The fall of Peter Parker...

(Panini Books)

Nothing lasts forever… Peter Parker’s time in the sun comes to a dramatic end as he once again chooses to sacrifice personal gain for the greater good, and having risen so high the fall back down to Earth was always going to hurt.

Parker Industries spectacularly collapses at the many hands of the Superior Octopus, as Otto Octavius undermines everything he achieved while occupying Spider-Man’s body (during the Superior Spider-Man saga), which mainly involved establishing his alter ego as a world leader in innovative technology.

Working alongside the fascist forces of Hydra as part of the Secret Empire agenda (see that title and Captain America for further details), Octavius raids PI’s global bases and leaves nothing but rubble in his wake.

Peter is forced to make desperate decisions to safeguard his employees, even if his actions will ruin him and any future chance of saving his company, but when the dust finally settles, will there be anything left of his life remaining?

A defining moment in Dan Slott’s long-running Spidey saga, this collection picks up on plot threads dating back years and using them to epic effect in what is a cataclysmic conclusion to this momentous chapter in Peter’s fraught career, both in and out of costume.

The aftermath establishes a fresh status quo for the web-slinger which doesn’t quite re-set the clock to his time as a cash-strapped freelance photographer, but certainly echoes back to before the Big Time storyline, when Peter started his new job with Horizon Labs, beginning a journey which culminated in the creation of Parker Industries.

It was probably inevitable that Spidey’s days as a corporate crusader were never going to last, and even his high-tech costume is gone by the end of this book, but providing we don’t see the character going over old and familiar ground then there’s no reason this new era shouldn’t be as entertaining as the last.

With Slott set to finally step down from writing Amazing Spider-Man later this year, after 10 years and almost 200 issues, he appears to be putting the toys back in the box ready for his successor to take over, but let’s hope he goes out with the bang he deserves!