- We all know what happened to Uncle Ben,
the tragic death that Peter Parker could have prevented,
which became the fuel he needed to become responsible
with the great power he was bestowed.
Ben Parker was like a father to Peter.
But what happened to Peter's real father and his mother,
for that matter too?
Well, let's uncover the truth behind Richard
and Mary Parker.
(upbeat music)
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions,
the show that takes you into detail
about the things you think you know about comics.
I'm your host, Scott Niswander,
and I love taking you guys' suggestions as topics
for these videos
So when emmitthelegofigure on Instagram
asked me to do a truth behind Peter Parker's parents
episode, I knew immediately that that was an absolutely
perfect fit for this show.
Fair warning, it could get a little bit confusing
because I'm going to throw around some names
that you maybe haven't heard of before,
and also spoilers for the Amazing Spider-Man
movies as well.
So before we dive into the comic versions,
I do want to look at the movie versions of the parents.
We have a little bit to compare and contrast to.
You'll recall in Amazing Spider-Man 2 that Richard Parker
was a top scientist for Oscorp, which was a leader
in genetic research.
Norman Osborn made a deal to start using
Parker's research to make bio weapons
for a foreign military organization.
Richard decides to destroy everything he can
and go on the run with his wife, Mary.
They decide to leave their son Peter with Richard's
brother Ben and his wife May
because they don't want to put Peter's life at risk.
They hop on a plane, fight some dude who was sent
to assassinate them, and through the scuffle,
the plane crashed and everyone presumably dies.
There's also this guy, but we'll get to him later.
When it comes to the comics, however, not a whole lot
has been written about Peter's parents.
The first real glimpse we see of them comes
in Amazing Spider-Man annual number five.
Peter finds a newspaper clipping that Aunt May
was hiding from him which says Richard and Mary Parker
were traitors to their country.
This is echoed pretty similarly in The Amazing Spider-Man 2
when Aunt May tells Peter that she was told
Richard went off to sell his research to the highest bidder,
betraying everyone that he knew.
In both scenarios, Peter goes to do more research.
But in the comics, he travels a little bit further
than a secret subway car.
Spidey heads to Algeria and his info leads
into the headquarters of a secret anti-American spy ring
of which his father was evidently a card-carrying member.
He's also confronted by the head of the organization
who is revealed to be none other than the Red Skull.
Spider-Man gets away in victory but defeated
by the evidence he's found against his father.
Meanwhile, the Red Skull hires a man known as the Finisher
to track Spider-Man down and, well, finish him.
Finisher locks onto Spidey and starts firing missiles
at him via his weaponized car.
Spidey's agility allows him to dodge the missiles
and lead them to the Finisher's car so they can blow up
the source of the threat.
With Finisher now dying, thanks to the massive explosion
he suffered through, Spider-Man convinces him
to use his last moments and tell him everything he knows
about Richard Parker.
The story goes that Richard was actually a double agent
who infiltrated the organization.
Red Skull found out and he hired Finisher to,
again, finish him.
Red Skull sends Richard on a mission to deliver some
papers out of the country, and Mary comes along as well,
as she went everywhere with her husband.
But the Finisher had tampered with the plane,
and that caused it to crash with Richard and Mary inside.
Back at the headquarters, Red Skull had his men
plant some false evidence against Richard
that would make him out to look like a traitor
to America, including the card Spider-Man found earlier
which was revealed to be concealing his father's credentials
as a U.S. counterspy.
Going back to the movie, we see kind of similar things
throughout like the falsified evidence and the plane crash,
and this guy, who might possibly be a younger version
of the Finisher.
But Peter's dad wasn't just some spy.
He was a full-on agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.,
and so was his mom.
In Untold Tales of Spider-Man number zero,
we see a little bit more backstory on them.
Richard was in the Special Forces, but he was approached
by Nick Fury who offered him a role at S.H.I.E.L.D.
as a covert operative.
There he met Mary Fitzpatrick, who worked
as a translator and data analyst for the organization.
She wasn't a fan of her desk job, but Richard helped her
get out into the field.
The two got married and went on many missions together,
and they even saved Wolverine from Baron von Strucker
before finding out they were about to have a child.
But then it gets a little bit more complicated.
In Amazing Spider-Man number 365,
Mary and Richard appeared at Aunt May's doorstep
very much alive telling a slightly different story.
They weren't S.H.I.E.L.D. agents or trained spies
in any sense of the word.
They were just government couriers who would
hand-deliver important and classified documents
to foreign embassies around the world.
They were approached by the Red Skull
who tried bribing and threatening them in order
to get them to work for him.
They reported it to their superiors who convinced them
to play along so that they can get intelligence
on the Skull's organization.
But Skull picked up pretty quickly on their plan
and set in motion his plan to rig a plane to crash
with them inside of it.
