Spider-Man + Superboy = Spider-Boy

 Spider-Boy #1
“Big Trouble!”
Writer/co-inker: Karl Kesel
Penciler: Mike Wieringo
Co-inker: Gary Martin
Colorist: Joe Rosas
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Cover: Wieringo and Kesel
Assistant Editor: Glenn Greenberg
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-chief: Bob Harras
Published by: Marvel
Released: Feb. 29, 1996

For the 20^th anniversary of Marvel vs. DC, which spawned the Amalgam comics I'm working my way through, I wrote a column pitching a new set of matchups for marquee battles between the universes' champions. One of the toughest pairings was who would take on Spider-Man? He's Marvel's mascot and arguably still their top character, but it's hard to find an obvious DC parallel.

In the original series, he's matched up with Superboy, then mashed up with him in Amalgam. It made sense at the time, as this new take on the Boy of Steel had gained a lot of popularity coming out of the Reign of the Supermen. Plus, he was a clone, and Spider-Man... was or might have been. I'm not sure where these issues fell in the scope of the Clone Saga/Debacle, which I never really followed all that closely.

Now, that version of Superboy has drifted down to DC's C-list* and Spider-Man is once again Peter Parker, while his clone has died, come back, been a villain, been a hero and broken bad again.

The issue starts right off with one of the better Amalgam names – Bizarnage – taking on the titular teen, who is referred to both in-story and on the letters page as the mall-crawling wall-crawler. They're battling it out at Project Cadmus, surrounded by a host of recognizable supporting characters. Chief among them are the Challengers of the Fantastic, a mix of the Fantastic Four and the Challengers of the Unknown.

Bizarnage talks like Bizarro and oozes and tries to kill like Carnage. He really wants to bond with and/or kill Spider-Boy. Using his web pistol rather than wrist-mounted shooters and his ability to alter his personal gravity, Spider-Boy tricks the D.N.Alien into leaving unwitting host Johnny “Red” Storm and lunging for him, only to dodge and trap the creature in a containment unit. Sen. Rocky Grimm accuses scientist Dabney Donovan of releasing the monster, but some thought bubbles reveal it was actually chief scientist Reed “Prof” Richards who did the deed – as a result of “evil DNA” Donovan added to his diet.

Suddenly, Sue “Ace” Storm, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., enters with a battered Dr. Curt Conners, bringing word that King Lizard has escaped. Unlike the Marvel-only origin in which Connors' attempt to regrow his amputated arm transformed him into the Lizard, this reptilian villain was the arm, combined with reptile DNA.

Spider-Boy races to sadly not the Spider-Buggy but the Fantasti-Wagon, prepped for him by Dr. Otto Octavius, an ally and the mentor of the late Peter Parker. It was Parker who pitched the cloning process that created Spider-Boy as a way of recreating the Super Soldier project. A flashback shows us Parker died due to a power surge it's implied Donovan caused, and the incomplete clone was raised by Gen. Thunderbolt Ross, who commissioned the project in the first place. In an issue filled with excellent amalgamated names, he goes by (sigh) Uncle Gen.

They can't all be winners.

Uncle Gen was killed by a burglar who thought he was more of a threat than his adopted nephew. That's what drove Spider-Boy's flamboyant costume and apparent craving of the spotlight – combined, of course, with the lesson that with great power comes great responsibility, which Ross himself learned from Super Soldier.

Origin recapped in two pages, we find that Spider-Boy has arrived at the office of his publicist, Rex Leech, and uses a catapult-like “web-slinger” to hurl himself to the Daily Bugle. There, he adopts the identity of Pete Ross, a photographer assisting reporters like Tana Moon and Jack Ryder. J. Jonah Jameson is paying him for pictures of Spider-Boy, but he uses them for tabloid headlines like “Insect Queen has Spider-Boy's love child” rather than the familiar “Threat or Menace” theme. Hanging around in the newsroom, Pete quickly learns King Lizard is rampaging at Pier 69.

Spider-Boy makes his way to the scene to find a humanoid lizard with a red beard. I'm not surer where that came from, as I don't recall Lizard or King Shark sporting facial hair.

Not only is King Lizard rampaging, he's also growing after tearing through Dr. Hank Pym's particle accelerator. Spider-Boy returns to Leech's building, where he attempts to use a white dwarf prototype device designed by Dr. Ray Palmer to cut King Lizard back down to size.

An attack by his foe damages the device, but Spider-Boy launches it into KL's massive maw with the web-slinger and the beast shrinks to subatomic size. Crisis averted, Spider-Boy is approached by Octavius, who reminds him about the blind date he set him up on...

That's right, an amalgam of Mary Jane Watson and Lana Lang delivers MJ's iconic line, putting a fine finish on a fun book.

I skipped over plenty of amalgams and cameos in this, including the New York Special Crimes Unit consisting of Flash Thompson, Roxy Leech, Brooklyn Barnes and Sam Makoa, some of whose composite ingredients I recognize. There's so much in here, all balanced in a way that would make MCU Thanos proud. The pacing is great, and this truly feels like the continuation and setup of multiple long-running stories, rather than a hastily assembled collection of Easter eggs.

I didn't sweat the Amalgamath here. Some are 1+1,** some have a little more,*** and others appear to be un-mixed characters drawn from both worlds. It didn't bother me because it all worked.

The letters page did even more world-building, confirming this adjectiveless book would be replacing a trio of ongoing series that describe the hero as “Way-Cool,” “Outrageous” and “Awesome.” It also hints at a connection between Ryder and Nightcreeper and more backstory for this Flash Thompson, who is suspicious of Spider-Boy and other metahumans after the death of Parker, his high school friend.

Wieringo's art is always a treat, and he's a perfect choice for this book.

Best Amalgam: So many to choose from, but I give the edge here to Bizarnage for the name and the combination of two characters I wouldn't have matched up. Points for the drop of Dr. Doomsday's name, but I don't think he can win this title until he appears in an actual issue.

Most Confusing Amalgam: Uncle Gen, who seems to mix two Marvel characters (Gen. Ross and Uncle Ben) without a DC contribution. Or is that contribution from Pete Ross, who knew Clark Kent before he was Superman, since the general shares his surname and is “the last official surviving witness of the original Super Soldier experiment?

Up next, an amalgam of the companies' two biggest teams. And the Avengers are there too.

* - Although he's still my favorite.

** - Unless you count Spider-Boy as a mix of Spider-Man, Superboy and Ben Reilly...

*** - Brooklyn Barnes is Dan Turpin plus Bucky, with a dash –
or rather a hat – of Dum Dum Dugan thrown in for good measure