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Success Charter Network 2009 lottery. (GothamSchools Flickr)

Excerpt from sneak peek of "Ultimate Spider-Man" #1, via Comic Book Resources.

According to a new comic book, one of the children who needed Superman to lift him out of subpar schools was a young Spider-Man.

In a new “Ultimate Spider-Man” series launching next month, the inheritor of the Spider-Man mantle is Miles Morales, a half-black, half-Hispanic Brooklyn-born teenager. A sneak peek shows a young boy accompanying his parents to what appears to be a charter school lottery, held in a cavernous space with video screens at one end and bleachers along the sides.

Down to the balloon arches flanking the seats, the arrangement closely resembles that of Success Charter Network’s 2009 lottery, held in the Harlem Armory in front of thousands of people. The carefully orchestrated event was depicted in the documentary “The Lottery” but was later dropped in favor of a lower-key drawing held out of the public eye.

The preview suggests but does not make clear that the young Spider-Man is selected for admission. The excerpt shows him sitting with his parents and looking worried, then zooms in on the number 42 after it is drawn in the lottery. The family members’ eyes widen, and then Spider-Man, with tears welling, gets a hug from his mother.