Marvel Comic's Ultimate SPIDERMAN to Die at Hands of Green Goblin

The Huffington Post reports that the end has come for Peter Parker, the high school student bitten by a radioactive spider whose web-slinging antics have made him a touchstone of the Marvel Comics' series. The publisher announced today that Parker's alter ego, Spider-Man, will finally be killed off by The Green Goblin in the final issue of "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" due out Wednesday.

The death, while dramatic, is not entirely unexpected. In November, Marvel said that the Ultimate Spider-Man was going to face an uncertain fate in the latest storyline by writer Brian Michael Bendis fittingly titled "The Death of Spider-Man," an eight-issue arc that saw the return of original series artist Mark Bagley. Bendis and Bagley had worked together on the series for 111 issues.

Bendis told The Associated Press that in issue No. 160 Parker fights valiantly but will pass on, heroically, in a pitched fight. "He will pass heroically, but he will die at the hands of The Green Goblin," Bendis said, recalling his nearly 11 years writing the title, which debuted in October 2000.

The death is real and in Marvel's Ultimate Comics imprint, death is not something taken lightly. Characters in that universe are dead and gone, never to return. The roll of the deceased already includes Magneto, Wasp and Wolverine, among others.

"Ten years ago, Brian Bendis and Mark Millar changed the way people saw super heroes with the birth of the Ultimate Universe. With `Death of Spider-Man' the two have done it again, creating a story just as big, and something that would really resonate with fans," said Mark Paniccia, Marvel senior editor. "But Peter's death doesn't signal the end of their larger plan - it's the start of one of the most ambitious stories you've ever read in comics."

Bendis said that Parker's death won't be in vain and hinted that the Ultimate Spider-Man may not be gone forever. But what exactly is to come, that's something he's not willing to share, at least not yet.

Parker will live on in Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man series, however.