Betty Brant

Betty Brant
Betty Brant drawn by Scot Eaton.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (September 1963)
Created by	Stan Lee Steve Ditko
In-story information
Full name	Elizabeth Brant Leeds
Team affiliations	Daily Bugle
Supporting character of	Spider-Man

Elizabeth "Betty" Brant is a supporting character in Marvel Comics’s Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (September 1963).

Fictional character biography

Betty Brant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother had originally been the "Girl Friday" of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson, and Betty took the position after her mother's death. Peter Parker (secretly Spider-Man) and she were attracted to each other because Betty wanted a normal, ordinary man, and they were romantically linked. However, her brother was accidentally killed during a fight with Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, and she blamed Spider-Man. Later she forgave Spider-Man when she realized he was trying to protect them.

Betty Brant, not Gwen Stacy, was Peter Parker's very first love—in issue #142 page 17 Peter tells Mary Jane Watson that Betty was his first. A year later (after their relationship), Betty broke up with Peter due to his inability to commit time to her—the two going on to develop a more sibling-esque relationship—and she eventually married Bugle reporter Ned Leeds. However the marriage proved turbulent as Ned was often posted overseas. When he was stationed in Paris she found the life impossible and left Ned to return to New York. She turned to Peter Parker once more but Ned followed her home and she was caught between the two men. Peter regretted getting involved with Betty again and allowed the affair to break abruptly, driving her back into the arms of Ned.

Around this time the villain the 'Sin-Eater' marks Betty for death, but she escapes his murder attempt.

Insanity

Later on in the series, it became clear that Ned Leeds was in fact the villain Hobgoblin, although it later turned out that he was a brainwashed pawn of the real Hobgoblin. As Leeds became more hostile, Betty drifted into the arms of old friend Flash Thompson. A jealous Leeds framed Thompson as the Hobgoblin after he insulted Hobgoblin in a televised interview, but when the two battled, the Hobgoblin's mask slipped, and Betty discovered that Ned and the Hobgoblin were one and the same. This revelation, coupled with Ned's murder by the Foreigner, sent Brant over the edge into insanity.

Betty joined the Students of Love cult, led by the Teacher, before being saved by Flash and Spider-Man. Because her house had been sold during her time with the cult, Betty stayed with Flash for a time. During this, the demonic events of Inferno happened, overwhelming much of New York City. Betty and Flash were attacked by demonic duplicates of Spider-Man and Ned Leeds. Betty overcame physical and psychological barriers and succeeded in destroying the monsters.

Recovery

Flash and Betty drifted apart as Betty's recovery continued. She rejoined the staff of the Daily Bugle as an investigative reporter whose newfound courageous assertiveness and investigative skill impressed her colleagues. She finally cleared Ned's name when she revealed that Roderick Kingsley was the real Hobgoblin. She remained a recurring character in the Spider-Man comics; on one occasion she even went on a date with Ben Reilly- Spider-Man's clone, believed at the time to be the original-, and went on to spend some months dating Flash after he cleaned up his life (albeit while working for Norman Osborn).

Currently, she has met up with one of Peter's old college friends, Debra Whitman, during a book signing event for Debra's new book Two-Faced. The book described her relationship with Peter Parker/Spider-Man, which ended in Debra being the victim. However, when it was later revealed that the book was actually altered by the Bugle's staff to make Spider-Man look like he ruined Debra's life, Betty secretly leaked information to the Daily Globe, exposing the fraud. Her boss, J. Jonah Jameson, furious with the possible libel suit, ordered Betty to find out who had given the information.

She manages to keep her role even after J. Jonah Jameson's heart attack forced his wife to sell the Bugle to Dexter Bennett, who renamed it The DB. As Dexter is trying to sidestep Betty and make her his "Girl Friday" again, Peter Parker drops hints of a fake family relationship between Betty and the deceased actor Marlon Brando, bolstering her position in Bennett's eye as a gossip reporter.

Recently, she celebrated her birthday and asked Peter to organize for her friends to come over for a dinner, but due to her work at the new DB, nobody feels like befriending her. Betty is initially furious at Peter, angrily accusing him of ruining her night until he tells her the truth. She is sad, but he reassures her that everyone will forgive her soon. Betty realizes that Peter really is her best friend.

Following the DB's destruction she went on to create a successful journalism blog; she is last seen with having gotten back together with Flash Thompson.

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Betty Brant is once again the loyal secretary of J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. She's a headstrong woman, trying to get by in life and having as much fun on dates as she can get. She first appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man #8, where she worked herself up into a rage while trying to build the Bugle's website. Peter took over from her and got his job at the Bugle as a webdesigner.

