Peter struggles to figure out how Doc Ock has managed to switch bodies and begins to formulate a plan for his last-ditch attempt to win his life back. Being trapped in the body of one of his greatest foes with precious few hours left to live, he’s rightly beginning to feel desperate. Unfortunately, readers are trapped there with him, and are likely to feel the same for the first half of the issue. But it gets better, and hopefully that will lead into a stronger next issue.
The Amazing Spider-Man #699
Words by Dan Slott
Pencils by Humberto Ramos
Inks by Victor Olazaba
Colors by Edgar Delgado
Letters by Chris Eliopoulos
ASM 699 picks up right where the last issue left off. Then it stays there for a frustratingly long time.
Peter begins to assess his situation, beginning with a recollection of what we just saw: his own face looking down at him, maliciously explaining the ol’ switcheroo that Otto’s put on him. In case the reader is stupid, Peter then explains that this isn’t good for him by repeating exactly the same information. “Oh, God,” he says. “This is bad. So much worse than just dying. He’s out there, with my face! My knowledge! My powers!” And the exposition doesn’t stop. Peter realizes he can search Otto’s memories to explain what happened to him, and is able to confirm over a lengthy sequence — which he narrates in the most blatantly hand-holding fashion possible just in case readers were going to put anything together themselves — that Otto mapped his brain out when he commandeered the mental control equipment to the octobots. As an extra little slap in the face, Peter accidentally remembers pre-wedding night activities between Otto and May, which is not only in completely poor taste but also crushes any sense of drama that may have been present in these memories by turning the whole thing into a joke.
By the time this sequence has completed, half the issue is over. What’s so infuriating about this is that it could have been accomplished in a two page spread, without Peter explaining everything in minute detail. Think about some of the classic cinematic versions of what Slott is trying to do here. Imagine if, for example, at the end of The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis’s character narrated the flashback where he realizes he’s a ghost, explaining the significance of each scene and how it shows he was dead the whole time, making exclamations about what this means for everyone he knows. Then imagine that the sequence went on this way for ten minutes.
This really is that egregious.
C’mon! Move! Get up!
Thankfully, the second half of the issue is much better, as the plot actually starts to move a little. There’s immediately a strong scene with Lizard-who-is-Connors. It’s short but poignant how he confesses from the next cell over to Peter, who he assumes is still Octavius, that he’s trapped in that form and knows everything he did as the Lizard. Shortly afterwards, Peter’s emergency plan begins to take shape, and things really pick up. Using the same remote octobot that implanted Otto’s consciousness into him previously, he’s able to send out a distress call to a group of super villians. True to his style, Slott leverages his encyclopedic knowledge to bring in The Trapster, a character I’m a little ashamed to say I had to check out on Wikipedia. He’s joined by Hydro Man and Scorpion, who proceed to bust Peter out under the assumption he’s Octavius and that they’re getting paid.
While it’s a little hard to buy that security on The Raft, Marvel’s big super villain prison, is so light that we don’t even see a single hero show up to try stopping this, I’m able to overlook that because I love the moral difficulty of this sequence. Peter is highly conflicted about teaming up with supervillains to try to save his own life, which is exactly how he should feel. It’s ultimately the decision he has to go with, as he can’t know what kind of damage Ock could do in his body, both to the people Peter loves and to the world with an all-access pass to the Avengers.
Then, just as the issue is approaching its end, its strongest scene arrives. Peter declines to free Smythe or Morbius, but tries to get Curt as the Lizard to come with him only to be met with a grunt of rejection. There is more information conveyed in this one page, and in a much more satisfying and powerful way, than there was in the whole first ten pages of the book. Curt declines because he’s punishing himself by remaining secretly trapped in the Lizard’s body, with Peter desperately trying to get out of a similar situation. Not only is Curt someone he’d actually trust as an ally, but someone who would be able to understand his predicament and possibly help with reversing it. It’s positively crushing when he’s met with nothing but a cold stare and an animalistic noise of resentment. It says a great deal by saying very little. It’s proof that Slott knows how to use this technique. If only he’d employ it more often.
Pros: The second half of the issue presents an interesting moral dilemma for Peter, and really drives his predicament home especially through his touching interactions with the Lizard.
