The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
This is the climax of Spider-Verse! Read my review on Amazing Spider-Man #14 as we draw this crossover to a close.
It picks up on the streets of Loomworld, where Spider-Woman and Spider-Gwen have to deal with a plethora of goblins from across dimensions. Peter’s group arrives as they wrap things up, but it turns out that the Inheritors made off with Silk, meaning they have all three and can begin the ritual.
With the life-eaters, they are having a moment of bitter sadness as they mourn the death of their father, especially that asshole Daemos. Never thought him to be such a daddy’s boy, but he does take comfort in the fact that Jennix has a crystal that has what amounts to his soul so they can resurrect him once everything is done. Morlun then starts the ritual, ordering the others to stop the spiders from getting in.
His cut into Kaine that stains the Great Web with blood ensures that the Other can no longer find a host, though I can’t tell if Kaine is dead, and Morlun drops hints to Silk being special beyond merely being The Bride. Her blood, however, makes it so that no more Spider Totems are born by accident, like Peter getting bitten by chance. Morlun then moves to kill The Scion, which would stop any more from being born completely, but the Spiders intervene.
Peter takes Morlun, Otto gets Daemos and then Mayday gets her turn looking for vengeance. Uncle Ben appears to run away, and then Karn shows up to fight alongside the Spiders and free every world from their grasp. Morlun realizes it’s a distraction too late, as Uncle Ben had taken The Scion with him and left Spider-Ham in his place.
As beatdown continues, Leopardon arrives with Miguel and Lady Spider, Morlun states they have only delayed the inevitable. Otto agrees and decides to take out the one thing that will ensure their survival. By that, I mean he just murders the goddamn Master Weaver to solve that problem… which means he’s just screwed up the entire fabric of space and time to an extent. That won’t end well, at all.
The battle ends at that point with Peter dumping the Inheritors in the toxic world and telling them to get to the shelter, stating that they should make it. The comic ends there abruptly, with the fallout yet to come.
Okay, review time.
Most of it is done now, and it was decent, but there are questions I still have that will have to be answered in the epilogue in two weeks. But seriously, why the hell did they let the Inheritors live? Daemos would have cleared out the Unlimited Spider-Man’s world if Jennix hadn’t shown up, and even he points out that it doesn’t make sense. Leaving them to die a slow and painful death by starvation may be just desserts, but being quicker about it and simply tearing their heads off make more sense so they don’t return by chance after one of them cannibalizes the other.
Anyway, I still have to say that to this point it was a much better crossover than AXIS or Battle of the Atom. My main regret is that once they pull that Secret Wars bullcrap reboot, most of it will be for nothing. Didn’t Marvel learn from DC and the New 52?
5 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #33 (Edge of Spider-Verse) Review
Okay, Superior Spider-Man continues into Spider-Verse with Issue #33 of his series. Read my recap and review for my thoughts on Otto’s crusade through time and space.
The comic begins with another Spider-Man being hunted down by the douche in the mask with the energy halberd. He shanks him only to learn this one was a cyborg and he brought with him a little help in the form of the Superior Spider-Man and his colleagues of anti-heroes. They pin him down and Spider-Girl and Assassin Spider want to finish him while the rest are hesitant, until Otto tells them that comes after the interrogation.
The dude tells them that his kind kills their kind, and they should pray they don’t meet his family before busting out of the containment field from overloading it. They hammer him, but he doesn’t go down. Even after Spider-Girl jams a metal pipe through him and Assassin Spider blows him up, things only get worse as two more show up and wound Six-Armed Spider-Man and Cyborg Spider. The hunters are Karn, Brix, and Bora and they force the others to retreat, but not before Karn is injured by Spider-Monkey because the Bora threw her knives and they basically start beating on one another.
The Spider-Men are more than a little distraught at the new arrivals, but Otto leaves out to give himself time to think lamenting that they are mostly variations of Peter Parker and he’s a one of a kind special and that may not be enough in the long run. But he won’t simply run away because his Anna Marie might get caught in the crossfire if he tries, so he goes and assigns the Spiders in his army to different tasks. As for Assassin Spider and Spider-Girl, he takes them aside and mentions they may have to commit genocide to win and the others might disapprove, but those two will do whatever it takes to survive and acknowledge it as their side of the comic ends.
