Peter David explains the difference between Spider-Man, Miguel O’Hara, and Ben Reilly to SyFy Wire (2018)
Earlier this year, word began to circulate across the comic book-side of the internet that legendary comic book writer Peter David, whose works have run the gamut of characters, publishers, and even mediums, had been dropped from Medicaid and forced to turn to crowd-funding for help covering the costs of his various health struggles.
It thus breaks our heart to report that roughly two months after bringing this development to our readers’ attention, David has sadly passed away at age 68.
Miguel O’Hara leaps into action on Rick Leonardi and Al Williamson’s cover to Spider-Man 2099 Vol. 1 #1 “Stan Lee Presents: Spider-Man 2099” (1992), Marvel Comics
As previously reported, David’s health problems first began to rear their ugly heads in December 2012 when the the writer suffered a massive stroke.
“We were on vacation in Florida when I lost control of the right side of my body,” wrote David to his personal blog shortly after it happened. “I cannot see properly and I cannot move my right arm or leg. We are currently getting the extent of the damage sorted out and will report as further details become clarified.”
Though David would eventually make a general recovery, reporting in June 2013 that “My right shoulder still hurts and my endurance is not remotely what it was, but I am working to return to normal”, his health hit another road bump just a year later when he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
The Spider-Man of Earth-6078 takes on his father, Lord Doom, amidst the climax of his latest film, ‘Spider-Man IV’, in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Vol. 1 #8 “Jumping the Tracks: Part 1 of 3” (2006), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by Mike Wiernigo, Karl Kessel, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit.
While the next few years would see him stay in relatively good health, so much so that he even returned to writing comics, David’s health issues would once again rear their ugly heads in 2022.
Opening a GoFundMe page to help with the author’s resulting expenses (which itself would eventually far-exceed its initial goal thanks to the generosity of his fans), family friend Graham Murphy explained in the campaign’s description that David “had some compounded health problems, and the bills are piling up! On top of kidney failure, and the steep medical bills incurred from that, he just had another series of strokes AND a mild heart attack.”
Sadly, David’s situation only continued to worsen, and after being dropped from the U.S.’ Medicaid health insurance program in March 2025, Murphy once again turned to the public for help.
“Peter’s health issues continue to be a challenge,” detailed the family friend. “He has been in recovery now for three years! Peter is steadily improving – even with his kidney disease, minor surgeries, and some recent small strokes. But Medicaid, which had been taking care of his Long Term Disability, has just dropped him. As a result, medical care and living expenses are mounting beyond current control. So, we are reaching out to you for help.”
The Maestro steps forth in Hulk: Future Imperfect Vol. 1 #1 (1992), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by George Pérez, Tom Smith, and Joe Rosen.
Per updates provided by O’Shea David to the campaign’s page, while David’s health began to show signs of progress in early April – “Peter’s white count is normal for the first time in a year and a half,” wrote his wife. “This news makes me feel more relaxed.” – the last week of the month would see doctor’s discover “an issue with the arm fistula [a surgical connection made between a given vein and artery in order to strengthen the former and allow for dialysis procedures to be performed upon an individual].”
Putting David “under the knife again” in order to resolve the issue around May 7th, O’Shea David would later confirm that “his fistula was fine but they found a blockage in his right shoulder that was not allowing blood to flow freely,” and that the hospital’s surgical team had subsequently treated the issue.
“Peter is doing better,” wrote his wife on May 16th. “His right hand no longer looks balloon. He says he is in less pain. He is very sleepy.”
Ben Reilly returns to his classic threads in Ben Reilly: Scarlet SPider (2017), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by Mark Bagley, John Dell, Jason Keith, Jay David Ramos, and Joe Caramagna.
Two days later, O’Shea David would reveal that her husband was now “in the ICU with difficulty breathing due to bilateral pneumonia.”
“This is the worst shape he is in since November 2022,” she added.
Providing another update on May 19th, O’Shea David explained, “The fever has broken. That’s back to normal. They are working on the multiple infections. He is still lethargic but that is normal considering what his body is going through.”
The next day, she would further note that “Due to his inability to cough or clear his throat, he is temporarily on a ventilator. His color is much better and he is moving his limbs which is a good sign. He is under light sedation to keep him from fighting the tube down his throat.”
On the morning of May 23rd, O’Shea David would switch her update platform of choice from GoFundMe to Facebook, taking to her personal page to inform the public, “[Peter is] Still on the ventilator and NG tube. They have removed sedation and are trying to get him to wake up. So far he has not complied. Occasional he will wake up but it is a brief time. We wait to see what is happening.”
Kathleen O’Shea David via Facebook
Unfortunately, what eventually happened was less than optimal, as on May 25th, the comic book legend/icon/superstar – pick an adjective, they all undersell his contribution to the medium – ultimately passed away.
“Peter David passed away last night,” wrote O’Shea David. “We are devastated.”
Kathleen O’Shea David via Facebook
Born in 1956 to Jewish parents residing in Fort Meade, Maryland, David’s interest in comic books and superheroes was first sparked, like many young fans, thanks to their prominence in the era’s culture.
