Comic Review: Superior Spider-Man #8

When Dan Slott killed off Peter Parker back in Amazing Spider-Man #700–allowing him to die in Dr. Octopus’ cancer-ridden body, while the body-swapped Doc Ock got to survive in Peter Parker’s skin (spoilers, I guess? In my defense, it did happen quite awhile back) comics fans went into the kind of rage that only comics fans can go into, vowing never to buy another Marvel book and even making death threats against the writer in some cases. These kind of extreme reactions are, of course, preposterous and misguided, since obviously the real Spider-Man will return at some point. And readers who have sworn off the Spider-saga are missing out on a pretty fun time in Slott’s Superior Spider-Man, which follows the adventures of Otto Octavius in the body of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, a villain-turned-hero who is still fighting against his instincts for wrongdoing, while also struggling against the spirit of the real Peter Parker, who keeps trying to regain control of his body. In this way, Slott is able to have his cake and eat it too–he gets to spin a tale of a new Spider-Man, one with a different (and, in some ways, better, while in others, much worse) approach to crime-fighting, while not leaving the real deal out of the action entirely.

The latest issue sees Spidey’s teammates in the Avengers–who took a hilariously long time to realize that something wasn’t quite right with their wall-crawling teammate–forcing the webheaded one into an examination. Unfortunately, they don’t know what to look for, coming only to the conclusion that he’s at the very least not a Skrull, or a Space Phantom, or any number of other, familiar doppelganger villains. Spidey is put on probation, but not before Octavius learns from the battery of tests he’s subjected to that something is not quite right–he senses the strengthening influence of Parker within him, even if he’s not able to identify it just yet. So he sets out to learn the truth by stealing back an experimental device of his own creation that was itself stolen, in the previous issue, by vigilante doctor Cardiac. The two come to blows just as the brain-scanning device is being used to help a little girl who was made ill by one of Doc Ock’s schemes. The ghost of Peter Parker watches helplessly from the sidelines, able to exert only the slightest of influences on his own body’s actions.

Slott has always shown the utmost respect and affection for Spider-Man and his history, which is why it’s so baffling that some fans consider his current approach to be such a travesty. Honestly, would anyone who makes such clever use of obscure characters like Cardiac (used here as a foil for Ock’s scientific hubris, and a different moral shade from the villains he’s fought thus far) and endearingly goofy creations like The Living Brain (repurposed as Ock/Spidey’s lab assistant) really want to permanently sully something so obviously close to his heart? Even if he wanted to? After all, this is a comics universe where the devil magicked away such sweeping events as Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane and the world’s knowledge of his secret identity, proving that there’s nothing that can’t be undone. The fun right now is in seeing Doc Ock struggle with his new role, and in trying to figure out how the status quo will inevitably be restored. Slott’s approach moves the story forward while paying appropriate homage to the past, which, in the world of continuous publication, is the best way to go. My only real problem with Superior Spider-Man has to do with its twice-monthly schedule–at $3.99 a pop it really starts to add up, and it smacks of greed on Marvel’s part more than anything else. Additionally, such a hectic schedule makes a consistent art team impossible; rotating artists Ryan Stegman, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and this arc’s Humberto Ramos (whose manga-styled work always starts strong but starts to show wear and tear as the finish line approaches) have such different art styles that the transition from one to the other can be jarring. Still, though, Slott’s Superior Spider-Man is anything but predictable at this point, and in an industry dominated by revamps, rehashes, and reboots, isn’t that an ideal everyone should strive towards?

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