The beginning of the end of Peter Parker came slowly. It started with a part time job, a box of legos, and a plane ticket. With a banana and a suitcase. A dual headphone adapter and an unnecessarily complicated plan.
The beginning of the end of Peter Parker did not look like it should be an end. If anything it looked like a beginning. It looked like a beginning with a necklace, a murder, and a school trip. With awkward flirting and high school drama. It did not feel like an end.
Signs that it was the end came in flashes. It came with a splash of what we and a makeshift mask. A sleeping dart and a pair of glasses.
But even then it did not look like the end. It looked like the possibility of dimensional travel and a new mentor. It looked like playing wingman for a friend and a chance to be normal.
The beginning of the end of Peter Parker came with unexpected detours and opera tickets. With night monkeys and ferris wheels, lava monsters and projectors.
The middle of the end of Peter Parker looked like betrayal and illusions and one very persistent train. Like kind strangers and desperate phone calls, stitches and plans. Like a rendezvous with the class and a drone attack.
But it also looked like hope. Like a girl with a mace and a boy with belief. Like asking someone out on a date and reuniting with a relative.
The end of the end of Peter Parker was, if possible, even slower. It started with a broadcast, a date, and a revealed identity. Started with a bucket of paint and college admissions, plans for the future and optimistic hope. With an apartment raid and an arrest.
Even then there were spots of light, light in the form of a blind lawyer and dropped charges. In the from of borrowed condos and good friends. Of strong morals and new brothers.
Despite all of this the end of the end of Peter Parker came quicker. It came with rejection letters and failed spells, inter dimensional interlopers and condo fights. It came with infamous last words and oh so much grief. With the statue of liberty and pumpkin bombs.
At last the end of Peter Parker came with the ultimate sacrifice, but so did the new beginning of Spider-Man.