There are definitely not enough Spider-People in the Marvel Universe, are there?

Said no one ever.

And yet, here we are with another.

Spider-Boy made his debut in one of the numerous Spider-Verse events that Marvel have released over the last 9 years.

So, what sets Spider-Boy apart from the legions of other Spider-People?

Well, for one thing, Spider-Boy is pretty young; even more so than teenager Miles Morales.

For another, Spider-Boy has a monstrous side, thanks to being quite deliberately genetically altered by a super villain who has created an army of ‘Humanimals’.

There’s two stories within the pages of this first issue; the first deals with Spider-Boy’s background and the second sees him teaming up with Squirrel Girl to take down a balloon-themed, helium-voiced bad guy.

Both stories are a great showcase for bright, colourful adventures featuring somewhat daft supervillains, making it feel like quite a throwback.

That said, Spider-Boy does have a somewhat tragic backstory – but the darker elements still mesh quite nicely with the sillier stuff (which also includes a villain with a bowling ball for a head).

It’s pretty fun stuff and, surprisingly, the back up strip is also the first part of a story, rather than a done in one.

So it looks like the format for Spider-Boy will be two stories per issue, which is unusual.

Do we really need another Spider-Person? Absolutely not, but Spider-Boy does at least feel different enough at this stage to stand out from the rather huge, arachnid crowd.