Spider-Man (Peter Parker) — Marvel Comics

At Empire State University, Peter falls in love with Gwen Stacy, though his life as Spider-Man repeatedly complicates their relationship. Her father, police captain George Stacy, dies amid a clash between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, and Gwen blames the masked hero. Later, Norman Osborn learns that Peter is Spider-Man and, as the Green Goblin, abducts Gwen. In The Amazing Spider-Man #121 (1973), he throws her from the George Washington Bridge; Peter catches her with a web-line, but the abrupt stop proves fatal. Enraged, Peter pursues Norman yet does not deliberately kill him. Norman is apparently impaled by his own glider. Peter is left carrying the knowledge that even his fastest attempt to save someone can end in tragedy.

During the original Secret Wars, Peter acquires a black costume that he later discovers is a living alien symbiote. He rejects the creature’s attempt to remain bonded to him. His bond with Mary Jane Watson meanwhile develops into marriage. In Kraven’s Last Hunt, Kraven incapacitates Peter, buries him alive, and impersonates Spider-Man until Peter escapes and reclaims his identity. The rejected symbiote subsequently bonds with Eddie Brock to become Venom. Across these ordeals, Peter learns that neither his costume nor an enemy’s imitation can replace his choices as Spider-Man.

The Jackal’s cloning experiments bring Ben Reilly back into Peter’s life. Manipulated evidence makes Peter question whether he is the original, and he temporarily steps aside while Ben operates as Spider-Man. The saga establishes that Ben is the clone and exposes Norman Osborn’s role in the deception. Ben apparently dies protecting Peter during the confrontation with Norman, and Peter resumes the Spider-Man mantle. Later stories revive Ben, whose troubled identity continues to intersect with Peter’s.

Ezekiel Simms approaches Peter with a provocative claim: his spider-powers may have a mystical dimension in addition to their scientific origin. Ezekiel warns him about Morlun, a predatory hunter of spider-totems, and Peter survives a brutal confrontation with the threat. The comics leave Ezekiel’s explanation of the powers open to question; the encounter does not erase Peter’s established radioactive-spider origin.

In this wider period of his adult life, Aunt May also learns that Peter is Spider-Man, changing a long-standing secret within their family. That trust does not make his responsibilities simpler, but it means he is no longer hiding his entire other life from the person who helped raise him.

During the superhuman-registration conflict known as Civil War, Peter reveals his secret identity publicly while aligned with Tony Stark, placing his loved ones at risk. After Aunt May is gravely wounded, Mephisto offers to save her in exchange for erasing Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. They accept, fundamentally rewriting their shared history and restoring the secrecy of Spider-Man’s civilian identity. The marriage was real within the preceding published story; One More Day retroactively changes the continuity rather than simply recording a normal breakup.

A dying Otto Octavius swaps minds with Peter, leaving Peter trapped in Otto’s failing body while Otto occupies Peter’s. Otto declares himself the Superior Spider-Man and tries to outdo his old enemy using harsher methods and additional technology. Peter’s surviving consciousness eventually regains control when Otto recognizes that Peter is the one capable of saving those endangered by the Goblin crisis. Peter must then repair damage done to his relationships and public life during the impersonation.

After regaining his body, Peter takes charge of Parker Industries, the company begun during Otto Octavius’s impersonation, while continuing to patrol as Spider-Man. In the Spider-Verse crisis he joins spider-powered heroes from multiple realities against the Inheritors, who prey on spider-totems. The team includes other Spider-Men and spider-heroes whose lives must not be mistaken for Peter’s own. Later, Parker Industries collapses, ending his period as a wealthy businessman and returning him to familiar financial uncertainty.

Kindred’s campaign against Peter draws in Sin-Eater, Norman Osborn, and painful secrets connected to the Stacy family; the plot ultimately involves the Stacy clones and Mephisto. During the later Beyond era, the corporation backs Ben Reilly as Spider-Man after Peter is incapacitated, and Peter must confront Ben after Beyond damages his memories. Peter’s bond with Mary Jane is further strained when she becomes stranded in another reality with Paul following Benjamin Rabin’s attack. Mary Jane eventually returns to Peter’s world, but the time apart and her new attachments prevent an easy return to their former relationship. These are events in the ongoing mainline comics, not the MCU or an alternate Ultimate Spider-Man universe.

The Amazing Spider-Man began a new numbered run in April 2025, opening with Peter unemployed and confronting a rampaging Rhino amid a larger villainous scheme. By May 2026, Marvel’s issue descriptions place him back on Earth after an extended off-world absence and battles involving Torment, Venom, and Carnage. A publisher listing for the October 28, 2026 release of Amazing Spider-Man #1002 describes another clash with Ravage and hints at a personal cost. Those descriptions establish the premises of the issues, not the full outcomes of every confrontation. As of November 8, 2026, the mainline Peter Parker story is ongoing and has no single final ending.