Cons: The first half is an overwrought mess, a hand-holding exposition of something that should have been conveyed more directly and elegantly. It really brings down the value of the issue when almost nothing even happens until ten pages in. And that Aunt May joke is one of the low points of Slott’s run.
Grade: C
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I posted this in the other review, but I am very disappointed in this review (and this site) would ruin the surprise for those that had not read #698 yet in the blurb for this review shown on the main page. I had this surprise ruined for me when I loaded the site’s main page and saw “Peter is trapped in Doc Ock’s body” in the blurb for the #699 review (the other one, not this one). I had not read #698 yet and therefore had it ruined for me.
I have been avoiding this site’s main page for weeks until I bought #698 (not everyone buys comics the day/week they come out) and while I enjoyed the issue I knew I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t already knew/suspected the twist because it had been mentioned on this site.
This was even more disappointing since both reviews for #698 managed not to reveal the twist in the front-page blurbs. Inside the reviews – go for it. But for someone like me, who has not read the previous issue yet and is loading the site’s home page to see what Spidey news has been posted today to see a blurb for a review of the next issue and for the twist from the previous issue to be given away, that is just terrible. This site should know better.
@16: Who is the “you” you’re talking about? If you mean me, he didn’t, because I don’t follow him on Twitter and he doesn’t know my Twitter account. If you mean the crawlspace, I didn’t know he had. I just write here, I don’t represent the entire site. At any rate I assure you there’s no bitterness. Do take note of the parts of the issue I complimented as well as the ones I criticized.
@15 I would be genuinely curious to see how Slott and Ramos work, simply because I am not sure how you’d ever do a modern comic “Marvel style”. I suppose the slightly retro-classic vibe Slott is channelling for ASM might work better this way, but for an issue like #698 especially, where the dialogue and pacing and such are quite important, how would you Marvel style that? Especially when working with a new artist to the book, rather than established partner Ramos?
(I mean, it came out pretty well, #698 is one of the best reviewed issues in ages, and deservedly so, but would still love to see what actual format Slott originally sent the story to Richard Elson in. Maybe since it’s an unfamiliar artist and an important issue, he just went full script for that one.)
Oh, and I think Ramos’s storytelling is fine. If anything, the exaggerated style makes it easier to put across plot beats. It just sounds like a rationalisation for “I naturally prefer traditional Western comic art because I am used to it”. And there’s nothing with you preferring that, I kinda do as well, but “It’s not the style I’m accustomed to” isn’t the same as “It isn’t very good”.
I liked it, of course I’ll hold final judgement till 700 comes out. Kinda seems this review is a little bitter since Dan blocked you on twitter. Hope thats not the case, just SEEMS that way because all other reviews I’ve read seem to give it a high “B” rating or more.
I have to wonder if Ramos’s story telling wasn’t partly at fault here. Given how the Marvel style works, I wonder if he exaggerated the first half of the story with all those flashback panels, etc., forcing Slott to drag it on further…
I’ve never been a big fan of Ramos, but a common problem I’ve been seeing with artists like him is more than just the art, but the STORYTELLING. The artist must convey the plot efficiently as well as artistically. We the majority of the more “messy” style artists that work on ASM recently, the stories are always weaker. However, you look at some of the issues with better artists, such as the last issue, and they read much better.
Not to say that Dan isn’t without his flaws, but it’s something else to consider as well.
Please pardon my horrible proofreading of the above. Let me serve a sa living lesson to never type too fast. I really want to love Spider-Man again, but when the writer himself almost gleefully promises that readers will hate it so much he’ll have to go into hiding, we’re looking at the same sensationalistic, prank mongering mindset that gave us this latest 2DayFM radio prank debacle.
Slott is just a symptom of the problem: A media business model, which encourages pranking and trolling to generate buzz. That’s what has to change. For now, I hold out little hope that ASM 700 will be anything but a surefire way to piss off more readers.
Remember the days when writers wrote stories on teh basis they might excite, tantalize, even stun the viewer,rather than incite, enflame and annoy them in order to “get a buzz going”?
Now we have Dan Slott’s fanfic (and this has been done with Captain America and others-we know already where it’s headed) and Ramos pseudo-anime art. Don’t get me wrong,m Ramos is okay in small doses (I thought the expressionistic quality suited the moody “Return of teh Goblin”) but he’s just not mainstream material on a steady basis.
