Amazing Spider-Man #65 brought the first half of “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man” to a close. With that Joe Kelly and Cafu made sure to end the first half of this epic with a strong impact on Peter Parker. That strong impact came from Peter coming to terms with what death means to him. Not just experiencing death but seeing the death of the people he loves. With how the experience was shown and Joe Kelly recently announced as the new ongoing Amazing Spider-Man writer this latest chapter of “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man” could hint at what 2025 and beyond has in store for the franchise.
FATE OF MARY JANE WATSON & AMAZING SPIDER-MAN SUPPORTING CAST
Peter Parker’s latest battle as Earth’s champion was not a physical one but rather mental. Through a magic crystal Cyra, the latest Cyttorak foe, showed Peter what he fears most, the death of those close to him. What Peter saw in this vision was:
- Mary Jane Watson – dies during a team-up battling Hobgoblin, continuing the trend of a Goblin villain taking Spider-Man’s love interest.
- Jonah Jameson – dies of a brain embolism.
- Robby Robertson – stomped to death during a political rally.
- Betty Brant – dies of old age, arguably the nicest of the deaths shown.
- Shay Marken – Peter’s current girlfriend dies in a car crash.
- Black Cat – killed after someone cuts her swinging line.
- Norman Osborn – killed while experimenting on his body.
- Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, & Bailey Briggs – killed battling a cosmic villain.
It is made clear all these deaths that Peter sees are part of Cyra’s attempt to break Earth’s champion. It is something that is clearly effective as Peter breaks free from the illusion to speak directly with Phil Coulson, currently an Avatar of Death. While Peter suffers another death he quickly revives after defeating the Cyttorak twins.
While we aren’t necessarily told to treat these visions Peter has as something that’ll happen in the future it is hard not to. Especially given that Joe Kelly is now set to be the ongoing writing of Amazing Spider-Man. With that now being official there is a possibility what Kelly was showing us were possible storylines he is planning to tell during his creative run.
The dedicated time to Spider-Man and Jackpot’s fight against Hobgoblin in particular stands out. Mary Jane will forever be an important Spider-Man character. And that is certainly how Kelly frames MJ’s death in particular. It would not at all be surprising if this is a teaser to a future Hobgoblin storyline that Kelly plans to tell.
Teasing MJ’s death in this way creates a sense of danger if we do see Spider-Man and Jackpot team-up against Hobgoblin. It would certainly be in the back of Peter’s mind that MJ could die because of this experience during “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man.”
Kelly has even stated “After that sinks in, I spend a lot of time thinking about what I love about Spider-Man and his cast, what stories resonated with me at different times of my life, and how I can synthesize all of that into something that works with what came before but breaks new ground… I feel a drive to take bold, unexpected swings in order to see how Spider-Man deals with Marvel-sized curve balls. Pressure makes diamonds.” With this statement Kelly could use what we saw of the fate of MJ and other supporting cast members.
FUTURE SPIDER-MAN FAMILY EVENT TEASED
2025 is going to be an extremely busy time for the Marvel Universe. The Timeslide one-shot that Marvel ended 2024 with teased a laundry list of events and storylines for the new year. Some of those tease story titles could relate to the Spider-Man franchise. And with so many Avengers and X-Men related events already announced for 2025 there is no doubt we will get at least one major Spider-Man Family crossover.
Amazing Spider-Man #65 even teases that with the splash page visual of Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and Bailey Briggs falling against a mysterious cosmic threat. As with the other deaths Peter saw, this was more of what Peter’s greatest concerns were. But given how striking of a visual seeing Miles’ Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, and Spider-Boy are this could be the big tease for the franchise’s big crossover in 2025.
Given that Marvel has driven the Spider-Verse concept into the ground it is time to see something different. That or have a crossover that puts a rest to the Spider-Verse concept temporarily. The cosmic threat we see hovering over Miles’ Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, and Spider-Boy could be representative of just what the Spider-Verse size threat could be.
Whatever the visions shown in Amazing Spider-Man #65 ultimately represent there is no doubt it’ll have a deep impact on Peter Parker moving forward. Walking away from his role as Earth’s Champion and Spider-Man as he did at the end of the issue will only be temporary. But what won’t be temporary is how Peter will react when the visions he saw come to the forefront of his mind when interacting with his supporting cast.
Source: Marvel.com
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