However, Russian spies stowed upon the plane
and kidnapped Mary and Richard,
believing that they truly were working
for the Red Skull.
The Russians made the Parkers parachute
out of the plane over neutral territory,
and two of the agents stayed on the plane
to investigate for any additional information.
They had no idea that the plane was tampered with
and it was their bodies that were found
in the wreckage of the plane crash.
Richard and Mary then spent 20 years hopping
from one Russian prison to the next,
being interrogated and tortured for any information
about the Red Skull that they would find useful.
Back in present day, Peter is unconvinced that the people
that made their way back into his life are really
his parents.
He wants to go re-investigate the headquarters
of the Red Skull once more, but the problem is
that it's revealed all of this time the Red Skull hasn't
actually been behind it.
I mean, he was, but not the real Red Skull,
not Johann Schmidt.
Everything up until this point that involves
the Red Skull was actually a guy by the name
of Albert Malik who's just posing as the Red Skull.
You see how things start to get a little bit
more complicated.
It was Malik who approached Richard and Mary
about working with him,
Malik who attempted to kill them in a plane crash,
Malik whose base Spider-Man broke into to find info
on his parents, and Malik that holds the truth behind
everything Spider-Man has questions about.
Unfortunately, Malik was killed a while back on a plane,
which I guess is kind of ironic.
For many issues following, Peter and May finally accept
that it is the real Richard and Mary that have
returned to them.
Peter even reveals his biggest secret to them
in Amazing Spider-Man 387, by showing that their son
is the hero Spider-Man.
A nice touching family moment later,
and everything is right with the world.
Until the next issue when it was revealed that they
were actually high-tech artificially intelligent
robotic impostors that were programmed to be
Peter Parker's parents so that they can get close to him
and find out if he knew the secret identity
of Spider-Man from Peter and report it
to Chameleon who is operating under the guidance
of Harry Osborn, Green Goblin.
Peter's real parents really did die in the plane crash.
But the comics aren't the only ones showing a return
of Peter's parents.
An alternate ending to the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie
was released that shows bearded a Richard Parker
survived the plane crash and has been living in secret
every since.
He even delivers the line,
"With great power comes great responsibility."
So we have a basic understanding and outline
of these characters, even though the renditions
might change from time to time.
But I am not finished yet.
What if I told you that there was one man
who was threaded throughout the life of Peter Parker
and his parents, and it's this man right here.
For those of you who don't know this man
in the shadows from both Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2,
it's most likely Gustav Fiers.
I say most likely, because he was only introduced
as Mr. Fiers in Amazing Spider-man 2,
and there are two Fiers brothers, Gustav and Karl,
the latter of which has another name that we know him by,
the Finisher.
That's right.
It's all connected.
This guy, this guy, these people, obviously him,
and all of these guys, except him.
I may have underestimated these films a little.
Gustav Fiers himself has never actually been
in a comic book, at least none that I could find.
Instead, he was introduced in a trilogy of Sinister Six
novels written by Adam-Troy Castro.
Yes, novels, books, actual books with words.
That's how deep we're going on this one.
Really quickly, though, it is important to note
that the gentleman that is just a scumbag,
he has no special powers of any kind,
but he's rich and he knows how to manipulate people,
and just for the sake of time, I don't have time to go
into any one of his many schemes he's had a hand in,
but just assume he does generic rich guy evil things.
In the novels, we see how the gentleman played a hand
in just about everything we've talked about today.
Remember when Richard and Mary saved Wolverine
from being tortured?
Fiers was the one who had him captured in the first place
after Logan tried to infiltrate his organization
to take him down.
Fiers also blew up the ship to cover his tracks.
Somewhere under the water right now, the gentleman
is getting away in a submarine.
He's obviously not a huge fan of Richard and Mary Parker
for interfering with his plans time and time again,
so when he finds out that they have infiltrated
the Red Skull's organization, of which his brother,
the Finisher, is a part of, he goes to warn Malik
about them, and that sets off the whole plan
of Finisher killing them and the plane crash
and falsifying evidence that they are American traitors.
The only thing is that Fiers wanted Malik to spare
Richard and Mary's son Peter so that when he's older,
Fiers can get revenge on him personally.
Fiers follows the life of Peter Parker.
He even discovers that he is Spider-Man.
And he forms his own version of the Sinister Six
comprised of Electro, Doc Oc, Vulture,
Chameleon, Mysterio, and a girl named Pity.
I definitely think a similar story is possible
in the Amazing Spider-Man cinematic universe.
Some tweaks are obviously needed, but it's pretty doable.
What do you guys think?
What are your thoughts on all this?
Let me know in the comments.
And also let me know which version of Peter Parker's
parents you like more: American spies,
agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Oscore scientists.
Let me know.
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Once again I'm Scott.
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And we'll see you right here next week
for more things that you though you knew about comics.
See ya.