Marvel Teases A Permanent Death That Will Break Spider-Man More Than Gwen Stacy

Published Jul 14, 2026, 10:00 PM EDT

If so, because all we can dependably surmise about The Amazing Spider-Man’s big milestone issue this September is that there’ll be a brand-new villain, the obvious conclusion is that Cormac will be revealed as Ravage’s true identity. However, thanks to an out-of-context update that we’ve been given recently, The Amazing Spider-Man may also be celebrating its 1000th issue with a death in the family.

Will Aunt May Kick The Bucket In Spider-Man’s Biggest Issue Ever?

Two unlettered pages revealed in the newest Amazing Spider-Man #1000 preview tease, as per the official Marvel website, have readers by the throat. In one of these pages, Peter arrives at a hospital’s ER in civilian clothing and bounds over a patient being transported in a gurney before bursting through a doorway, demonstrating how urgent he believes the situation to be. Who he is rushing to is unlikely to be anyone but Aunt May due to Peter’s level of concern.

This is corroborated by another page, which depicts a flashback to Peter first being bitten by the radioactive spider, dodging out of the way of a car and sticking to a nearby building, trying on his Spider-Man costume for the first time, and having Aunt May clean a wound on his leg after a mild skateboarding accident, all from Peter’s POV.

Thus, based on the emphasis that is supposedly being given to Aunt May in Joe Kelly and Pepe Larraz’s Amazing Spider-Man #1000 story, Aunt May might be dying in this issue. Plus, Peter might’ve foreshadowed her death an issue ago by telling Cormac (who is presented in a wildly ominous manner while getting into a taxi) that revealing that he’s Spider-Man to Aunt May “would kill her.”

THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN AMAZING SPIDER-HISTORY!

Spider-Man faces his greatest fear and his most frightening new villain in decades... RAVAGE! Plus, some of the greatest creative minds on Earth honor one thousand issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN! NOAH HAWLEY (Alien: Earth, Fargo, LEGION) makes his comic book debut, Frank Miller and Peach Momoko collaborate for the first time, Stuart Immonen and Brian Michael Bendis return to Spider-Man together, and some of the best ASM creators return to the title!

Aunt May Might Not Have A Mephisto Deal To Save Her This Time Around

How this issue is received may now depend on what the outcome or context of these pages is. To be fair, it might not be Aunt May that Peter rushes to in the hospital, but the close-up of her in Peter’s flashback POV makes it difficult to believe that it could be anyone else, and the flashback itself could be one of the issue’s heartfelt ways of saying goodbye to her and her legacy in Spider-Man comic book history for the last 64 years.

If it’s her in the hospital but she doesn’t die, it’ll also be tough not to see that as another high-stakes rug pull, where a big death was teased for the sake of the character’s phenomenal milestone, only for her to live and for nothing to be different thereafter. Otherwise, the “history-shattering power” The Amazing Spider-Man’s Ravage possesses could potentially rewrite Aunt May and Peter’s lives altogether.

Another possibility is that she may learn that Peter is Spider-Man, maybe with Cormac weaponizing that against the Parkers, with her having to be hospitalized from the shock. Perhaps her life with him flashes before her eyes, only through his POV, and, if Marvel Comics wanted to please readers, it would restore her memories from before the controversial “One More Day” storyline, though there is a low likelihood of that ever happening.

The Amazing Spider-Man #36 (LGY #1000) is scheduled to be released on September 16, 2026.