And I’m going out oon a limb here and say that we already know who the “Superior” Spider-man will be: Our Boy Andy Maguire. Hey, if at first you don’t succeed-cram him down readers’ throats til they cry “Uncle”.
OIh, sure, interest will spike for an issue or two, but is it really worthy it? Marvel will only have to try for bigger and bigger shocks to top itself and keep teh buzz going.
And remember: It’s written in ancient stone tablets in the wisdom of commerce and advertising that you just can’t cram things down the throats of consumers of a luxury product, especially of the readers don’t want it. If it’s done blatantly enough and the change is unpopular enough, consumers will simply drop the product. This is why ASM’s readershp[ has never really recovered from OMD/BND in the long term.
Like new Coke, comics are a luxury item-something consumers purchase as a hobby and can do without if need be, a nonessential product. If this is going to be as ham handed an example of trolling as I think it is-and we’re talking “One More Day” level of ham-handed trolling-then we could see a loss of consumers we haven’t seen the likes of since New Coke.
i like the spider-man vs doc ock comicbook it was hot spider-man still my hero hands down
oh, and Humberto Ramos is the perfect compliment to Slott – a cartoonish absurdness that renders the entire ASM run a pathetic joke (on us, the readers).
Slott is a writer I despise. I can’t stand him. I thoroughly dislike EVERYTHING he has don with ASM. I find the Aunt May panel to be revolting. I’m not a prude. But the concept is crude and the type of crap, well, a writer of Slott’s caliber resorts to.
@5 We get it! You’ve posted your point 3 times… there is no way to know until 700 comes out so… good you’ve made your point.
As for this issue, I quite enjoyed it. It always stuck in the back of my mind after in 600 Mr. Fantastic pointed out that he had devices going around Manhattan erasing Spider-man’s mind traces from all of the machines in the city. Surely he would have missed something. Its nice to see that Spider-man’s use of Doc Ock’s mind-controlled devices ended up being what brought him down.
I wish I hadn’t read the solicits for 700 where Peter is clearly dead. It kind of removes all the tension of wondering if he’ll be successful in transplanting his mind out of Ock’s dying body (loved the disgusting vomiting). Either way, this issue only made me more excited for 700 and where this script is headed. I thought I knew, but now I’m more ambiguous than ever.
“I don’t think comparing the reveal to a film is very fair.”
Especially because even a non-matinee film only costs about $14 for two hours of viewing, and this is $4 for, at most, 20 minutes of reading.
Whatever happens, we know it’ll be worse than 698. Slott said it himself, he’ll have to go into hiding. If the fan reaction for 698 didn’t prompt him to go into hiding, we haven’t seen the worse yet. 700 will not end good at all.
I thought the Aunt May scene was hilarious and it’s being completely overblown. There was some heavy exposition upfront but overall this was a fantastic issue.
@ # 4 No. It’s not obvious. That’s not it at all. I figured it out: Peter will NOT return to his body. For whatever Slotty reason, he will not be able to do this. But, he’ll need to evacuate Otto’s dying body. And, he will. Peter/Ock will end up in the villain prison with maximum security and suicide watch to ensure Otto does not harm the body. Peter’s mind will occupy a machine or computer of sorts untill he can figure out how to get back into his body. In the meantime, via Horizon, Peter will mentor the new Spider-Man, thus, a Superior Spider-Man will be someone guided by Peter with enhanced gadgets (the claws, talons, eyes lenses, etc.)! Will this work? Hell yea! For a while, anyway. Any thoughts out there?
Am i the only one who thinks that at the end of issue 700 peter’s and doc’s personalites will merge to form a new person?! i mean for me its pretty obvious, while downloading peters personality, doc ocks body dies and somehow their personalities will merge, resulting in the superior spider-man, he will have the traits of both of them, hence the new costume, the superior stuff and all.
i hated that Aunt May joke too
I don’t think comparing the reveal to a film is very fair. In a film the only material being referenced has been digested by the audience in the last 2 hours while this reveal covers a few years of spidey events. Good review though 🙂
I liked it…. B+