Call It A Comeback: Marvel Will Revive Peter Parker After A 13-Month Hiatus

Attention fanboys and fangirls: Peter Parker is gone, but not forgotten. More importantly, Spider-Man’s nerdy alter ego will make a return after a 13-month absence, following his death in the comics. So says writer Dan Slott, teasing the return of what is arguably Marvel’s most successful character. Peter Parker will be back under mysterious circumstances with the re-launch of “The Amazing Spider-Man” series this April, which has been timed to fit the release of the second Amazing Spider-Man film, starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.

Andrew Garfield might just be one of Peter Parker's biggest fans.

In fact, Garfield was the first person in the world to receive a hint of Peter Parker’s return, according to Slott. After Garfield expressed his shock over Peter’s death, the writer heavily implied that the Met-loving photographer would be back sometime in the future.

But before the official announcement was dropped, Slott received his fair share of bullying and even the occasional death threat over killing Parker, he tells the New York Daily News. The worst, however, had to be the disappointed fans, especially the youngest ones. “To do that for a solid year of my life, that’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do — to look small children in the eye at a convention and lie to them,” says Slott. “One of them with an honest-to-God Little League uniform and a quivering lip. Inside, part of me was dying.”

Garfield stars opposite real-life girlfriend Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.

For the past 13 months, the real Spider-Man has been replaced by Doc Ock, or Doctor Otto Octavius, masquerading as New York’s favorite superhero. But even the Doc isn’t without his fans, it would seem. Some even prefer him to the clean-cut original.

“It feels like for every reader lost another reader jumped on,” says Matthew Klein, 27, a worker at Forbidden Planet, a comic book store near Manhattan’s Union Square.

Marvel has confirmed the "Amazing Spider-Man" re-launch for this March, while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie will be released on April 18 in the UK and May 2 in the US.

As the comic re-introduces Parker, the movie will introduce Jamie Foxx as the villain Electro.