This article contains SPOILERS for Amazing Fantasy #1000
Marvel has finally revealed how Spider-Man will die in the line of duty - and his Uncle Ben would be proud.
In honor of Spider-Man's 60th anniversary, Marvel has spent the entire year releasing one memorable Spider-Man story after another. Zeb Wells took over the Spider-Man book with Spider-Man #1 in 2022, and the milestone book Amazing Spider-Man #900 was released with a Sinister Six-centric story over 70 pages long. Even Miles Morales was involved, with five issues of the What If...Miles Morales? series released this year. Now, the company returns to the anthology title where Spider-Man first appeared - the Amazing Fantasy series - and invites readers to see the end of Spider-Man.
In Amazing Fantasy #1000's story "Sinister 60th" written by Dan Slott with art by Jim Cheung, an old Spider-Man (still fighting crime and in remarkable shape) attempts to save a woman held at gunpoint by a common mugger. "Yeah, Spidey-Sense, I know," muses Spider-Man. "But my reflexes ain't what they used to be." At this point, the mugger shoots Spider-Man and he collapses to the ground. Even the mugger is in disbelief. "Nobody ever shoots the Spider!" he says while running away - but not before shooting Spider-Man's body a few more times for good measure.
The fact that this is exactly the way Uncle Ben died is not lost on Peter Parker. As he fights for his life from a hospital bed, he says "Not some burglar with a gun...going out like Uncle Ben. Almost feels right." It is a mundane and rather realistic death for a superhero who regularly fought aliens, demons and mad scientists, but this is the point. Peter has always stood for the proverbial little guy, the kind of people who are all too often lost amid the chaos of a world-ending crossover event. Spider-Man never forgets his street-level roots, no matter how many Gods or monsters he fights.
This is not the end for Spider-Man - the story ends with Peter escaping his hospital bed after (perhaps before) he's healed and ready to fight another day - but this is easily the closest Spider-Man has come to a permanent death. The fact that the death doesn't involve super-weapons, time travel or any other futuristic elements help gets the writer's point across: no challenge is too big or small for Spider-Man, and he'll tackle both with equal determination and risk. Spider-Man may die to a common criminal in the future, but he has saved many from the same fate.