We then skip to Earth-1771 where Karn of the Inheritors goes against not some mortal totem of the Spider Essence, but a god of it who poisons him down to the soul. Karn recalls that centuries ago, in Universe 000 he and his family, including Morlun, are attacking the Master Weaver who weaves the web of life and destiny. The weaver hampers them, but does not fear Karn who he calls the Chosen One as he was the only one who took no pleasure in death, but wished to build and not destroy.
He hesitates at the words, as he was only there to prove his worth to his mother. But his mother jumped the gun and got killed for it, taking away the one person who showed him love. His father and siblings captured the Master Weaver and harnessed its power to travel through the multi-verse, while putting a mask on him to mark his shame and send him to a new dimension to hunt forever until he would earn his place back amongst his family.
He then jumps back to the present and draws strength from the god, stating it only makes him a more filling meal. He sees his pain as unending, hoping that with each portal he takes one will lead him home.
Okay, review time….
Well, nice to see Otto’s ego hasn’t deflated. Assassin Spider and Spider-Girl are clearly his supporters and we can see they’re the ones who will back him with anything he does as long as they survive. Karn’s past was surprisingly somber, leaving me conflicted. On one hand, he’s murdering Spider-Men left and right. On the other, he was unfortunate to have been raised by those bastards….
Issue gets a 5 out of 5.
Edge of Spider-Verse #1: Spider-Man Noir Review
Spider-Verse is coming and the first in the Edge of Spider-Verse series is out with Spider-Man Noir. Read my recap and review below.
Our story begins in New York 1939 in a movie theater where some people are reviewing footage caught of Spider-Man beating up some robbers and questioning whether or not there’s a place for a vigilante now that most of the mobsters have been taken out. One of the people, a woman, hopes to meet him soon for the blood of the spider-god runs through him, while Mysterio gets a diss by someone choosing to pay for a monkey over his show. Even in the past he couldn’t win…
Anyway, at the World’s Fair we have Peter, Aunt May, and Mary Jane browsing around. Apparently MJ went overseas for three years to record a war in Spain and changed, but not really relevant unless you’ve read the past series I’m assuming. They go to Mysterio’s show when Peter’s Spider-Sense starts acting up but nothing immediately comes of it, and the show ends with Peter realizing Mysterio’s a fake but saying nothing since it made MJ smile.
After the show Mysterio and his assistant go on about his plan to become a new Kingpin once they get Spider-Man’s blood when Fisk shows up telling him they got the last living member of Goblin’s gang. They do a recap about how Spider-Man got his powers before he asks about Felicia Hardy.
They go to see her, where Felicia is wearing a mask, and when she refuses to move it they kill her friend. It’s a gore-discretion shot so you can’t see, but her face has been disfigured by the last person who thought she could lead them to Spider-Man. Fisk notes that he can do nothing to her that hasn’t been done so she won’t talk, but Mysterio goes with the holding the former love interest hostage gambit.
He leaves a message in a newspaper for him to come and make a blood-sacrifice or she dies, and Peter goes along to save her while his Spider-Sense, which is new for him I guess, is blaring. At the show, where the audience thinks it’s just a show, he shows up and gets gassed, then put into a water closet death trap after having his blood taken.
Peter traps air in a web on his face to last ten minutes before breaking out of the chains and kicking Mysterio’s butt with one hit. The guy hunting Spider-Men pops up and then Otto does too and rescues him. As the comic ends Felicia steals the blood taken from Peter as he arrives to meet a few other Spider-Men in the year 2099.
Okay review time.
Spider-verse is shaping up to look decent. This is only the second time I’ve seen Spider-Man Noir, the first being the Shattered Dimensions game, so I don’t know much about him, but I’m eager to see his role in things. I can’t wait for this crossover to continue with Gwen Stacy next in line.
5 out of 5 folks.
Superior Spider-Man #32 (Edge of Spider-Verse)
The Edge of Spider-verse is beginning and it’s starting with SpOck in the lead as we review issue #32 of The Superior Spider-Man, set between the period where he got wiped from the time-stream and Horizon was destroyed.
The comic begins after he was “inferior” to Peter Parker because he couldn’t stop the explosion due to wiping his memories. It turns out that it didn’t kill him, but put him in the year 2099. Public Eye, the generic bad guys, tries to arrest him, but he’s not Miguel and won’t take that lying down or running away. He makes them run, but Miguel’s brother, Gabriel, remembers from his voice he’s Peter from the 90s series of Spider 2099 when they crossed over, but Otto doesn’t and it doesn’t matter.
