If you aren't caught up on the events of The Amazing Spider-Man (2022); let me get you up to date real quick. A vampire invasion broke loose during another series titled Blood Hunt (2024), which caused Doctor Strange to exhaust all options and ask Doctor Doom for help. Stephen transferred the Sorcerer Supreme title to the Ruler of Latveria so that he could cast a spell that would dispel the eternal night that plagued the world — saving the Marvel Universe in the process. However, Doom would hold onto its new magical title for longer than anticipated and designate one of its most painful chores to a noble soul: Peter Parker.
See, the Sorcerer Supreme is supposed to protect the world from no shortage of mystical threats, and sometimes that means striking deals with very powerful demons. Perhaps the greatest example of this was when Stephen agreed to battle the eight scions of Cyttorak at the beginning of each Crimson Calendar in exchange for keeping Earth safe from otherwordly invasions. However, Doom — the new sorcerer supreme — didn't want to participate in such a ritual. So what was his solution to this problem? Naming Spider-Man his new champion and having him do all the dirty work — a decision that leads to the ongoing The Eight Deaths of Spider-Man.
Battling each of the eight scions usually results in death, which is why the wall-crawler was given eight extra lives to accomplish his goal. The only problem? This task has proven to be much harder than originally anticipated, as Peter Parker even decided to give up the superhero life altogether.
It's Spider-Man, no more!
The fight against every scion usually has some sort of "gimmick" or hidden mechanic that Spidey has to counter in order to come out victorious. His latest challenge consisted of holding an orb, and not letting go of it. It may sound simple enough but here's one big twist: The orb causes Peter to see the upcoming deaths of friends, family, and even strangers. At first, the web-slinger held his ground surprisingly well, but after watching more than three million people die he came to a realization: Human beings are ephemeral, which means his work as Spider-Man will never have a true impact in the great scheme of things.
Just like that, the hero's spirit broke, and he decided to give up on his crusade to save the world yet again. Furthermore, he started treating everyone close to him very poorly, even Aunt May. It's Peter as you've never seen him before, and things will only get worse as we'll watch him die for good in upcoming issues — no extra lives involved.
There's one big thing to keep in mind here, and it's that every death that Spidey watched was hypothetical. Take Mary Jane, as an example. She's supposed to die at the hands of the Hobgoblin in a big battle. However, the future can still be changed, and the outcome can be radically different. That's where I think the biggest problem of this story comes in: Spidey can still have a great impact by saving the lives of some of the people he watched die. Aside from May and J. Jonah Jameson, no relative or friend close to Peter perished due to health issues or old age. Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Spider-Boy, and Shay Marken all died because of external factors that can still be changed, so why would Spidey do nothing to prevent that?
I get the overall idea that the series is trying to sell us is that every human will eventually die, no matter what. Spidey can try to save them, but he'd simply be delaying the inevitable — which is why he gave up on being a hero. However, I'm pretty sure that Peter Parker would do everything in his power just to buy Ben a little bit more time even if his uncle would eventually die of old age. That's why his whole journey as Spider-Man began in the first place: He felt so much remorse after being unable to save a life that he went out of his way to prevent others from experiencing the same suffering. That's the hero's true essence, and giving up on that promise — especially now that he knows how to save everyone close to him — feels simply out of character.
Granted, Spidey won't be out of the picture for very long. He'll definitely be back. But even then, it was a bit disappointing to see him give up on his crusade to save the world especially when learning how badly the city needs him. So fingers crossed the current Amazing Spider-Man run closes out its run with a bang before the soft reboot set to take place later this April.