickly grows frustrated with Peter not trusting him as much as Miles and feels lost and alone with no one he can be fully honest to. After Bailey is blamed for a string of robberies and assaulting Miles due to the actions of Boy-Spider, Bailey can't calm down and let others explain themselves, fleeing in tears at the thought of how quickly the people he cares about seemed to turn on him.
• Fiery Redhead: He has curly red hair under the mask and is exceptionally bombastic when fighting crime.
• Fighting Fingerprint: Taskmaster's Photographic Memory allows him to instantly peg Bailey's moves as a mix of Daredevil's and Spider-Man's, as both heroes taught Bailey how to fight and get a hang of his powers.
• Fragile Speedster: Bailey's lack of web-shooters has taught him to be even more nimble and acrobatic than Peter. This, his size, and his 360 degree field of vision make him exceptionally hard to hit. But Bailey lacks a proper Spider-Sense to give him Combat Clairvoyance on top of being a scrawny ten-year-old. When pitted against the Superior Spider-Man by Mr. Negative, Otto just needs to grab Bailey's leg and throw him to the floor to knock the wind out of him. He's also noted to not hit as hard as Spider-Man, which works against him when Hellifino can take all of Bailey's punches and kicks without flinching.
• Fun Personified:
  • Bailey often treats superhero work less seriously than he should, posing for social media and referring to unwanted tasks given to him by his Spider-Sense as "sidequests". He's not at all concerned when he's kidnapped by Arcade and treats escaping Murderworld as though he were at the amusement park. To some extent, this attitude is a coping mechanism, as he admits that his family never had the money to actually visit one.
  • On a meta-level, Bailey's adventures are typically much more light-hearted and have lower stakes than the main Amazing Spider-Man book. Rather than featuring A-list villains like Doctor Octopus, Bailey's rogues tend to be sillier enemies like Gutterball, a villain with an indestructible bowling ball for a head who shoots bowling pins at people.
• Hero of Another Story: Bailey isn't allowed to get involved in more brutal conflicts, resulting in him largely sitting out the events of Gang War (2023). He instead spends time patrolling the city blocks around the F.E.A.S.T. center he calls home, dealing with Maggia goons hoping to turn it into a base of operations and later supernaturally coordinated rats.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Bailey's more obviously mutated traits compared to other spider heroes haven't done wonders for his reputation. At best, he's considered Creepy Good because of his retractable fangs. At worst, the Daily Bugle runs articles accusing Spider-Boy of being a monster. Spider-Man complains that Spider-Boy hasn't done anything to warrant this kind of treatment, but Robbie stands by his headlines.
• How Do I Shot Web?: When he was first experimented on, Bailey found his eight additional eyes more disorienting than helpful, mistakenly believing that he's seeing six of the same person at once. It's not until he trains with Daredevil to master his senses and process the information from his extra eyes that Bailey can take advantage of his increased field of vision.
• Homeless Hero: Given that he owns a locker at F.E.A.S.T., it's implied that Bailey was homeless even before he was Ret-Gone from reality. He's familiar with Aunt May because of her time volunteering at the shelter and doesn't know where he'll stay when the other workers don't recognize him. But after he saves a girl staying at the shelter, she vouches for him after he reveals his Secret Identity to her, staying with her family in the shelter.
  Bailey: Great, I can't even stay at a F.E.A.S.T. center. Where am I gonna go? What can I do?
• Hulking Out: He claims to be able to "monster-out" but he'd rather not do so. What little he does show involves retractable fangs with paralyzing venom and eight additional eyes that give him virtually 360 degrees of vision. Previews from the official Marvel site show that when he was first experimented on, Bailey didn't look human◊, with an oblong head and alien-like eyes.
• Human Weapon: Madame Monstrosity spliced Bailey with a spider to turn him into one of her Humanimal enforcers to sicc on her foes and guard her lairs. But Bailey was rescued by Spider-Man before she could break Bailey's will. Spider-Man and daredevil would then teach Bailey to control his powers well enough to be able to return to a somewhat normal life.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Bailey's eyes are bright blue and he's typically an optimistic kid who prefers to act as Fun Personified despite everything he's been through. He'd much rather save people than hurt them and is aghast when the Superior Spider-Man grievously injures several members of the Demons on account of the gangsters' Healing Factor. He even still believes in Santa, waving at the Santa Claus at the Thanksgiving Day parade.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Prior to his stint of non-existence, his relationship with Peter seems to have been a combination of this and Peter being something of a Parental Substitute. He even refers to May as "Aunt May" with a familial tone despite them not being related.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bailey can be bratty, egotistic, and doesn't always take superhero work as seriously as he should. He loves basking in the limelight and seems to have an inflated opinion of some of his accomplishments. His pestering Peter to remember him also makes Bailey come across as a Bratty Half-Pint. But Bailey's heart remains in the right place, as he rushes to people's aid despite being irritated by the "sidequests" his Spider-Sense gives him.
