Did Marvel Just Confirm Peter Parker As Their Second Spider-Man?

When Marvel announced this weekend that Ultimate Spider-Man's Miles Morales would inhabit their All-New, All Different Marvel Universe, they may have also revealed the identity to their second Wall Crawler.

It seems that Peter Parker, Marvel's original, Amazing Spider-Man, will keep the red and blue tights following the publisher's massive Secret Wars event. While Peter's role in the all-new, all different Marvel Universe originally seemed like a foregone conclusion, Marvel raised some doubts when they first announced the initiative earlier this June. Along with a teaser image showing someone in the classic Amazing Spider-Man costume and someone in the Ultimate Spider-Man costume, editor-in-chief Axel Alonso stated that the new universe would have "an entirely-new Spider-Man." And since Free Comic Book Day's All New-All Different Avengers preview confirmed Miles' placement under the red and black tights, some thought the new face might replace Peter's.

However, that no longer seems to be the case. In Marvel's announcement and interviews for Spider-Man, the upcoming Miles Morales-starring series, the publisher seemingly confirmed that Peter will still be around, albeit in a roundabout way.

Marvel wrote in their official press release that Miles will now live in "A world where Peter Parker is still alive." While the statement confirmed Peter's presence, it doesn't mean he'll remain Spider-Man. However, the next sentence said that ,"Though their paths have crossed before the landmark series Spider-Men, with Miles now living in Peter's universe – is this town big enough for two Spider-Men?" If we were to intuit Marvel's train of thought in this paragraph, it would seem that Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same.

Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis entrenched this idea further during an interview with Marvel.com, calling Spider-Man a "sequel" to his 2012 series, Spider-Men. In Spider-Men, Peter Parker traveled to the Ultimate Universe for team-up adventure with Miles Morale. "[T]he thing I get asked about every day, is a sequel to Spider-Men, the [series] we did a couple of years ago where Peter Parker met Miles. Consider the first year of this book the sequel to that series," Bendis said.

Again, this is just an educated guess, but it seems unlikely that Bendis would label Spider-Man a Spider-Men sequel if Peter Parker wasn't around as Spider-Man. But while the evidence makes this theory a likely one, we still can't confirm Peter Parker as the red-and-blue Spider-Man until Marvel makes the official announcement.

And of course, if Peter is the second Spider-Man, that raises the question of who Alonso's "entirely new Spider-Man" could be. Maybe a refugee from the Spider-Verse?

Do you think Peter Parker will return as the Amazing Spider-Man after Secret Wars? Let us know in the comments!

- - -

Want a chance to win a Batman Arkham Knight Playstation 4 Bundle? Click here or the image below to enter!

Good luck!