Kidpool & Spider-boy (2024) #1 review

Christmas Day brought us one of the funniest and most precious Spidey team-ups to hit the page. “HISTORIC FIRST MEETING! Your favorite foul-mouthed adolescent, KIDPOOL, is back in comic book form starring alongside the biggest debut character in recent memory, SPIDER-BOY!” (Marvel, 2024) Bailey Briggs was introduced as Spider-Boy in April of 2023 and has been stealing hearts ever since. Naturally, they had to give him his own Deadpool to play with.

This comic really has everything. It’s an all-ages comic, so it features Kidpool’s cartoonish weapons, like squirt guns and Nerf darts, as well as giving her an actual nuke to try and kill Spider-Man with. And that’s the other thing! Kidpool is a girl! Who is she? Unclear! And she makes use of the Pools’ meta powers to make light and joke about her ambiguous identity. Is she a clone? From an alternate universe? Who knows! Certainly not Kidpool! She’s just here to make jokes, kill Spider-Man, and fall in love with Spider-Boy. And I absolutely love that for her.

Both Spider-Man and Deadpool are featured in the comic, Spider-Boy acting as Spider-Man’s sidekick and going to him for advice about this new mercenary who’s obsessed with him. Spider-Man, of course, upon hearing this is a Kidpool, advises Bailey to run very far away. He even tells Bailey, “People think I’m annoying, but they don’t know!.. It’s nothing compared to him!”

And Spider-Boy does meet Deadpool. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek; Deadpool talks about how, of course, he wasn’t going to kill all of these henchmen he took down, and yes, he’s missing an arm, but in a bloodless Star Wars way which it’s totally fine and acceptable for children. Deadpool has no idea about Kidpool but seems to like what he hears about her. He tells Spider-Boy that if Kidpool is anything like him, she has extreme ADHD and will move on quickly—which is extremely funny considering how long Deadpool has been obsessed with Spidey, but I digress.

Kidpool’s confrontation with Spider-Man is one of the best parts of the comic, with Kidpool negging Peter about his dead parents. It’s just really funny.

Mostly, though, the comic is just sweet. It’s a really simplified and younger version of characters we love. Kidpool loves killing. Spider-Boy is anti-killing. Kidpool is immediately in love with Spider-Boy. Spider-Boy is freaked out by Kidpool. It’s the exact Spideypool dynamic we know and love, but they’re ten years old.

I’m split on whether or not I like the fact that Kidpool is a girl. On the one hand, it could not be more obvious that they wanted to no-homo the Spideypool relationship—which is annoying! Why can’t a Pool have an innocent crush on a Spidey while they’re both boys? It would be almost exactly the same story if she were a boy—you just don’t want to imply that any Spider-person might skew queer. Which is annoying and insane.

On the other hand: I love her. I love that she’s a girl but talks and acts exactly like Deadpool. I love that she’s an androgynous lump in sweats being loudmouthed and annoying. I relate to that. And, also, this isn’t the first example of Deadpool doing weird gender things. He’s worn dresses in canon, going full cheerleader in Spidey’s dreamscape that one time (Avenging Spider-Man #12), so the idea that a Deadpool clone/alternate universe version/time-slippy something can be a little genderweird totally tracks. Spider-Man’s exchange with Kidpool really sold it for me:

Spider-Man: “You’re a girl? I thought maybe you just hadn’t hit puberty yet.”

Kidpool: “How dare you! And my journey through a very confusing preadolescence is none of your business!”

That sounds like a kid experiencing gender weirdness to me! It’s also perfect dialogue for both of them, and I can’t help feeling like comics are so back with this. And I’m here for it.

By the end of the comic, Spider-Boy does decide he likes Kidpool and wants to spend more time with her, and, as predicted, Kidpool has gotten bored and decides to blow this popsicle stand. I’m assuming that The Powers That Be didn’t want to commit to keeping them together in future comic issues just in case, but I sure hope this isn’t the last time we see the both of them.

This comic is titled Kidpool & Spider-boy #1, and I will be so ready for #2 if and when it drops.