Once in a safe place, Otto wastes no time in procuring parts to travel through time and dimensions with the aid of his holo-agent in his new base of operations. By that, I mean he steals from everyone with the parts, including Alchemax. It’s kinda awesome.
He then adjusts the holo-agent to resemble Anna Marie and then begins to time-jump. Instead of landing in his own time, he lands in a parallel timeline where someone (Morlun, I’m sure) has killed the fantastic five, the last of which was another Spider-Man. He tries again and again, finding more and more dead spider-men, and figures out he’s not the only one jumping through dimensions.
We then skip to another Spider-man, one named Peter Phabhakar, who is getting hunted down. He’s about to be another dead spider when Otto jumps in and saves him, explaining that he’s been tracking the hunter through twelve dimensions and taken it upon himself to raise an army of Spider-Men to fight the creature. As they reach the group we see he’s gotten a couple more to join his ranks.
In the second part of the comic we met a spider-man who became more like Otto and started taking this seriously, killing his enemies and training with Logan, who dies when the masked creature runs him through and vaporizes him. When Alex, a woman he loves, tries to cover for him, he knocks her out and then lures the creature into a trap.
It doesn’t work and he’s saved by Otto again, who reveals that he wants him to join so they can help kill the bastard. Most of the other Spider-Men aren’t as pragmatic as they are, so he needs someone like him backing him. He joins on the condition that they kill the creature, which Otto states it’s him or them as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
This was better than I expected honestly, a great way to get into a crossover of this size. I can’t wait for Jessica Drew, Kaine, Miles, and the others to join in soon. The art was lovely as well.
It gets a perfect score!
Superior Spider-Man Series Finale Review
A bit late, but here it is: My review for the last issue of Superior Spider-Man.
The story starts with Osborn holding Anna Marconi hostage above Alchemax and declaring his kingdom the Goblin Nation, while the sky is filled with gliders and corrupted Spider-Slayers. Peter Parker emerges with his mind intact at his lab and learns some of what Otto has been up to, including that Carlie had been infected and somewhat cured by Otto’s genius. Given he’s dealing with foes hopped up on Goblin Formula it’s a good thing to have, and he gets to inform Carlie he’s back to normal and get the story of how Osborn came back strong.
As soon as he gets enough of the cure to use he heads out into the field and starts with calling to make sure his aunt is safe after all this. Given how he was before, it makes MJ’s new boyfriend wonder if he’s bipolar. At the same time Mayor Jameson is ruined while Ty Stone is auctioning off the goddamn robots that are fighting off the Avengers like a merchant of death.
Peter swings by the Empire University just as Miguel O’Hara gets done trashing all but one. You can understand he’s a little mad about what just happened when Otto ditched him, but Peter explains and he believes him. Because that’s exactly the sort crap you would expect to happen to him.
So they spiders go out and save the Avengers from the Hobgoblin. They are just as confused by the costume switch and behavior change as the rest of us, but put it on the back burner so they can kick more Goblin ass. And Peter starts by depowering Carlie’s sister in Alchemax, where we hear the most disturbing laughter coming from Normie…who seems like he’s about to go the way of the Osborn name and snap.
Liz Allen arrives and tells them they need to get out of the building before it blows when Ty Stone activates a Spider-Sense Jammer that cripples Peter until Miguel knocks him the Hell out, which he’s been dying to do and I don’t blame him. Ty still doesn’t seem to get that Miguel doesn’t have Peter’s power set since his powers come from a different source. Liz says that she’ll see him answer for that, but the Green Goblin was on the roof and forcing her to work for him.
On the roof Osborn tries to tease Otto about not being a hero, but as soon as he hears one quip he knows Peter is back and tries to flee and leaves him to save the girl. Peter doesn’t, instead he makes it so she can save herself while he beats down on him and unmasks the goblin. It reveals that he doesn’t look like Norman anymore since he did one of the smarter things a famous villain who wants to go in hiding can do, he got plastic surgery.