  Bailey: This is how most of my adventures start. And I have to see 'em through. Because if I don't...someone could get hurt, and then I'd never forgive myself.
• Just a Kid:
  • Justified. Despite spending a considerable amount of time training to work alongside Peter, Bailey was always kept out of fights with heavy-hitting A-Listers like Doctor Doom and the Sinister Six out of fear for Bailey's safety. Bailey himself is embarrassed that his most critical adventure with Peter was battling against the Big Wheel and failing to stop the villain from plowing through a F.E.A.S.T. center.
  • When he and Peter meet Supernova for the first time, Peter immediately pegs her as an A-list villain after seeing her torch a building. Bailey asks where Peter wants him to be. Peter replies, "New Jersey!", wanting Bailey as far away from someone who is like "the Human Torch times ten" as possible. Bailey instead opts to perform crowd control and get people out of the line of fire.
• Kid Sidekick: He's Spider-Man's long lost sidekick. According to Bailey, he's been fighting crime as Spider-Boy for three years, almost a whole third of his life so far. That said, a good chunk of that time was spent preparing for the role, with Peter refusing to let Bailey fight heavy-hitters like Doctor Doom out of concern for Bailey's safety.
• Knight in Sour Armor: For all of his griping about how important it is for him to be Spider-Boy to Peter, Bailey resents the role to some extent. The nature of Bailey's Spider-Sense ensures that he always has to put others before himself if he gets a psychic flash as it won't stop bothering him until he addresses the issue personally. His efforts to be a worthy hero led to his current predicament where he effectively never existed. Despite this, he still plunges into the fray because he knows he'll regret it if he doesn't.
  Bailey: Someone out there needs Spider-Boy. And that's always more important than whatever Bailey Briggs needs. Being Spider-Boy sucks.
• Living Lie Detector: Bailey's Psychometry-type Spider-Sense allows him to indirectly act as one of these, as his visions of the future are accurate enough to pick apart lies and falsehoods. The Superior Spider-Man feared that Bailey's powers would reveal how Otto took over Peter's body and refused to let Bailey touch him.
• Logical Weakness: Bailey's paralyzing fangs are a potent way to end a fight, but they only work if he can bite deeply enough to inject the venom. If he faces someone whose skin is too tough for his teeth to penetrate, his venom becomes useless. In addition, he can only bite one person/thing at a time. So overwhelming him with numbers will prevent him from ending the fight quickly since it'll take too long to bite each and every opponent.
• Mistaken for Related: After tackling Aunt May out of the way of the Big Wheel, May mistakes Bailey for Spider-Man's son and calls Spider-Man a fine father. Following his "first" public appearance, the Daily Bugle speculates on his relation to Spider-Man, father/son being one of the theories it posits. Mr. Negative also calls Bailey "[Spider-Man's] boy", which Bailey refutes.
• Momma's Boy: Bailey was very close to his mom and thinks about her often. His most prized possession was the sole photo of the two of them together and he's heartbroken when he discovers that it has vanished from his F.E.A.S.T. locker along with every other trace of his existence. Her current whereabouts are unknown; Bailey tells Christina that she's not dead, but doesn't elaborate.
• Mouthy Kid: Bailey zigzags between this and Bratty Half-Pint because of how egotistic he can be. While he likes to brag about himself, he often does make salient points about Peter. He calls out Norman for cranking up Peter's Spider-Sense to frankly unhealthy levels. When Peter dismisses him, Bailey uses Peter as a jungle gym to demonstrate that Peter treating him as a helpless kid is flawed.
• Mundane Utility: He uses his wall-crawling powers to get on a nearby rooftop for the sake of having a better view of the Thanksgiving Day parade.
  Bailey: It's like Spidey says— "What's the point in having spider-powers if you don't get to abuse them every now and then?"^note Spidey never actually said this.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Bailey is quite short and scrawny, to the point that Aunt May has to look down to make eye contact with him. But he can still punch out people much larger than him.
• My Suit Is Also Super: Bailey's costume is made of unstable molecules like the Fantastic Four's gear, which allows him to wear sneakers and still stick to walls. He lampshades this when he points out Peter wallcrawled with shoes on when he first got his powers and Miles' recent costume has sneakers as well and he still wallcrawled. His mask also seems to be able to open wide enough for him to unleash his fangs before closing completely into a full-face mask again.
