Trapped in Doctor Octopus’ dessicated shell of a body, how can Peter possibly escape?
“Dying Wish: Outside the Box”
Written by Dan Slott
Illustrated by Humberto Ramos
Inked by Victor Olazaba
Colored by Edgar Delgado
Lettered by VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
THE PLOT: Peter’s trapped in Doc Ock’s body and nearly dies until the medics help regulate his heartbeat. He runs through the worst case scenarios for Ock in his body, and fears for his friends and family’s safety. Eventually he realizes through Ock’s memories that his taking over of Ock’s Octobots back in Spider-Island gave Ock access to his brain. He tries to utilize the golden Octobot to get help, but it runs out of juice before then.
LONG STORY SHORT: What the Octobot DID do is initiate a contengency plan for a Sinister Six group of villians to spring his escape. Together with Hydro-Man, The Trapster and the Scorpion, Peter escapes and proclaims that this makeshift Six must capture Spider-Man alive!
MY THOUGHTS: I didn’t think this issue was going to come anywhere close to the quality of the last issue based on the preview, and overall it didn’t. While we switch back to the book’s main protagonist and watch him realize how all of this happened, what little happened wasn’t very interesting to read. I’m not sure if reading Doctor Octopus’ voice is so much more appealing than Slott’s voice for Spider-Man, but this went back down to typical Slott mediocrity pretty fast.
I got what he was doing in the first half of the book. Peter needs to wrap his head around what happened to him, and his fears and realizations are realistic in how they play out. His first concern is towards…his reputation. Okay, but after that his next concern is towards his family and friends, and we get nice hypothetical moments where Spider-Ock’s creepy and murderous. I particularly enjoyed the scene of him killing Jay and Aunt May right when they were going to make him executor of their estate.
After Peter realizes how Ock switched brains however, the book began to drag and nothing much happened from then on. Yeah, he now knows that the Lizard is Curt Connors, but nothing’s done about it. The scene of the Octobot running into an office with a not-funny quip about Amazon was played for comedy which, again, hearkens back to the Stan Lee era which was over 40 years ago. This is one of the most desperate situations Peter has ever been in his life, and the comedic moments which are meant to break the tension just end up clashing with the seriousness of the predicament.
Having a Sinister Six contengency plan cobbled together is a good way to have Peter escape the Vault (or wherever he is) but the issue’s second half consist of Scorpion and Hydro-Man banter while we get the apparently mandatory Paste-Pot-Pete jokes. I just don’t care. The attention should be on Peter or Ock, not the clods who move the story along. The scene should have been faster paced, yet Slott has it feel self-indulgent.
The biggest problem of this however is Peter’s reasoning for not calling the Avengers for help, simply being “They wouldn’t believe me.” Didn’t this exact situation (I.E. a supervillian taking over the body of a superhero) happen to Captain America not three years ago? Not only that, but how hard would it be for Cap and Peter to trade stories only the two of them would know, such as meeting at the airport in ASM vol.2 #50. Also, a quick mind-scan by a telepath would solve everyone’s problems. But no, Peter has to remain stupid for this story to continue.
I’m still down for #700, but this issue was not a good sign of things to come. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t good either. As always, that’s the batting average for this run.
2.5/5 webs
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
Ok, I just read #698 and #699 – yes I am late in buying these issues but not everyone buys and reads the issues the day they are released.
So now I know that Doc Ock and Spidey switched minds. Which means that this very review’s blurb on the main page ruined that for me because it assumed that everyone who was looking at the main page of this site had already read #698 even though the issue had only been released one (?) week earlier.
So my earlier statement stands. I think this reviewer (and this website’s management, by posting the blurb on the main page) did a terrible thing by ruining the surprise in the blurb. Talk about in the content of the review. But for anyone loading the main page of this site who had not read #698 yet, they had this twist ruined for them (like it was for me).
This is like someone watching a movie at a theater that contains a surprise/plot twist, exiting the theater, and telling everyone in the lineup for the next show what the twist is.
I am still pissed at this reviewer/site for ruining this surprise for myself (and potentially other readers). Shame on all of you.
@49 I imagine it would change his routine but these “little details” have been ignored by the writers and pushed aside (though honestly I would be bored out of my mind by a comic that explored that). Harry’s return had nothing to do with his deal with Mephisto, it was revealed to have been faked by Mysterio.
Are these changes dumb? Yes. However this is how they explain it.
@#46
… no matter how much they continue to ignore it, right? Oh it all still happened… we won’t bother to acknowledge anything we didn’t like despite the fans disapproval, but it all still happened. And least you forget, what we complained about the most… that was the part they got rid of.
😛