Arachnid Analysis: Inferior Octopus/Superior Goblin Part 3.2: Shattering Spidey

In this instalment we continue to examine Otto’s alleged victory over Peter in Superior Spider-Man #9.

Last time I discussed Peter’s alleged guilt over endangering Amy Chen’s life. My case was that it was entirely contrived and out of character.

Defenders of Superior #9 though might argue that Peter didn’t lose simply because of Amy. He lost because Ock erased the memories of his loved ones (which would surely damage his morale) and because Ock made him feel guilty about failing to stop the Vulture and Massacre.

Let’s go in reverse order and start with Vulture and Massacre.

Whilst Peter might feel guilty over the victims of these villains, Otto’s accusations could never critically undermine Peter the way the story implies they did. As with Amy, Superior #9 implies Peter had no defence against Otto’s accusations and by extension he conceded Otto’s points.

This however collapses upon inspection of Peter’s history. Peter is no fool, he is fully aware that his enemies might someday escape and harm more people. He’s known that since very early in his career and yet has never changed his ways. He didn’t even kill Norman Osborn after Gwen died, although he came incredibly close.

The Vulture (not exactly intentionally) killed Nathan Lebunsky, Aunt May’s fiancé and yet Peter didn’t even consider ending the Vulture for the sake of future victims.

‘Maximum Carnage’ arguably revolved around Peter’s temptation to kill Carnage (a far worse  serial killer than Massacre) in order to save other people. Although at one point he agreed Carnage needed to die for the greater good he ultimately refrained.

The story concluded with Spider-Man affirming his stance against killing people like Carnage.

In ASM #383-385 Spidey is blamed for all the victims of Venom and Carnage due to his bringing the Venom symbiote to Earth. Under the influence of drugs he initially concedes to these accusations, but realizes the truth once the drugs wear off.

Additionally, Peter has refuted the more violent methods of anti-heroes such as Wolverine, the Punisher and Venom. Peter’s opposition to Venom’s violent ways is particularly important. This is because Venom is not dissimilar to Otto as the Superior Spider-Man. Both were ‘reforming’ foes of Peter’s possessing similar powers and operated as ‘dark reflections’ of him.

If Venom’s willingness to kill is morally invalid in Peter’s eyes there is no reason he’d regard Otto’s arguments as legitimate. *

I’m not trying to open up a debate about whether Otto or Peter’s philosophy is the right one. My point is, regardless of what your philosophy might be, we know what Peter’s  philosophy is.

It had been thoroughly documented across 50+ years of history circa Superior #9’s release. And according to that philosophy Peter would never have been humbled by Otto’s accusations. Peter believes in reform and regards excessive force/murder for the greater good fundamentally indefencible.

So Otto’s accusations shouldn’t have demoralized him.

This then brings us to Otto’s erasure of Peter’s positive memories; the ones connected to his loved ones.

Couldn’t it be argued that Otto’s above accusations defeated Peter because he’d already had his heart ripped out mere moments earlier?

Absolutely not.

If you notice, Peter actually had the upper hand in their duel after Otto had erased his ‘loved ones’.

Much more importantly though Peter’s positive memories/loved ones would never have lost to his negative memories/enemies in the first place.**

Otto stated that Peter’s enemies represent all his:

For sure, any one of these feelings can demoralize someone, draining them of their strength. In the face of these emotions many individuals have given up on life, becoming shells of themselves or at worst monsters.***

Peter Parker however is categorically not one of these individuals.

In 616 continuity, Peter’s loved ones have been proven to be linked to this inner strength and indomitable will. Superior #9 acknowledges this reality and yet presents Peter’s above negative emotions as ultimately more powerful. However, Spider-Man canon has consistently  demonstrated the exact opposite.

In Peter Parker: Spider-Man v2 #25 (the climax to the ‘Revenge of the Green Goblin’ arc, published in 2000) Peter had been drugged, imprisoned and physically/mentally tortured by Norman Osborn for at least several days. Norman had struck at a time when Peter was deeply saddened by the apparent death of his wife Mary Jane. His endgame was to corrupt Peter into accepting him as his father and in turn becoming Norman’s heir.

Eventually he got Peter to the point where he was moments away from willingly ingesting the Goblin formula. However, thoughts of Aunt May gave Peter the inner resolve to ultimately reject Norman and ‘the darkside’.

In the seminal 1987 story, ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’ (specifically Web of Spider-Man v1 #32), Peter had been placed into a death-induced state by Kraven the Hunter and buried alive. He was sorely tempted to remain in peaceful oblivion but his love for his new roommate wife MJ drove him to dig out of his own grave.

In 1975, the milestone 150th issue of Amazing Spider-Man involved Peter riddled by doubt. This was due to being uncertain if he was a clone or not. When a Spider Slayer overwhelmed him Peter initially began to give up, unprepared to live life as a fake. As life began to dwindle though his mind drifted to Mary Jane, whom he’d recently fallen in love with. This prompted Peter to realize he couldn’t be the clone and crush his doubt, going on to save himself and defeat Smythe.

Finally in ASM #33, perhaps the most iconic Spider-Man issue of all time (let alone of 1966), Peter was buried under cast iron wreckage that outweighed a locomotive. This followed several mentally and physically exhausting events, which included battling his way through the criminal underworld, Doc Ock’s small army of henchmen and Octavius himself. It was all in an effort to save his Aunt May who was dying due to a blood transfusion he’d given her some time earlier. Octavius had stolen a potential cure that was agonizingly just out of reach of Peter as the issue began. Trapped and with May’s time drawing short, Spidey was wracked with guilt and feelings of failure in the face of his impossible situation.

But his love for his aunt, coupled with his desire to succeed where he’d failed with his Uncle Ben, gave Peter the strength to do the impossible, freeing himself.

As we can see, ultimately Spider-Man cannot be beaten  by doubt, fear, failure, etc.

This is such a universally grasped fact about the character you need not be a comic book reader to know about it. A great example can be found in a trailer for ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’, the 2018 video game.

Perhaps most damning of all, Dan Slott himself wrote Peter in line with this concept in his penultimate issue of Amazing Spider-Man, the milestone ASM #800.

This proves Superior #9 was written disingenuously. Slott was fully aware of how a battle between Peter’s negativity and loved ones should  have believably played out. But he ignored that because it didn’t serve the story and direction he wanted.

So whilst Otto’s victory over Peter in Superior #9 might seem impressive on paper, like so much of Superior, it was ultimately reliant upon aggressive mischaracterization.

Therefore it cannot be legitimately regarded in any debates involving the character. Neither those about Otto’s superiority over Peter as a Spider-Man, nor those comparing him to Norman as a Spidey foe.

*Especially since Otto is attacking Peter by citing Massacre whilst Peter has disagreed with Venom over killing Carnage.

Carnage is immeasurably worse than Massacre and Venom/Eddie Brock, for all their crimes, never tried to be worse than Hitler/Genghis Khan/Pol Pot combined (see part 3.1).

**I should also mention that it’s rather a huge stretch that Otto can summon those negative memories in the first place. They are in Peter’s mindscape and Otto is only able to erase Peter’s memories with an external device. How exactly can Otto summon, shape and command Peter’s doubts and insecurities? The whole point is that everything around them is  Peter.

***Indeed, many of Peter’s enemies are testaments to this fact.