Warning: contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #79!
Both Marvel and DC Comics have their fair share of legacy superheroes: characters who fight alongside and eventually take up the mantle of the original superhero. Plenty of superheroes are known for their many, many different versions of the character, such as the multiple Flashes and Green Lanterns from the 60s to the present day. But not all superheroes are suited for multiple people to assume the mantle, and in the most recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel reveals exactly why some characters like Peter Parker should remain as they are.
In the current run of Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is taking a break from superheroics while his clone, Ben Reilly, wears the mask for a time being - or perhaps forever, as Peter's days of being Spider-Man might be over for good. Parker has landed in the hospital with deadly radiation poisoning after a fight with multiple radioactive villains, and isn't recovering nearly as fast as he'd like. Thankfully, Ben Reilly has all of Spider-Man's powers, and thanks to the Beyond Corporation, he now has an entire support staff that stays in touch with him on all missions (and a high-tech suit that prevented him from getting the same radiation poisoning as Parker).
Ben Reilly visits Peter in the hospital (after Mary Jane steps out; seeing two Peters is understandably difficult for her, especially considering their past history). Before a sleeping Peter Parker, Ben confesses that while some parts of being Spider-Man come easy, it's the fact that he's taking over from Peter that troubles him the most. He's moved on from "Who is Spider-Man?" and begun to think about "What is Spider-Man?"...and wonders if his handlers at the Beyond Corporation truly care about the ordinary citizens on the ground before their own pocketbooks.
Ben Reilly isn't wrong when he expresses his concerns about replacing Peter Parker. Peter is almost inextricably linked to Spider-Man in the same way that Bruce Wayne is associated with Batman. It's comparatively easy for Barry Allen and Hal Jordon to be replaced as the Flash and Green Lantern respectively because Allen and Jordan lack particularly memorably personalities...but Peter was specifically designed to be empathetic. He represents everyone - every reader who's ever gone through hardship in life - and as such is incredibly difficult to replace as Spider-Man.
Other people have worn the Spider-Man suit in Marvel comics before. Miles Morales is by far the most successful Spider-Man replacement...but he's successful in part because he didn't actually replace Peter (he became a separate Spider-Man in his own right). The legacy characters of Marvel and DC can only replace a character who isn't as received by readers as their substitute...but some characters, like Peter Parker's Spider-Man, are simply too iconic to replace.
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