Spider-Boy the Web-Less Wonder- Trick or Read 2024

 By Mark Rodriguez

Spider-Boy follows the trope of 'he was there all along, we just couldn't see him'. He was somehow displaced from our reality... and now he's back and he's adjusting to it. He has his own series and has been appearing in the new Superior Spider-Man mini-series. Let's see what this Trick or Read tale brings us. 

The issue opens with Spider-Man and Spider-Boy facing off against a villain with a bowling ball for a head called Gutterball. Despite looking silly, he is armed with two big guns and is shooting towards people at the bowling alley. Spider-Boy says he fought him before, but the villain doesn't recognize him. 

Spider-Man leaps in for a punch, but Spider-Boy warns him that the villain's head is an Indestrct-O-Ball. Spidey hurts his hand upon landing a punch on it, while the villain gloats being unaffected. Spider-Boy goes low and legs weeps the criminal, saying he was setting him up and knocking him down. Spider-Boy throws Gutterball down the lane as he knocks the pins and breaks through the brick wall. Spider-Man says it was striking, and Spider-Boy says it's too bad the guy couldn't be spared. Gutterball had enough of the bowling puns and is happy to see the police come to arrest him.

Spider-Man and his sidekick tell the people in the bowling alley that they are now safe. The people ask if they will also be safe from Spider-Boy. Spider-Boy is shown a photo in the paper of him when he recently turned into a monster. Spider-Boy is angry that he's been a hero for three months and it only takes one time he turned into a monster to be seen as a threat. Spider-Man says he knows how he feels and that he knows a guy. 

Spidey goes to the Daily Bugle to see Robbie Robertson, who was in the middle of asking the owner of the bowling alley if she saw Spider-Boy come with Spider-Man. Spider-Man says that Robbie sat back while Jameson wrote countless articles calling him a menace back in the day. He says he can take it, but Spider-Boy is just a kid. Robbie says the kid also happens to be a monster. Spider-Man says he can't help it and asks if Robbie can do a redaction or give him the key to the city. Robbie says he's not the mayor. The woman says she can give him a key to the bowling alley and he can bowl there whenever he wants. Robbie and Spidey both agree that it's a good deal.

Peter goes to look for Bailey, and a woman at the shelter Aunt May currently works at tells him that he is with his friend Christina Xu. Bailey complains that the city sees him as a vampire monster and the only one that understands him is Christina. Christina says everyone will get over it and see him as a hero soon enough. Bailey says she only sees him as a hero because he once saved her life as Spider-Boy. He asks if her family would have taken him in if the first time they met he had fangs and extra eyes. Christina says he unmasked in front of her and she saw that he was ginger. She says that's worse then being a vampire, and that leads to a playful pillow fight until Peter arrives. Peter wants to talk to Bailey in private.

Bailey says it's anything involving Spider-Boy, it's ok since Christina already knows. Peter says he hasn't been back long and somebody already knows. He says he has to do better than that. Bailey asks about the time Peter asked Doctor Strange to make everyone forget his secret identity and Peter says that's a fair point.

Peter shows Bailey a newspaper announcing that the bowling alley will be throwing a special ceremony thrown for Spider-Boy and he gets a lifetime pass. Bailey asks if the ceremony should be for both of them, but Peter says this is all for him and he will be going solo. Bailey asks if this just for bowling or if it also includes tokens for the games and free nachos and whatnot. He also asks if he can bring Christina and Peter says he doesn't see why not (???????). 

Meanwhile at the secret laboratory of  Madame Monstrosity called 'The Farm', the woman is upset that Spider-Boy appeared out of nowhere and looks like one of her 'humanimals', which are mutated humanoid animals. She wonders how she can track him down, when she sees the news of the ceremony being held at the bowling alley in his honor. She notes that it says that 'All are Welcome' and she says she knows just the humanimals that should attend.

Spider-Boy shows up at the event with Christina. The owner hands Spider-Boy a a bowling ball, and he asks if that's Gutterball's head. He hoped they didn't decapitate him and give his head as a trophy. The woman is shocked and says they didn't do that, and Spider-Boy moves on to do his speech. Man, this kid is awkward.

As he starts his speech, suddenly the ground shakes and a monster breaks into the bowling alley. Christina tells Spider-Boy to watch out as the monster is headed straight towards him. Spider-Boy has flashbacks since this monster was there since the beginning.

We see that Bailey was taken from his mother when he was younger and placed in a room with a spider. The machine is activated and Bailey now sprouts fangs, claws and multiple eyes. He is shocked when he looks himself in the mirror of what he has been into. Another captured kid, Eli, tells Bailey that they can figure something out. Bailey asks what he can do since he was a freak now. Eli says the last guy was worse, they crossed a cow with a duck and got him some milk and quackers. The joke comforts Bailey and he says another joke back. He asks what you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino, the answer being 'hellifino'.

