Suprise reveal: Marvel's top secret new Spider-Man spin-off hero exposed

Spider-Man #7 cover art featuring Spider-Boy

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Dan Slott, Mark Bagley, and Humberto Ramos' new Spider-Man spin-off hero has now been revealed as Spider-Boy.

Marvel previously teased the earth-shattering, senses-shaking reveal of Spider-Boy with a classified cover that was too spoiler-y to show, building up an intense level of hype around the impending reveal.

That will be up to Spider-fans everywhere when Spider-Boy debuts in April 5's Spider-Man #7.

For now, we can finally get a good glimpse at his costume, and get a little more tease about who he might be - and his identity is someone, according to Marvel Comics, who has "been here all along and starred in some of the greatest stories in Spider-Man history! Hasn’t he?"

Who could Spider-Boy be? Could this be a younger clone of Ben Reilly, who recently turned evil and attacked Spider-Man and the X-Men as Chasm in the recent Dark Web crossover?

Marvel's announcement states that Spider-Boy is "not originating from the Multiverse at all," which means Spider-Boy can't be Miles Morales, who initially debuted in the Ultimate Universe before making his way to the core Marvel Universe in the 2015 story Secret Wars.

Is it a younger Peter Parker, taken from somewhere in time, perhaps in the way the original five X-Men were once brought forward to the present day for several years?

"I grew up reading Spider-Man comics. He's my favorite character in all of fiction," states writer Dan Slott in the announcement. "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!"

Slott also teases Spider-Boy's "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!"

Read up on the best Spider-Man stories of all time.

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I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)