Dan Slott spins Bailey Briggs into his own solo title with Marvel Comics Spider-Boy #1, with art by Paco Medina and Ty Templeton.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Spider-Boy #1 Review:
After introducing Spider-Man’s sidekick in previous issues, Spider-Boy is spinning off (pun intended) into his own title. In the premiere issue, we get to meet one of the other monster kids Bailey grew up with: Elefino, a half-elephant, half-rhino. In the backup story, Spider-Boy teams up with Squirrel Girl to fight the master of gases, Balloon Man.
“This is exactly the sort of goofy fun you’d expect from Dan Slott,” host Alex Zalben said. “The puns and Squirrel Girl cameos and baloonatics and things like that. I had a good time. And overall, I was pretty happy this is a comic book you could hand to kids, as well… This is a very light continuity thing, as usual, and it really gets Dan Slott back to his all-ages roots, which I was very happy about.”
Pete LePage felt the story “jumps off the page… When Dan Slott’s having fun, we’re having fun.” And while LePage still isn’t sold on Spider-Boy as a character, “it’s a fun comic, and he’s having a great time.”
While Justin Tyler also had a fun time, he was a little underwhelmed by the revelations in the issue, which reiterated Spider-Boy’s origin from the Edge of Spider-Verse title… That he was created in a lab by a new villain named Madame Monstrosity.
However, he did like the reveals of the new characters, noting that Elefino gets to Slott’s strong suit. “It’s a joke, but there’s a deep emotional underpinning to it… This does feel like a great all-ages story that I could see lighting up the young comic fan, the masked boy that we all have in our lives.”
Spider-Boy #1 Official Synopsis:
SECRETS OF SPIDER-BOY REVEALED! Spinning out of the pages of DAN SLOTT and MARK BAGLEY’s monumental SPIDER-MAN run – here comes the spectacular SPIDER-BOY! After the events of THE END OF THE SPIDER-VERSE, Spider-Boy’s secret history as Spider-Man’s sidekick was nearly forgotten forever. But now those mysteries will be revealed while they embark on exciting new adventures…TOGETHER!
