Marvel Changes Spider-Man’s Origin in The Most Controversial Way Yet

Warning: contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #83!

The origin story of Spider-Man is a classic comic tale of triumph and tragedy, but Marvel has just changed Peter Parker’s beginning in a shocking manner. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s story of Peter changing from a selfish, self-absorbed teenager into a selfless superhero is the reason why the webslinger has stood the test of time. But in Amazing Spider-Man #83, the house that Stan Lee built does away with over 50 years of Spidey history and changes the origin story.

In current comics continuity, there are three Spider-Men swinging around New York. There’s Ben Reilly, Peter Parker’s identical clone, employed and equipped by the Beyond Corporation; there’s Miles Morales, the Brooklyn Spider-Man with his own unique powers and an all-new suit as of 2021, and there’s Peter Parker…currently in a hospital bed recovering from radiation sickness after a supervillain fight gone wrong. While Reilly and Morales save innocents, Peter is weakened and can barely stand, let alone fight.

Peter battles hallucinations during his time in the hospital (along with a near-death experience via a monster in the hospital’s basement in the previous issue). At one point in time, he flashes back to his childhood, long before Uncle Ben was shot by a burglar whom Peter infamously chose not to pursue. Peter is being reprimanded by Ben, who also takes the opportunity to teach his nephew a lesson in paying the price for doing good deeds. He likens this practice to that of a solder…as readers see that Peter Parker owns a Captain America figure.

In and of itself, Peter owning a toy modeled after a World War II superhero is nothing to complain about. However, Captain America was arguably the first well-known costumed superhero. Thus, when Peter decides to create a costume of his own, he’s not crafting his Spider-Man suit out of his own ideas anymore. Subconsciously or otherwise, he’s basing the idea of a heroic costume off of Captain America. This also means that when Peter decides to finally become a hero after Uncle Ben’s death, it’s no longer his own idea…he got the idea of a superhero from Captain America.

This is the reason why Christopher Nolan stressed that there were no other superheroes in the world of the Dark Knight Trilogy; he wanted Bruce Wayne to create the idea of Batman without any outside influence. In this comic, however, Peter is influenced, and his eventual creation of Spider-Man is thus modeled after existing heroes. It’s no longer his own idea, and this makes Spider-Man’s origin story considerably less interesting.