He reveals that he built up Alchemax as a legacy for the Osborn name, one for his grandson, and he left the bombs so that the collateral damage will leave it looking like it wasn’t spared by the goblins and thus suspicious. Peter reveals that he needed to keep him talking so he could use the mini-spider bots he smuggled on him to inject him with the cure. Then he saves Anna and Osborn from falling to death, because he’s Spider-Man and no one dies when he’s around.
Sadly his luck ends there as Liz “accidentally” trips the jammer that makes it possible for Osborn to get away. Osborn, now clean of the insanity of the formula, decides just like Otto that his vanity as a villain was getting in the way. Only he decides to be a better and smarter villain since he got what he wanted in Alchemax.
So, the comic’s first part (Goblin Nation: Conclusion) ends with Miguel swinging off and Anna Maria ignorant of the fact that the man she loved is gone. This….won’t end well at all, considering she thought he was Peter Parker. She’s lost the man she said she can’t imagine life without and doesn’t even realize it yet…ouch.
For the aftermath of this, Peter makes up with his Aunt May and tells her and her beau he’s “officially” quit working with Spider-Man and plans to make a press conference about it so they hopefully don’t get targeted again while MJ believes he’s telling the truth about Otto being in his body, because that’s what happens because he’s a hero, and decides she wants it to end. She knows that he’s made his decision to be a hero and respects it, but politely tells him to stay the fuck away so she doesn’t get wrapped up in it.
Peter accepts it for the most part, with lots of regrets, but swings off to go talk to Jameson because unlike most things so far he understands what the man is being harassed for because of Otto. Carlie, his other ex, says she’s doing the right thing considering she’s suffering from some after effects of the formula and she considers them lucky to be alive when Gwen didn’t get out of an encounter with the Green Goblin alive. She decides she’s getting the fuck out of New York for someplace safe and wishes MJ well.
Peter’s conversation with Jameson doesn’t go so well either. Otto has made him look worse and Jameson is owning up to his mistakes, but Peter feels that he shouldn’t take the fall for something that the Green Goblin did with the robots. But it’s too late and he leaves, vowing to start kicking some ass of his own as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Overall…it was okay. Don’t get me wrong, it settled things somewhat, but the art didn’t have the same impact as the other issues for some reason I can’t lay my finger on. And then there’s the resolution. I figured what was going to happen to Carlie and MJ leaving his ass since the purpose of the series to burn some bridges and bring back some other loose cases, but they really left a lot of things hanging that I believe they’re going to address in the upcoming re-launch of the Amazing Spider-Man series.
I give it a cool 3 out of 5.
As for the series as a whole, it gets a solid 4 out of 5 because the artwork was lovely and the plot was excellent. There were times when I thought it was somewhat sporadic and the sheer stupidity at which the Avengers exhibited at times also annoyed me, but I could be biased in my opinions there. Still, I liked Otto’s approach and will honestly miss him until his inevitable return.
It was a fun read and one of the things that got me into comics, so I will miss this series.
Superior Spider-Man #30 Review
Someone dies tonight in Superior Spider-Man #30 and you can find out by reading my review of it.
This big issue starts off with Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 beating down on the hijacked Spider-Slayers when the Goblin King shows him he has Anna Marie hostage and gives him an ultimatum. He’ll give him a pass to finding her if he leaves Spidey 2099 to fight the robots alone, which he can’t possibly handle on his own. Otto ditches his ass, leaving Miguel calling him a fake because the real one wouldn’t do that.
As he swings over the city, we see that it is still going to Hell and for once Otto blames himself completely. The Avengers are busy handling their own things, when Iron Man and Captain America claim they can’t over look Cardiac’s clinic having the stuff it has and since Spider-Man helped they’re going to arrest him too once this is over.
Really? You can’t unsee the whole medical treatment thing and want to arrest Cardiac and Spider-Man for that? Bullshit.
Leaving aside how the super-cops constantly break the damn rules to do what (they believe) is right, this is what you’re trying to arrest him about? Of all the flimsy-ass things, the fact that they are punishing two men for giving life-saving medical treatment to people who need it (the very same people they are supposed to be pulling from the wreckage) really doesn’t do wonders for my opinion of them. And after AvsX and Uncanny Avengers, that’s saying something.
JJJ is completely and royally fucked at City Hall, since his bots went rogue. He shifts the blame, but Liz Allen has paperwork saying she warned him they weren’t tested and ready. A traitor shot reveals she has a Goblin Mask, making it clear this was how the Goblin King got control over them, doing it for her son’s sake.
