Amazing Spider-Man #700 Review — The Final Issue of Amazing

Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_700_Campbell_Variantcomics_amazing_spidermanThe apparently final struggle between Peter Parker and Otto Octavius has arrived. This is, for now, the “last” issue of Amazing Spider-Man — here after weeks of leaks, spoilers, arguments, and apparently some death threats — and it’s one of the most baffling comics I’ve ever tried to take in. Hard to read, hard to describe, and hard to rate.

Prepare for spoilers.

The Amazing Spider-Man #700

Words by Dan Slott

Pencils by Humberto Ramos

Inks by Victor Olazaba

Colors by Edgar Delgado

So long, Doctor Octopus!

If body switching works the way it does in this latest arc, I’d love to be able to pull a switch with Dan Slott for a few hours. At first, I think, he’d be thrilled. He’d be able to write whatever he wants about his own comics, and no one would be the wiser, although some might find the change in a tone a bit jarring. But when he found my memories of reading ASM 700 for the first time, maybe he’d understand why this story is so difficult for me to accept, and I’d like to think it would make him as upset about it as I am.

What I’m describing is the solution Slott came up with for how to tell a story about Dr. Octopus as Spider-Man without making him a super villain. And I was absolutely impressed with his execution. As Peter’s last attempt at reclaiming his life fails and so too does the crippled body he’s trapped in, he discovers that he has enough of a mind link established to Otto to forcibly share his memories as they flash before his eyes. Kneeling in submission, Octavius begs for the pain to end as he experiences first hand all the hardest moments of Peter’s career. When the process is over, Peter’s life has ended, but he has extracted a promise from Octavius to live as a hero.

I was genuinely torn up reading this. Even my distaste for Ramos’s art style couldn’t diminish my appreciation for how cleverly Slott went about putting the full weight of Spider-Man on Octavius’s shoulders. But the way it ends feels completely wrong. There is something uncomfortable, distasteful and slightly disturbing about the fact that The Amazing Spider-Man has ended this way. It’s not because I believe this change will be permanent — it’s almost a certainty that Peter will eventually return, as no shift in super hero legacy ever does seem to be permanent. But there is a problem, and upon further reflection, it turns out it’s the same problem running through this entire issue.

1You hit the — oh.

The very first scene of 700 is one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever read. And I give Slott enough credit to believe that it’s supposed to be, but that doesn’t make me any happier to have it around. Wearing Peter’s body like a fleshsuit, Otto snuggles with Mary Jane, attempting to carry out his ruse to the completion of an act that would, beyond any possibility of a doubt, be rape. The significance of this intention and its presence in ASM #700 has already become a hot issue of debate on the internet, as well it should have. This cannot be stressed enough: the very first act Otto performs in Peter’s body in ASM #700 is attempted rape. And as would be expected from a rapist, when he is rebuffed he reacts with anger, something that is so severely out of character for Peter that it should instantly have set off an alarm in MJ. And at first, I was ready to feel relieved at her bewildered, “Peter? What’s come over you?” But as soon as he brushes her aside to check on the status of “Dr. Octopus” — with a brusk “Not now, woman!” to boot — she seems to forget his unusual behavior and revert to “go get ’em, Tiger!” mode.

This disturbing characterization of Mary Jane continues throughout the issue. Alerted to the fact that Peter has escaped in his former body, Otto sets a plan in motion to ensure that his body switch will remain intact, locking all of Peter’s family and friends — from May & Jay to the Horizon crew to Jonah and of course Mary Jane — securely at Avengers Tower, and keeping them essentially as hostages without their knowledge. When MJ confronts him with the accusation that he’s hiding them away out of fear, he responds with a manipulative, condescending brush off that, again, would never come out of Peter’s mouth in a million years. “What’s the point? Why are you still hanging around?” he concludes with. Not to mention that he refers to her as “woman” again.

MJ’s response is heartbreaking, and has been included here in its entirety because it’s really necessary to drive home the point of just how infuriating this story is. Dan Slott isn’t an idiot. He knows that a tremendous portion of his readership, quite likely the vast majority, has been reading his title desperately hoping that the teases he’s constantly inserted would finally lead to the reunion of these two. It’s no accident, and it wasn’t thought up on a whim, that MJ’s confession comes here when she ought to know better than anyone else in the world that the person she’s talking to isn’t Peter. Her “one, basic truth that trumps everything” is what the readership has been trying to explain to Marvel for years, and Slott is purposely throwing it in the face of everyone who wants these two back together.

