You saw the title and thumbnail so I guess we’re going to talk about Uncle Ben’s
dying.
Don’t worry, I hate me too.
But interestingly, this video was really hard to put together because there really aren’t
all that many good Uncle Ben deaths in the entire Marvel multiverse since in most continuities,
Peter shows up and gets filled in on the news or it’s glossed over entirely.
It also doesn’t really help that a lot of the Uncle Ben deaths that we do actually get
to see kind of suck and that INCLUDES the original version of it in the original comics.
Yeah, you’d be surprised to know that in the original Amazing Fantasy in 1962, we don’t
see Uncle Ben getting killed or even the body.
Not to mention that it was later retconned that the reason that Ben was shot was because
the thief broke into the Parker’s house in hopes of, I kid you not, finding buried
treasure beneath it.
That’s just dumb.
It's dumb and it's canon.
So with all of that out of the way, I want to talk about my favorite portrayals of this
iconic scene in no particular order.
I’m not really interested in ranking them, but you guys can feel free to argue about
it down there in the comments below
Also, I don't have a great segue for this, but I do want to give a big thank you to our
sponsor for today’s video, NordVPN.
I don't know if Uncle Ben was all that tech savvy, but I’m pretty sure that he would
want us to use the great power of the internet responsibly by using a virtual private network.
Super heroes can’t protect you from everything and that includes real world cyber criminals.
There’s a lot of stuff when I’m browsing online that I’m frankly comfortable with
the entire world seeing so that’s why I use NordVPN in order to protect myself.
They have super fast servers in over sixty countries and there’s no data logging which
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It’s definitely a useful service and I highly recommend it, but anyway, back to the video.
In the Ultimate comics, Uncle Ben is fleshed out a whole lot more than his mainstream counterpart.
I really like this hippy take on the character.
Ultimate Uncle Ben was super nice and really seemed like he was a good dad.
Although he and Peter had just had a fight that night when Ben found his nephew at a
party, when an intruder entered his home, he handled it super well.
The burglar demanded their money, but Ben calmly replied that they were poor and didn’t
have any.
Even though the tension escalated, Ben just laughed and told the robber that he probably
had more money than they did.
Yet, that set the dude off and that’s why he shot Ben.
Although it ended up being the thing that got him killed, I think that this version
of Ben trying to calmly deescalate the situation with humor is a nice touch.
Now this is arguably the most famous Uncle Ben death out of all of them, Sam Raimi’s
Spider-Man.
This has everything that we need.
Previous time to build up the relationship, Peter letting the robber get away, Ben dying
in Peter’s arms, and of course, crying Tobey face.
The retcon in Spider-Man 3 of Sandman accidentially killing Ben is pretty dumb in my opinion,
but similarly to Ultimate Uncle Ben calmly descelating the situation, I like knowing
that this Ben tried to do the same thing.
Either way, it’s a lot better than whatever this was supposed to be in the Amazing Spider-Man
reboot.
HEY!
In what has the be the most gruesome Uncle Ben death of them all, lets hop to Earth-90214,
the world of Spider-Man Noir.
This universe’s Uncle Ben was a pilot in World War I, but despite receiving medals,
he didn’t see it as a just conflict.
Ben hid his uniform away and became a social activist alongside his wife, May, believing
that “If those in power can’t be trusted, it’s the responsibility of the people to
remove them.”
This got the attention of a crime lord who calls himself “The Goblin” who was most
likely paid by the mayor of New York City to off Parker.
Ben’s nephew, Peter, found his uncle’s body mutilated and lifeless.
There were rope marks around his neck and it was clear that before his death, Ben was
beaten and torn up by wild dogs.
Only it turns out though that the bites were actually the work of The Vulture, one of The
Goblin’s henchmen who had razor sharp teeth and a taste for human flesh.
Obviously, this was a grisly demise which makes sense considering that this universe’s
version of Spider-Man is a lot more brutal than most of those out there in the Spider-Verse.
However, he does have a bit of a sentimental side.
In fact, his costume is actually a modified version of his uncle’s pilot uniform.
It’s a really cool touch.
Next up, let's talk about the Spider-Man game on PS4.
What?
You don't remember an Uncle Ben death happening in it?
