Betty Brant

Betty Brant is an American secretary working for J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. She dropped out of high school to get the job. She is the girlfriend of Ned Leeds, ex-girlfriend of Peter Parker, and younger sister of the late Bennett Brant.

Biography

By late 1963, Betty and freelance photographer Peter Parker began to share a burgeoning romance. Their relationship was strained by Betty's preoccupation with her brother, who was caught in severe gambling debts with the criminal Blackie Gaxton. She couldn't bring herself to tell Peter about this, but repeatedly pleaded with him to stay out of danger. After herself running into loan trouble with the gang run by the Big Man, Betty left town, afraid that Peter would try to speak with her and thus learn more about her past and get into more danger. In early 1964, the recently incarcerated Gaxton arranged a deal with Doctor Octopus, who had recently been released from custody in New York. Per the agreement, the Brants would transport Doc Ock to Philadelphia in exchange for having Bennett's debts forgiven. Octopus would then free Gaxton from jail in exchange for $100,000. This plan essentially went as expected: after Betty drove Doctor Octopus to Philadelphia, she ran into Peter there, and explained the situation to him. He told her that he heard that Spider-Man was in town and would handle things—secretly, Peter himself was Spider-Man. The Brants covered their part of the arrangement, but Gaxton had no intention of letting them off scot-free. Gaxton and Octopus, along with several of Gaxton's lackeys, took the Brants to a boat at the docks, where Gaxton was to hand over Doc Ock's reward. They were interrupted by Spider-Man, who engaged the criminals in combat. Gaxton pulled out his gun, and a stray shot hit Bennett, killing him. As Betty screamed for her falling brother, cursing Spider-Man for interfering, he continued to fight off the criminals. Gaxton and his men wound up incapacitated and were taken into custody, but Doctor Octopus was able to flee. Peter later checked on Betty, who'd softened somewhat on Spider-Man, realizing that he was only trying to help. Still, she hoped she would never see him again, as he would only remind her of Bennett.

Doctor Octopus returned before long, seeking vengeance against Spider-Man. He kidnapped Betty from the Bugle offices and insisted that Spider-Man be the one to rescue her. When Spider-Man arrived, his attacks were profoundly weak, and he was easily defeated. Doc Ock ripped off Spider-Man's mask and revealed Peter Parker: Betty and everyone else on the scene assumed that Peter had simply dressed up as Spider-Man and did his best to save Betty himself. In fact, Peter had suffered a brief but devastating virus that had utterly sapped his strength. Nonetheless, Octopus fled the scene, leaving Betty free and unharmed. Spider-Man would recover, and soon defeated Doctor Octopus and helped bring him to justice. Betty and Peter's relationship continued afterward, though Betty began to get suspicious of Liz Allan—Peter's classmate who had developed an infatuation with him after his recent display of courage—despite Peter's total lack of interest in her. Liz invited Peter to a meeting of a Spider-Man fan club, much to Liz's annoyance. Peter said he wouldn't go, because secretly he was going to attend as Spider-Man himself. Liz went to the event with Jameson, where they saw Peter talking to Liz, greatly upsetting Betty. Betty went into a corner to cry, shocked that Peter could treat her so badly. In truth, Peter had shown up as Spider-Man, but had switched back to his street clothes after Liz had noticed that she'd never seen Peter and Spider-Man in the same place. While trying to preserve his secret identity, Peter mostly just succeeded in hurting his girlfriend. Peter tried to contact her, but she didn't give him the time of day, even though she still had feelings for him. Over the next few weeks, she began dating reporter Ned Leeds instead. One day at work, Betty introduced Peter to Ned, and Peter was genuinely happy for the two of them. Betty was surprised at Peter's lack of jealousy, and impressed at his confidence and maturity.