Peter Parker death (gasp!) roils Spider-Man fans. Why they're taking it hard.

Peter Parker death in the current 'Amazing Spider-Man' issue caught readers and fans off guard – and will probably deliver a sales kick for publisher Marvel Comics. 

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Parker’s story line involving his connection to his Aunt May, girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, and newspaper boss J. Jonah Jameson, plus his guilt over the death of his Uncle Ben, makes Parker more approachable than Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) and easier to relate to than Clark Kent (aka Superman). Those superheroes predate Spider-Man and his adventures. The Batman and Superman stories were connected to the plot-heavy pulp fiction of the time, whereas Spider-Man creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko concentrated more on character development, Salkowitz says.

Peter Parker's other distinction was that he was a teenager, not an adult. That not only created more possibilities for story lines, but it also made him more relatable to his readers.

“In the early '60s, comics were mostly simplistic stories for kids. Spider-Man began a more sophisticated kind of storytelling where the character arcs were developed over 10, 20 issues. People got emotionally attached, not just to this Spider-Man guy who spins webs, but to the personal life of Peter Parker and the relationships he had going,” Salkowitz says. “You can find yourself skipping over the fight scenes to get to what is going on in Peter Parker’s life. There is a deeper connection because he was set up from the onset as a character you were supposed to care about as a person.”

Parker is not the first comic-book character to get the ax – amid expectations he will emerge unscathed months later. Superman suffered the same fate in 1992. So did Captain America in 2007, Batman in 2008, and the Human Torch in 2011, to name a few resurrections.

Spider-Man’s adventures will be reset in “The Superior Spider-Man,” a new series title due early next year. He is currently the hero of other Marvel titles (“Avenging Spider-Man” and “Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man,” which are designed for different audiences).

Parker’s demise is unique because it gives readers something they don’t see everyday, says Terry Gant, owner of Third Coast Comics, a shop in Chicago. “Peter Parker is running out of time and he just can’t do it," he says. "As a way for him to go out, this is a fantastically done plot. The only thing different from any other comic-book story is that he loses.”

Social media are burning up with fans debating the ethics of killing Parker, especially so soon after the holidays. But in the comics world, Mr. Gant says, there is single truism that should put everyone’s mind at ease:

“Everybody comes back.”

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