3No offense, Doc, but you’re acting really weird.

But surely, even if MJ has somehow lost her mind completely, Peter’s determination will win out again as it always has. When he finally faces off against Otto, Slott writes him very well up to a point. I was thrilled by his desperate anger at the fact that Otto used his his — Peter’s — own fists to take Scorpion’s jaw off: “I swear, if you’ve used those hands to take a life…” And another thing that that really struck true about this scene is how perfect Jonah is. There’s a brilliant irony about how the man’s opinion has reversed after Peter saved May and Jay from a plane crash and he finally felt so grateful as to openly thank Spidey, only to have that newly earned respect aimed at Doctor Octopus and exploited to get him locked up as an unwitting hostage. Jonah even faces down the Scorpion in a moment that’s genuinely powerful for being both unexpected and true to form, showing that despite how much of an insufferable jerk he is, he’s a good man underneath it all. 

Nothing, however, comes even close to the emotional resonance of the scene where Peter makes his last ditch attempt at saving his legacy. This sequence is executed flawlessly. It moves back and forth between Peter’s memories and his enemy, until the two of them slowly merge. All of the most painful deaths in his history flash by, with Gwen in the center. He lifts an enormous machine off his back, tears the symbiote from his body, defeats the Juggernaut and in a rare acknowledgement that the Straczynski run happened even punches Morlun’s lights out. Even I have to commend Ramos for the composition of this sequence, and if you’ve been reading my reviews you know how I feel about his art in general. It really is pretty overwhelming for a Spidey fan.

And that’s what just makes the whole thing so damn hard to swallow. These are all the memories that we have, too. These are the stories through which Peter Parker has inspired us and made us love him. And now he’s giving them away to someone who just tried to rape his wife. That’s not powerful or inspiring, and I don’t even think it’s clever. I just think it’s repulsive.

4[I understand.] [You better. You’re Spider-Man now.]

There are already a lot of defenses out there.

One of the most popular is “this won’t last.” And in all likelihood that’s true, despite Wacker’s insistence on acting like it will. It won’t because it never does. Because in 2014 there will be a new movie starring Peter Parker. Because trying to explain to new fans that Doctor Octopus is Spider-Man but he’s Peter Parker but not exactly is not very conducive to bringing them into the fold. And also because the fans will probably hate this just as much as they hated being told that Peter Parker had always been a clone and having him written out of the book. So if this really is only temporary, then what’s the problem? Why react so negatively? And that’s a very good question.

There is a standard arc through which heroic stories generally proceed. A time of darkness is a necessary part of this arc. At some point the audience must feel that all hope has been lost and the hero has failed. They won’t necessarily believe it, but they have to feel it. But I believe there is a very necessary ingredient in that formula that’s missing here, and it’s that the audience has to also feel that they are in on it with the author. The audience knows what the author is doing and why. They understand that they’re being let down so that they can be brought back up, and in that sense, they’re on even footing with the author. Neither is directly at the mercy of the other and both are respectfully fulfilling their roles. Yet the readers don’t get that here. It’s like they’re being played with. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. How long do we have to endure Otto as Spider-Man, and why aren’t we being let in on it? Why is it that for this to be a dark turning point in Spider-Man’s epic, we have to feel condescended to?

Of course, there is another possible scenario. There is a more complex approach to storytelling, one that most critics, including myself, would probably consider deeper and ultimately more artistically developed. This approach deliberately bucks the trends and throws out the conventions, refusing the adhere to the expectations that its audience have built over time. Is it possible that this is the approach being taken in ASM 700?

That’s exactly where the problem lies: this dilemma has no satisfying answer. Slott is writing this story as if Spider-Man belongs to him, when the truth is that it doesn’t. If his goal is the buck the trend, then the outrage of fans is right: they’ve been coming here for fifty years knowing what it is they’re supposed to get, and the character belongs to them just as much as it does to Slott. Just because he’s in the writer’s seat doesn’t change that. Dan Slott didn’t make Spider-Man a worldwide icon. We did. We did it by purchasing his books and his toys and T-shirts. We did it by watching his cartoons and going to see his movies on opening night. Legally, Spider-Man belongs to Marvel, and since they’ve trusted Slott with him you could argue that he’s legally Slott’s for the time being. But in spirit, he is ours, and we deserve to be treated with respect by his current guardian. But get this: Slott thinks he loves Spidey more than we do. He said so. If you don’t believe me, turn to the end of the book and read his blurb in the letters page, where he brazenly types the words, with no apparent qualifiers or indications of hyperbole, “I am the world’s biggest Spider-Man fan.”