“When I was about five years old, my parents would take me for haircuts and the barbershop had comic books out for the kids to read,” the man himself recalled to the now-defunct ComicsAddiction.com in 2007. “Most of them were Harvey Comics, so the first books that intrigued me were Casper and Wendy. I got into superheroes as a result of the Superman TV series with George Reeves [1952’s Adventures of Superman], because they’d always say at the end, ‘Superman is based on the character appearing in Superman magazine.’ And I thought, ‘There’s magazines? I gotta check those out.’”
Professor Roberts (Jonathan Hale) alerts Superman (George Reeves) to an impending meteor strike in Adventures of Superman Season 2 Episode 12 “Panic in the Sky” (1952), National Comics Publication
David’s original interest in writing was sparked by his father, who himself served as a reporter for The Newark Evening News after the family moved to New Jersey.
“Sometimes, purely as a side thing, he’d be sent to review films,” detailed David when asked about the moment he decided he wanted to be a writer during a 2003 Q&A session held through his official website. “If it was something that was age appropriate, he’d bring me along. And then we’d go back to the newspaper office, and he would write his review, and I’d write mine. And on occasion he’d crib stuff from my review and use it as his own.”
Eventually falling out of comics during his early teenage years, David originally believed he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a general news reporter.
However, he would find himself jumping right back into the fold thanks to a chance meeting between himself and the Uncanny X-Men.
“I saw X-Men Vol. 1 #95 on the stands and thought, ‘What did they do to the X-Men? Who are THESE guys?” said David in the letters page of X-Factor Vol. 1 #234. “I bought it loved it, tracked down #94, and then went to my first comic con in years and purchased Giant Size X-Men Vol. 1 #1 for all of a buck.”
The newest X-Men team makes their debut on Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, and Danny Crespi’s cover to Giant-Size X-Men Vol. 1 #1 “Deadly Genesis!” (1975), Marvel Comics
As David grew older, he soon found himself entering the publishing business, through which he eventually landed a job working in Marvel Comics’ Sales Department.
Though his early years with the publisher saw him unsuccessfully attempt to sell a variety of comic book ideas to the publisher during his, he would ultimately find success when in 1985, then-newly appointed Spider-Man line editor Jim Owsley bought one of his wall-crawler-related stories, which he then published in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 #103.
And with that, David was officially off to the races.
An effigy of Spider-Man is lit ablaze on Rich Buckler’s cover to Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 1 #103 “Compulsion!” (1985), Marvel Comics
Later that same year, Owsley would purchase another of David’s Spider-Man stories, The Death of Jean DeWolff, before cutting him from the book due to internal pressure from then Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, who was not happy that the Spider-editor had been buying stories from a member of the company’s sales team (at the time, such crossover was considered a ‘Conflict of Interest’ due to the potential for said sales member to falsely represent a given book’s reception, either by claiming a book they worked on was far more popular than it actually was or by torpedoing another’s reputation in order to make theirs look better).
However, a few short months later after being canned, David was contacted by Shooter’s successor, Bob Harras, to helm The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1, which at the time was doing so poorly that no one else wanted to write it.
As a result of this call, David would take over the book with issue #331, in doing so kicking off his 12-year run as the Jade Giant’s main writer, during which time he introduced such iconic Marvel Comics concepts as the Maestro, Joe Fixit, and even the original Thunderbolts team (though created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, the pair worked with David to surprise readers by having them first appear in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #449).
The Thunderbolts make their official debut in Incredible Hulk #449 “Brakoow” (1996), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by Mike Deodato Jr., Tom Wegrzyn, and Glynis Oliver.
His Marvel Comics work across the late 80s and early 90s also including runs on such titles as Wolverine Vol. 2, X-Factor Vol. 1, and Spider-Man 2099 Vol. 1 (whose title character he co-created with artist Rick Leonardi), David’s talents during this era were not exclusively limited to the House of Ideas, as an initial run on The Phantom Vol. 1 would open the door for him to work at DC.
While the Hulk and Spider-Man may have defined his pre-21st century time at Marvel, David’s 80s-90s DC work was likewise marked by significant runs on Aquaman Vol. 5, Supergirl Vol. 4, and Young Justice Vol. 1, the last series of which he handled in its entirety up until it was cancelled in order to promote the titular team’s members to full blown Teen Titans.
Impulse is haunted by his fear of growing up in Young Justice Vol. 1 #1 “Young, Just Us” (1998), DC. Words by Peter David, art by Todd Nauck, Lary Stucker, Jason Wright, Digital Chameleon and Ken Lopez.
Then, in the new millennium, Marvel Comics – or more specifically their then-superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis – made the decision to have the Scarlet Witch utter her now infamous declaration: “No more mutants”.
In the aftermath, David was handed the reigns to X-Factor Vol. 3, which rather than present a usual ‘mutant superteam’ story, saw him opt to use the chaos of the mutant species’ upheaval an opportunity to introduce readers to a group of super-powered, X-Gene positive sleuths-for-hire led by the Multiple Man, Jamie Madrox.
