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This is a question that I have thought about since being a wee lad reading tales about the famous wall-crawler. We saw his aunt May pretty often and we know Peter’s uncle Ben was killed from the very first story in Amazing Fantasy 15. But what happened to Spider-Man’s parents? There was hardily any mention of them whatsoever and no explanation for the longest time what had happened to them.
Finally though in 1997 Marvel was doing this stunt where comics were labeled as “Flashback” and were numbered minus 1. This gave the opportunity in Untold Tales of Spider-Man issue minus 1 to explain the origin of Peter Parker’s parents. The story goes that Richard Parker did a hitch for the Special Forces and was recruited by Nick Fury to “really serve” his country. While working for the agency he met Mary Fitzpatrick, the woman who would later become his wife. The two of them go on a mission to recover Agent-Ten, who turned out to be Logan (who would later become Wolverine of the X-Men). All three of them escape safely, and later discover that Mary is pregnant with Peter. But what happened to Spider-Man’s parents after Peter was born?
On a mission to be double agents, their agenda was to take down Albert Malik (Red Skull) and his spy ring. Unfortunately their cover was blown and Karl Fiers was ordered to kill them, which he did with a plane crash and framed them for treason. This takes place (Affiliate Link) in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 5. Peter Parker was asked by aunt May to move a trunk into the basement. Peter accidentally opens it and sees a picture of his parents for the first time. More stunning than that though he finds a newspaper clipping that claimed his parents died in a plane crash and that they were both spies and traitors. This helped explain why May never told him what happened to his parents all these years except they died when he was a baby. Peter’s father was the brother of his uncle Ben.
As time goes on, Peter can’t accept that his parents were traitors. He travels to Algeria and finds the headquarters of the secret spy ring. To his dismay, he finds the identification card of his father Richard Parker proving he was a member of an enemy spy organization. After a confrontation with Red Skull he finds Farl Fiers and questions him about his father. This is when we discover what really happened to Spider-man’s parents. Fiers admits that Red Skull ordered his parents to be frames and killed. Peter later finds father’s credentials as an American counter-spy proving that he was a double-agent all along and not a traitor to his country.
What do you think about the origin of Spider-Man’s parents? Leave a comment below.