The hole gets deeper. In a USA Today interview that just came out, Dan Slott made the most damning public statement of his time on the book: “Doc is kinda like me: He’s short and schlubby. This is a guy who now gets to be in the body of Peter Parker. This opens up whole new things.” It’s hard to read this statement any way but one. This is Dan Slott’s world now. Dan Slott now gets to be Spider-Man. Later, in that same article, Slott claims that the story is “meta” because the original Spider-Man was considered a menace by the public, and now the new one has to face that problem with the readership. He knows exactly what he’s doing here. 

But until I get to perform that mind swap, I seriously doubt he’s going to get it.

Pros: The storytelling in this issue is top-notch. It is very well paced. The moments that are meant to be poignant are undeniably successful. The book uses its length well. Jameson has one of his all-time shining moments. Peter’s flashback upon his death is gut-wrenching. 

Cons: Peter Parker surrenders his body and his life to a criminal mastermind, murderer and attempted rapist. He dies alone and afraid. Readers are meant to find it touching and exciting that the hero we idolized as children and grew up devoted to has been beaten, spit on, and died alone with no fanfare or final triumph. This is darkness for its own sake; it has no deeper meaning, it does nothing to enhance Peter Parker’s tale. It gives every impression of being little more than the realization of an ancient fantasy for its author, written for his own pleasure at the expense of the fans who gave him his job. It is condescension distilled into fiction.

Grade: I wish I could retract the one F I’ve given in the past to make this one seem like it counts more.

“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
-T.S. Eliot

2

Postscript…

This is my favorite review I’ve written for the Crawlspace, and I believe it’s also the longest. How’s that for meta? My own magnum opus to counter Slott’s. First off, I’d like to say that while this is the most critical I’ve ever been of him, it’s important to me to reaffirm that I’m criticizing his work, not his person. Slott is a nice guy who loves Spider-Man, and if he proves me wrong about Superior I’ll be happy.

Second: I’m sincerely encouraging readers who feel the way I do about this story to vote with their wallets. As for me, I’m going to be picking up Superior. That was a decision I thought long and hard about. The reason I chose to do it is because I would like to continue reviewing for the Crawlspace. I think this site is tremendously important to the Spidey fandom because it’s a place that’s completely independent and people speak their minds. Journalists should never be afraid of creating friction between themselves and the people they’re covering — if they are, they compromise their whole function. It’s been an honor for me to be able to contribute to what I believe is the best Spidey site on the net, so assuming Brad would like to have me continue on with Superior, I’m in it for the long haul. Everyone’s got to make up their own mind about how to react when big changes happen on a book they’re following. After One More Day, I vented to the owner of the comic shop I was visiting at the time that I was having a hard time accepting the change and wondered what he thought. A soft-spoken but wise man, he looked at me, shrugged, and said, “Well, do you wanna read Spider-Man?”

Finally: I’m hoping to make a separate post for the backups, or else edit something in for them here later. At the moment, getting this thing out on time after getting home from a long day at work has gotten me so pooped I’m not sure I can write another word. Many thanks to anyone who didn’t tl;dr this review — it means a lot to me that you read it.

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77 Comments

  1. I absolutely hate the idea of Superior Spider-Man. I’m disgusted with Otto using Spidey’s body. Can’t stomach reading any of it. The way he talks trash about the Avengers, is almost as gag-worthy as his treatment of MJ. I’m relieved to see this article addressing the attempted rape issue because that’s what it will be. The term does not exclusively apply to a violent act. She would not willingly sleep with Otto, so unless he confesses or MJ discovers the truth on her own, he’s 100% guilty.
    Ugh, and I’ve been trying to avoid this whole thing until it goes away.
    The guy is also so condescending, so full of himself, that it’s just boring and tiresome. He’s not witty or clever. He calls the other guy a dummy for a while, then lets the super-human abilities he stole do the rest. I’d like to see him go willingly into a fight he doesn’t think he can win. We’ve seen Peter inches away from death and still ready to fight with a smirk and a cheesy one-liner.
    Sounds like Marvel has plans to fix this soon.