• The Paralyzer: Bailey possesses venomous fangs that can inject a paralyzing toxin into whoever he bites akin to Spider-Man 2099. When Bailey bites Electro to save Peter from getting fried, he has to go out of his way to clarify that he didn't kill him. This proves especially useful against foes with a Healing Factor like the Inner Demons who can simply get back up from any beatings Bailey can dole out to them.
• Perpetual Poverty: He's a homeless, penniless kid with a Missing Mom and a Disappeared Dad. Even if he were old enough to get a job, all documentation of his existence has been erased, making it impossible to get working papers. His lack of money becomes a sore spot for him by Issue #3 of his comic, as his phone, his last worldly possession, was stolen just before Christmas. He then mutters that he wants twenty bucks after a woman asks how he can repay her for saving her and her cat. Unfortunately, Heroism Won't Pay the Bills, and the expectation that superheroes work for free means that she doesn't even entertain the thought while Christina tries to sweep Bailey's remark under the rug by saying he was just kidding.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Bailey is so short that he has to tell Aunt May to look down to make eye contact with him. He's also described as being nearly as strong as Spider-Man.
• Primary-Color Champion: His costume is mostly orange-ish red with sky blue, with yellow for the eyes in the mask.
• Psychometry: One of Bailey's defining abilities is that his Spider-Sense is significantly more potent that Peter's. By touching a person or related object, Bailey is able to psychically sense other people in imminent danger and know exactly how they'll be put in peril via precognitive visions. The catch is that once his Spider-Sense recognizes that somebody is in need of help, it will not stop blaring until Bailey personally intervenes. On the flip side, the actual Spider-Sense aspect is nonexistent, as he doesn't notice Arcade's truck driving up right behind him because he's busy arguing with Peter over the phone in a flashback.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Bailey is Spider-Man's redheaded Kid Sidekick with a similarly poor reputation. His paralyzing fangs get him labeled a monster and a vampire by the Daily Bugle and Peter barely tolerates Bailey at first. This is on top of being Ret-Gone from history so no one can remember him. Christina jokes about this while Bailey is grousing about his reputation, calling him something way worse than a vampire: a ginger.
• Remember the New Guy?: Inverted. Bailey was apparently Spider-Man's sidekick for three years straight, knew both Peter and Miles' secret identities, and had a close relationship with Aunt May prior to being erased by Shathra. When the kid is finally restored back into reality, nobody can remember him.
• Required Secondary Powers: Subverted. Bailey complains that all of the blood is going to rush to his head when Peter webs him to a wall upside-down. Peter remarks that the other spider-heroes don't have this problem, showing how different Bailey's powers are from Peter's or Miles' abilities.
• Sad Clown: For all of his quipping and whining, Bailey is clearly terrified to be in a world where no one remembers him. After the revelation that he's a Homeless Hero with no family to return to and nothing but the clothes on his back, his pestering of Peter comes across as a desperate plea for the person he trusts most to recognize him.
• Scannable Man: Madame Monstrosity imprinted a barcode on the back of Bailey's neck that proves he was one of her experiments. However, the barcode is useless in the present, as Bailey has been expunged from all memories and records.
• Scary Teeth: Bailey has a set of retractable fangs that allow him to inject a paralyzing toxin into his enemies. While they're non-lethal in potency, these teeth quickly get Bailey labeled as a vampire and a monster to be feared by some media outlets, including the Daily Bugle.
• Small Name, Big Ego: After beating a supervillain solo for the first time, Bailey expects to be able to ask for free food from a food trunk owner, who has no idea who he is. He also has a tendency to hype up his villains as being exceptionally deadly, such as calling the Balloon Man "the Magneto of balloons". While Bailey's sillier rogues may possess Lethal Harmless Powers, they're definitely below the super weight of the A-list villains Peter bars him from fighting.
• Something Only They Would Say: Bailey eventually convinces Peter of their shared history by sharing stories of things they did together, which Peter admits sounds like stuff he'd do. Bailey also knows Peter's and Miles' secret identities as well as intimate details of Peter's life, such as the time he had Doctor Strange wipe everyone's memory of his Secret Identity.
• Still Believes in Santa: Enthusiastically waves to the Santa in the Thanksgiving Day parade and seems to genuinely believe he's the real deal. Given that Bailey lives in the Marvel Universe, where living gods have been a publicly-known fact since long before he was born (he specifically calls Santa "like Thor and Hercules real"), it's quite understandable that a kid his age would retain a lack of skepticism on the subject.
• Speed Blitz: Bailey's go-to strategy for dealing with supervillains is to rush them with a flurry of hits before they know what hit him. While brainwashed into fighting the Superior Spider-Man, Bailey's attacks are depicted as him punching Otto from every direction from the sheer number of attacks that Bailey is throwing out. Bailey also tries to rush down Hellifino the same way, but Bailey's blows aren't heavy enough to do much more than annoy him despite running circles around Hellifino.
