In the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man, a very pregnant Betty Brant reveals the very surprising and unlikely father of her unborn child.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #67 by Nick Spencer, Marcelo Ferreira, Carlos Gomez, Wayne Faucher, Morry Hollowell, Andrew Crossley & VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
When Betty Brant showed up pregnant for a lunch with Peter Parker, it raised up a lot of questions. But when he got answers, Spider-Man was not very happy. Although Peter was surprised to see his old friend pregnant, he was far more disturbed when the identity of the child’s father was revealed.
In Amazing Spider-Man #67, Brant revealed that her baby’s father was Ned Leeds, a Daily Bugle reporter who the web-slinger was thought to have been dead for years.
When they first met, Betty told Peter that she had not seen Ned since the day she had gotten pregnant. Further complicating the situation was the fact that Betty was planning on reuniting with her ex-husband later that day. This made Peter sick to his stomach because he was sure that Ned was still dead and was concerned that Betty might be experiencing a mental breakdown. The issue was further complicated by the fact that Peter was aware that a clone of Ned had recently appeared, and he had kept that information away from Betty in hopes of sparing her sanity. To make matters worse, the clone died in his arms, but that apparently didn’t stop him from reigniting a relationship with Betty prior to his death.
Ned Leeds first appeared in 1964’s Amazing Spider-Man #18 by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko & Sam Rosen. Peter Parker and Betty Brant were dating at the time, but their relationship failed because of Peter’s double-life as Spider-Man. Betty left Peter and ended up dating and eventually marrying Ned Leeds. Ned later started operating as the villainous Hobgoblin. Spider-Man learned later that the real Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley, brainwashed him, but for too long Betty and Peter believed the worse of Ned. In 1987’s Spider-Man Versus Wolverine #1 by Christopher Priest, Mark Bright, Al Williamson, Petra Scotese & Bill Oakley, Peter Parker and Ned Leeds went on a trip to Berlin for an investigation. But here, Ned was killed by rival villains.
In “The Clone Conspiracy,” Ned returned as a clone created by the Jackal. Unfortunately, at the conclusion of that story, the Ned clone died in Spider-Man’s arms. Peter purposely withheld this information from Betty in hopes of protecting her, never considering that the Ned clone may have already reached out to her.
However, it seems like the death of the original Ned or his clone may have been exaggerated. And now, Spider-Man has yet another mystery on his increasingly filled plate.
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