Menace leads Otto underground as Peter, in the Mindscape, reaches the point where he gave Otto his memories before his first death while in Otto’s body. In other words, he gives himself his own memories that Otto remembered, that he lived. Yeah, wrap your head around that for a minute. In the end he recovers his own sense of self and pops out of it to make Otto jump and save the little girl who he performed brain surgery on from being hit by a train.
Otto decides enough is enough and calls them both out on their flaws as they swing back to his lab at Parker Industries (which Peter has no idea where it came from). Otto was arrogant, flawed, and liked to overcompensate, while Peter was so guilt-ridden about being better than others that he sabotaged himself. So they both have to own up, with Peter saving the day as the Superior Spider-Man while Otto erases himself from the Mindscape so he isn’t distracted.
The comic ends with Peter getting dressed in his old suit and saying it’s his turn to play Goblin’s little game.
It may be a little pre-mature, but I feel as though if they were really going to wipe the slate clean (get Peter back to being a Street Hero rather than an Avenger, ruin all his previous relationships, make him a menace, etc.) in time for the upcoming movie, they could have done it in another way. Then again, it worked. I came into this series all for Otto and, while I still think he made good points and l liked his character, now I’m cheering on Peter.
So this issue gets an 5 out of 5. Well-played, Marvel. Well-played…
Superior Spider-Man #29 Review
The Goblin Nation arc continues in Superior Spider-Man #29 and I’m here to give you my thoughts on it as I review what went down.
The story picks up where it left off, with Anna being brought to the Goblin King by Menace. He tells her to hush up since he’s watching a News Report saying that Peter and Carlie were buried alive, leaving Menace and Anna distraught as their sister/lover were thought to be killed. The Goblin King brushes the death of Carlie off, saying he’ll make her a new sister, thinking that the death of Spider-Man’s best friend was the real tragedy since it was so boring.
The goblin raid continues and it’s revealed that just about every hero in New York is out there and trying to stem the flow, with the head of Alchemax trying to have the mayor unleash the Goblin Slayers to help save people for the PR boosts. JJ, however, doesn’t’ want them out until they can take down Spider-Man with it being made apparent his grudge was getting in the way. It’s enough that one of his staff members leave him behind, saying enough is enough.
MJ is with May and the others she saved, as far away from New York as she could manage, telling them to keep calm and explaining that it was their only choice. She receives a call from Otto, who she tries to get to calm May down, only for him to brush her aside as he tries to cure Carlie with Sanjay. That ends when the Goblin King hacks his number and tells him to put on the mask and meet him.
The Goblin King apparently took killing Spider-Man personally, because he wanted to be the one to do it as his number one enemy while Otto was number two, so he destroys everything related to his legacy, including his childhood home, the place where he had his accident, the clinic where he saved a little girl, and the place where the police have stashed all his goodies. He then tells him that he’s got a classmate of his as a hostage and tells him to meet him at the university.
Trying to get there he ignores a mugging and tries to have the police chief come help in his place, but they think he’s in on it and JJ unleashes the Spider-Slayers to search for him. When he finally arrives, the Goblin King has Lamaze as the hostage. He states he saw the footage of Otto trying to save him during Stunner’s rampage (he must’ve glossed over Anna being there) and assumed he was the closest thing Otto had as a friend.
Disappointed, he threatens to leave and find someone else he cared about. Otto tries to gut him like a fish, but the goblin turns out to have hacked his mechanical arms and turn them against him. One is about to kill him when Lamaze intercepts it, leaving Otto confused about why he would do such a thing.
Lamaze states that it was because when Spider-Man saved him and Anna from Stunner, he regretted running away when she needed help and since then all he wanted was a chance to do what was right. To that end he thanked Otto for showing him what it meant to be a hero and then dies in his arms. Okay, credit where it was due, that was bittersweet.
However, the moment is ruined when the Spider-Slayers show up. Jameson is willing to lose everything to kill him and manages to get Otto in a pinch until Spider-Man 2099 shows up and shuts them down. But, unlike everyone else who grabbed the idiot ball, he knows something isn’t right with Peter and wants answers. Sadly the comic ends before he can get them as the Spider-Slayers are hacked by the Goblin King and grabs both of the Spider-Men.
Okay, review time.