• Street Urchin: Bailey is homeless and has been living at Aunt May's F.E.A.S.T. center long enough that he was considered a regular face prior to being Ret-Gone. Also, during a mission with Spider-Man against Arcade (retold by the boy to Spider-Man), he mentions his family is "dirt poor".
• Stepford Snarker: Bailey can keep up with Peter in the quipping department, continuing to crack jokes constantly even while being chased by Supernova with no Spider-Man in sight. As the chase continues, it becomes clear that this is a defense mechanism as he continues to quip after he burns his fingers ripping his melting Bug Pack off to avoid catching fire. The mask only slips when Supernova causes a building to collapse on top of him, finally getting Spider-Boy to scream for help from his mentor.
• Still Believes in Santa: Bailey waves to Santa Claus at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, showing that Bailey still believes in Santa on account of his age. Given the existence of literal gods like Thor and the fact that Santa Claus is shown to exist in some Marvel comics, Bailey's belief is not unwarranted.
• Superhero Sobriquets: Marketing materials refer to him as the "Arachnid Kid", though Bailey doesn't particularly like being called "Spider-Kid" in-story. He's also called the "Webless Wonder" for being the only spider hero on Earth-616 to go without webbing of any kind.
• Superhero Speciation: Bailey was not bitten by a spider but instead had DNA directly spliced into him. As a result, he can sprout eight additional eyes to give himself 360 degrees of vision and his Spider-Sense acts as a form of Psychometry at the cost of not being able to sense danger coming. Peter also barred Bailey from using webshooters because of a Noodle Incident where he embarrassed himself with them, leaving Bailey to get around solely through his superhuman agility and acrobatics.
• Super-Senses: Due to his additional eyes, Bailey has virtually 360 degrees of vision. He boasts that this makes it impossible for anyone to sneak up on him. But this is only useful if he's paying attention, as he fails to notice the truck driving up behind him while arguing with Peter over the phone.
• Sweet Tooth: He enjoys ice cream like any other kid, noting that Peter used to always take him out to get a cone before Bailey was Ret-Gone. The cover for Spider-Boy #2 features him sipping on a frozen soft drink.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted. Bailey's Spider-Sense doesn't alert him to danger, leaving him reliant on his expanded field of vision to see incoming threats. But he also has a habit of running his mouth and arguing with others, which often distracts him long enough to get into deep trouble. In one flashback, Arcade captures Bailey while the boy was too busy arguing with Peter over the phone. In another, Bailey argues with Otto (who Bailey doesn't know took over Peter's body) long enough for Mr. Negative to clap a hand on Bailey's shoulder.
  Bailey: [when Otto tells Bailey not to touch him] "Lay a hand"? Of course! You've been fighting Mr. Negative! And he's got that corrupting touch of his that can turn anyone into a jerkish version of themselves!
  Mr. Negative: [puts a hand on Bailey's shoulder] Yes, I do. And it places that person under my complete control.
  Bailey: Eep.
• Tempting Fate: Bailey declares that no one can possibly sneak up on him thanks to his 360 degrees of vision. Seconds later, Arcade captures him because Bailey was too busy arguing with Peter over the phone.
  Bailey: I may not have your kind of Spider-Sense... but I've 360-degree vision. That means no one can get the drop on— [gets sucked into Arcade's truck]
• Unknown Rival: Bailey has in-depth knowledge of his rogues due to having years of experience fighting them. However, due to his Ret-Gone situation, none of them remember him, leaving them confused about why he knows so much about them.
• Unperson: Played for Drama. Bailey has been severed from the Web of Life and Destiny for so long that any memory or record of his existence has essentially been wiped off the face of Earth-616. Everybody he knows and loves treats him like a total stranger, what little worldly belongings he owns at the F.E.A.S.T. center is gone, including the picture of his missing mother, and all of his attempts to reconnect with Peter are firmly rebuked. This leaves the kid so starved for companionship that he unmasks himself to Christina Xu, a total stranger he had just rescued from the Inner Demons, just so somebody can know him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: For all of Bailey's spunk and attitude, he clearly and constantly yearns for Peter's approval. The first thing Bailey does after realizing that he's been wiped from history is to try constantly pester Spider-Man until he agrees to hear Bailey out. During the flashback in Superior Spider-Man #1, Otto-in-Peter's-body gives Bailey a "The Reason You Suck" Speech after Bailey is affected by Mr. Negative's touch, calling Bailey as an "impostor" unworthy of his costume or powers and "a sad, broken little boy destined for failure"; this reduces Bailey to tears.
• Youthful Freckles: Bailey is an energetic and impetuous ten-year-old superhero and has the freckles on his cheeks to emphasize his youthful recklessness and spunk.

