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A tragic ending to Spider’s Shadow gives Spider-Man a hopeful future and an important new position in the most famous family in the Marvel Universe.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #5, available now from Marvel.
Peter Parker has undergone a truly unsettling transformation over the course of Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow, with the Venom symbiote having twisted him into a cold-blooded killer. Thankfully, the two have been separated from one another before their bond could become permanent. though that only led the symbiote to find a new superpowered host in the form of Reed Richards.
After bonding to Mister Fantastic, the Venom symbiote extended its reach beyond anything that even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes could hold their own against. While Johnny Storm and Mary Jane Watson lead the evil Reed on a chase through the skies of New York City, Peter scoured the Baxter Building for anything that could turn the tide of battle. Luckily, there is one piece of tech that could prove to be exactly what they need, and all it’s going to take is a little finesse and a lot of help from the Human Torch. With an image inducer designed by Reed for Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, Johnny Storm takes on the appearance of Peter Parker and offers himself in exchange for freeing the other heroes.
Venom is willing to take him up on his offer, putting the symbiote in a prime position to be burned away when the Human Torch goes supernova during their bonding process. Unfortunately, to preemptively stave off any retaliation by killing Mister Fantastic before it broke their bond completely. The tragic loss of Reed Richards has left an irreparable scar on this version of the Marvel Universe, though it doesn’t take long for the healing process to start. In fact, it is Sue Storm herself who reaches out to Peter to give him a new place in the world as part of the Fantastic Four.
Peter Parker’s history with the Fantastic Four is almost as old as his career as Spider-Man, with their initial introductions to one another having been made all the way back in “Spider-Man Vs. the Chameleon!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko from 1963’s Amazing Spider-Man #1. Even if he didn’t get to join the team when he went looking for a paid gig as a superhero back then, his subsequent team-ups with the Human Torch and the rest of Marvel’s First Family have seen him become a more official member.
His stint as the Bombastic Bag-Man may have only been an embarrassing side effect of being left without a costume after he was freed from the Venom symbiote, but his time spent as part of the Future Foundation was far more meaningful. After Johnny Storm’s apparent sacrifice in the midst of holding off the Annihilation Wave, Peter joined the new team to fulfill his friend’s final request. Now he has been given much the same reason to become part of the Fantastic Four all over again when Sue reminds him that they can move through their grief together in the pages of Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #5 by Chip Zdarsky, Pasqual Ferry, Matt Hollingsworth and VC’s Joe Sabino.
For such a dark series with such a somber end, it’s almost shocking to see an unmasked Peter Parker swinging into action alongside the rest of the Fantastic Four at the end of the issue. Clearly, he has taken Sue up on her offer, and it looks like that has brought him back from the brink of drowning in his guilt as well as out from the shadows. There is no telling what the future will hold for this version of Spider-Man or the rest of his new team, but there is no doubt that whatever comes next they will be more than capable of handling it together.
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