One of Marvel Comics longest  running series, "The Amazing Spider-Man" ended today with the release of issue #700. In this final issue a battle between Peter Parker, or Spider-Man for those of you living under a rock, and his arch nemesis Dr. Octavius, or Doc Ock, ended tragically for everyone's favorite web slinging teenager. The young Peter Parker gave his life heroically trying once again to save the life of a former mentor who lost his way. The Death of Parker has baffled and outraged longtime fans of you friendly neighborhood spider-man. Resulting in death threats for the writer who penned the final issue, Dan Slott.

This is certainly not the first time a major "superhero" in the comics world has met an untimely demise. The only question is... is Marvel serious about a permanent change in the Spider-Man mantle, or is this just another gimmick to sell comics, much like the much criticized death and ultimate resurrection of Superman in the 90's. My money is on the former.... seeing as how in total the Spider-Man character is worth well several  BILLION dollars, including a recently rebooted film franchise that will likely be the third highest grossing movie of 2012 earning. If you think im exagerrating the Spider-Man movies alone (Spider-Man 1  2 and 3 with Tobey Maguire ... and this year's Amazing Spider-Man)  are worth 2.5 billion by them selves. Look it up.

The other option of course is to leave Parker as a fallen hero. This has been done by both DC and Marvel before, however never with a character as major as Spider-Man. That being said, Marvel, at the very least, plans on continuing the Spider-Man mantle with the launch of a new comic series "Superior Spider-Man". This new spidey wont be the Peter Parker who, as a teenager, learned the hard way that "with great power comes great responsibility" . No, It will be the very villian who caused Parker to take his last breath. It seems that Dan Slott, decided it would be a good twist to not only kill one of Marvel Comics most beloved characters, but to replace him with one of his greatest foes assuming his mantle. Slott puts it in a recent interview with USA Today "This is Moriarty in the head of Sherlock. This is Prince John inside of Robin Hood. This is the greatest villain inside the body of the greatest hero and trying to do good," he said. "This is a guy who was a couple steps way from a bucket list, and now he's got a whole new lease on life. That's really going to change him."

Yeah it will change him... it is also gonna sell a crap ton of comics.

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