Supporting Characters

Tabitha Briggs

Alter Ego: Tabby

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #31 (August, 2023)

Bailey's mom.

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• Cat Girl: She was forcibly turned into a cat girl by Madame Monstrosity.
• Made a Slave: She is forced to act as Madame Monstrosity's maid.
• Missing Mom: Bailey has no idea where she is. It's eventually revealed she is Tabby, Madame Monstrosity's cat girl servant.
• Pun: Madame Monstrosity's cat girl maid is based on a tabby cat. "Tabby" can be a nickname for Tabitha, also the name of Bailey's missing mother.

Christina Xu

Christina Xu

First Appearance: Edge of Spider-Verse (Vol. 3) #3 (June, 2023)

Bailey's friend and confidant at the F.E.A.S.T. shelter.

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• Go Through Me: When Spider-Boy is on the backfoot against Hellifino, Christina throws herself between them in an attempt to buy time for Bailey to get free of a wall. He scolds her for putting herself in danger like this.
• Muggle Best Friend: Out of desperation to have someone he can talk to, Bailey revealed his Secret Identity to Christina Xu, a girl he saved from the Inner Demons in Edge of Spider-Verse (2023). They've since formed a fast friendship as she acts as his confidant while also convincing her parents to allow him to stay with them at the F.E.A.S.T. shelter. By the events of Spider Boy #1, she's willing to throw herself between him and Hellifino to protect Bailey.
• Secret-Keeper: The first issue re-establishes that, apart from Peter Parker, Christina Xu is another person who knows Spider-Boy's identity. Peter is unimpressed that Bailey's already told someone else.
  Peter: You've gotta do better than that!
  Bailey: Better? You mean like asking Doctor Strange to do a spell to make everyone forget?
  Peter: Fair point.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Inverted with Christina, who started out looking much older and taller than Bailey, only to seemingly be de-aged (and shrunk down) a bit in subsequent appearances, something that is probably most obvious in the main story of Issue #3.

Toy Soldier

Toy Soldier

First Appearance: Spider-Boy (Vol. 2) #3 (January, 2024)

A remote-controlled action figure that has the Super-Adaptoid's ability to use the powers of any of the Avengers.

