The Death of Spider Man (?)

We knew it was going to happen... only now, its happened/ing(?) WITH SPOILERS!

Death of Spider-Man

Posted on Jun 21, 2011 in articles by Josh Flanagan | ShareThis 129 2

Like Johnny Storm before him, tomorrow looks like it could be the day for Ultimate Peter Parker to snuff it. The final part of the Death of Spider-Man series ends tomorrow with Ultimate Spider-Man #160, and USA Today is all over it.

Except they're sort of not.

There's an image of what looks like Mary Jane holding the body of Peter Parker while Aunt May screams, "Please no!" But that doesn't necessarily look all that dead. In fact, Bendis said about the panel, "I am completely leaving that up to interpretation," and "there's a lot of finality to the issue, so I'm going to leave that one open."

So, he might be dead, or he might not be. Following this issue, Bendis and Mark Bagley will release Ultimate Comics Fallout, a mini-series dealing with his death, and an eventual new Spider-Man.

Personally, I'm torn. I've been enjoying this title thoroughly for a decade. It never dipped. It was always entertaining, and it sure felt like there were plenty of Peter stories to tell, so I'll be upset if we don't get to continue on his journey. It feels like a bit of a waste. On the other hand, in traditional superhero comics, things just go on forever, without consequence, so I have to respect breaking that mold, and if you're going to do it, you should do it when it has maximum impact, and when you least expect it, and I would say that it's very likely that is now. Still, the current status quo was so interesting and felt largely unexplored. Peter was living with Iceman and Human Torch, and getting trained by S.H.I.E.L.D., and it has been a ton of fun. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens along with everyone else.

UPDATE! Marvel just sent along this image, which is a Joe Quesada variant cover. Ouch.

MORE UPDATED! The New York Post pretty much runs the whole thing down, and had this page:

And he was never heard from again! Or maybe he was. We don't know yet.