Spider-Boy

Superherobox|

caption="Spider-Boy" #1, Vol. 1.
Art by Mike Wieringo
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Spider-Boy
real_name=Peter "Pete" Ross
publisher=Amalgam Comics
debut="Spider-Boy" Vol. 1 #1 (April, 1996)
creators=Karl Kesel
Mike Wieringo
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=Daily Bugle Project Cadmus
aliases=Arach-Kid, Mall-Crawler, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Boy
powers= super-strength, enhanced agility, wall crawling, limited gravity control|

Spider-Boy is a fictional character, the alter ego of Pete Ross and a Amalgam Comics superhero created by writer Karl Kesel and artist Mike Wieringo. The character first appeared in the comic book "Spider-Boy" #1(April 1996), with a cover drawn by Mike Wieringo. He is a combination of Marvel Comics' Scarlet Spider and DC Comics' Superboy).

Publication history

Spider-Boy starred in only two Amalgam comics, "Spider-Boy" #1 and "Spider-Boy Team-Up" #1, and was featured in "Challengers of the Fantastic" #1 and "X-Patrol" #1. As part of the backstory for the character, the writers referred in footnotes to several fictional Spider-Boy titles, including "WayCool Spiderboy", "Outrageous Spiderboy", and "Awesome Spider-Boy".

Fictional character biography

An attempt by Project Cadmus to create a clone of Super-Soldier with the ability to control gravity is sabotaged, and a young clone of researcher Peter Parker (who was killed during the "accidental" lab explosion) emerges from the wreckage. The young boy immediately runs up a wall in confusion. The head of the project, Thunderbolt Ross, feeling sorry for the clone, and feeling responsible for the boy's welfare, legally adopts him (giving the boy the last name of Ross) and names him Pete (after his genetic father). Pete and his "Uncle Gen" were a happy family until General Ross is killed by a mugger. Pete swears that he will face danger and make himself the center of attention so others wouldn't have to be, feeling he had been dismissed as just a boy during the incident. Inspired by his spider-like ability to walk on walls, he fashions a costume and called himself Spider-Boy. Spider-Boy later returns to Project Cadmus, where he is given a special pistol called a "web-shooter", which fires strands of synthetic webbing. As a Cadmus agent, Spider-Boy is assigned to battle genetic monstrosities, but as Pete Ross, he is a photographer for the sleazy tabloid, the Daily Bugle (to get incriminating photos of himself with attractive super-heroines, having become a major pop cultural phenomenon after his debut). Spider-Boy faces many perils, such as giant reptilian killers and symbiotic clones, but his biggest challenge is getting set up on a blind date with Mary Jane Watson (the Insect Queen). Surprisingly the two hit it off, and are now engaged. Now Spider-Boy faces his biggest adventure: marriage.

The character not only combines attributes of Spider-Man and Superboy (Pre and Post-Crisis), but his secret identity of Pete Ross is a reference to Superboy's best friend in Smallville. The name also reflects Spider-Man clone Ben Reilly's fashion of naming himself, being a composite name inspired by the two most significant influences in his life. Both clones also alter their hair colour to blond in their secret identities.

Powers

Spider-Boy's primary power is the ability to redirect his own personal gravity, allowing him to shift the pull of gravity sideways and walk on walls. He can redirect it inward and boost his strength to superhuman levels, or lower his own gravity to leap higher and farther than a normal human. He supplements his abililty with a Web-Shooter, a pistol that fires streams of synthetic webbing for the purposes of entangling enemies, or firing web-lines to swing from.

Other versions

pider-Boy 2099

In the "Spider-Boy: Team Up" comic, Spider-Boy saves the life of a boy named Mig-El Gand (an amalgamation of M'Onel (Lar Gand) and Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O'Hara)) who had been poisoned by a radiation beam. Spider-Boy sends Mig-El into an alternate dimension, where he waits 100 years in suspended animation. In the year 2099, he is returned to his home reality and given a serum of spider-DNA (developed by Spider-Boy in the future). The serum gives Mig-El spider-like powers of superhuman strength, speed, agility, wall-crawling, and the ability to fire webs from his fingertips. Mig-El becomes Spider-Boy 2099, and when Spider-Boy is attacked by an extadimensional villain, Spider-Boy 2099 time-travels to the past to save his predecessor. After the two arachnid heroes defeat the villain, Spider-Boy 2099 returns to his new home of 2099, and tells Spider-Boy that his life will never be the same after he marries Insect Queen. Spider-Boy 2099 is a member of the Legion Of Galactic Guardians 2099 (an amalgamation of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy).

Resources

* [http://www.geocities.com/schablotski.geo/Center.htm Amalgam Chronology Center]
* [http://geocities.com/theamalgam/index.html The Unofficial Guide to the Amalgam Universe]
* [http://www.io.com/%7Ewoodward/chroma/amalgam.html Who's Who: Handbook of the Amalgam Universe]