Marvel officially confirms Peter Parker's return in relaunched "The Amazing Spider-Man" series for Marvel NOW!

Well NOW it's pretty much official... Peter Parker is INDEED coming back this April in a new "The Amazing Spider-Man" ongoing, and following the leaked cover of a Marvel NOW! Previews issue for March-April earlier this week, the House of Ideas has officially announced via word from The New York Daily News that the one and only webslinger is returning this April for a brand new relaunched series, with Pete back in control of his body.

But the lingering questions are how did he return? And what happens to Doctor Octopus' reign as The Superior Spider-Man? Those legitimate concerns coming from the comic book world were addressed by none other than Spidey writer Dan Slott himself, who's going to pen the new ongoing and team up with fellow Spider-Man comic veteran and artist, Humberto Ramos.

Via Marvel.com, The New York Daily News and Comic Book Resources, Slott was interviewed and reflected on the fact that Peter was, for all intense and purposes "dead" during Ock's run as Spidey. He acknowledges that the big game changer he implemented a year ago was challenging.

"To do that for a solid year of my life, that’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do -- to look small children in the eye at a convention and lie to them. One of them with an honest-to-God Little League uniform and a quivering lip. Inside, part of me was dying.”

And despite the "Superior" change, now it's on the mill that Pete's comeback is inevitable, and it's not purely coincidental that it happens to fall around the same time that Marc Webb's Spider-Man film sequel, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", comes out in theaters this coming May.

"We did it this way because no one was expecting it. Everyone out there assumed we'd have a big reveal later. People thought we'd bring Peter back in a year's time -- or right before the next Spider-Man movie," Slott said of the ghostly Peter Parker shortly after the debut of "Superior Spider-Man" #1. "Everyone was so savvy with how this all works that I thought the best way to keep people off their game was to just put that card on the table right from the get go. You're all so sure it was coming -- Well? Here it is! But if you think that's all there is, get ready to be wrong."

So there you have it... Peter Parker is returning... But will it be something expected? We'll find out in the coming months ahead as we count down to the "end" of Superior Spider-Man... And The RETURN of The Amazing Spider-Man!