Well, that’s because we're not talking about this Spider-Man for PS4.
We’re talking about the Amazing Spider-Man 2!
... For PS4.
This is a terrible game based on a widely hated movie, but I decided to include it for
the interesting detail in that you actually get to play through and experience Uncle Ben’s
death.
Literally the very first thing after selecting your difficulty setting is the game opening
up with Peter not stopping that robber.
You also get to walk down this gross New York street and listen to other people's weird
conversations.
Awww, you look like a sad little puppy!
And then bam, gunshot.
You as the player rush over to see Uncle Ben die and it feels really weird that you’re
somewhat in control of the situation.
As a test, I decided to reload the game and see if Uncle Ben would still die if I just
stood there and did nothing.
I waited around for five minutes and there was no gunshot.
Then I moved a little further down and waited for another five minutes.
Still no gunshot.
Walked a little bit more…
This means that the game forces YOU to kill Uncle Ben.
That’s messed up.
This death comes from the Spider-Man India series on Earth-50101.
In this continuity, there are characters that I know I’m going to mispronounce.
I am so sorry.
Anyway, Pavitr’s Uncle Bhim and Aunt Maya moved out of their village so that Pavitr
could attend a highly prestigious school in Mumbai, despite their economic standing.
While we don’t get much time with Uncle Bhim before his passing, I thought he seemed
pretty alright.
Later in the first issue, Pavitr was granted powers and a costume from a being called the
Master Weaver which he obviously thought was pretty cool.
As this new Spider-Man, Prabhakar was excited to get home and test his newfound abilities,
but as he swung across the city, he overlooked a mugging going on below.
After all, that was a job for the police.
Well Uncle Bhim happened to be in the area and stepped in, but was stabbed in the process.
Pavitr only turned around when he recognized his uncle’s voice crying out in pain.
After only taking a moment to find out which way the criminals ran off, Spider-Man lept
into action for some rage filled revenge.
Before claiming the man’s life, Spider-Man stopped and reflected on his uncle’s wisdom
about power and responsibility, deciding in that moment to become a hero.
While this almost directly parallels the arc of the mainstream universe, I really like
how Bhim actually stepped in to fight the muggers.
Definitely seems a lot more heroic than just being a victim.
As you might remember from one of my previous videos, there was a Japanese Spider-Man show
in the 70s called Supaidaman.
Since the main character, Takuya Yamashiro, isn’t a Peter Parker or even an obvious
stand in for him like Pavitr, this isn’t technically an Uncle Ben death, but it functionally
is.
...Look, I just really wanted to talk about Supaidaman again and can you blame me?!
This show is nuts and I love it.
Takuya’s dad is a scientist that was investigating an object from space that landed on Earth.
While exploring, he was attacked by a type of creature called a Machine Bem.
This one is specifically named Boukunryu and he was sent by the villainous Professor Monster
to also investigate this mysterious object.
When he found out that his dad was in trouble, Takuya quickly hurried over and found his
father on his last legs.
After a bit of mild exposition, the old man passes and we get this show’s equivalent
to the crying Tobey face.
God, this show is so cheesy and overacted that it is amazing.
I hope you guys now understand why I needed to bend the rules a little bit to include
it.
Keeping with the Japanese theme, let’s look at Earth-2301, the Marvel Mangaverse.
Yeah, remember when manga started to get popular in the early 2000s and Marvel desperately
tried to cash in on it?
Because I do!
This Peter Parker is a member of the Spider-Clan, a nearly extinct order of heroic ninjas.
Among the remaining few is Peter’s uncle Benjamin who also acts as Peter’s sensei
in the ways of martial arts.
Benjamin was killed by his stepson, Venom, who he had trained since birth alongside Peter.
The bad news for Benjamin is that Venom had defected from the Spider-Clan and later became
a sellsword.
Venom was hired by the Kingpin to kill Peter and Benjamin, but he was only able to get
the old man.
Now, we only get to see Benjamin’s death in a dream which is fitting considering that
he frequently comes to Peter in his sleep to impart wisdom and continue his nephew’s
training.
...Which I guess doesn't make him super dead, but only like mostly dead.