The fallout continues as we see more character assassination on Peter by Otto, who’s getting a taste of what it’s like to be on the opposite end of the whole situation for once. Not only that, but he’s dragging Jameson and several others down with him in the process. That being said, I’m calling bull that the Avengers and every hero in New York are being pressured. New York is where like 90% of them are concentrated at. It’s the one place where the only way for things to get this bad was if they had super-powers again like Spider-Island.
However, I did like the issue and I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #28 Review
THE WILD CARD APPEARS!
Well, it’s going down as the Green Goblin has declared war on the Superior Spider-Man in issue #28, so let’s get it on.
The comic begins with civilians in the distance watching Spider-Island burn as the attack begins. The Green Goblin gave him a chance to join up, but since he refused all he can do is retreat or die, which he reluctantly does after his favorite henchmen, #23, gets killed off in an explosion while the rest of the Spiderlings up top are getting slaughtered. He orders the ones still alive to hold the line while he escapes with his robot, so they’re all dead I’m sure.
Inside his noggin we have Peter Parker, who tried hiding in his memories and got sucked into seeing just what type of life Otto has lived. An abusive father and a smothering mother, bullies outside and only science as a bastion against the world, it’s really no wonder he turned into a villain. But for all their similarities, Peter had Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and that allows him to hold onto his sense of self as he continues to ride out Otto’s memories…for now.
Back to the Goblins, they destroyed Spider-Island in less than ten pages and the Goblin King has come in for a report. When they report Otto has gone missing, he’s not really worried since he knows his every weakness and orders his men to seek out the people important to him in order to draw him out. Namely the people important to Spider-Man, since he doesn’t know that Otto is wearing Peter Parker’s skin, as you may recall when he first got his hands on the journal and questioned Carlie one it.
At Alchemax, Mayor Jameson has called together the media and informed them that he’s transformed the Anti-Spider Patrol into Goblin Slayers, to which MJ states he’s out of his mind from her living room. She’s with her new boyfriend, who isn’t part of the inner circle, so he doesn’t see why it’s a bad thing. Before she can explain why, the little goblin kids who threw her off a roof and then bombed her club make a third play for her and she busts out the web-shooters.
MJ proved goddamn genre savvy after being the damsel in distress enough. She knows what’s going on and knows what her role in this is, the Wild Card. So the first damn thing she going to do is remove all the pieces off the board.
Back to Otto, he finally arrives at Parker Industries, where his partner is waiting and furious that he’s been missing for a month and tells him the police have been harassing them since Carlie went missing. That’s when Wraith showed up and tried to make him talk, but he knows about her tricks with fear gas and lets her get knocked out by Carlie, who has arrived for him just as a couple of the Ninja Goblins try to kidnap Aunt May and Jay Jameson, only for them to have been take away to safety by MJ already as Peter Parker loses himself in the memories of Otto in the mindscape.
Carlie chases Otto around, making it clear she knows who he is without saying his name as she cuts through the robot butler and defense system of mechanical tentacles. To this end he splits up with Sanji Jaffrey and confronts her alone, willing to defend his legacy now that Spider-Island is gone and kill all the Goblins. Luckily he kicks her right in the earpiece, which allows them to talk in private. Carlie reveals she’s still somewhat sane and needs Otto’s help in holding onto it before she loses control again, cryptically mentioning that he has no idea what the Goblin King has in store for him and the world.
As the comic ends, we see that Carlie’s sister was the only one who managed to get a piece on the board as she finds and kidnaps Anna Maria without her even knowing it by claiming to have been sent by MJ to retrieve her….crap…
Okay, review time.
So the plot moves again as Otto’s first line of defense has been breached. We see a good portion of the people who have been involved in Otto’s time as Spider-Man acting reasonable with more on the way, including MJ doing a magnificent job as the Wild Card. As for Carlie and Anna…well, damn. One’s going to have to live with the fact that she has killed people while on the Goblin Formula, so I feel bad for her, and the other is getting the Gwen Stacy treatment like I feared because the Goblin King wasn’t an idiot. I’ll give the dude credit, he plays hardball.
The art didn’t pop as much as it did in the past, at least to me, but the darker tone probably matches the mood as this is taking a dark turn already. So I won’t hold it against the artist.