  2. does stan have any influence anymore because i cant imagine he was too happy when this happened

  3. Hmmmm . . .

    Erik wrote in his review:

    “There is a standard arc through which heroic stories generally proceed. A time of darkness is a necessary part of this arc. At some point the audience must feel that all hope has been lost and the hero has failed. They won’t necessarily believe it, but they have to feel it. But I believe there is a very necessary ingredient in that formula that’s missing here, and it’s that the audience has to also feel that they are in on it with the author. The audience knows what the author is doing and why. They understand that they’re being let down so that they can be brought back up, and in that sense, they’re on even footing with the author. Neither is directly at the mercy of the other and both are respectfully fulfilling their roles. Yet the readers don’t get that here. It’s like they’re being played with. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. How long do we have to endure Otto as Spider-Man, and why aren’t we being let in on it? Why is it that for this to be a dark turning point in Spider-Man’s epic, we have to feel condescended to?”

    Hmmm. . .

    What if where this is going . . . is Obi-Wannabe Peter CATCHES ON that Ock is dead?

    Really dead.

    REALLY dead.

    If that is so . . .

    Then WHO is responsible for /everything/ that has happened since 697?

    It can’t be Ock, not really. He’s dead.

    Yes, Otto would bear a great deal of the responsibility, since he set it all in motion. But after some point . . .

    (And I have to admit, I’m notat all sure where that point is)

    . . . all the douchebaggery since belongs to Peter.

    Yes, he’s suffering from induced MPD, and he’s going to have to struggle to get past that. He cannot claim that it’s “not him,” because in fact, it IS him.

    It is perhaps that highly arrogant part of his personality that we saw let the burglar run past, now given free reign by the actions of Doc Ock, and the memories and motives implanted by Ock’s recording, but it’s still the dark side of Peter that is making it all possible.

    THERE’S a struggle for the hero that I’d like to see at this point, much more than just Pete regaing control and casting Ock out, as all this crap was “just Otto’s fault.”

    Rob

  4. Erik,

    I could not have stated it better myself. Your review of this issue was spot on and fantastic. Yes, I still love Slott as a writer and for an individual story, I thought 700 was a great read. However, as you stated, with nothing to hope for, no way of seeing that sometime, someway, or hereo will return, there is no reason for me to read any longer. Even when Batman had his back broken, we were all hopeful that he would return. Even when Peter was a “clone” he was still alive and there was hope that he would return to the Spider suit one day. I think what Slott and Marvel have forgotten is that Spider-Man is Peter Parker’s story…. not just whomever wears the spider suit. And now that they have “killed” off our hero, I have no desire to see what happens. Yes, I am curious about the supporting cast that I have come to know and love, but not enough to plunk down $4.00 twice a month. So, yes, I will be voting with my wallet, and as sad as it is, Spider Man is off my list. I will have Scarlet Spider (which I think is a better book these days anyway) to keep me satisified. But other than that, my wallet will speak — no Superior Spider-Man for me.

  5. Come on now this is a tad unfair. It’s a great concept IMO to have his greatest archnemesis take over the role of Spider-Man. I wholeheartedly agree with the comments made by Rob Dye in comment #67. Besides this isn’t a permanent one. In about 1-2 years Peter Parker will be truly back as Spider-Man and then the whining will cease. But for now I appreciate the step Slott’s taken in a completely new direction. It looks like he has plenty of interesting stories to tell in the future.

  6. Gee, and I was thinking about getting back into Spidey comics just the other day. See no reason to do that now. Maybe I will in about a year when Marvel reverses itself after the sales crash.

  7. I very much agree with your comment # 57. The attitude demonstrated is very much an “us against them (fans)”..and creating an adversarial dynamio will not serve anyone well. Spider-man has been ours far longer than he has “belonged” to the current writing team. I will let my wallet do the talking and simply not buy the new series as having read the comic for 35 years +, I simply cannot accept a serial killing, malignant narcissist as a hero…..redemption is all well and good, but this is simply short-sighted and with any luck and faith, short-lived. Happy New Year to all incidentally and hopes for a return of PP in 2013. Take care.

  8. I read your review of ASM 700, and I really liked what you had to say.

    I have a couple things to say in reply.

    You state that Peter gave his life and memories over to a villain, rapist, and murderer.

    True.

    Not like he had much choice. If he could have chosen, no doubt he would have chosen differently. But the pool of candidates was a bit small – one – and Peter had to work with what he had in his last moment. Ock was there, by his own machinations, so Ock it would have to be.

    As for our new “hero” trying to “rape” MJ . . . I would have said “deceive.” In extrememly VILE fashion, true, but deceive, not rape.

    Even so, that is NOT the same character we have at the start Superior SM. Ock has been changed by his final encounterwith Peter.

