Peter Parker’s Back As SPIDER-MAN! His Memory, Not So Much

If any of you thought Peter Parker’s return as Spider-Man would be easy, think again. There’s a precedent for these comic book “resurrections” having a catch to them.

In addition to Amazing Spider-Man #1 kicking off in April, Marvel will also debut a weekly series titled Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I? under Marvel’s digital-first Infinite Comics brand. At the start of the series, Peter wakes up in the middle of a bank robbery with no memory and wearing an outlandish tight-fitting costume. Thinking he’s the one robbing the bank, he finishes the job and gets away from the scene. When he later does a web (haha) search on Spider-Man, he finds all those Daily Bugle articles from years past declaring him to be a menace. With this “evidence” at hand, Peter believes himself to be a criminal and continues as if he is one.

The 13-part series will be written by Joshua Halkov and penciled by Juan Bobilo. While talking with Marvel.com, Halkov spoke on the nature of identity being a core concept to Peter Parker’s character.

If you remove identity and get to the core of who Peter Parker really is, is he a hero? Does his heroism go beyond Uncle Ben dying, beyond Gwen and Captain Stacy dying? All the people and things he’s lost. All those sacrifices. At his heart—as a blob of tissue, removed from all personality and experience—would he act as a hero, when presented with the opportunities of a villain?

Describing the tale as an “action-comedy” in an interview with Comic Book Resources, Halkov stated that the story would mostly be “Spidey-centric,” although some members of his supporting cast would appear like Mary Jane. He also mentions there might be another Spider-Man swinging around the city, leading into question whether the character we’re following is the REAL Spider-Man.

Since this series will be running at the same time as Amazing Spider-Man, I’m curious what the timeline is between the two stories. If the character in Who Am I is really Peter, does that mean the events of Amazing Spider-Man take place after the digital series? Unless of course the character we’re following isn’t really Peter. In which case, who the hell is he? My thought? Perhaps we’re not quite done with Spider-Ock (Spock) yet.

This sounds like a fun little adventure to follow, but at the same time I’m glad we’ll still have the Amazing Spider-Man title to read as well. There’s only so much more memory-related plot devices I can take with my favorite Marvel character.

SOURCE: Marvel