After his time with the mutant detective agency wrapped in October 2013, David would take a break from the industry in order to recover from his first stroke before returning in 2014 to pen the third volume of Spider-Man 2099 as well as the continuing adventures of the X-Factor moniker in All New X-Factor Vol. 1.
Layla Miller outwits a Singularity Investigations agent in X-Factor Vol. 3 #3 “The Big Bang” (2006), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by Ryan Sook, Dennis Calero, Wade von Grawbadger, Dennis Calero, José Villarrubia and Cory Petit.
With both series having wrapped in 2015, Marvel Comics then offered David the chance to tackle the new adventures of Spider-Man’s then-newly-revived-for-the-umpteenth-time clone, Ben Reilly, following his villainous break as the second incarnation of The Jackal.
And though he was initially hesitant to accept the job due to his general disinterest in the character, he ultimately accepted due to seeing the creative potential in “writing a comic book where the lead character is a villain,” as he found that “having a character with such a skewed viewpoint of the world seemed very intriguing the more I thought about it.”
Amidst his continuing health struggles, David would continue tackling a ‘who’s who’ list of his ‘greatest hits’ for the publisher, with his final few titles including Maestro: World War M Vol.. 1, New Fantastic Four Vol. 1, Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel Vol. 1, and Joe Fixit Vol. 1.
Finally, his comic book career would come to an end with the five-issue Symbiote Spider-Man Vol. 1 miniseries, which released in July 2024 shortly before his Medicaid struggles and simultaneous health flare-ups began.
Miguel O’Hara goes to the mat with his brother Kron Stone in Symbiote Spider-Man 2099 Vol. 1 #5 (2024), Marvel Comics. WOrds by Peter David, art by Rogê Antônio, Sebastian Cheng, and Travis Lanham.
Of course, though the works specifically noted above may have been his most acclaimed and well-known, they are far from the full extent of his comic book bibliography, with other such notable titles including Captain Marvel Vol. 4, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Vol. 1, and Dynamite Comics’ Battlestar Calactica BSG vs. BSG Vol. 1 crossover.
Further, David was also a storied (no pun intended) novelist, with some of his books including the Babylon 5: Legions of Fire trilogy, his original Psi-Man and Modern Arthur series, a large swath of movie novelizations ranging from The Rocketeer, the original Spider-Man trilogy, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and an even greater amount of Star Trek novels.
He also contributed individual scripts to animated series like Ben 10: Alien Force and Young Justice, as well as pair of video games in 2009’s Shadow Complex and 2010’s Spider-Man: Edge of Time.
Miguel O’Hara (Christopher Daniel Barnes) carries the lifeless body of Peter Parker (Josh Keaton) in Spider-Man: Edge of Time (2011), Beenox
In bringing this news update-slash-obituary to a close, as a big fan of David’s comic book work, I can only admit that this news has truly left me at a loss for words.
At the end of the day, my heart breaks for David’s family, his friends, and every one whose work left a mark on their lives – personally, Young Justice Vol. 1, X-Factor Vol. 3, and Spider-Man 2099 Vol. 1 hold particular sentimental value in regards to my experience with comic books, and goodness knows Spider-Man: Edge of Time helped keep me entertained when I was a broke in my early 20s and couldn’t really afford the money in required to ‘go out and do things’.
And though he deserved so much better in his final days, as does everyone who has been and will find themselves leaving this world due to a likewise series of health complications, at the very least, we can take solace in the fact that he can finally rest.
Miguel O’Hara dons his suit for the first time in Spider-Man 2099 Vol. 1 #1 (1992), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by RIck Leonardi, Al Williamson, Noelle Giddings, and Rick Parker.
With that, I leave you with the words of David himself, as told to an in-universe version of the writer himself by Rick Jones in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #467, his final issue of his seminal run.
“You see…I could keep on telling stories about the Hulk…Keep on going…but there’s other things in life you know? It’s like what Bruce told me. Realize what’s important…family, loved ones…that’s the important thing.
You’re not the first writer to come to me and ask about the Hulk. And yeah, I could keep on talking about him…for ages…but sometimes you just reach a point where something stops you.
Rick Jones reflects on his life in Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #467 “The Lone and Level Sands” (1998), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by Adam Kubert,.Steve Buccellato, and John Workman.
Where you say…that’s it, no more stories. I’ve said all I want to say right now. Talk to somebody else, okay? I’ve said enough about the Hulk, and about [Betty Ross].
I kissed her once. Just once, but I can still taste the sweetness of her lips…I…
God, don’t print that. Just…write that I love him and her, more than I can say…and that’s all.
Like I told you…I’ve said enough…
I’ve said enough.”
Rick Jones closes out Peter David’s legendary run on the Jade Giant in Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #467 “The Lone and Level Sands” (1998), Marvel Comics. Words by Peter David, art by Adam Kubert,.Steve Buccellato, and John Workman.Mentioned In This Article:Peter DavidSpider-Man 2099
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The comic book industry has lost a true great as writer Peter David has sadly passed away following an extended health battle. Read More