Amazing Spider-Man: Peter Parker ruins his life

Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 shows a new and awful life for Peter Parker.

When you think of comic book characters that have the worst luck, Peter Parker is among the top two. Nothing in his life comes easy. Even when it seems like he’s winning, something dreadful is coming around the corner.

His Aunt May almost died (Amazing Spider-Man No. 538), he lost his marriage (thanks to Mephisto One More Day), and he almost lost his ability to be Spider-Man (Amazing  Spider-Man No. 75 by Zeb Wells). Those are only a few of the terrible things that have happened to Peter Parker. Unfortunately, things are about to get worse.

Marvel Comics announced that John Romita Jr. would make his return to Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man as Zeb Wells continues his run. Bringing back an artist from a classic Spidey series (written by J. Michael Straczynski) usually means big things. As readers could tell from issue Amazing Spider-Man No. 1, this was an accurate thought.

Aunt May and Peter

The first thing readers see is a roughed up Spidey in a crater holding a device. From the looks of it, he’s responsible for whatever caused the explosion. Fast forward six months later and Peter is talking to his Aunt May. Whatever Peter just told her, she was disappointed in what she heard. Something that looks to have hit Peter in his core.

Aunt May is the only person that never abandons Peter. While May says she believes Peter, she followed it up by saying “It hurts to listen to you lie.” May then tells Peter that she hopes to see him at Sunday dinner, but she won’t hold her breath.

This could be due to Peter possibly stealing money from her. There was a collections agent stalking Peter. The first time Peter meets the agent, he tells him to leave his aunt alone. That’s the easy possibility. Could Peter have actually told her he’s Spider-Man and perhaps she didn’t believe him?

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four

Peter Parker is on his way to see a friend when he’s stopped by Johnny Storm. Peter makes an insensitive joke about Johnny turning down his heat (read Fantastic Four No. 34.for more on that). Johnny, however, informs Peter that he’d know all about that if he was around more. Peter snaps back saying that Reed and Sue told him to stay away. Johnny reminds him that he stole from them. Peter angrily tells him it’s because he needed his help. Before Peter leaves, Johnny says it’s because they weren’t going to watch him ruin his life.

This could be the thing that caused it all. Peter Parker will do anything to protect the people he loves. That includes destroying his own life. Whatever Peter stole from Marvel’s First Family must have been to save the people he loved, especially since it meant stealing from a group he considers family. Peter most likely did it to protect people from himself or his enemies.

The Fantastic Four have more gadgets than anyone in comics. Among those things is the Forever Gate. A Machine that lets people go anywhere and any-when. Peter most likely took something similar to that. At the very least maybe he plans to make a compact version of it? He’s smart enough to recreate it. If that’s the case, it would explain everything in his life. Especially the next section.

Peter and MJ

Now we come to the worst part of this for Peter. Once again, he has lost Mary Jane Watson. If you’ve followed Spider-Man comics, you’ll know that this happens on a semi-regular basis. However, it’s not often that she flat out tells him to stop contacting her. At the end of the story, we find out why. Mary Jane has started a new relationship. And, apparently, she has children.

The easy explanation is that she didn’t give birth to those kids. The relationship she has with them is probably so deep that they’ve become comfortable calling her mom. Or, and this isn’t out of the realm of possibility, she did give birth to and begin raising those kids since Peter last saw her. After all, time travel happens in comics all the time. We don’t know what Peter did in the beginning of the issue. The purple glow from the crater could be from time travel.

Regardless of what happened, Peter misses her. So much that he subconsciously ends up walking by her house.

Spider-Man and Tombstone

Lastly, we come to Spider-Man’s life. Spidey stopped a deal between Tombstone and multiple villains. Among them is a villain who died named Digger. A gamma powered being made up of multiple mob bosses who died in Las Vegas decades ago (yes, it’s wacky. Just go with it).

The next day, Tombstone finds Peter and tells him to get a message to Spider-Man. He says, “I’m going to show him (Spidey) how the world really works. And, when I’m done, he ain’t gonna have nothing left.” A threat that made Peter laugh. Because, at this point, Peter/Spider-Man doesn’t have anything left.

And, as James Baldwin said, “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose” and Peter Parker has nothing left.

Stay tuned for more on what Spider-Man did to ruin his life.

What do you think, readers? Did Peter Parker do something that he can never take back? What else did he do? Let us know in the comments below.