Sometimes it's hard to pick a superhero with worse luck on comic book pages than the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man — especially on his current run. He recently lost his wife to a man fans absolutely hate (damn you, Paul), became temporarily evil when inheriting the Green Goblin's sins, and has been dying over and over again in the ongoing Eight Deaths of Spider-Man arc. There's one saving grace, however: The wall-crawler hasn't permanently bitten the dust while facing the Scions of Cyttorak.
Thanks to the Reeds of Raggadorr, Spider-Man has been able to revive after each death. Unfortunately, that spell has never been a permanent solution, as the superhero only had eight extra lives from the beginning before biting the dust for good. So far, he has managed to navigate himself through the situation pretty well (even if he momentarily dropped the Spider-Man mantle). However, it appears his luck is slowly running out, and his days might already be counted.
Spider-Man will face "true death" in TASM No. 69
On March 12, Spider-Man will be no more — and no, we're not talking about him simply retiring. According to the official synopsis for The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) No. 69, Peter Parker will run out of extra lives and perish for real. Furthermore, the issue's cover (drawn by Ed McGuinness) depicts Doctor Strange carrying the hero's corpse.
"THE 8 DEATHS OF SPIDER-MAN CONTINUES! Spider-Man used the last of the extra lives and is done. True death. The X-Men are fighting among themselves, and Doctors Doom and Strange find the situation unwinnable. Things have never looked more bleak."
When the current TASM run began, fans (myself included) had very strong feelings about the story that Zeb Wells crafted. We watched the wall-crawler: lose his wife, separate himself from friends and family, become a villain for quite some time to protect his archnemesis, and grow closer to Felicia Hardy only for the two to go nowhere. Furthermore, all of these storylines converged in The Eight Deaths of Spider-Man where Peter has been repeatedly dying over and over again until he'll get to meet his definitive end. It's all of the suffering without any of the victory.
"Parker luck" is a phrase often used to depict how everything usually goes sideways for the friendly neighborhood hero. We know he's often a tragic character who saves the City at the expense of his own well-being. However, I can't help but feel this concept has been exaggerated this time around. Even in the original Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Spider-Man comic book run, the character had some moments of victory that made the journey worth it. For example: The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) No. 7 concluded with Peter sharing a nice and happy moment with his love interest at the time; Betty Brant. Even Stan Lee himself admitted it wasn't a "typical ending for a typical super-hero tale", but that Spidey isn't also a "typical super-hero".
For the time being, it seems there are no redeeming moments in the wall-crawler's life. He even dropped the superhero mantle after watching the hypothetical deaths of three million people because it was simply too much to handle. That being said, I'll admit the series' writing got a lot better ever since Zeb Wells left the ship and Joe Kelly took his place. I have to especially praise Justina Ireland's fantastic issues. However, some fans will never be on board with the concept behind the Eight Deaths of Spider-Man even if the dialogs are more polished and there's been a welcome tonal shift. So learning that the hero will die without having an "extra life" isn't exactly something to be excited about.
Of course, we know Marvel won't let one of its most popular characters be gone for a long time. In fact, a soft reboot of sorts will be coming to the series later this April, and there's a great chance Spidey's death will be the catalyst. So fingers crossed all of this will lead to a better era of the character where he has those "victory" moments that seem nonexistent nowadays. And if everything goes sideways, we always have new issues of Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) to look forward to.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) No. 69 will be released on March 12, 2025.