Review by Ian Keogh

A delight of the Spider-Boy series is figuring Dan Slott has included something as a throwaway joke only to discover it has later relevance. In The Dragon’s Challenge Bailey became leader of a top secret ninja clan. Just a throwaway joke, right? What ten year old kid leads a ninja clan? Well, it turns out…

Well, it turns out there’s some stuff to get through before that, not least the cliffhanger Slott dropped to end the last volume, and Bailey breaking one of Spider-Man’s cardinal rules and going up against one of his A-list enemies. When that happens Slott joyfully extrapolates the possibilities of Bailey’s powers, not least his different form of spider-sense, and a limitation Mr. Negative has.

Nathan Stockman has been a reliable back-up artist throughout the series, and proves that again in the chapter reconciling Spider-Boy and Boy-Spider. His style isn’t quite as tight as series regular Paco Medina, but he’s a strong storyeller and extremely adaptable on a chapter where Bailey’s domestic situation trumps superhero action. Medina is exemplary for the third consecutive volume, the sample spread indicating the sort of lunacy he’s asked to compress into a ridiculously small number of panels.

As before, no matter where you think Slott is leading the plot, your’re likely to be confounded by the direction it actually takes. This being the final volume, everything is neatly tied up, and achieving that in a single chapter highlights just how many balls Slott’s had in the air. Daredevil and Spider-Man guest star, there are resolutions to plots only started in Full Circle, the matter of others transformed by Madam Monstrosity is addressed, and those ninjas also appear. It’s delightful.

A bonus story isn’t written by Slott as Chris Yost teams Spider-Boy with Kidpool. Is she related to Deadpool? We don’t know, but she wants to kill Spider-Man and that kind of thing doesn’t sit well with Bailey. Slott keeps the comedy restrained, but Yost this plays this strictly for laughs and it works all the way through. He channels Deadpool-style dialogue through Kidpool and escalates a ridiculous situation. Several actually. It’s very silly and artists Stockman, Jed Dougherty and Chris Campana maximise the jokes.

Spider-Boy overall? Well, who’d have thought a series surely just created in order to trademark the name could be this much fun?