Spider-Bitch (Ashley Barton)

Did You Know?

• Spider-Bitch is alternately referred to as 'Spider-Woman' or 'Spider-Girl' in text box descriptions due to censorship, referring to herself as 'the Spider-B' in dialogue.
• In 2017, Gizmodo ranked Ashley Barton 17th in their 'Greatest Spider-Women of All Time' list.
• In 2020, Comic Book Resources ranked Ashley Barton 8th in their 'Spider-Woman: 10 Most Powerful Characters To Bear The Name' list.

Fictional character biography

In the Old Man Logan future, thirty years after supervillains overthrew superheroes, Clint Barton and Logan pass through Hammer Falls, Nevada, where they meet Ultron Eight, husband of Clint's third ex-wife Tonya (Peter Parker's youngest daughter) and stepfather to their 22-year-old daughter Ashley. Clint had left Ashley when she was three months old with limited contact since. Tonya informs Clint that Ashley and her friends, inspired by stories of Clint and her grandfather, formed a super-team and went north to Salt Lake City, Utah to take down the current Kingpin of Crime, an unnamed African-American man, but were captured and set for public execution. Ashley is shown in a prison cell wearing a costume similar to that of deceased Spider-Women and her aunt Mayday Parker / Spider-Girl. Clint, surprised because he had never seen Ashley as the superhero type and had gotten the impression she was an 'evil badass type' from their few encounters, agrees to rescue her and doubles Logan's salary to convince him. En route, Clint tells Logan he is 'so friggin' proud' of his daughter. In Salt Lake City (now Fisk Lake City), the Kingpin feeds Ashley's teammates to utahraptors while bragging about killing Magneto. In her cell inside a customized Walmart-turned-prison, Ashley sits silently as guards mock superheroes, then Clint and Logan crash their Spider-Mobile through the wall. Stating 'That'll be Dad,' Ashley watches her father massacre the guards and tells him where the control panel for her cell is, which he shoots with an arrow.

Powers and abilities

Despite her costume and being considered a Spider-Totem by the Inheritors and the Web of Life and Destiny, Spider-Bitch seemingly has none of her grandfather Spider-Man's powers (super-strength, agility, wall-crawling, or spider-sense). She displays strength, speed, and agility that allow her to fight superhumans, acquired through vigorous training and exercise. She expresses no interest in romantic relationships, instead seeking world domination and independence from oversight by Doctor Doom, who is oblivious to her actions.

Other versions

Fifteen years after Old Man Logan, Spider-Bitch (depicted as white due to a printing error) tracks down Logan with help from Bruce Banner Junior and Warren Worthington III, each motivated by Logan's responsibility for their families' or teammates' deaths. Logan briefly tears free with his claws, but Spider-Bitch webs them again; Logan uses her lack of a spider-sense to pull her into the Tyrannosaurus's maw, killing her. In Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again, a brainwashed Deadpool, dressed as Spider-Man and seeing himself as a 'Composite Spider-Man and Deadpool,' kills multiple Spider-People including Spider-Bitch, ending 'The Saga of the Spider-Verse Clone Conspiracy.'

In other media

Ashley Barton, also known as Spider-Bitch, has appeared under several aliases across different media. In the 2023 film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, she is called Spider-Kingpin and serves as a member of Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Society. The character made a cameo in the 2010 video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and is an unlockable playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited, where she goes by Spider-Girl. In Marvel's Wastelanders: Hawkeye (2021), voiced by Sasha Lane, she is a 17-year-old without superpowers named Ash Morse, Ash Barton, or Natasha Cassandra "Ash" Barton-Morse. She is the biological daughter of Kate Bishop and Jason Jones. After her friend Max overdoses on a drug called "Hype" and seemingly dies, she recruits Clint Barton to find the distributor. She later learns Max is alive and begins to question her path of revenge. Eventually, she becomes the new King Zemo, one of the Seven Dictators of the Wastelands. Doja Cat's 2024 song "HEADHIGH" from the album Scarlet references Spider-Bitch. Hasbro also produced a Marvel Legends figure of Ashley Barton as Spider-Bitch.