So long, Peter Parker, red-and-blue Spidey suit

PHILADELPHIA – A new look and a new suit are in store for Ultimate Spider-Man, but the fate of Peter Parker — the awkward teenager who catches thieves like flies — is still a mystery.

Marvel Comics said Monday that Parker is taking off the Spidey costume for good as part of its “Death of Spider-Man” story in its Ultimate Comics imprint, but it has offered scant clues as to what ultimate fate may befall the high schooler who was bitten by a radioactive spider.

One thing is for certain: The iconic red-and-blue spider suit is history, replaced by a sleek, streamlined black outfit with a deep red spider on the chest and cobwebs on the shoulders and head.

Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso said that while Parker’s fate is still uncertain — “Let’s just say that Peter acts like the hero he is, and pays a price for it,” he said — there will be someone new slinging webs across Manhattan this summer after the current story arc written by Brian Michael Bendis with Mark Millar wraps up in “Ultimate Spider-Man” No. 160.

As for who that person may be, Alonso won’t say.

“We’re confident that once readers get to know the person who wears the new Spider-Man, they are going to fall in love,” he told The Associated Press. “This is a whole new voyage of self-discovery for the 21st century.”

Spider-Man fans need not worry because the Ultimate imprint is separate from Marvel’s bigger universe and whatever fate befalls Parker won’t count in the pages of the other series, including “Amazing Spider-Man.”