6 thoughts on “Untold Tales #624 Spider-Man and Invincible”

  1. Very much so, not that Marvel didn’t dip their toe in those particular waters at various points on their history. Back when Marvel was known as Timely Comics, sidekicks were a pretty common thing to see. Not so much by the time they became Marvel, with Rick Jones being the closest thing to a kid sidekick since Bucky & Toro (until being retconned into being brought back years later) were killed off.

    I know a little over 10 years ago they briefly gave Spider-Man his own official partner/sidekick in Alpha, that IMMEDIATELY was shit on by fans & deservedly so.

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      1. Not sure exactly what Slott was trying to do here, if it his all his idea or pushed on him by editorial. but fan backlash on the character was fairly quick.

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  2. Dale’s on the money that Marvel doesn’t do sidekicks often. Spider-Man’s had a few people who wanted to be. Maybe Frog-Man, definitely the “Spectacular Spider-Kid”, who was a science whiz who built a harness with metal arms (later became “Steel Spider”, I think got eaten by Venom when Warren Ellis was writing Thunderbolts). Kind of a knock-off Doctor Octopus set-up.

    But normally, even the teen heroes just do their own thing. The New Mutants were at Xavier’s school with the X-Men, but they were never sidekicks. The New Warriors were pretty vocal they weren’t going to be sidekicks or play second fiddle to the Avengers. Vance Astrovik (Marvel Boy/Justice) had actually tried out for the Avengers and Captain America told him come back when he got more experience. The Power Pack were literal children who occasionally teamed-up with Spidey or Kitty Pryde/Wolverine, occasionally even Thor, but mostly had their own adventures.

    Sometimes you see an older hero doing a mentor thing. Clint Barton Hawkeye with Kate Bishop Hawkeye, though I imagine Kate would dispute that. Carol Danvers, when she was still Ms. Marvel was being a mentor to Arana, occasionally patrolling with her. But that was also during the post-Civil War, heroes gotta be registered with the gubmint, era.

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  3. If anything Spider-Man was a sort of “anti-sidekick”, Lee deciding kids would rather see themselves (or teens at least) as the hero rather than “the one who hung out with the hero”. I disagree with that point of view as someone who imagined being both depending on the character.

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