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
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@#48 Okay I see what you are saying. For the most part the stories have been seperate except that the prologue to Ends of the Earth took place in Avenging (can’t remember what # of the top of my head) but yes, #15.1 is supposed to directly tie in to what happens in ASM #700 so you might want to pick that up.
#43 – Time is a tricky thing. One change in the past affects the entire outcome of the future. So to nullify the Peter/MJ wedding has to have an impact. Without the marriage, Peter’s decisions, daily routine, etc. change as a result. I just can’t accept everything after 1987 continued per normal minus the marriage. And it’s obvious that’s not the case because Harry is still alive. I never liked the deal with Mephisto and never accepted any “explanation” that followed. It took me a long time to get back into the flow of Spider-Man because I couldn’t accept what I’ve been reading all my life never happened, or I’m supposed to just accept things happened differently.
#47 – Like the more recent Web of Spider-Man series was part of continuity? What I mean by continuity (and I’m probably using the definition wrong) is you had Spider-Man, Web of, Spectacular and Amazing all telling individual stories, but there would be cross-overs or references to the other titles. The more recent Web of title stood alone and wasn’t part of the Amazing run, so to me, wasn’t “part of continuity.” I never picked up Avenging because I didn’t think it was anything more than independent stories outside of Amazing. Amazing never made any references to happenings in the Avenging title.
But I guess I should grab a copy of 15.1 then, at the very least?
@#41 Avenging Spider-man has been a part of continuity since it started, the prologue to Ends of the Earth took place in a Avenging Spider-man story. Also, Dan Slott has said several time to read ASM#700 before you read Avenging Spider-man 15.1 and I think the solicit for Avenging 15.1 mentions that it is part of the story as well.
@36 – I think Spidey’s history is pretty much as presented with the exception of the marriage, and all that was explained in OMIT… was it a good story? of course not… but it’s comics, and at least it works within the confines of continuity… and YES… Dan Slott has acknowledged LOTS of Spidey’s history in his stories since 2008…
🙂
I just taugh of something. What fi Peter wasnt in ock’s body, and ock wasnt in Pete’s, but just copied there mind there? and since the copy would (at least for a time) take precedence over the “host” mind, it could also be a way to reverse thing back to normal after a “merging” of minds, with otto’s slowly disappearing.
1.hack
I don’t care about OMD, aunt may having sex, or any of that crap, those are all silly plot points that distract from that fact that most of the comic is not well written and half of it was used as an exposition dump. which is always bad writing.
I don’t like Slotts writing because his idea’s are always so immensely simplistic, and often contradictory. Like if Doc Ock could transfer his mind to Peter Parker’s Body through the use of the mind helmet. Why did he bother with the plan from Ends of the Earth which was about getting everyone to remember him after he died? Why didn’t he build a full robot body and place his mind in it? then he could never die and still transfer his mind into Pete later if he wanted. If the Gold octobot was just a copy of his mind. Why didn’t he make ten of them and send them to Pete, and other people around the world so that we could the “army of Octavious!!” or something. He made a plot device that is so powerful yet the villian uses it in a way that is so limiting. Its sloppy and crude. Like everything he writes
@Jason
Peter/MJ’s relationship was never erased by Mephisto, just their marriage. In the context of the book they still dated all that time. I guess it gets confusing around why they continued to date after their failed marriage… but it happened… not sure if that was ever explained. Still though, the content of ASM Vol. 2 #50 still happened, no matter how confusing that ends of being.
Thanks again for reminding us of your theory, lest any of us forget.
Where was the Joke about Amazon? I must have missed it.
#17Oh, and the reason we need to read ASM 700 bedore we read the Avenging issue which comes out the same day is simple – the Avenging issue will be Peter in the computer, or whatever, going through his memory annals as a tribute issue to 5o years of Amazing. If we read Avenging first, we’ll know about Peter’s predicament. Nuff Said!
Huh? Since when is Avenging part of the Amazing Spider-Man continuity? And who said anything about Avenging tying into this?
If Mephisto erased the Peter Parker/MJ Watson marriage/relationship then ASM vol.2 #50 didn’t happen and can’t be referenced.
@#38
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/07/fanboy-rampage-john-byrne-vs-dan-slott/
Oh look, I was right.
@#37
Icky joke is icky… it also puts me in the mind of another “implied rape” setup. Leave it vague, and let the reader draw his own conclusions…
… but what ELSE would get that kind of reaction out of Peter?!?!?
