Spider-Man celebrates 50th anniversary

Marvel's also been celebrating the Spider-Man anniversary with the miniseries “Spider-Men,” the first time that the regular Marvel Universe has crossed over with Marvel's “Ultimate” universe, created in 2000.

Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker met his counterpart in the Ultimate Comics universe, Miles Morales, in a crossover that began this June.

The death of the Ultimate Comics Peter Parker was Marvel's best-selling comic of 2011; Morales replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the Ultimate Comics line shortly after.

The Ultimates imprint is separate from Marvel's bigger universe; the original Marvel Universe Peter Parker continues his adventures in “The Amazing Spider-Man,” published twice a month.

Morales is a half-black, half-Hispanic New York teen whose debut issue set digital sales records for Marvel.

The five-issue story is by writer Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers vs. X-Men, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man), artist Sara Pichelli (Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) and cover artist Jim Cheung (Avengers vs. X-Men).

“This year is the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man and we're so happy that the stars aligned for us to tell a Spider-Man story that nobody has ever seen before,” said Bendis in a news release.

Four issues of the five-issue miniseries have been released.