Warning: contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #76!
The latest Spider-Man stories suggest the famous bite from a radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers is also killing him. Radioactivity has always been a dubious power source for superheroes (as with the Incredible Hulk, it peaked in the 60s during the height of the Cold War at a time when the effects of radioactivity were not entirely understood), but Spider-Man's origin hasn't changed, and thus neither has the faithful spider bite. But in Amazing Spider-Man #76, written by Zeb Wells with art by Patrick Gleason and colors by Marcio Menyz, the source of his strength may also be the source of his downfall.
Peter Parker is recovering from an emotional whirlwind of a storyline involving clones, the death of Harry Osborn, and - though he may never know it - Mephisto's manipulations to prevent his daughter from ever being born. To add insult to injury, Peter meets a man in a Spider-Man suit who turns out to be Ben Reilly, Peter's long-lost clone from the infamous Clone Saga of the 90s. Ben currently works for the Beyond Corporation, who've bought out Parker Industries...and thus owns the copyright to Spider-Man.
That doesn't stop Peter from suiting up to take down the U-Foes, a band of rogues with radiation-based powers. A massive blast caused by the villain X-Ray causes only minor damage to Ben Reilly's radiation-shielded suit - but Peter's suit isn't high-tech at all, and he collapses. He spends most of the subsequent issue in a hospital bed with Aunt May and Mary Jane by his side, but his spider-sense goes haywire, telling him to run...from his own body.
The battle with X-Ray and the massive radioactive blast may have triggered a response within Peter's body, which has no shortage of radioactivity itself. This is not the first time Peter's inherent body chemistry has caused problems. In Spider-Man: Reign, an alternate future in which Peter is an old, lonely man, he laments that he accidentally killed Mary Jane through his radioactive semen. While largely considered a failure, it appears a key element was borrowed from that story: Peter's body chemistry eventually becoming a danger to Peter.
It's highly probably that Peter is suffering from acute radiation poisoning, which is a truly horrific prospect; Peter can feel his body shutting down, but is helpless to stop it. If Peter makes it out of this predicament alive, he might lose his powers as a result. This would tie in with Marvel positioning Ben Reilly as the new Spider-Man - something the company wanted for Spider-Man's original Clone Saga nearly 30 years ago.
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