Spider-Man has always been a solo act. Sure he's had countless team-ups and was even the star in the MARVEL TEAM-UP series in the 70s and 80s. Recently he's also become a member of the Avengers and Future Foundation. At the end of the day, he was still just Spider-Man. All that is going to change in August.

A couple weeks ago, Marvel teased the question, "Who is Alpha?" Alpha was described as a new character created by Dan Slott that would be appearing in August's 50th Anniversary issue in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #692. Now it has been revealed who exactly Alpha will be.

Fox News has reported that Spider-Man will officially be getting a sidekick. Alpha is fifteen-year-old Andy Maguire (a cross between Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield?).

The story is Andy is on a field trip to Horizon Labs. One of Peter Parker's inventions malfunctions resulting in Andy obtaining great power. Peter now feels the responsibility to guide Andy along the right path to help him avoid the mistakes he first made after gaining his superpowers.

Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso said the following on Andy/Alpha and the relationship with Spider-Man:

Part of it is that Spider-Man is grown up. He's older, more seasoned, but young at heart. He's still a young man, but he's been around. It's interesting because it flips the paradigm. Teen hero Spider-Man is now responsible for this teen hero sidekick. He's responsible because one of his inventions caused this kid to get his powers. He's directly responsible for the responsibility this kid now has with his new powers. He feels he has a responsibility to make sure this kid walks the right path, which won't prove easy.

Dan Slott went on to mention the similarities and differences between Spider-Man and Alpha and Batman and Robin. He points out that we're more like Spider-Man over Batman because Spidey messes up. He's not perfect. He's more relatable. You can probably already imagine the problems Spider-Man will have trying to mold a powerful teen into a superhero.

What's interesting is it seems they want to keep Spider-Man relatable to younger readers. That seems to have been the major reason for removing the marriage between Peter and Mary Jane. Being a mentor to a younger hero doesn't really make him more relatable. If anything, it'll make him feel older and more responsible. We'll have to wait until August to see how the story with Alpha plays out.

Update

Marvel has just sent over this massive preview!

Fans across the globe have been asking, “Who Is Alpha” and this August, in Amazing Spider-Man #692, they’ll find out! Marvel is celebrating Spider-Man’s 50 anniversary in style as the blockbuster creative team of Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos give Peter Parker his very own….sidekick?! When he’s not working with the Avengers of the Future Foundation, Spider-Man has been saving the Marvel Universe on his own for fifty years! But now, with his anniversary right around the corner, that’s all about to change!

This special event, could only be told in this oversized issue celebrating the values that made Spider-Man the world’s greatest super hero for the past five decades and many more to come. And with special variant covers by superstar artist Marcos Martin, depicting Spider-Man through the years, no fan can miss out on this! Get ready for a story about power and responsibility like you’ve never seen before in Amazing Spider-Man #692, swinging into comic shops everywhere, the Marvel Comics app and the Marvel Digital Comics Shop this August.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #692 (JUN120622)

Written by DAN SLOTT

Pencils and Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS

FOC – 7/30/2012, On Sale – 8/22/2012

An origin unlike any other...

Andy MacGuire

If this is only 1 arc i'll be ok with it(even then borderline ok).......if its permanent then this is pretty lame!

I dont like the idea.

Meh.....

lately marvel is really trying too hard to win over this current generation of teenager with spider-man.

really really really too much in my opinion

What the..?!?!?

I will give this a chance...but this seems really stupid if this is a long-term thing.

@Strider92: Slott has been pretty ominous about what's going to happen in ASM 700.

@G-Man said:

@Strider92: Slott has been pretty ominous about what's going to happen in ASM 700.

Unfortunately yes......i'm not sure he would be cold enough to do it on Spider-man's 50th though. If it was any other time I could see him doing it but with the movie and 50th anniversary? I'm not sure Slott would go that far. but I agree it does look pretty bleak.

I love Dan Slott's Spidey, but if this is permanent I might stop reading.

I'm going to love this, it seems noew I keep wanting to read some Spider-man and now I've decided, I'll start when this comes out.

Seriously, this is fantastic, I don't know why everyone's whining about this. Dan Slott's been taking Spider-Man and actually making him GROW AS A CHARACTER. This is just another step in his ascension beyond the essentially street level hero he was.

Bravo Dan Slott.

@G-Man: Hope this is good.

UPDATE! Check out the preview.

Why can't they make a new power pack title ?

It would be 100x better than this...

Spider-Man..... sidekick? Fine Slott, just don't make it permanent.

GUUUH spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers!!

am i the only guy who wants to read comics and not know what happens next?

this couldn't have been more generic

Whoa... Wasn't expecting this. I'm excited.

I don't see how this would work out... but I'm willing to see where this goes... and then I'll go an epic rant about all the things I don't like about this

Spider-Man just isn't the type to take a sidekick... but I can see him mentoring someone or helping someone out, he's even done it before... the problem is that, for me, Spider-Man is and always will be a teenager... or at least in his early 20's so it'd be weird him mentoring someone only 5 or so years younger than him... so they seem more like partners than mentor and side-kick... it'd kinda be like saying that Babs is G-Man's sidekick.. and that'd just be weird

@Strider92 said:

@G-Man said:

@Strider92: Slott has been pretty ominous about what's going to happen in ASM 700.

