Superior Spider-Man #24 Review
A face not even Aunt May could love…
Otto has officially gone off the deep-end in Superior Spider-Man #24. Just how far you ask? Read on and find out.
The story picks up with Venom merging with Otto to become the Superior Venom. However, the symbiote immediately regrets it when it notes its old host tastes bad and tries to go back to Flash. Must be the octopus taste. Otto, however, refuses to let it go and puts a smackdown on both Flash and Cardiac when they try to stop him, stating with its power and his mind there was no limit to what they could do. He then busts out of his own lab and decides to prove that he’s in control by going to fight crime as the Superior Venom. I feel for the poor bastards he finds today.
Meanwhile, some chumps are robbing an armored truck, having had their super suits rented to them by the original Hobgoblin, Kingsley. He’s franchising super-villain identities…genius and stupid at the same time for a multitude of reasons. When said goblin show up on the scene, they give him his cut of the money and split. However, it turns out that that wasn’t the Hobgoblin, but the Green Goblin and he’s making a point by doing this to send a message, going so far as to toss the cash later on.
Back at Parker Labs, Flash learns that all those drug he used to control the symbiote and the exposure has changed his physiology. He needs the symbiote to live now and he’s got only hours before his body starts failing and he dies. Cardiac states they need to go get it now, but Flash states the symbiote is perfect for stealth and Otto won’t be seen unless he wants to be.
Turns out he does want to be seen, because he’s enacting a brutal set of beatdowns for the simplest of crimes. He even pulled a guy out of his car for texting-while-driving. Okay, given all those commercials on TV he probably should shake him down a bit, but not that much. He only stops his war on petty crime when Anna Maria calls and he sets out to see her.
At the same time as he arrives at Anna’s place, who is feeling guilty about his falling out with Aunt May, Kingsley is chewing out the idiots who gave his cut of the cash to the Green Goblin and tells them to get their payment in or he’ll shut them down. The Green Goblin arrives back to see that Carlie, still in the Goblin Underground, hasn’t spilled the beans yet so he just decides to hit her with the Goblin Formula. Considering what that stuff does to everyone whose been near it, you can tell she’s not going to get out of this okay.
MJ soon arrives to Aunt May place, where Otto learns that Aunt May sees Spider-Man as a monster because she saw him torture this vampire-thing guy who kidnapped her in the Annual. Now, normally I would agree with her, but this dude had it coming and I supported Otto on it since it sent a message. Either way, MJ sees he’s out of control and takes him to the balcony to figure out what’s wrong when Otto gets a call and goes Superior Venom, threatening her to not cross him and make up an excuse for why he was about to vanish.
When Captain Watanabe hears the scream she goes up to see and MJ says Spider-Man took Peter. Now she knows that MJ is holding onto more knowledge than she’s telling, and with Carlie missing she wants some answers. So she tells her she’s coming down to the station to talk and won’t take ‘No’ for an answer.
The issue ends with Superior Venom about to maim those imbeciles who owe Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin, and MJ straight up calling the Avengers and siccing them on him. Now, I’m not a fan of the Avengers, especially not after AvX, but I can’t wait for the next issue.
This one gets a 4 out of 5.
Twilit Dreams Circle 