Captain Richard Parker, a decorated soldier of the
United States Army Special Forces and younger brother of
Ben Parker, was recruited by
Nick Fury, the future director of
S.H.I.E.L.D., to the
C.I.A. Mary Fitzpatrick was the daughter of
O.S.S. agent "Wild Will" Fitzpatrick. She attended the best schools and eventually followed in her father's footsteps, becoming a C.I.A. translator and data analyst. Richard and Mary met on the job, fell in love, and married. Originally they eloped, later having a more elaborate service, fooling many. Mary became a field agent like Richard, giving them both an easy cover as a married couple. They were assigned to investigate Baroness Adelicia Von Krupp, who had captured an agent of a "friendly power" (who turned out to be Logan, aka
Wolverine, then a
Canadian operative called "Agent Ten" and who would eventually become an ally of their son Peter who would grow up to become
Spider-Man). They rescued Logan from the Baroness and
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. After that mission, they discovered Mary was pregnant; Logan was actually the first person to congratulate the Parkers, commenting later that he never saw an agent as tough as Richard Parker go that white that fast. Their son,
Peter, was often left in the care of Ben and his wife
May when Richard and Mary were away on missions. When Richard and Mary ultimately died, Peter was raised by them. While on a mission to investigate Albert Malik, the third
Red Skull, they posed as traitors and double agents to infiltrate his criminal organization in
Algeria, ultimately being discovered. Malik had an assassin kill the two by sabotaging their airplane and causing it to crash. They were subsequently declared missing in action/presumed dead, as two burnt bodies were found in the remains. It is not certain how old Peter was when his parents disappeared: some accounts have it happening in his infancy; others say he was as old as six years.
After death Richard and Mary's son, Peter, grew up to become
Spider-Man. Although he has only vague memories of his parents and no memory of their militaristic history, his aunt and uncle share photographs and happy memories with him, but not their belief that they had been traitors to their country. When Peter discovers this, he travels to
Algeria. He finds Malik who sends the Finisher to kill Spider-Man. When the Finisher fired a missile at Spider-Man, the wall-crawler was able to lead the missile back to its source. The subsequent explosion killed the Finisher, but before he died he was able to reveal that Richard and Mary were in fact innocent. Spider-Man returns to America with evidence and clears his parents' names.
Life Model Decoys Years later, the
Chameleon, working for
Harry Osborn, created
Life Model Decoys of Richard and Mary. These LMDs were near-perfect robotic replicas of Peter's dead parents, and managed to convince him that they had in fact been held captive overseas for most of his life. Aunt May retained some suspicions, as there were some things they did not know, such as Richard and Mary's elopement. When Peter discovers that they were fake, he suffers a nervous breakdown. When the decoys are ordered to attack Parker, the Mary duplicate—sharing the original's love for her son—saves him instead. Neither LMD survives the incident. After battling the Chameleon, Spider-Man discovers that Harry Osborn was behind the whole thing, as an effort to avenge his dead father,
Norman Osborn. Spider-Man then becomes mentally unhinged over time, until having a near-death experience. May Parker eventually learns the truth about the Life Model Decoys, via learning the truth about Spider-Man. May draws strength by talking to the graves of Mary, Richard, and Ben about Peter's life. The cynical mindset of Harry Osborn and the Chameleon was present in the LMDs, particularly during
Maximum Carnage: When Aunt May advises Peter to "listen to your heart", Richard tells a very different lesson: ==Other versions==