Unfortunately yes......i'm not sure he would be cold enough to do it on Spider-man's 50th though. If it was any other time I could see him doing it but with the movie and 50th anniversary? I'm not sure Slott would go that far. but I agree it does look pretty bleak.

I have to agree with this I don't think Slott would do that on Spider-man's 50th (not to mention the movie coming out). I'm interested to see what he does though.

Spider-Man has mentored other characters before, but I think this is a new spin in that Alpha's origin is tied directly to him and yet Alpha 1) isn't a Spider-themed hero and 2) isn't asking for Spidey's guidance or approval.

I like the idea, even though I think "Alpha" is a stupid name and his costume looks even dumber. Also, get a haircut.

Idea is interesting, could either have a positive or negative impact on the Spiderman mythos but either way it might be pretty bigif they're planning on making this a long term thing. I agree with Hunter114, Peter's the last guy I'd expect to have a sidekick though...if he was older, then maybe.

Really not liking that art either, but I see a lot of people praising it so whatever, must just be me.

@wowylied: maybe because nobody would buy it. except you.

A true full-fledged sidekick could well add an interesting new dynamic to Spidey's life. I suppose it depends on how long the partnership will last. It could well lead to an interesting gear shift in the story if this turns out to be long term. Regardless, with Slott's writing and Ramos's art I'm sure this will end up being a fun read.

I have a feeling Alpha will end up being a bad guy Spidey fights in issue 700.

I like it.

I'll give it a shot even though Amazing spiderman has been on the cusp of getting dropped by me. At one time I was a HUGE marvel fanboy but Amazing Spiderman and Incredible Hulk are the only Marvel books I continue to buy and both are on the verge of getting dropped. I think Marvel needs a reboot in editorial policy.

@SeanFoster said:

I have a feeling Alpha will end up being a bad guy Spidey fights in issue 700.

I was thinking that Alpha dies in 700 and Spidey thinks he's the worst hero ever for failing to save his short-lived sidekick.

1. Why isn't "Alpha" wearing a mask? DOES HE NOT WANT TO KEEP HIS IDENTITY SECRET?!
2. I don't really like this idea, mainly because they're trying to push Parker as being young still. If he were still married to MJ, I'd totally be chill with this idea, but as of now, I'm iffy.
3. I would prefer if Spidey's side kick adventures were made into a different book just in case. Similar to how Batman has Batman and Batman & Robin. This way if it sucks, I cant enjoy Spidey as a solo book rather than dropping him all together.

@SeanFoster said:

I have a feeling Alpha will end up being a bad guy Spidey fights in issue 700.

would be cool if it went down the Chronicle movie road. He starts out good and turns into some crazy villain Spidey ends up killing. He is emo looking. So who knows!

.... simple, not a big thing. Pass

OMG. his side kick turned into a villian, poor peter - didnt see THAT coming - Future Me

@xAnimosity said:

@SeanFoster said:

I have a feeling Alpha will end up being a bad guy Spidey fights in issue 700.

would be cool if it went down the Chronicle movie road. He starts out good and turns into some crazy villain Spidey ends up killing. He is emo looking. So who knows!

Now that! would be awesome!

@InnerVenom123 said:

@SeanFoster said:

I have a feeling Alpha will end up being a bad guy Spidey fights in issue 700.

I was thinking that Alpha dies in 700 and Spidey thinks he's the worst hero ever for failing to save his short-lived sidekick.

I could also get on board with this!

Does it sound bad? Yes. Has Slott done good on Spidey so far? Yes.

It balances out. Give it a chance.

gonna be a funny partenership

Interesting

Can we get Access to bring the Joker over from the dcu and Jason Todd this dude.

Can I get a poster of that cover?

Interesting, I am not sure how much I like this but Slott's run has been amazing so far. In Slott We Trust

Congrats to everyone who just wanted to bag on everything! Good job.

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to this. Slott's Spider-Man has done something most other versions of Spidey haven't bothered to do for a long time. Which is stay fresh, move forwards and stay relevant. People forget that Spider-Man was a forward thinking series, it killed a series of main characters. It seems that as people have got older they want their comics to stay the same. Stan and Jack didn't make their comics the same, characters died, characters got married, had kids etc etc. Progress is good because otherwise we get story stagnation, and frankly, Slott is anything BUT Stagnant.

I like this idea. I mean what else can you do to Sider-Man that hasn't been done. I think if handled right, this could be an interesting direction.

quick question: does the obtaining of super powers automatically give you abs and 0% body fat orrrr is this just a thing?

Alpha prepare yourself for comic book purgatory.

This could be cool.

Interested, but I'd rather it led to an Alpha spin-off series rather than a permanent part of Amazing Spider-Man.

I'm gonna read it and give it a chance, but right now I don't feel really positive about it. Isn't there about 50 kid heroes in Marvel they could have used instead of adding another one?

I'll give this a try. It sounds interesting.~

Wow,Stan Lee always hated boy sidekicks and now there introducing one.