Marvel Chief Talks About Miles Morales, the New Spider-Man (VIDEO)

Peter Parker has been Spider-Man since 1962, an orphan raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Now, with Parker's death in the Ultimate Fall-out series, there's a new Spider-Man -- Miles Morales, who takes over in Ultimate Fall-out issue number four, on stands Wednesday. Marvel Comics EIC Axel Alonso talked about the changeover Wednesday on 'The Early Show' (weekdays, 7AM on CBS).

"We were concocting the story in Ultimate comics, which is a line of comics which is a parallel universe to the Marvel Universe, which involved the death of Spider-Man," said Alonso, "and the obvious question was, you know, when you have an iconic figure of this importance die, who do you replace him with? We've got a president now of mixed ethnicity, so we figured, why not the most recognizable super hero in the world?"

There are obvious differences between Parker and Morales. Morales is half black, half Hispanic, and his parents are alive and will play a role in ther series. Morales is also from Brooklyn, whereas Parker grew up in Queens. More important is what they have in common -- they both started out as Spider-man as teenagers, and they're both nerds. "Spider-Man works best when he's a conflicted kid," said Alonso, "a kid looking to fit in, a kid who's always aspiring." For fans of Spider-Man classic, Peter Parker is still alive in the regular Marvel Universe.