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• Copied the Morals, Too: Killionaire's engineers use the hand of the Super-Adaptoid that Taskmaster stole to make an action figure called "Toy Soldier", with the powers of all of the Avengers. Even with its abilities diminished by its size, Toy Soldier is too powerful for Bailey to beat. After Bailey tries and fails to lift its copy of Mjolnir, he manages to talk it into doing some introspection given that it's considered "worthy" to wield Thor's hammer. After concluding that it does have free will, Toy Soldier refuses to continue serving Killionaire, as it has inherited the heart and soul of the Avengers along with their powers. It then flies off to fight evil as the heroes it's imitating would.
• My Little Panzer: Toy Soldier is a remote-controlled action figure intelligent enough to respond to voice commands while also having the Super-Adaptoid's ability to use the powers of any of the Avengers. This means it can flatten cars at Killionaire's behest with ease and can cross the distance between planets (albeit not as quickly as the Silver Surfer or Thor given its size).
• Only the Chosen May Wield: The Toy Soldier's replica of Mjolnir comes with the same enchantment that prevents any but the worthy from wielding the power of Thor. Bailey realizes this after he fails to pick up the tiny hammer, meaning that there's something about Toy Soldier that makes it worthy of wielding its hammer. He talks it into thinking for itself, leading Toy Soldier to conclude that it Copied the Morals, Too, leaving to fight crime just as the heroes it's copying would.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Toy Soldier is a superpowered action figure created from the hand of the Super-Adaptoid, a robot capable of obtaining the superpowers of any being it touched. Although not as powerful as the originals due to its size, Toy Soldier is still capable of flattening cars and flying the distance between planets. Bailey is unable to even hit it, much less damage it, due to it possessing the speed and strength of heroes like the Silver Surfer and Thor.
• Power Copying: Toy Soldier is made from the Super-Adaptoid, which has the abiltiy to copy the superpowers of all the Avengers (and Silver Surfer). While its abilities are diminished on account of its size, it's still more than capable of flattening cars and dragging victims into the sun. Bailey tries to stop it, but it's too fast and strong, for him to beat on his own due to it possessing the powers of Thor, Hulk, and other heavy hitters.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Toy Soldier has a default form that's a mish-mash of all of the Avengers' appearances. But when it's using their powers, it transforms into a scale model of them.
• What You Are in the Dark: After realizing that it has free will and a desire to do good like the Avengers it's copying, Toy Soldier offers to fight alongside Spider-Boy as his sidekick. While Bailey is tempted to keep the "coolest toy in the world" after losing almost all of his personal possessions, he concludes that it's better for Toy Soldier to do good on its own rather than making it subservient to him. Toy Soldier thanks Spider-Boy for his example and flies off to fight crime.

Antagonists

Madame Monstrosity

Madame Monstrosity

Alter Ego: Melodia Stillwell

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #31 (August, 2023)

A Mad Scientist who developed a process to merge humans with animals.