A perfect, must have issue that gets a 5 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #27 Review
Okay, we are at the climatic arc of Otto’s time as Spider-Man as the Goblin Nation kicks off with a bang rather than a whimper and here’s hoping I’ll be able to review it all the way to the end. So, let’s get to my review of Superior Spider-Man #27.
We start 31 days after Otto quit the Avengers, where he is watching as Goblins rampage over the city with him questioning why his drones aren’t picking up on anything. He quickly realizes that the Green Goblin is behind it, and goes to look for all information related to him inside his mindscape. Ghost Peter is there, hiding amongst the thirty-one memories that remained after Otto dumped the rest and wondering how he’s going to reclaim his body. Again, I would like to point out that once he does get his body back there is so much of who he was missing he’s going to be effectively an amnesiac.
Unfortunately for Ghost Peter, he stupidly ventured into Otto’s memories again (having forgotten he did that once before) and ends up as part of them and most likely will be out of commission until near the end. At the same time, Otto is looking over his Spider-Bot to figure out what’s wrong with them when his girlfriend walks in and points out that he’s been skipping work and forgetting to eat. He thanks her and tells her he’s been thinking of making her a partner, with a panel revealing a wedding ring box in his pocket.
And here’s one of my biggest gripes once Peter comes back. This romance, this heartwarming romance between a woman who has fallen for Otto (in Peter’s body, granted), will end in a tragedy. I blame Otto, I truly do, but all I can do is pray she doesn’t get the Gwen Stacy treatment with the Green Goblin running around.
Speaking of which, after Anna gives Otto his eureka moment with the face recognition software being the problem, we see on the television reporters hounding Jameson with questions to if the Green Goblin and Spider-Man are working together since he got rid of all the competition. Jameson denies it but takes a little trip to Alchemax to visit that little bastard Stone and Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara, to get his Spider-Slayers since he believes they are working together and Spider-Man must die. And he wants him to know it was him who was responsible.
Yeah, that’s going to end badly for everyone involved.
Spider-Man pays a little visit the guy who made the facial recognition software since he’s avoiding Otto as Peter and he learns about the Goblin Protocol and where the Goblin’s army can be found. So he goes underground to pay them a visit as Captain Watanabe pays Parker Industries a visit, as she wants him for questioning just as much as the rest of his employees. The Green Goblin is waiting and has him sit down for a little chat, revealing he knows he’s Otto wearing his skin by reading Carlie’s Journal.
Otto actually sits and listens to his proposal for an alliance to rule the city…right up until he said Otto was his second. When you have an ego as big as Otto’s, that gets you enraged and he declares himself Spider-Man and that he was going to rid the city of him. Green Goblin tries to fry him with lightning at that, but he reveals that it was the virtual projection made from the tech that Stunner used as he wasn’t stupid enough to go into enemy grounds on his own when he has an army and a brain.
Green Goblin then points out that he was still stupid enough to make his base of operations public and calls for his goblins to destroy Spider-Island, ending the issue.
Well, there was a lot going on in this issue and I must say I’m liking the intro into the final arc. The art was good, the plot was moving, overall it’s a must-have issue and gets a perfect 5 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #26 Review
I feel cheated…
There isn’t much to cover in Issue #26 of Superior Spider-Man as Otto once again gets out of things way too easily, so let’s wrap this review up in a few paragraphs.
The issue begins with the Green Goblin and Hobgoblin going to war with one another at an abandoned Ozcorp factory, with Hobgoblin having a bunch of villains and offering money and franchises for whoever kills the most of the Green Goblin’s men and the goblin in question himself. How the battle started beyond the declaration of war last issue is still up in the air, but it ends abruptly with the Green Goblin calling for a time-out. I’m serious, he calls a time-out and Hobgoblin agrees because it’s being costly to him in the long run when the Green Goblin reminds him Spider-Man has an army.
Cut to Otto ordering his men to protect a shipment from what looks to be AIM when the Avengers show up to have a word with him. He tells them he’s busy, so they just take down both sides to hasten things and then tell him his probation is over. Didn’t Captain America take him off that during the first Superior Spider-Man team up? Whatever, not important given the things that happen later on.
We then go to Ghost Peter, who finds that damn near all his memories are gone besides the ones he shared with Otto during their initial transfer in Amazing Spider-Man #700 and the ones Otto perused through on his own. That’s bad because it means that he won’t remember a great deal of his life even when all of this is over. Worse, he couldn’t beat Otto when he had all his memories and allies, so what chance did he have now? Realizing that, he falls into despair on his knees and wonders what he should do.
