Summary
The world famous Spider-Verse is home to hundreds of variations of Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and every other Spider hero comic fans could dream up. Some are hilarious, some are horrifying, but only one of the heroes can claim a codename too mature to be published in ordinary Marvel comics. So who is “Spider-Bitch’?
While the impact and legacy enjoyed by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Old Man Logan changed the landscape for all Wolverine stories to come, it’s likely that the average superhero fan either hasdn’t read the story, or may not remember its most inappropriate Spider-cameo. Thankfully, comics writer Sina Grace has made sure an entirely new generation of Spider-Man fans are familiar with Ashley Barton. Or, as her enemies call her…
Sharing an image from Key Comics Collector in which Ashley Barton is referred to as “Spider-Bitch,” and teasing a future return for the character from Grace, the question is raised: is Ashley Barton seriously known, canonically, by the highly inappropriate moniker? The answer is ‘Yes,’ even if Marvel eventually tried to give her a more family-friendly codename.
Yes, Ashley Barton Really is Named ‘Spider-B****’
The source of the codename is Wolverine #68, one in a three-issue arc introducing Ashley Barton (referred to only as “Ashley” in the comic itself). Having teamed up with an old, blind Hawkeye for one last mission, the events of the Old Man Logan story send Clint Barton and Wolverine on an improvised rescue mission. Ashley, the child of Clint Barton and “Peter Parker’s youngest daughter,” Tonya, seems to have taken up the family legacy.
Dressing up in her own Spider costume and taking on the Kingpin, her mission is a disaster that sees her teammates killed and herself held prisoner. Her first mission being her first failure, one of Kingpin’s guards gives her a first in-canon codename. Making the issue’s team of Millar, McNiven, Dexter Vines, and Morry Hollowell historic creators of the most inappropriate, and sure-to-be-censored member of the Spider-Verse. At least until Marvel brought her back with a different moniker.
Marvel Re-Introduced Ashley Barton With a New, Censored Name
Even without any inherited superpowers (just a bad attitude and a killer swing), the combined descendant of both Peter Parker and Clint Barton was too good a creation to leave out of the action. As a result, Ashley Barton, the Spider-Bit–…Spider-Woman would return in multiple multiverse-spanning stories in ghe pages of Superior Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man., and many other Spider-themed team-ups and crossover events.
In these future appearances, Ashley would simply be shown as her world’s designated Spider-Girl or Spider-Woman, depending on who was writing the book (either being preferable for a normally rated issue, unlike Old Man Logan). And thanks to reality-altering shenanigans, Ashley Barton’s Earth of origin is similarly in flux. But what remains constant is her character, her edge, and despite her webbed uniform, enough of her Barton spirit to still earn the title of the one and only Spider-B****.
Source: Sina Grace