I think you guys take this joke way to seriously. Yes its distastefull but it isnt THAT bad. I chuckled a little when i read that. Beside as someone else said its vague enough that you can imagine it to be anything. So only you can be blamed for jumping to conclusion :p for all we know she might just suggest playing poker :p
@#35
He implies something kinda ewwwww… and you commend him for acknowledging history? The history of this book has been WTF ever since OMD. If they were so hell bent on acknowledging history, they wouldn’t have went so far to change it.
And I kinda think that Slott doesn’t have him call in the Avengers because he subconsciously remembers all the complaints he got for using them to bail him out so much in the previous books. I could be right, I could be wrong. Who knows.
I thought the Aunt May “pre-wedding” scene was funny… at least Slott can ackowledge Spider-Man’s history unlike many writers nowadays.
🙂
A joke is supposed to be funny but I dont find that Aunt May to be the
least bit funny. It is pathetic. As a matter of fact, Slott’s writting
becomes so insipid from time to time that I cant help myself wondering:
Is he the same writer who gave us the excellent spidey Human Torch
miniseries?
@31 To be fair, the selling point of Waid’s run isn’t that it’s the opposite of Bendis’s run, it’s that it’s the opposite of almost every major modern Daredevil run. Most writers on the character since Frank Miller, especially the modern runs of Smith/Bendis/Brubaker/Diggle, have played the “Hey let’s destroy Matt’s life!” card, and Waid’s run is meant to be a change of pace from that general pattern, not the Bendis run specifically. I don’t think Waid or Marvel have singled Bendis out as the one they’re trying to move away from.
@26 and other: 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’s “lighthearted play on history” 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.
“Someone once asked Bendis: ‘If you love Daredevil so much, why are you so mean to him?’, and he pointed out that it’s his job.”
It’s a measure of what a limited writer Bendis is that he think that a character’s life is either a) all sunshine and lollipops, to the point that it’s so perfect that nothing ever happens to him, or else b) such an unending slog of torment that the reader wonders why the character doesn’t just kill himself, with absolutely no points of “good” or “bad” in the entire spectrum of human experience between those two polar opposites. Bendis’ Daredevil run was so oppressively depressing that literally the entire selling point of Mark Waid’s run, from Waid and Marvel themselves, has been, “Hey, did you get completely sick of Bendis’ Daredevil? Well, good news, because this is the exact opposite of everything that he did with the character!”
I’m kind of tired at the post-OMD writers’ meme that, every time May’s sexuality is acknowledged, it’s done purely to try and gross the readers out (nice ageism, Marvel) and to humiliate Peter in the process.
I never read Amazing Spider-Man wanting to see the title character turned into an Al Bundy figure of cartoonishly improbable continual degradation.
@# 28 Yes. I think she blows Doc Ocks’s cock. What grabs me by the balls (no pun intended) is that, now, Peter has a memory of his Aunt May on her knees giving him a cock suck. And this is what Slott is all about.
If the idea of Aunt May having sex is too much for you guys, just imagine they’re kissing or something. The comic leaves it vague enough for you to fill in the blank with whatever you want to imagine. She’s already in her wedding dress and I don’t see why she would want to mess up the flowers in her hair by having sex. So in my mind she’s just going to blow him.
Did…did they just do ANOTHER Aunt May sex joke…ANOTHER Aunt May sex joke that Peter witnesses? No seriously I can’t read the issue it isn’t available to me could someone tell me if I have this right. Peter arker is fully aware of the experience of having sex with his own Aunt (who is like his mother) is like? Is that essentially true??? Because if it is….thats just too nasty
@25 It’s a one panel joke, a light-heared play on history, and it’s not as if he showed the sex on panel. I laughed.
And on a wider point, loving the character doesn’t mean never doing anything dramatic or controversial to them. Someone once asked Bendis: “If you love Daredevil so much, why are you so mean to him?”, and he pointed out that it’s his job. If he wrote 22 page comics about Daredevil being massively happy and eating a sandwich, he would be deservedly fired. Same thing here.
Nickmb, I’m sorry, but Slott’s “love” for the character should by no means translate to the mean-spirited drivel he’s writing. I love and cherish this character, as well as his supporitng casty, and I would NEVER, not even if you paid me, write a scene as insensetive and as stupid as Peter visualising Aunt May having sex with Otto. This is PURE SMUT and you KNOW it. You should be thorougly ashamed of youreself for supporting this cack.
@ #22 & 23 I repeat! 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?
@22: good guess but the whole idea sucks so I hope it is not true
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.
@20: To bring shiver down our spines
I hate this joke
I hated that Aunt May joke. Why is Slott doing this to us?
