Spider-Boy #4 Review

Written by: Dan Slott
Art by: Paco Medina, Ty Templeton (backup)
Colors by: Erick Arciniega, Dee Cunniffe (backup)
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: February 21, 2024

Spider-Boy #4 finds Bailey struggling to be Spider-Man’s sidekick when Miles Morales keeps getting in the way, and a second Spider-Boy in monster form shows up to damage the bonds of trust.

Is Spider-Boy #4 Good?

You have to give Bailey Briggs credit. He certainly is an impetuous boy dealing with more problems than the average adult. Whether or not he’s handling it well is another matter.

When last we left Bailey Briggs, aka Spider-Boy, he foiled Killioanire’s attempt to use a piece of the Super Adaptoid to create an action figure with all the powers of the Avengers. A rousing speech about choices and free will freed the toy from Killionaire’s control. Later, Spider-Boy revealed he could talk to spiders while in monster form when he aided Thor in a fight against a giant Asgardian spider.

In Spider-Boy #4, Bailey impetuously pops up during Spider-Man fights to be part of the team, but Spider-Man handles a skirmish against the Vulturions easily with Miles Morales by his side. Feeling untrusted and unwanted, Bailey call it a night. Soon, a more monstrous version of Spider-Boy disrupts a movie theater and bowling alley and accosts Miles Morales. When Spider-Man arrives at FEAST to give Bailey a pep talk, Bailey gets a psychic vision about the attack, so they head off to facedown Bailey’s monstrous doppelganger.

You have to hand it to Dan Slott. He’s doing everything he can to write Bailey like an immature kid and it shows. Bailey’s rashness and temperamental behavior feel right in line with a boy his age going through more than his share of personal upheaval. However, centering a comic on a kid who’s a bit of a mess may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

What’s great about Spider-Boy #4? This issue feels like an improvement over the previous ones because Slott doesn’t introduce a villain that’s too jokey or over-the-top. The Vulturions are non-serious, throwaway antagonists, but the doppelganger Spider-Boy comes across as a wounded creature with mystery waiting to unfold. A hero is only as good as the challenge or the villains he faces, and that’s been the trouble with this series to date, but the corner may have turned in Spider-Boy #4.

What’s not so great about Spider-Boy #4? As noted above, Slott sabotages his creation by making mockeries of potentially dangerous villains. The Vulturions may not be A-List Spider-adversaries, but there’s no need to devolve them into slapstick losers. You can keep the age-appropriate personality for Bailey without dumbing down everyone around him.

How’s the art? Excellent. Median and Arciniega give you the high-quality Marvel house style with plenty of bounce, energy, and dynamic movement you’d expect from a Spider-comic.

Backup:

Witness the birth of Boy-Spider. Madame Monstrosity scours her files to find out why she has no record of Spider-Boy, although he’s clearly one of her creations. However, she identifies his experimental batch and uses the leftovers to create a clone using the leftovers, resulting in Boy-Spider. After she sends the monsterized doppelganger out in the world to eventually tussle with Miles Morals and commit assorted acts of (harmless) chaos, Madame Monstrosity manages to get a sample of Bailey’s DNA, which lays out a trail to Bailey’s mother.

It’s almost a rarity to find a comic with a backup that ties to and enhances the main story. Kudos to Slott, for using the space to efficiently explain Boy-Spier’s origin and use the background to raise the stakes of the main plot. Templeton’s art is solid but admittedly not on the same level as Medina’s.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Spider-Boy #4 is one of the better issues in the series because it introduces a mysterious villain, delivers a fair amount of age-appropriate drama, and plants intriguing seeds for what comes next. Still, Slott has a bad habit of reframing decent villains as jokes, which kills the hero vibe of the book, so better falls short of great.