    Will he still be the vile monster he was? I doubt it. His having lived Peter’s life, with all its misery and pain, will not allow that. OCK HAS BEEN CHANGED.

    I would also argue that we are not “really” looking at “Doc Ock in Oeter’s body,” with “the real PP dead.”
    That is not what happened, no matter how Dan Slott is presenting it.

    What we REALLY have is Peter Parker, body and soul, whose dominant memories have been “overwritten” bu Otto, and then written over AGAIN by Pete. Underneath it all, the same flesh and same brain cells of PP are STILL there.

    This looks more like possession (as Ginny Weasley was “possessed” by Tom Riddle in the second HP story) than “mind swap.” AVERY strong recording of Peter was in Ock’s body when it died, and a VERY strong recording of Ock stayed on with Pete, but it is still a recording, a “possession.”

    Could this be resolved by Doc Strange or Reed Richards? No doubt.

    But in some ways, I kind of like this. I don’t know that I want this to be that status quo forever, but I like the change to the character, however it plays out.

    Perhaps you remember Locutus? That “change” was not permanent, but then, yes, it was, too. So too with Picard’s “flute life.” These things happened to the character, and then we went back closer to what was before . . . butnever completely.

    I look forward to seeing Peter struggling with the arrogance of Doc Ock, an arrogance that is not entirely unjustified, for the rest of his life. Peter is now more brilliant than he was before, and this is saying something. Pete is now on a par with Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and the other brain guys of the Marvel Universe.

    What will he DO with this brilliance? He had better be sucessful in his scientific endeavors, as Ock’s vanity will not allow for anything less. He had better be ready to learn that sometimes, just being smarter is not always enough, which is something the Ock aspect of his personality NEEDS to learn.

    I had pretty much despaired of ever really wanting to follow ASM (okay, SSM now, but you get the point) after the whole “make a deal with the devil nonsense. I greatly preferred the What-If story where Pete went to the prison and killed the Kingpin, and then waited to stand trial. It seemed a much more consistent ending to a character I had loved for decades.

    But this . . . . arc . . . if you want to call it that . . . has me back. I’ll follow this, at least for a while. It looks interesting. It looks as though it has an interesting place for Peter to go, personality-wise.

    Call him Pete, call him Otto, call him Spidey . . . it looks like the is an interesting character journey here, with interesting choices for him to make.

    That’s what I read comics and fiction for.

    I’m glad to hear you are willing to follow the new story as well. I hope others will too.

    Rob Dye
    Tulsa, Oklahoma

  9. One thing that can be very illuminating on that subject is compare the way that other contemporary comic book creators respond to criticism with the way that Slott and Wacker do it.

    I think if you honestly make that comparison you will come up with a different story than “well, the times are just different.”

    Inability to take criticism is what it is, regardless of the decade. Sure, they have to deal with more jerks than anyone before them. But their peers seem to do a far better job of it. FAR better. Even their friends. I follow Christos Gage on twitter, and in the rare cases I’ve seen him respond to criticism at all, it has only been to say “Sorry you didn’t like it — hopefully I’ll do better next time.”

  10. You might be right, although the audience back then was primarily kids with an entirely different set of fantasies than the adults who are reading now. Maybe they would have issued death threats and rude remarks to the editors, but I have a feeling it would rather be a case of kids just not wanting to buy that comic book anymore and sales plummeting.

    If people don’t like Doc Ock as Spider-Man, current readers would do well to follow that example.

  11. If the internet was around in the days of the old bullpen I’m fairly sure we’d get the same shenanigans.
    The access to creators, the off the cuff remarks. the anonymous abuse online. The old bullpen never had to put up with the in your face, ill mannered, ill tempered sods that exist today. They had the distance of letters.

  12. It’s like an old Donald Duck cartoon. Spider-Man has always had a little Spidey with a halo and Uncle Ben’s face sitting on one of his shoulders (a little Spidey that has started to look a lot like Cliff Robertson). Now Spider-Man has a vastly increased mental capacity, and another little Spidey with a pitchfork and Otto Octavius’s face sitting on his other shoulder. Although the mechanics of exactly how the little devil Ock-Spidey got there are probably going to remain hazy, it is pretty clear that in the Earth-616 universe, the elusive thread linking the mind and the body goes through the neural relays in a golden octobot.

  13. I enjoyed the story, I especially enjoyed the ending. A couple of things your not considering…
    1. He didn’t give up, he was pretty much dead and he clawed his way back. His body was giving out, he was going to die. He didn’t give up at all.
    2. I love the memory push because in his last moments all Peter cares about is his impact on others. He makes Otto Promise to be a good guy, a hero. That is classic Peter from everything we have seen through 50 years.

