The deceased Doctor Strange has a request from beyond the grave for Spider-Man this December

Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 excerpt
Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 excerpt (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Doctor Strange died in the recent Death of Doctor Strange #1, but as we've recently learned, he's made contingency plans for this possibility - which includes the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. As part of the Sorcerer Supreme's last will and testament, he has asked Marvel's premiere wall-crawler to become New York City's resident magical protector as his replacement… but there's one small problem.

Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 main cover (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Peter Parker is in a coma (although presumably, it will be short-term), and Ben Reilly has once again assumed the role of Spider-Man. And although Strange and Reilly worked together briefly during the recent 'Damnation' event, their relationship isn't what Stephen and Peter's is.

But Reilly will attempt to step up in the December special, Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1, by writer Jed MacKay (who also writes the main Death of Doctor Strange series) and artist Marcelo Ferreira.

"Doctor Strange is dead. However, his obligations live on. All across New York City, there exist magical threats that Doctor Strange attended to, and with him gone, that duty now falls to Spider-Man," MacKay tells Newsarama. "But the Spider-Man that is currently available is not the Spider-Man that Strange had been counting on, and now Ben Reilly races against time to keep New York's weirdness under control and prove that he's worthy of the title."

Check out this preview of Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1:

Reilly will have a little help as NYC's new magical protector, but it won't be from Wong - it'll come from the Black Cat, one of the first people that learned Reilly had assumed the Spider-Man role back in the '90s 'Clone Saga.' But true to Felicia's nature, she has an ulterior motive for the pseudo-Spider-Man; as MacKay tells us, she "wants to be there to see it when he crashes and burns."

Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 variant cover (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

This 'deputizing' of Spider-Man in service of the Sorcerer Supreme has some similarities to a bit from the recent What If … ? episode 'Zombie Apocalypse,' Doctor Strange's Cloak of Levitation briefly became Spider-Man's Cloak of Levitation after Strange was zombified.

Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 goes on sale on December 1.

Keep track of this and ALL the new Spider-Man comics, graphic novels, and collections on the horizon. 

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)