In a Christmas gift many fans would wish they could return, Marvel comics has published the final issue of Amazing Spider-Man, featuring the death of Peter Parker.

As part of their Marvel NOW! initiative, issue 700 culminates a story arc that began a hundred issues ago, when longtime spider-man foe Doctor Octopus was given a terminal illness.

The skyline tells the story in this image from the 700th and final issue in the comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man.

Now after 50 years of spinning webs and catching a who's who of criminals, Peter Parker is out of the hero game.

But Spider-Man is still slinging from building to building; reborn, refreshed and revived with a new sense of the maxim that Ben Parker taught his then-fledgling nephew: "With great power comes great responsibility." The now Doc Ock-inhabited Spider-Man's adventures will continue with the debut of Superior Spider-Man in January 2013.