This version of the character has a considerably different personality, even going as far as making bets about the deaths of missing coworkers. She also lacks the brown bob hairstyle of her Earth 616 counterpart, instead sporting long black hair, although her design was not concrete at the beginning of the series, the Betty Brant from the Doc Ock arc was considerably older than the Betty Brant that was depicted in the prior and subsequent arcs, for unexplained reasons.

In Ultimate Spider-Man #121, Jameson rejects her request to find out more about the disappearance of Nick Fury, alleging that a brief affair with Kraven the Hunter before his arrest proves that she is incapable of any reporting assignment beyond covering college fashion shows.

Betty Brant later gets the footage of a new Spider-Man stopping some muggers and presents it to J. Jonah Jameson. The story of a new Spider-Man makes the headlines. Betty is subsequently killed by Venom after trying to expose Spider-Man's identity.

What If?

In "What If the Radioactive Spider Had Bitten Someone Else?", Betty is one of three candidates - along with Flash Thompson and John Jameson - who is bitten by the radioactive spider which gave Spider-Man his powers. After confiding in Peter, and with his assistance, she begins to fight crime under the name "The Amazing Spider-Girl", with a mask similar to Spider-Man's but a very different costume. One time, she fails to stop a certain crook, who subsequently murders Peter's uncle Ben. The shock over the consequences of her failure makes Betty quit her Spider-Girl identity, although Peter takes up the identity of Spider-Man later on by synthetically recreating and ingesting the irradiated spider's venom.

In other media

Television

• The character has appeared in the 1960s Spider-Man animated series voiced by Peg Dixon. She was a prominent supporting character much in the manner of Lois Lane in the Superman franchise, being captured by villains like Parafino and trying to support Peter or Spider-Man when Jameson criticises them.

• Betty Brant appears in the 1980s Spider-Man TV series voiced by Mona Marshall.

• In the 1990s animated incarnation, she did not appear and Glory Grant was Jonah's secretary instead. Betty Brant was supposed to eventually appear though. Instead of being J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, Betty was supposed to be the assistant of Joe "Robbie" Robertson and fond of Peter Parker. While a model sheet of the character was drawn for the show, the writers did not get the chance to use Betty because they had run out of new episodes.

• Betty Brant appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man voiced by Grey DeLisle. She is twenty years old in this version, and as usual, is the secretary of J. Jonah Jameson. Despite her age, sixteen-year-old Peter asks her to his Fall Formal, and continues after her initial refusal. She eventually almost agreed, until Aunt May met with her and explained that she did not think it was appropriate. In a later episode Ned interviews her on whether or not she believes Peter is Spider-Man, and also takes the opportunity to ask her on a date.

• Betty Brant appears in the The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Along Came a Spider", reprised by Grey DeLisle. She is a reporter for the Daily Bugle sent out with Peter Parker by J. Jonah Jameson to interview Captain America about his recent involvement in the recent Skrull Invasion in order to clear his name. During the interview, the prisoner transport that Captain America is overseeing is attacked by the Serpent Society in order to rescue Viper and Cobra .

Film

Elizabeth Banks as seen in Spider-Man 3

As Betty Brant receded into the background in the comics in favor of other love interests, particularly Mary Jane Watson, she appears as a much more minor character, such as in the feature film series as played by Elizabeth Banks, and reappears in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. As one of the Bugle's staff and J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, Betty is usually seen either passing on messages to Jonah or receiving curt orders from him. While she never dates Peter, a subtle attraction to him is apparent in the first two films. In Spider-Man 3, Betty seems to have found a way of getting her comeuppance on her boss, by being tasked by his wife to inform him to avoid getting agitated and to remember to take his numerous medications, which she does to comic effect through a loud buzzer/intercom; later, she is hit on by Eddie Brock, Junior, (with whom she wants nothing to do) and a symbiote-influenced Peter Parker (to whom she is visibly attracted), only to be interrupted by Jameson, who says "That's not the position I hired you for!" Elizabeth Banks stated that she first auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson before taking the role of Betty Brant. Banks also admitted that the groundwork of her role as the fictional character's relationship between her and Peter Parker is much closer to the office romance that the two shared in the comics.

Video games

• Betty Brant appears in the Spider-Man 2 video game voiced by Bethany Rhoades.

• Betty Brant appears in the Spider-Man 3 video game voiced by Rachel Kimsey.

External links

• Betty Brant at Marvel.com
• Betty Brant's Profile at Spiderfan.org