Marvel Officially Gives Spider-Man a Death Sentence

Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider‘s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.

Spoilers ahead for Avengers . Peter Parker has lost enough people to understand exactly what being Spider-Man can cost. Uncle Ben’s death helped shape the hero he became, while his inability to save Gwen Stacy left a wound that decades of superhero adventures could never quite heal. When another person he loved was dying, Peter went looking for a way to keep that loss from happening again, even if the answer came from someone he had every reason to fear.

That decision became the center of One More Day, the story in which Peter and Mary Jane surrendered their marriage to Mephisto to save Aunt May. The bargain reshaped Spider-Man’s life, leaving one of Marvel’s most recognizable relationships on the other side of a supernatural rewrite. Now, the launch of a new Avengers series is bringing the agreement back into focus, with Peter forced to confront what happens when a deal like his stops protecting the person it saved. Avengers reveals that Peter and Aunt May are facing death after Mephisto’s contracts are nullified. Written by Chip Zdarsky, with art by Marco Checchetto and colors by Matthew Wilson, the issue ends with Peter learning that the universe is taking back what those bargains promised.

Four people, four completely different ideas of what it means to have
somebody in your corner. Here is who picked up, what they would ask of you, and what you would get
back.

You want the friend who does not leave. Steve is the one who
turns up at the door without being asked, who remembers what you said you were worried
about, and who has never once made you audition for his attention.

• His entire character is built on a single sentence, which is that he will not abandon
  somebody just because it has become expensive to keep them.
• He is far funnier than people give him credit for, and the joke is almost always at his
  own expense rather than yours.
• The friendship comes with a cost, since being close to Steve means being dragged into
  fights that were never yours and being glad about it later.
• You would get a friend who tells you the hard thing to your face and then defends you to
  everybody else in the room.

You want the friend who is genuinely exhausting and completely
worth it. Tony will forget your birthday, then build you something at four in the morning
that you did not know you needed, and hand it over as though it were nothing.

• He is bad at saying the warm thing out loud, so he says it in hardware instead, which is
  why everybody around him ends up with upgraded everything.
• Being his friend means putting up with the disappearing, the deflecting and the jokes
  that arrive about ninety seconds too early.
• What you get in return is somebody who will spend an unreasonable amount of money and
  effort on a problem the moment it becomes yours.
• He is the loudest person in the room and the one most likely to be quietly panicking
  about all of you.

You want the friend who replies in four seconds and apologises
for it. Peter is earnest in a way that is almost unfashionable, and he will take on far more
than he can carry rather than admit that he is struggling.

• He is the only one on this list who needs looking after as much as he looks after you,
  and that balance is exactly what makes it a real friendship.
• Nobody in the MCU is better at the small stuff, from remembering the thing you were
  nervous about to showing up with food you did not ask for.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back where he works best,
  which is broke, local and carrying the weight on his own.
• You would get a friend who is sincerely, embarrassingly happy for you when something
  goes right, with no edge to it at all.

You want the friend who insults your shoes, fixes your phone and
then quietly rearranges your entire life for the better. Shuri does not do soft reassurance,
and that is the reason you would believe her when she says you are fine.

• She is the smartest person in almost any room she walks into and treats that as a reason
  to tease you rather than a reason to lecture you.
• The teasing is the affection. When Shuri stops making fun of you, something has gone
  seriously wrong and you should probably ask her about it.
• Her story is the one on this list that goes somewhere genuinely dark, which is what
  turned her from a scene stealer into the emotional centre of the films.
• You would get a friend who never pities you, never softens the truth, and never once
  lets you take yourself too seriously.

Spider-Man’s Deal With Mephisto Has Become a Threat to Aunt May

The revelation comes through Paige, a young woman carrying a mysterious book that directs her to Spider-Man. After Peter saves her, she explains that her parents made a bargain and that all the deals are now finished. According to Paige, reality is responding by reclaiming what was promised, resetting everything that those agreements changed. Peter initially cannot remember making a deal himself, asking who he made it with and what he received, until Mephisto’s name changes that. Peter recognizes the devil and, even before Paige tells him who he saved, realizes that he knows the answer. The final page moves from Peter naming May to the hunters gathering outside FEAST, where she stands among volunteers and the people they serve. That image gives the threat an immediate destination, putting the woman Peter once bargained to protect directly in its path.

The issue’s editorial pages explain the larger upheaval: Doctor Doom has taken over Hell, expelled Mephisto, and torn up his contracts. That leaves the new Avengers dealing with consequences that reach well beyond a single demonic enemy. Following the devastation of Avengers: Armageddon, Peter now has a deeply personal reason to understand what Doom’s actions have unleashed. The ending leaves the fate of Peter and Mary Jane’s erased marriage unresolved. What it does establish is that the bargain has collapsed and that Peter understands the danger extends to both himself and May. Saving her once cost him the life he had built with Mary Jane, and the new series now makes protecting her again part of its opening crisis.

Avengers is on sale now. Stay tuned at Collider for more.