New Ultimate Spider-Man Is...

@BRIANMBENDIS
@bleedingcool

The Death of Spider-Man story line was great, and it raised a lot of questions.  One's already been answered, yes someone will "be" Spider-Man...but Peter Parker is dead dead.

While reading this article over at Bleeding Cool I think I have figured out who will be donning the Spider-Suit.  It seems that number 4 will be the issue we find out.

That's a clue right there, in my opinion.

Here's the cover:

Maybe I'm too much of a conspiracy theorist but I do know there are plans for someone to put the suit on and continue as Spider-Man.  Bendis seems to be making up for his destruction of the Avengers franchise by some amazing writing here and in the new Moon Knight series.

It's my guess that Johnny Storm, member of the Fantastic Four will be the new Spider-Man.  A great choice if you ask me.  Johnny and Peter have a history in the Ultimate Universe and, according to his bio at Comic Book DB:

Johnny dreamed about using his powers to be a super-hero like the Ultimates; however, his father insisted Johnny finish high school, which he was coerced into attending. He registered at a school in Queens, and made friends quickly, meeting Liz Allen, Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker, among others. When Johnny accidentally caught fire at a beach bonfire, he fled, returning only to ask Liz to meet with him so he could explain. Though Allen didn't show, Spider-Man did, and the two talked before cooperating to save people trapped in a burning building. Johnny's spirit was renewed by Spider-Man's contention that the drawbacks of super-powers are outweighed by the good they could do, and he shared with Spider-Man the name he would use when the team went public: the Human Torch.

Comics Mysterious Background Characters

vThanks to Paul over at mean ol' meany he pointed me to a nice little article about two hipsters that are appearing in multiple comic books - despite artist, title or publisher.

Apparently Scott Snyder has such a good eye he found these two dudes popping up in books from both Marvel and DC, from Iron Man to Wonder Woman.  The mystery remains shrouded because no one knows who they are and no one is talking!  How can two rival (and I mean rival) companies, all using different artists and writers - have these two characters popping up in all their titles that happen to aimed at kids (believe me, some of these children's comics are great stuff to get your child reading...it seems they drop the political stuff and stick to "Good guy puts away bad guy via non-violent methods")

All picture credits to iFanboy where this story is spreading like wildfire.

Back to the subject at hand...sometimes these guys show up as cops:

Now, that's Lex Luthor they're hauling away. Luthor is from Superman which is published by DC.

Here they show up as bystanders at the airport:

Now, that's J. Jonah Jameson telling Peter Parker, otherwise known as Spider-Man, about a lizard loose in some random swamp. If you read The Gauntlet, you know who this lizard is.  Spider-Man is published by Marvel.

And obviously these are two different artists.

I'll post one more picture, but you really need to check out the incredible work done over at iFanboy (even in the comments section) as to what's going on!

Here they are as dapper guests at a Bruce Wayne party.  Bruce Wayne is obviously Batman and Batman is published by DC.  Again, obviously an entirely different artist.

What can this mean? As one commenter posits: "Is the FBI tailing all capes?".

Are they Horsemen of the Comic Apocalypse? Will they usher in the most bizarre crossover event in history? Do "stock" background characters exist in the comic universe like stock photos for website builders? Is there a store one goes to in order to purchase these stock background characters?  Does that website take Paypal? Does Comic Book Jesus place these two as some kind of watchers of his comic super-heroes?

All of these are possible explanations.