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• Abusive Parents: Madame Monstrosity does not care that her sons are dead, and there is obvious resentment between her and her daughter, Shannon.
• Arch-Enemy: Madame Monstrosity is Bailey's greatest enemy and the source of much of the misery in his life. She is the one who turned him into a spider-human hybrid, left him with crippling guilt over fellow captive Eli being turned into the monstrous Hellifino after a dumb joke Bailey made, and keeps Bailey's mother, Tabitha, as her personal servant.
• Artificial Hybrid: Madame Monstrosity is a Mad Scientist who developed a process to merge humans with animals, making bizarre creatures named "Humanimals". She uses them as minions and muscle in her various schemes. Bailey was one of her victims, but he was rescued by Spider-Man before she could bend Bailey to her will.
• Bad Boss: Madame Monstrosity orders that Mr. Rooster be vivisected after he botches his Cock-a-Doodle Dawn.
• Evilutionary Biologist: She toys with the human genome by mashing unwilling test subjects together with various animals to create Humanimals as her slaves. She aspires to ascend creatures into higher beings, with her crowning achievement being a Humanimal capable of evolving and devolving at will. This experiment is Bailey, explaining his ability to switch into an increasingly spider-like monster. His escape embarrasses her before her idol, the High Evolutionary, who calls her work disgusting to her face. This left her with a burning hatred for Spider-Boy even after he has been wiped from her memory.
• Evil Old Folks: She's clearly getting on in the years and is a Mad Scientist who doesn't hesitate to turn people, even children, into freakish human-animal hybrids for her own amusement and to use as Human Weapons.
• Frame-Up: Invoked. She clones "Boy-Spider", a monstrous version of Bailey, from the samples of him she still has left in her lab. She then unleashes Boy-Spider upon NYC to wreak havoc. After obtaining Bailey's memories via a psychic link between them, Boy-Spider attacks Miles out of Bailey's repressed jealousy for him. This tarnishes Bailey's already fragile reputation and convinces him that he's better off on his own if the people he cares could turn on him so quickly.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Her splicing work is apparently the backbone of a lot of transgenic experiments in the Marvel Universe, from Curt Connors and Michael Morbius to the work of her sons creating Scorpion and the Fly. It's implied she's been sabotaging said experiments out of haughtiness at her work being copied.
• Insufferable Genius: Madame Monstrosity is a brilliant Mad Scientist who specializes in splicing people with animal DNA to turn them into super-strong hybrids. But she's also so arrogant that she readily believes Hellifino's lie that Spider-Boy turned into a bunch of spiders and got away, believing it to be something that she could have done.
  Madame Monstrosity: He can do that?!
  Hellifino: Don't ask me. You gave him his powers.
  Madame Monstrosity: I did, didn't I? I must be better than I thought!
• It's Personal: The reason why she hates Spider-Boy so much? He was her crowning experiment, capable of evolving and devolving at will. But he escaped before she could present him to the High Evolutionary, embarrassing her and causing the man whom she'd built her life's work around her to call her work disgusting. This incident mentally scarred her, leaving her with an inexplicable burning hatred for Spider-Boy despite not being able to remember making him.
• Mad Scientist: Madame Monstrosity is obsessed with changing people into animal hybrids named Humanimals.

Hellifino

Hellifino

Alter Ego: Eli Hartman

First Appearance: Spider-Boy (Vol. 2) #1 (November, 2023)

An elephant-rhino-human hybrid and servant of Madame Monstrosity.

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• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Hellifino is an elephant-rhino-human hybrid who only wears pants and goes bare-chested. Given his girth, it's unlikely that conventionally-made clothes would fit him at all.
• Heinz Hybrid: Hellifino is an elephant-rhino-human hybrid and Madame Monstrosity's first attempt at hybridizing people with more than one animal. He has four eyes and horns on his head as a result.
• Misplaced Retribution: Once Madame Monstrosity shows him that Bailey inadvertently inspired his transformation, he decides to obey her at a chance for revenge against him, even as Christina rightfully points out it's still Madame Monstrosity's fault he's mutated.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In a flashback, Bailey remembers his friend Eli who was also a prisoner of Madame Monstrosity. They joke about Bailey's situation to lighten the mood and accidentally give the woman an idea to merge Eli with a rhino and an elephant, when M. Monstrosity has only merged one animal per person before.
• No-Sell: Bailey tries to use his paralyzing venom to incapacitate Hellifino. But the elephant-rhino hybrid's skin is too tough for Bailey's fangs to penetrate.
• Younger Than They Look: Hellifino is a human-rhino-elephant hybrid thrice Bailey's size and can crush stone with ease. From appearances alone, you'd never guess that he's a ten-year-old boy named Eli being forced to work for Madame Monstrosity.

Killionaire

Killionaire

First Appearance: Spider-Boy (Vol. 2) #3 (January, 2024)

A Spoiled Brat Bad Influencer who streams all of his money-enabled crimes to his followers.

