10 Controversial Comic Book Deaths Fans Hated

3. Peter Parker - The Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-Man Death Superior
Marvel Comics

Peter Parker has actually died twice in the comics since the start of the decade. He first bit the bullet in Ultimate Spider-Man, leaving the door open for Miles Morales to take on the mantle, and it was brilliant, both in terms of closing the door on one character and in introducing a whole new hero to take the world by storm (which Miles subsequently did).

The second death took place in the main 616 continuity, and involved Doctor Octopus. The fallout of the death itself actually led to one of the most interesting periods of Dan Slott's Spider-Man, but how it happened was actually pretty traumatic.

Doc Ock, riddled with cancer, is at death's door. Because of this, he devises a plan to swap bodies with Spider-Man, which he does. Peter is stuck in Ock's old body as he slowly passes away, but not before he's able to impart some final words of wisdom for his old adversary, which convinces him to do good as a new, superior Spider-Man.

Again, it wasn't so much the aftermath of the event that troubled readers, but how Peter died. It was really dark, and it would take a lot of convincing for fans to get behind the man who killed him. Most would (eventually), but at the time you would've been hard-pressed to find someone who thought this death was appropriate.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.