Spidey's new sidekick Alpha debuts in "Amazing Spider-Man" #692

Marvel will celebrate Spider-Man's 50th anniversary by giving the wall-crawler something he's never had -- a sidekick.

That's right, Fox News reports that August's "Amazing Spider-Man" #692 will introduce Andy Macguire, a brash 15-year-old who becomes the superhero Alpha -- teased earlier this month -- through circumstances strikingly similar to Peter Parker's origin: It seems that while on a school field trip to Peter's laboratory, young Andy is zapped by a malfunctioning invention that leaves him with superhuman abilities. Feeling responsible for the accident, Peter decides it's his duty to help Any discover and use his powers.

"Part of it is that Spider-Man is grown up," Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told Fox. "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."

Fans shouldn't expect Alpha's character arc to mirror that of Spider-Man, however. While Peter was an insecure and lonely, Andy is confident and unpredictable -- and more powerful than Spider-Man.

"What we try to do with the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man is we try to play with the original clay of the book," editor Steve Wacker said." "When Spider-Man was first created in the 1960s, there was no other superhero like him. Pop culture had never really taken teenagers into account. What Stan [Lee] and Steve [Ditko] did was sing to their angst, and we're trying to sort of modernize that."

"The Amazing Spider-Man" #692, by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos, arrives in August.