‘The Boys’ Has Its Own Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man & He’s Weird as Hell
Supes up! There’s a new (anti) hero in town! It’s your friendly neighborhood Webweaver! A hero to the weak! A roll model for all! Ready to spring into action as soon as he’s finished getting an enema! No, seriously. This guy loves them.
Who is Webweaver?
Webweaver is a minor supe who was injected with Compound V shortly after his birth. His parents had high hopes for their little webslinger, and evidently so did Vought International, the multi-billion dollar entertainment conglomerate/weapons manufacturer.
Webweaver gained spider-like powers, and through his heroic deeds (and with the help of Vought’s generous PR and advertising budget) rose to supe-rstardom. Well, infamy rather. Like many young supe celebrities, Webweaver is having a rough a bit of a rough go of things. The first time we hear mention of the supe is on a news report talking about his discharge from the Global Wellness Center, the therapy company created by Vought to help supes struggling with addiction and mental illness. Really it’s just a public image laundering front to wrangle renegade supes that could damage the company’s reputation, but the public doesn’t need to know that! Webweaver is one of these renegade supes, and Vought would rather the world remain ignorant of his penchant for heroin enemas. Yes, you read that correctly.
Apparently, Webweavers love of anal narcotic administration is so great that he’ll do just about anything to score another. According to Billy Butcher, the The Boys’ leader once gave Webweaver heroin enema worth $50,000 in exchange for dirt on his fellow supe Firecracker…. and there’s A LOT of dirt to dig up on Firecracker.
Webweaver made his first appearance on The Boys when he used to infiltrate Tech Knight’s manor in order for the titular gang of supe hunters to plant bugs and cameras therein. Webweaver was not trusted to do this job himself, and Mother’s Milk knocked him unconscious and came up with the idea to steal his suit in order to get in. It’s a stylish little number, green and black with sunglass-like eye plates shaped like spider fangs.
Webweaver was invited to Tek Knight’s exclusive Federalist Society party, and ended up making an appearance. Well… his costume did. Hughie wore it as a disguise. But Ted Knight is a truth-sensing supe… so things got a little bit messy (and traumatic) in classic Boys fashion.
What are Webweaver’s powers?
In case it wasn’t evident from his name, Webweaver is a Spider-Man clone. Like Spidey, he has a spider-like physiology that allows him the strength, durability, and acrobatic abilities of a human-sized spider. He’s also able to generate organic webs from his body… which he launches from a little orafice just above his ass.
His weaknesses? Ultrasonic frequencies … and heroin. Like all supes, Webweaver has superhuman hearing, which makes him extremely sensitive to high-frequency vibrations. He can be totally laid out when exposed to them. He can also be totally laid out by heroin. Not because of any superhuman weakness … but because it’s heroin.
Was Webweaver in The Boys comic?
Webweaver did make an appearance in the original The Boys comic …. as a corpse. The human spider was one of the first successful hits made by Billy Butcher and Greg Mallory (Grace Mallory’s comic book counterpart). Why did he get whacked? To prove a point. Like his show counterpart, Webweaver was a messy, renegade supe. He was a lone wolfspider and didn’t belong to any one superhero team for very long. The perfect target. He was chosen by Mallory to prove to the CIA that supes could indeed be killed, and that a government sponsored black-ops supe murdering team was exactly what the intelligence organization needed. After Webweaver’s death at the hands of Billy, Greg, and the supe-killer The Legend, the CIA granted Butcher the money he needed to start his task force. Thus The Boys were born.
While Webweaver is only a minor part of The Boys story, it’s accurate to say that The Boys as an organization wouldn’t exist without him. And all he had to do was die! So easy. Despite Webweaver’s loner habits, there is one person who is likely mourning his death. His Uncle Ben. Because yes, just like Spiderman, Webweaver has an uncle named Ben too.
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