    Also I love MJ, and I was upset with OMD banishing her pretty much. If this is what it takes, we have already seen that Otto can’t control the way his new body reacts around her. I think that this will turn into a positive thing. Also I can’t wait to see him as a hero. I love darker heroes which is why Scarlet Spider has quickly become one of my favorite comics. This one might turn out to be just as good.

    I understand the reason for the new title as much as I don’t like it personally. I feel bad that its like hey happy 50th birthday Spidey, here’s the end of your flagship title.

    But then I don’t believe its gone, anymore then FF was ever going to be gone.

  14. @52 It’s a comic book story. Nonsensical plot twists to force the status quo back into focus are fairly par for the course.

    Marvel has made it pretty clear in recent years that, at least as far as ol’ Pete is concerned, they don’t actually give a single iota about the actual integrity of the stories involved. It won’t matter how much it goes against the whole foundation of the plot as long it gets things back to the way it was. This whole garbage will be reversed before we’ve even had a chance to blink, and quickly forgotten.

  15. @51: As I see it, the problem with the theory that it’s actually still Peter in there and his brain is just scrambled to *think* he’s Doc Ock is that it makes the whole switching element of the plot meaningless. It’s made very clear that something was actually traded between the two of them, and if all that was going on was a simple brainwashing I don’t see why Ock would have needed to bother. Also, it’s hard for me to imagine that Ock would actually be satisfied with that as a means of living on. He would know ahead of time that he wasn’t REALLY going to still be alive, just that he’d be brainwashing his enemy.

    No, I think it’s really clear from the way the story presents this that something more than just brain patterns has been swapped. What exactly that is, it’s hard to say. It doesn’t make much sense that a person’s “soul” could be sucked up by a machine and placed somewhere else, and the physical brains didn’t exit the bodies as far as we can tell. To be honest, I don’t think there is any clear explanation of what exactly has happened here. Maybe we’ll get one later, but I get the feeling that those are not the sorts of details Slott tends to focus on when putting his stories together. The little things are not what he’s concerned with, he just wants big and epic stories.

    On another note: I’d like to thank everyone for making this my first review to get to 50+ comments! 🙂

  16. “#45Scarletspiderfan says:
    December 28th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
    I believe the Golden Octobot will be carrying his mind and return.. ala Ock’s first return from death after Kaine killed him.”

    I thought Ock was dead then in the 90’s. What issue did he come bacK?

    I do hope Pete’s alive. I mean, a total fair fight would be each have Peter’s powers, then it would be equal and epic battle, not a swap.

  17. “Honestly I’m not mad.
    Peter didn’t die. Ock copied his brain pattern into Peter’s Head. Ock dies with Peter’s brain pattern, but it was still ock. Peter is still Peter. The effect of the transplant will wear off and we will get our friendly neighboorhood Spider-Man back soon.
    It’s like a clone saga redux. Only with a different approach.”

    Hmmmmmmmm… Can two souls LIVE in the same body? More like Ock-possesion, but could that be possible? Peter could just be not active untill something happens. It would be more like DID (Dissacociative Idendity Disorder) *SP Or Multple Personality Disorder.

  18. There are a lot of things I didn’t like about the book and the direction it’s going as I’ve voiced before, but, I will admit that I do like the SS looks on the teaser cover. I’m not continuing with superior. I don’t like slot but I do hope the guy does continue doing what he loves.

  19. I thought the story was ok, but the art was horrible.I have no interst in reading stories about the “Amazing Doc Ock”. Let’s face it, Marvel isn’t the great company it was during the Shooter reign. It’s a new generation of writers and editors. The golden era of Spidey, to me was the Roger Stern/Tom Defalco/Ron Frenz era. Exciting stories with compelling sub-plots. I’ve read Spider-Man since I was a kid, and comics in general just don’t excite me anymore. You ask me, it’s been a downward slide in quality on this title since the Mcfarlane era.

  20. Just Remember Fantastic Four,

    Someone will reanimate octo parker, grab spiderman and switch em again.

  21. Not to be an narcissistic ass but for me to have the same “big fan” attack me twice in two different forums makes me smile at least I know I’m getting someones attention with my random thoughts thanks and everyone else I sincerely enjoy reading your take on this atrocity being toted as a big 50 year celebration

  22. I believe the Golden Octobot will be carrying his mind and return.. ala Ock’s first return from death after Kaine killed him.

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