Marvel Reveals Spider-Boy's Identity... and It Has a Weird Tie to She-Hulk
The identity of Marvel's Spider-Boy has intrigued fans for several months now — and the new character's newest appearance just added a major wrinkle. Spoilers for the "Nobody Knows Who You Are" story from Edge of Spider-Verse #3 from Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Wayne Faucher, Edgar Delgado, and Joe Caramagna below! Only look if you want to know! "Nobody Knows Who You Are" chronicles the latest adventure of Spider-Boy, culminating in a realization that he is practically anonymous on Earth-616. By the end of the story, Spider-Boy unmasks himself, revealing that he is a young boy whose full name is Bailey Briggs. The Briggs name is interesting on multiple levels — Stephanie Briggs was an FBI agent who appeared in 1995's Web Of Scarlet Spider, Jeremy Briggs was a short-lived alchemist in 2011's Avengers Academy, while Foxy Briggs was a robber all the way from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man #31.
But more specifically, the exact name of Bailey Briggs has already been used by Marvel — and actually, by another book penned by Slott, 2004's She-Hulk #3. In that issue, created by Slott and Juan Bobillo, Bailey Briggs is established as a much older man who works at Hammer Aeronautics, up until he was murdered by his supervisor. His murder trial became a case for Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk's law firm, Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway — and actually had a ghost version of Bailey testify during it. Bailey falsely accused his ex-girlfriend of committing the murder, and was sent to the Cage of Cytorrak as penance for doing so. It is unclear at this point if Spider-Boy Bailey is the same Bailey, albeit time and multiverse-displaced.
What's Next for Spider-Boy?
As Slott teased when the first look at Spider-Boy was unveiled earlier this year, the future stories of the character will be enlisting some major creators, and will dovetail into a significant but unknown territory.
"I can't wait for people to meet Spider-Boy, and the unique role he's going to play in both Spider-Man's world and the Marvel Universe," Slott said. "I grew up reading Spider-Man comics. He's my favorite character in all of fiction. All I ever wanted to do was tell stories with THIS cast, and it's been the coolest thing ever to co-create some of the characters who populate it. And this kid, this Spider-Boy, is THE one I'm most psyched about! On the art side, two absolute SPIDER-LEGENDS are bringing Spider-Boy to life. My longtime collaborator, Humberto Ramos and the amazing Mark Bagley. The all-new, all-different Spider-Boy of the 616: He's got strange new spider-powers, secret ties to dark corners of Spider-Man lore, and a story that's all his own... that is right about to begin!"
What do you think of Spider-Boy's secret identity? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!