A teen 'Spider-Man' dies in new comic

Marvel Comics' Spider-Man dies Wednesday in "Ultimate Spider-Man" #160 -- fortunately for fans, though it's not the long-familiar Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, but a different, teenage version from Marvel's alternate-universe line, Ultimate Comics. Launched in 2000, it features re-imagined, modernized versions of Marvel heroes and is designed for a teen rather than preteen audience.

"This is not the Spider-Man you grew up with," assures owner Tom Marcone of Bailey's Comics of Lindenhurst. "This is not the real, true Spider-Man."

Still, he's a popular character in a title that was regularly among each month's top-40 best-sellers before hitting the top-30 earlier this year when the multipart "Death of Spider-Man" story line was launched. And unlike in regular Marvel Comics, characters killed in the Ultimate Comics line tend to stay dead.

And while Parker may die, Spider-Man will live -- albeit with a different person in a different costume, and in a series relaunching with a new No. 1 issue this September.

And of course, the classic costumed web-slinger remains alive and well in the "Amazing Spider-Man" comic.