Dan Slott is bringing Spider-Man full circle. Nearly 20 years after co-creating new Spider-villain Mister Negative in 2007’s Free Comic Book Day: Spider-Man #1 and launching the wall-crawler’s Brand New Day era in 2008’s Amazing Spider-Man #546, Slott is revisiting the very first Brand New Day villain in the final issues of Spider-Boy. This week’s Spider-Boy #18, written by Slott with art by Paco Medina, is titled “Full Circle” and takes place in the past and present.
The story begins three-and-a-half years earlier at F.E.A.S.T. (Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter, and Training), the homeless shelter founded by philanthropist Martin Li (who turned out to be the assumed alter-ego of Mister Negative, leader of the Inner Demons gang). Before he was Spider-Boy, the web-less wonder, Bailey Briggs lived above the F.E.A.S.T. Center with his mom, Tabitha, who worked alongside Peter Parker’s Aunt May.
It was Mister Negative’s Inner Demons who kidnapped Bailey and Tabitha and brought them to Madame Monstrosity, the creator of the Humanimals who spliced Bailey’s DNA with a spider to create the hybrid Spider-Boy.
Mister Negative, touting the invulnerability of his negatively-charged Inner Demons, told Madame M that Spider-Man put an end to an operation that would have given him an endless supply of Inner Demons (during the Slott-penned New Ways to Die arc back in 2008’s Amazing Spider-Man #568-#573). If Madame M could make him an army of foot soldiers, he would leave her the abducted women and children to use in her human/animal hybrid experiments. He then left her the literal keys to his kingdom.
In the present, Bailey’s friend, Christina Wu, has found those keys hidden under the floor at F.E.A.S.T. She takes them to First Kingdom Bank and is attacked by the Inner Demons, only to be rescued by Spider-Boy. Spider-Man tracks down Bailey and Christina and finds Captain Yuri Watanabe with the police posted outside First Kingdom Bank, site of a bank robbery. (Yuri is another Slott co-creation who is probably better known for her role in the Marvel’s Spider-Man video games.)
Spider-Man expects to find bank robbers webbed up, but instead learns that the robbers are… Spider-Boy and Christina. She wants to use the keys to unlock Mister Negative’s secret lock boxes and provide for the F.E.A.S.T. Center, not heeding Spider-Man’s warning that stealing from Mister Negative is dangerous.
Mister Negative arrives at the bank and uses his corrupting touch to put Yuri under his control along with her fellow officers. They then prepare to storm the bank with orders to shoot on sight… to be continued.
Spider-Boy #18 is on sale now from Marvel Comics. See solicitations for the penultimate issue and the final issue below.
SPIDER-BOY VS. MR. NEGATIVE…SOLO! MR. NEGATIVE and his Inner Demons need something that SPIDER-BOY has. SPIDER-MAN’s one rule for SPIDER-BOY is that he can’t face any A-list villains as they’re just too dangerous, and it doesn’t get much more A-list or dangerous than Mr. Negative. But when Negative takes Spider-Man out of the fight, Spider-Boy doesn’t have much of a choice but to break the rules!
On sale: May 28
SPIDER-BOY’S GREATEST BATTLE LIES AHEAD! SPIDER-MAN is down! And with MR. NEGATIVE and his inner demons closing in, SPIDER-BOY makes a last, desperate stand! LOOK OUT, BAILEY – it’s all the friends (and foes) you made along the way! Spider-Girl! Hulkette! Madame Monstrosity and more! But are they here to help Bailey or Mr. Negative?!
On sale: June 25
Mister Negative returns and turns a Spider-Man ally into an enemy. Read More