The Mangaverse, especially the Spider-Man portion of it, is massively convoluted and
I want to make a dedicated video in the future diving into it, but I actually really liked
this death because it feels extremely reminiscent of cheezy old school martial arts movies which
I’m hoping is what they were going for.
They were going for cheezy and non-serious… right?
During the Infinity Wars event, Gamora fused the universe’s population together which
led to all of Marvel’s heroes turning into amalgamations.
Spider-Man was fused with Moon Knight in order to become Arachknight.
Interestingly though, Uncle Ben and Aunt May seemed to have not been fused with anyone
at all.
I guess the fusions was mostly for the big names like you know… Moon Knight.
Okay look, I love Moon Knight and I'm sure that people are going to pretend like they’ve
always been a fan of him once the show drops on Disney+, but yeah, I'm kind of surprised
that during the Infinity Wars mash-up, they decided to keep Peter, May, and Ben as the
Parkers and not like as the Specters or something.
Griping aside, after taking their nephew to the World Science Festival, the family decided
to cut through Central Park as a shortcut home.
Suddenly, Peter was attacked by a beast called Goblin-by-Night, an amalgamation of Green
Goblin and Werewolf-by-Night.
Ben lunged at the creature, but was killed in an instant.
When May tried to put herself between the Goblin and Peter, she was similarly stuck
down.
The only reason why Peter lived was because he was bitten by a magic spider that turned
him into its avatar and even then, he barely managed to get away.
At this point, you know that I don’t like Uncle Bens just being a victim so standing
up to defend his family gets THIS Ben a gold star in my book!
This version of Ben Parker hails from Earth-3145 and here, HE was the one that was bitten by
the radioactive spider and not Peter.
After discovering his newfound powers, Peter built his uncle a costume and web-shooters,
allowing Ben to become the crime fighting hero, Spider-Man.
Unfortunately, one of Ben’s enemies, the Emerald Elf, discovered his identity and bombed
their house, with May and Peter perishing inside of it.
From that moment on, Ben retired from being Spider-Man, that is until he was encouraged
to get back in the game during the Spider-Verse event.
Afterwards, Ben joined up with a team called the Web-Warriors.
They’re a bunch spider-people who patrol the universes that lost their spider-folk
during Spider-Verse.
The main adversary of the Web-Warriors are a bunch of versions of Electro from throughout
the multiverse and they’re led by The Battery, a hivemind consisting of a bunch of said Electros.
Although the two groups clashed on several occasions, it was Ben who ended the conflict
when he merged with The Battery and “infected” it with his ideals of power and responsibility,
thus causing the Electros to give up.
Although this Ben isn’t technically dead, he’s become one with The Battery so for
all intents and purposes, he’s gone.
I know it probably sounds super dumb, but Web-Warriors is actually a pretty solid read
and I’d recommend checking it out.
Okay.
I’m going to end things off with one of the most infamous musicals to have ever existed.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is the most expensive play in Broadway history and it’s…
it’s something.
Now since official recordings of the play don’t exist because the industry is terrible
about that (plug for Sara Z’s amazing video explaining the topic) I had to rely on watching
a bootleg here on YouTube from an account called Looplena.
I don’t think that there’s anything I can say about this that would be better than
actually showing you how they handled Uncle Ben’s death so… here you go.
Peter!
It was a carjacker!
He had a gun!
Your Uncle Ben surprised him!
No.
No…
Uncle Ben!
I’m sorry.
It’s my fault.
No, Peter.
Don’t say that.
It’s my fault.
If I’d been home, he’d still be here.
You can’t blame yourself.
You don’t understand.
You don’t understand!
I could have stopped this!
And there you go, my favorite handlings of Uncle Ben’s death.
I had to look through a lot of stuff for this video and I hope it shows and I hope you enjoyed
it, but if you learned something new then I definitely want to know down there in the
comments below.
But if you liked this video then why not consider subscribing or even watching another one?
And if you enjoyed this then chances are you probably like alternate universe Spider-Man
stuff.
So you might want to check out the playlist that I did on all of my different videos from
throughout the Spider-Verse.
Maybe you’ll find them interesting.
Who knows?
But anyway, I hope you learned at least a little something new and hopefully I’ll
see you next time!