Will Flash Thompson by a casualty of war?

Since the days of the Vietnam War, Peter Parker’s nemesis and Spider-Man’s biggest fan, Flash Thompson, has served his country.  These days, Thompson is currently deployed to Iraq and “Amazing Spider-Man” writer Marc Guggenheim told the Los Angeles Times that fans can expect “a jolt” when the comic book series offers an issue that shows what Flash is up to on the war front.

Thompson, who has been a part of the Spider-Man universe since the character debuted back in “Amazing Fantasy 15” could be a casualty of war.

“The story we have and the ending of that story are something that we hope will show what it is really like for these real-life heroes risking their lives in Iraq,” Guggenheim said. “Does he make it out? Well, it is combat and it is dangerous. Bad things happen. When I first told the editors my idea for the ending, I thought there was no chance. But everyone embraced it. I don’t want to give the ending away but it does change things in a very major way.”

Thompson was originally a nemesis for Parker during their high school days.  As the series progressed and in the shadow of the Vietnam War, Flash volunteered to go to Vietnam and he and Peter eventually became friends.

Now with the U.S. at war in the Middle East, Guggenheim and his writing partners and editors came up with the idea of reviving the Flash-in-the-military subplot  and began dropping in references to signal that to readers. Finally, after many months, the team felt they needed to deliver in a major way on this hinted-at story.

“The question came up, ‘Are we ever going to see what Flash is up to?’ We decided yes but then the challenge was to decide what that story would be. Does Spider-Man go to Iraq for some reason? We decided quickly that wasn’t what we wanted. Sometimes you get these fully formed ideas that come to you and the one I had then was that we would follow Flash in this combat area with the dangers of door-to-door fighting and would see how Spider-Man inspires him. It would go back to the idea of Flash being a real fan of Spider-Man and so we see that admiration inspire Flash to bravery.”

Fans can find out what Flash’s fate is in “Amazing Spider-Man #574.”