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• Attention Whore: Killionaire is a Bad Influencer who streams all of his money-enabled crimes to his followers. His actions are at least partially motivated by a desire for clout and attention, as he mutters about getting likes for his rampant property damage while asking his chat what Avenger to transform Toy Soldier into next.
• Bad Influencer: Killionaire posts his crimes on social media for his followers to see, streaming the mayhem Toy Soldier causes at his behest while asking his chat what to turn his toy into next. He then has Toy Soldier beat up Bailey and steal his shoes after Bailey called him the "world's most entitled influencer".
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Killionaire sends his Toy Soldier to drag a dog into the sun for barking at him after the dog was spooked by Toy Soldier flattening a car next to it. After Toy Soldier points out how long that would take, Killionaire decides to throw the dog into the East River instead. This is in contrast to Bailey who rescued a cat earlier that day and saves the dog from drowning.
• Copied the Morals, Too: Killionaire's engineers use the hand of the Super-Adaptoid that Taskmaster stole to make an action figure called "Toy Soldier", with the powers of all of the Avengers. Even with its abilities diminished by its size, Toy Soldier is too powerful for Bailey to beat. After Bailey tries and fails to lift its copy of Mjolnir, he manages to talk it into doing some introspection given that it's considered "worthy" to wield Thor's hammer. After concluding that it does have free will, Toy Soldier refuses to continue serving Killionaire, as it has inherited the heart and soul of the Avengers along with their powers. It then flies off to fight evil as the heroes it's imitating would.
• Entitled Bastard: Killionaire is a Spoiled Brat who feels entitled to have everything he wants. He throws a tantrum when Taskmaster fails to secure more than the hand of the Super-Adaptoid even as it was guarded by armed soldiers and Captain America. He also feels it's in his right to destroy and take anything that displeases him, ordering Toy Soldier to take Spider-Boy's shoes just because they look nice enough. Lampshaded by Bailey, who mutters that Killionaire believes he decides who owns what things.
• Evil Is Petty: Killionaire has the maturity of a child and the spite of a Spoiled Brat. The first thing he does with Toy Soldier is to destroy a billboard of a band who didn't want their single on one of Killionaire's streams. He then has it flatten a red Ferrari solely because it's red before having it try to drown a dog for being startled and barking at him.
• Foil: Killionaire is this to Bailey. While Bailey is a Homeless Hero in Perpetual Poverty, Killionaire is a Spoiled Brat who abuses his seemingly endless cash for personal entertainment. Bailey is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who asks Dude, Where's My Reward? but is responsible enough to do the right thing regardless of his money woes, Killionaire uses his money to terrorize others and get out of culpability for his actions via his lawyers. They also share a love of social media, but Bailey uses his to get recognition for his accomplishments, while Killionaire livestreams the mayhem he causes for clicks.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Spider-Boy points out that Killionaire will probably be thrown into juvie for ordering Toy Soldier to go on a rampage and streaming it for thousands to see. Killionaire retorts that his highly-paid lawyers will get him out of anything.
• Spoiled Brat: Killionaire is a boy around Bailey's age with too much money on his hands and is implied to be the heir to a major conglomerate. He uses his funds to hire Taskmaster to steal the Super-Adaptoid and throws a tantrum when Taskmaster fails to acquire more than a hand. Killionaire's employees then turn it into an action figure under Killionaire's control, which he happily uses to terrorize anything he dislikes.

Balloon Man

Balloon Man

Alter Ego: Emilio Helio

First Appearance: Spider-Boy (Vol. 2) #1 (November, 2023)

A villain who can manipulate helium gas with his mind.

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• Berserk Button: Professor Emilio Helio, the Helium Man, suffers from a condition that forces him to breathe helium instead of oxygen. This also means that he suffers from perpetual Helium Speech. Mocking him for it is the fastest way to set him off.
• Helium Speech: Supervillain Professor Emilio Helio has to breathe helium, which gives him a high-pitched and squeaky voice. He reacts violently when people find it funny.
• Lethal Harmless Powers: The Balloon Man can manipulate helium gas with his mind. Sounds harmless enough, right? Well, if he mixes said helium with laughing gas and other toxic chemicals, he can pop balloons filled with "attack gasses" to debilitate entire crowds. He also seizes control of the Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons after treating them with a special "Polymer X". This grants the balloons Nigh-Invulnerability, making them indestructible giants that can smash buildings.
• No Ontological Inertia: Once the Helium Man is taken down, all the balloons he's controlling quickly deflate and become harmless despite not having any holes in them.

Gutterball

Gutterball

Alter Ego:

First Appearance: Spider-Boy (Vol. 2) #1 (November, 2023)

A villain with a indestructible bowling ball for a head.

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• Family-Friendly Firearms: Gutterball's guns only shoot full-sized bowling pins... somehow.
• Non-Human Head: Gutterball's head is an indestructible bowling ball that doubles as an Expressive Mask.
• No-Sell: Spider-Man punches Gutterball in the head in the first issue, discovering the hard way that not only is his head indestructible, but he doesn't even react to the punch.

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