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Quote1 You gotta have me crossed with that wacky Castle guy, Biz! Me--I'm too young to have a deathwish! See--someday people'll think of these as the adventures of Spider-Man when he was a boy! You hearse me now, and--and my merchandising'll go through the roof, actually! um, Okay--bad example! But you get the idea! Quote2
Spider-Boy src

Pete Ross is the Spider-Boy, an experimental clone superhero. The "Arach-kid" can walk on walls by adjusting his own gravity.

An attempt by Project Cadmus to create a clone of Super-Soldier with the ability to control gravity is sabotaged, and a young clone of researcher Peter Parker (who was killed during the "accidental" lab explosion) emerges from the wreckage. The young boy immediately runs up a wall in confusion. The head of the project, Thunderbolt Ross, feeling sorry for the clone, and feeling responsible for the boy's welfare, legally adopts him (giving the boy the last name of Ross) and names him Pete (after his genetic father).

Pete and his "Uncle Gen" were a happy family until General Ross is killed by a mugger. Pete swears that he will face danger and make himself the center of attention so others wouldn't have to be, feeling he had been dismissed as just a boy during the incident. Inspired by his spider-like ability to walk on walls, he fashions a costume and called himself Spider-Boy. Spider-Boy later returns to Project Cadmus, where he is given a special pistol called a "web-shooter", which fires strands of synthetic webbing. As a Cadmus agent, Spider-Boy is assigned to battle genetic monstrosities, but as Pete Ross, he is a photographer for the sleazy tabloid, the Daily Bugle (to get incriminating photos of himself with attractive super-heroines, having become a major pop cultural phenomenon after his debut).

Powers

  • Unique Physiology
    • Gravity Manipulation: Spider-Boy's primary power is the ability to redirect his own personal gravity, allowing him to shift the pull of gravity sideways and walk on walls.
      • Adhesion
      • Superhuman Durability: He can redirect personal gravity inward and boost his durability to superhuman levels.
      • Superhuman Strength: He can redirect personal gravity inward and boost his strength to superhuman levels.
        • Super-Leaping: He can lower his own gravity to leap higher and farther than a normal human.
      • Superhuman Agility: He supplements his ability with a Web-Shooter, a pistol that fires streams of synthetic webbing for the purposes of entangling enemies, or firing web-lines to swing from.
    • Regenerative Healing

Abilities


Weapons


  • The character not only combines attributes of Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) and Superboy (Pre and Post-Crisis), but his secret identity of Pete Ross is a reference to Superboy's best friend in Smallville. The name also reflects how Ben Reilly's fashion of naming himself, being a composite name inspired by the two most significant influences in his life. Both clones also alter their hair color to blond in their secret identities.

Related

Footnotes


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