@18 Slott clearly loves writing Spidey. Even if you don’t like his work, I don’t think you can accuse him of just thrashing it out for the money. Which is what “hack” means.
It looks like they went out of their way to remove mind readers from the story. profesor X is dead and Frost is a villian and no longer a psychic and none of Hickmans avengers are mind readers. This was probably discussed to help sync it up.
Anyway I was right that villains would break Pete out of jail, so now I see things playing out in one of two ways.
honestly they are probably going to do a firestorm, but who knows. its slott, he is a hack
Oh, and the reason we need to read ASM 700 bedore we read the Avenging issue which comes out the same day is simple – the Avenging issue will be Peter in the computer, or whatever, going through his memory annals as a tribute issue to 5o years of Amazing. If we read Avenging first, we’ll know about Peter’s predicament. Nuff Said!
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?
I loved this issue. Slott’s run overall has been a bit hit & miss for me, but he has stepped up his game with this story.
I haven’t read issue 688 or 699 yet, or anything else on this page (I page-downed quickly) but the caption to this review on the main page says “Trapped in Doctor Octopus’ dessicated shell of a body, how can Peter possibly escape?” If this is what happens in 688 (and the past podcasts have been theorizing that this is what happens) then I am royally pissed that you would give away this plot point so casually. Not everyone buys comics every week so the fact that you would spoil this for anyone that has not read the previous issue so cavalierly makes me mad as hell.
If this is not what happened then I apologize in advance but I won’t know until I visit the comic shop next week and pick up these issues. But if it’s not, this is just awful awful behavior.
Regless, exactly. It could have been written better but it wasn’t.
@cubman: See good writing could’ve covered what you just said easily. I mean they wasted so many pages on memories (one of which was really unnecessary) when they could’ve explained why Peter chose his current course of action. Instead we got the whole ‘they probably won’t believe me’. That’s kind of a giant copout. And it’s why, for all the good Slott’s done for the comic, some of get get really annoyed with his writing.
@Two-Bit — Boy, I hate it when that happens!
@Jack Brooks – Dr. Strange doesn’t have the Eye anymore. It was destroyed in the first arc of New Avengers during the Heroic Age.
The inapproporiate jokiness trivializes the story, and undermines suspense.
That pic of May-in-her-wedding-dress, saying what she says, is just nasty.
The Avengers have a million times more resources than Peter alone, so their mega-resources would speed up a solution immeasurably. At worst they would detain Otto/Spider-Man and keep Peter/Ock alive until they could conclusively figure it all out. Dr. Strange is an Avenger, and he has the Eye of Agomotto.
For me, the not going to the Avengers thing worked just fine. Pete has a limited amount of time to use the Octobot, he really doesn’t have time for all the problems that could arise. For one, it’s not far fetched to think the Avengers would just destroy the Octobot the moment they see it (they know what they are and what they can do). Even if they didn’t it would take time to try and convince them the whole thing isn’t a trick. Like #2 said trading stories with Cap or with characters absolutely won’t work to convince everyone because both Ock and Peter share memories now….I don’t know about the psychic thing with something like this since they share memories (that might make it hareder to figure out?), but again it might take a little time to track down one of psyhcics and prove who is telling the truth and Peter really doens’t have much time.
Find it baffling that Slott’s run can be referred to as legendary, especially when there has been so much poor writing along the way but each to their own. This issue was weird cause it suddenly seems a lot less tense than before, I think it may have been all the dodgy jokes that ruined the atmosphere, it all seemed less desperate. Hoping for better in 700.
Oh, God…that last scan…WHULP!
Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little.
I liked the issue but I think Don’s point is great that the rationale for Peter not reaching out to the Avengers doesn’t make much sense. Flatteo, it’s not that small of a point because it is the pivot point for this whole plot. Without that little bit of weak writing, the whole storyline about Spidey recruiting villains as Doc Ock would not be possible. So the story is shaky at its very foundation.
Got to agree with flatteo, roll on boxing day!
The Avengers comments seem a small point to focus so much heat on. I can see where you’re coming from with it, but it’s a comic book. I wouldn’t analyze every little table scrap.
I thought this was a fantastic issue. Slott has been writing a legendary run.
Great review. The only thing is the whole Cap and Pete could trade stories would not have worked because Ock in Pete’s body has Pete’s memories. But you’re right, a psychic would’ve done it. Mark Millar did the whole I-don’t-trust-the-avengers thing better in his Marvel Knights run though and back then it made sense. But nowadays Spidey IS an Avenger.
Sigh. More of Slott’s dreck to honor the 50th anniversary of the character.