When the latest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man #160 comes out today in it’s polybag readers are going to see the conclusion of Marvel’s newest story arch, The Death of Spider-Man.
Below – if the images above didn’t spoil it for it, the 2 paragraphs below will.
Peter Parker dies at the end of a vicious battle between himself and the Green Goblin, who targeted Spidey for death after escaping from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
With the help of Iceman and the Human Torch, he makes his last stand in Queens, saving Aunt May and Gwen Stacy before dying in Mary Jane Watson’s arms.
And they quote writer Brian Michael Bendis, the person who has been so enraged by spoilers in the past, saying;
Listen, I sat there typing this thing with tears in my eyes like a big baby! I went upstairs to my wife, and I go, ‘I am so embarrassed. I think I’ve literally been crying for 45 minutes.’ I’ve had real things happen in my life I didn’t cry about, and yet I’m crying about this. I became very proud of it, and that’s not an adjective I often put on myself.
Bendis does have his eye on the future.
It occurred to me that if Peter passed away in a meaningful way, he could be the Uncle Ben character to a new Spider-Man, which then continues it to be a real Spider-Man story. Then it became more than just, ‘Oh my God, you killed him!’
Of course we have Ultimate Comics Fallout to come and then a brand new Spider-Man, possibly with a brand new skin colour, in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 to come.
I really love Bendis and the direction that he’s taken the Spider-man story in the Ultimate series, at least to this point. But if Marvel actually sticks to this then color me surprised. The good thing about being a part of our generation is that we’re old enough to remember all the times that Marvel has “killed” off a main character only to either reboot the story line or reboot the entire freakin’ universe!
If they do actually kill off Parker…well do I even need to bring up the awfulness that was the Clone saga? They should just call the comic something new all together, because without Peter Parker…it’s not Spider-man anymore.
Without Petere there’s no Spiderman, but he still lives in the mainstream franchise, this is just a small death in the Ultimate Spiderman series, this means nothing.
Jessica – Totally agree. And The Ultimate series are not canon by any stretch of the imagination, just additions to the books so people don’t feel over whelmed when they start to get into comics. Not a big deal that he dies in one. Dude’s been through the clone series so many times a death or two shouldn’t mean anything.
Plus they ret-conned the hell out of canon and made Peter make a deal with Mephisto to lose Mary Jane and save Aunt May. Lame.