Unfortunately, Madame M overhears this joke and takes it too literally. She wonders what would happen if an elephant was crossed with a rhino and decides to test it out on Eli. As Eli is dragged off, Baily yells that he was just joking and apologizes to his friend for what's about to be done to him.

The monster attacking Spider-Boy is a mutated rhino-elephant hybrid, to which he apologizes to. Spider-Boy is slammed against a wall and the monster throws his bowing ball hard enough to shatter it on the floor. 'Hellifino' says Spider-Boy might crack jokes, but he will crack his skull. Spider-Boy apologizes and Christina gets in the way, telling the monster to stop.

Spider-Boy tells Christina to never get in the line of fire again and leave the hero-ing to the boy with the strength and speed of a spider. The monster says Spider-Boy has the strength of a bug while he has the skin of two pachyderms. Spider-Boy swings around him and bites him on the shoulder. Helifino grabs Spider-Boy with his elephant trunk and he sees that there is a video feed on the necklace the monster is wearing. Madame M appears in the tiny video screen demanding her humanimal to unmask the superhero.

The monster peels back a bit of the mask, just enough to show the serial number on the back of his neck. Madame M sees that he is in fact one of her creations, but she doesn't remember him. Spider-Boy says he will never tell her why, since he finally has something on her. Nobody remembers him, which includes his friend Eli. The monster asks how he knew his name.

The crowd starts calling Eli a monster and a freak. Madame M orders him to attack everyone. Spider-Boy knocks the necklace off and stomps on the camera. He says it doesn't matter what the people think or what Madame M thinks. What matters is what Eli thinks. If he doesn't want to be a monster he can make the choice to not be one.

Madame M asks what's going on and Eli says he got what she wanted so he's leaving. She asks what happened to Spider-Boy and he lies and says he turned into a bunch of spiders and got away. Madame M buys that that she could create something like that.

As Eli leaves, Christina asks if they are safe. Spider-Boy says maybe she is safe but the city still thinks he's a monster. Christina says the next time he runs into the monster, she's sure he will beat him. Spider-Boy says the next time he sees him, he's going to save him.

"Who are the Fantastic Four?" is a short re-telling of the Fantastic Four. Susan Storm retells how they went on a mission in space and were hit by cosmic rays. Reed became Mister Fantastic who can stretch his limbs, Johnny became the Human Torch who can engulf himself in flames and fly. Ben turned into a powerful rock monster named the Thing. Susan can turn invisible and create forcefields and is now the Invisible Woman. We see a short fight against the Mole Man, in which they quickly defeated him. The world was never the same since.

My Thoughts-

Now this was an interesting story as we go into the origins of Spider-Boy. He wasn't just bitten by yet another radioactive spider, he was fused with a spider giving him animalistic characteristics. I'm assuming he can 'turn it on and off' at will, since whenever we see him as Bailey he looks normal, without the extra eyes and such. 

Like Bailey said, the fact that everyone forgot he existed is an advantage he has over Madame M. However now she knows that he is one of her creations, regardless of if she remembers him or not. I noted that Bailey was referred to as number 5 and Eli was number 4 by Madame M. Since the universe sort of re-arranged itself so everyone forgot that Bailey existed, does this mean that Madame M forgot who was test subject number 5, or was someone else tested in his place in the Bailey-less reality? She seems to be the obsessed type to remember all of her creations' test numbers.

This also adds an extra layer of tragedy since Eli also doesn't remember Bailey. Even though it's not clear if they were friends before capture or they happened to get along as 'cell mates', Bailey still blames himself for what happened to him. Unlike Bailey, it also doesn't look like Eli can turn to normal at will. Bailey will eventually have to understand that ultimately this is Madame M's fault and not his. If Eli wasn't mutated into that elephant-rhino, he would have been mutated into something else, regardless of Bailey's input.

The one part that confused me was Spider-Man being ok with Christina showing up with Spider-Boy at a public event. I hope he meant she can just happen to there with everyone else at the bowling alley. Otherwise it would be the same as Spider-Man showing up with Mary Jane or Felicia Hardy publically. Anyone that's a known friend of Spider-Man, and in this case Spider-Boy would be an open target. We definitely don't want Madame M going after Christina. 

Overall a good story and I learned more about the character since he is still pretty new to me.

As for the Fantastic Four, I had a feeling it would be the same one featured in the Venom Bedland story... so I just copy and pasted that one over here. I mean, maybe you as the reader don't read every single blog article I made. Maybe you skipped the Venom article and only read this one, right? 

Like I said before, I guess Marvel really wanted fans to know about the Fantastic Four this Halloween season. Speaking of which, I do wonder if we'll see Trick or Read will be back next year since this time Marvel was the only one to take part in this with only five comics. Halloween Comicfest seems to be gone as their website has been stuck on 'coming soon, check back later!' in terms of their now nonexistent catalog since 2023. We'll find out next year.