What Happened To Everyone Who Killed Spider-Man?

7. The Symbiote Suit

Ultimate Spider-Man Death
Marvel Comics

Amongst the slew of Marvel-driven content heading to Disney+ in the future, one TV show many are eagerly anticipating is the animated What If...? series.

That small-screen offering will explore famed Marvel moments and tropes, just skewed slightly. For example, what if Peggy Carter took the Super Soldier syndrome and became Captain Britain, or what if Yondu came down and took T'Challa up into space rather than Peter Quill?

This animated series will pull plentiful inspiration from the comic book title of the same name, and one such What If? Spider-Man-driven tale resulted in the death of Peter Parker.

Back in 1989's What If? Vol. 2 #4, the question of the day revolved around what would've happened had Peter allowed himself to be fully consumed by the alien symbiote. In standard canon, Parker famously got rid of the black goo after he realised it had started to corrupt him, the symbiote then going on to bond with Eddie Brock to form in Venom.

In this alternative scenario, Peter and the symbiote fully bond and become a different take on Venom. That is, until, Reed Richards' observations cause the symbiote to bail and attach itself to the Hulk. Yes, there's now a Hulk/Venom hybrid running amok.

When Richards checks on Parker, our hero has prematurely aged after being attached to the symbiote for too long. As Reed offers up his help, Peter collapses and dies of age old.

The conclusion of this What If? story has a vengeance-seeking Black Cat eviscerate the symbiote with an energised blast.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.