2011 obituary: Peter Parker. Sort of

• MARVEL COMICS
• Uncle Ben and Peter Parker step into the light

Look, I know that Peter Parker, aka the Amazing Spider-Man, is not real. And I know that he continues to sling webs in more Marvel comic books than ever, particularly since he’s a member of the Fantastic Four and the New Avengers. But the superpowered high school student came to a tragic, highly emotional end in the Ultimate Spider-Man in a storyline that packed a real wallop.

Ultimate Spider-Man, like the rest of the Ultimate line of Marvel comics, was launched about a decade ago to offer a more accessible, streamlined approach to the company’s roster of superheroes. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and Marietta-based artist Mark Bagley turned Ultimate Spider-Man into the best-selling Spider-Man title of the decade, emphasizing Peter Parker’s vulnerability as a high school teenager thrust into a dark, dangerous world of criminals, domestic spies and super-powered freaks.

Bagley drew 111 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man before moving onto different projects, but happily accepted Marvel’s invitation to illustrate the Death of Spider-Man arc. “That was a nice compliment,” he told me in a recent interview. “I loved doing it, because it was the culmination of what the poor kid’s been going through for years. A 16-year-old kid getting out there, being not always so smart with his secret identity — it had to happen. Brian wrote a great story.”