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. Apparently, the Green Goblin either does or doesn't go down as well, but Bendis isn't talking. "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.
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where’s the spoiler? I really just wanted to know what happened
Ultimate Mephisto will make a deal with Aunt May.
Yeah, the USA Today piece only has the one panel but other news sites have the entire page. Unfortunately it really looks like he’s dead. I’ve seen another panel where Peter in costume without the mask is waking away hand in hand with Uncle Ben so it seems pretty final. I’m kinda ticked off at Marvel for releasing this info before the issue is even out.
I still miss the days of when deaths were NOT IN THE TITLE of the event:)
I still think this is a waste. Believe me I know comic fans, myself included, can hop on our fanboy treadmills and be fine with a status quo for decades. However, I’ve come to a conclusion that Ultimate Comics really are just extremely long runs of “What if?” I mean I read this morning where Peter’s death will have a Uncle Ben effect on some other character. I hope Spidey continues on as a flagship character and we get his adventures forever, that said this gets to do the “What if Spider-man died?” How would it affect the lives of MJ, May, Gwen, etc. I just feel that to follow this on and on, you have to really like the question, What if?
@MBurnsOH “fanboy treadmills”.
That’s good.
@s1lentslayer Like Death of Captain Marvel?
The art looks good. Guess I can start reading the trades of this now.
@Joppe: 😉
WHAT IS THE POINT OF POLYBAGGING AND CLASSIFIYING THIS ISSUE IF MARVEL IS GOING TO REVEAL EVERYTHING!!???
Sorry, had to say it.
That variant cover is awesome and heartbreaking.
Is that supposed to be Aunt May?!
It looks like 15 yr old boy with grey hair.
Bloody stupid.
Comic characters are never dead for long, but I think Marvel’s overdoing “death of” stories for major characters. We had Human Torch earlier this year, now ultimate Spider-Man. Who’s going to die in the next quarter?
Marvel mocks DC’s September relaunch and same-day digital while doing this? I’ve been a Marvel zombie for decades, but, to me, DC is the company with the more interesting plans.
The House of Polybags… This killing of a blue chip character to increase short term sales isn’t a very sustainable strategy…but thats comics right now.
Ericmci, I think it is Julianne Assange.
Julian. Stupid iOS spellcheck.
@Josh:
I thought that quote from Bendis about “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.” was about Peter Green Goblin?
@supertrackmonkey I think you’re right. I’ll fix that. Thanks.
If you’re not reading Ultimate Spider-man, this is just… whatever. He either lives or dies, right? Two choices. Neither one is going to make you feel one thing or another, and it’s just another chance to talk about comic book deaths and what they mean or don’t mean. Which, IMHO, is entirely unfair to THIS story.
If you’re reading this book, I don’t think this ending can really be spoiled. Because he either lives or dies, and it’s all in the execution. This has been a great series over the years. Honestly, this has become the only version of Peter I really care about, and if he dies, I hope Bendis really writes it from the heart. If he lives, I hope it’s a good twist.
Either way, I’m looking forward to this book. And I’m very curious to see what the next chapter of “Spider-man” has in store, so mission already accomplished.
damn it i’ve been reading this book since 1 and goes down to the six. can venom show up and do something to pete i mean damn this sucks
Gonna be an interesting comic con for bendis though talking about killing off peter in the book and bringing him to life in the new show that is supposed to be startting up
I saw the panels earlier today and didn’t think much about it. I haven’t read any Ultimate Spider-Man. But when I saw that variant cover… my heart sank. Beautiful.
Is that Bagley on the first image shown? (With MJ holding Pete)
If it is then we should talk about how awful that image looks. That’s a bigger shocker right now for me.
If the only thing this accomplishes is to give us that picture of Ben and Peter, then I’m ok with it.
@Etboo Good point. I mean, if you think about it, Ultimate comics gives Marvel the ability to do the thing they can’t otherwise do: they can actually FINISH Peter’s story. So many super-hero titles are on that status quo treadmill mentioned upthread. Here, we’re actually getting the end of a story we’re not ever supposed to get. Thus we get the images that we thought we’d never see. And it’s not just a one-off What If? story, either. It’s closure to the end of ten years of regular serialization. Gotta admit, that’s a good way to go.
Great comment earlier: it’s not about if he lives or dies but how they tell the story.
“if he dies, he dies” – Ivan Drago
Stupid Marvel, killing off the best version of Spider-Man they have going. This has been one of the best titles going practically since its inception. This is right up there in Ultimate Universe with having Benn Grimm murder Dr Doom and Reed Richards being so dangerously stupid to what he’s messing with that he has to die. Silliest thing is that the 2nd best version appears in in Future Foundation and not Amazing Spider-Man.
Perhaps before he dies, someone will get bitten by a radioactive Spider-Man! This was a great run. It can be nice when stories end. Even though in comics, things tend to end and then continue.
Just read the issue (glad they got it up on comixology pretty quickly). Sad that he’s dead. I think it’s a brave move for the Ultimate line, but I can’t help but feel they squandered opportunities to develop more interesting stuff involving Peter becoming an agent of SHIELD, becoming an adult, aging up out of his teens. Killing Peter is a good move for reinforcing the point of the Ultimate Universe, showing that anything can happen in the most definitive way possible. I just wish this could’ve happened to some other character who’d grown stale and I wasn’t interested in reading further about. Of course, that’s the kind of character they kill in the 616, which is why the deaths like Nightcrawler’s recent death have less impact. The collective reaction to that one seemed to be, ‘that’s kinda sad, I have fond memories of him, but they hadn’t done anything fun with him in about a decade so fine.’ I’m sad for the Ultimate Peter Parker stories I won’t get to read, but glad that Bendis’ stories never really hit a meaningful rough patch.
I just read it, and I gotta say: very disappointing. It was like rereading death of superman, and it just really lacked emotion. It’s sad to see Pete go down like this. Well, I really liked Bendis’ run on USM, and just like everything else… all good things come to an end.
A great way to end this would have been: Pete bats the living snot out of Osborn´s ass, and goes to the hospital webslinging. On the way, he sees a robbery, can’t deny who he is and goes to the rescue. And then… Bam!!! he dies due to internal bleeding. End of story.
it’s the simple things that do the trick. We’ve already seen the great cosmic death, the self sacrificing death and the quiet death (Captaion Marvel). we could use a good death for once.
Really marvel
My favorite comic coming to an end.
I have to say, if he replaces Peter with Jessica Drew this will just reek of fanboyishness when it comes to that character for Bendis.
I know it’s supposed to really cement interest in the rest of the Ultimate universe but I think it’s going to have the opposite effect on me. With Kitty and Bobby on the X-men, I’m not sure there will be enough to keep me interested in whatever the new direction is.
Of course, I’ll wait till I read it to make a decision, but I’m not a huge fan of the idea in general.
Loved it. Big action movie finale, everyone coming together, each playing their part. Peter as the consummate selfless hero.
Peter saves May. Couldn’t save Ben. But he did it; he saved his aunt.
A good death.
That variant gave me gooebumps! WOW!
@Rchapoteau it really did. goddamn this was great
Yeh, that varient cover made me just a little bit weepy.
beautiful sample.