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Ever since audiences everywhere were introduced to Peter B. Parker in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie, Spider-Man cosplayers at comic cons around the world have never been the same. I'm not kidding you - I see at least one Peter B. Parker cosplayer who isn't also artist Todd Nauck at every single convention I go to. And for good reason! Not all of us are 25 years old with -5% body fat anymore. Some of us have got dad bods, a five o'clock shadow, and a habit of crying in the shower. 

But beyond the cosplay scene at conventions, Peter B. Parker made an impression on Ultimate Spider-Man writer Jonathan Hickman. I spoke to Jonathan Hickman about what inspired his vision for the bespectacled, middle-aged family man Peter Parker featured in it. There are a multitude of different Peter Parkers that Hickman could have chosen to write, so what made him decide on this family man?

"At some point, I said to myself, you know, I really love Peter B. Parker from the Spider-Verse movies," the writer says. "I would love to write that Spider-Man, like nobody's written that Spider-Man. Everybody else writes, you know, the other guy that we've got thousands of comics of, and plenty of movies."

"And I was like, ‘I really, I kind of dig that,'" Hickman continues. "And it comes with a specific kind of story and I think that people ... obviously there's the aspects of the story that people glom onto immediately, that they're still married, that Uncle Ben is alive, that on and on and on - but I also think when we're done, thematically, it will resonate in an even more powerful way when they see the complete thought of what I'm doing. I hope that's the case. You obviously can't control how the audience responds, you just try your best."

Rest assured, Mr. Hickman, this version of Peter in Ultimate Spider-Man is loved. Currently, Spider-Man fans are still awaiting the third installment in the Spider-Verse movie trilogy, Beyond the Spider-Verse, to arrive in theaters in 2027, Galactus willing. So to see a version of Spider-Man on the page, inspired by Peter B. Parker, has been excellent narrative food for the soul. 

Beyond (ha) the Spider-Verse movies, though, Hickman and Checchetto's Ultimate Spider-Man stands on its own as one of the boldest Spider-Man comics in recent years precisely because the writer was so willing to disrupt the status quo of the Web Head. And who knows, maybe we'll eventually get to a place where the mainline Spider-Man of the Marvel Universe will be a father like Ultimate Spider-Man.

"I don't know what Spider-Man is gonna be like 20 years from now. I don't have any idea. I don't have any control." Hickman tells us. "But I think it's okay to play with the IP so that it can organically evolve as a response to societal change."

Maybe Hickman and Checchetto's envelope-pushing with Ultimate Spider-Man will rub off on other parts of the Marvel Universe.

Read my full interview with Jonathan Hickman on Ultimate Spider-Man and the end of the Ultimate Marvel uiverse here.

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

• Best Spider-Man comic books 
• Spider-Man movie watch order
• Spider-Man's actors, ranked

Just watch out for that radioactive blood.