Now back to the goblins. Green Goblin and Hobgoblin decide to go mano-a-mano, winner takes all on who reigns as the Goblin King. Now, why villains decide to have rules in the middle of the war escapes me, but they go head-to-head with pumpkin bombs while calling each other fakes, listing others who donned their opposite’s masks as Legacy Characters. Hobgoblin gets in a shot when insults Harry Osborn, nailing the Green Goblin in the chest with a spiky metal ball of death.
Then we go back to the Avengers and Otto in the Avengers Tower, where he’s reminiscing about ASM #700 where Peter pushed him out of that very window while in Otto’s original dying body in an attempt to reclaim his body. He’s broken out of his thoughts when Iron Man brings up the charges of him wiping their medical database of his scans and he claims its to protect his secret identity and states that’s exactly why Iron Man and Captain America had that god awful crossover, Civil War.
They say his excuse about being affected by Venom isn’t going to fly given the timing and Wolverine says he can have a psychic up there in minutes, but Otto points out that Peter’s been accused of acting strange tons of times and asks what makes it so much different than before. They states it because he’s an Avenger this time, which I personally call BS on given all the shit the Scarlet Witch has gotten away with, and Stark decides to take a look at those files himself. Given he’s not an idiot barring certain moments, that causes Otto some stress.
At the same time Ghost Peter gets a second wind because all the memories left behind are those defining moments for him. The moments where he’s been tested to his limits, memories where he’s defined himself as Spider-Man. So I expect him to show up soon enough for a rematch over their body soon enough.
Cut to the goblins where, despite having what looks to be his chest caved in, the Green Goblin stands and the Hobgoblin recognizes the scar on his chest as where the glider impaled him and calls him Osborn (which I won’t believe until I see his face). Green Goblin lays on the beat down and strangles the Hobgoblin to death at that instant, despite taking two knives to the ribs. Thus he apparently earns his men as Otto quits the Avengers, saying he needs no help, just as the Goblin King takes the men back while his Goblin Knight stays behind.
Ironically, the Green Goblin had a point when he called Hobgoblin a fake. With Phil being a bit more savvy about checking the body, as he killed Kingsley’s brother wearing the suit when he tried this himself before, he notes its really not Kingsley behind that mask this time and decides to destroy the body so no one knows and Green Goblin keeps Kingsley’s men under his control.
In the end, Kingsley had split town to France and hypnotized his manservant to take his place, doing the same to some other poor bastard. He’s decided to lay low for the time being and toasts to Osborn on his victory as a graceful loser as the issue ends.
At this point I can’t help but feel that the Superior Spider-Man was solely written to reboot the Amazing Spider-Man continuity without changing the base details, a legitimate way to destroy Peter’s life and start from scratch for new readers once March or April rolls around. They broke him up with MJ, turned Carlie to a goblin, messed up his relationship with Black Cat, killed his close ties with the Avengers, and generally speaking turned him into a menace like long before.
Anyway, this isn’t too hot of an issue for me, but as a prelude to Goblin Nation its somewhat important and the story did progress, so it gets a 3 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #25 Review
Wham Issue Ahoy!
Otto’s time as Spider-Man is coming to an end for more reasons than one, and the end can be seen here in Issue #25.
The issue begins with Otto dealing with those poor bastards working for Kingsley when the Avengers show up to stop him, while Kingsley himself is getting into the game since the Goblin Kingpin of Crime has decided to screw him over. The Avengers are putting up a good fight, but Superior calls in his own reinforcements in his Spider-Minions. As they departed, the Goblin Knight (Phil Ulrich) records their reaction so he can pinpoint a weak point.
In the Goblin Underground…Carlie’s gone. That serum fucked her up and turned her into a literal goblin, not some mask, and did something to her mind. You know Peter is going to feel guilty about that when he comes back…more on that later though. Anyway, to prove her loyalty, the Goblin Kingpin (Who claims to be Norman Osborn, but I’ll believe it when I see it) wants her to go out into the fray and paint the town red.
Back to the fight, Captain America is calling in all the avengers except Iron Man since he knows that Venom belongs to Flash Thompson and Iron Man goes to Parker Industries to assist Cardiac and come up with a plan. Logan gets knocked around without his healing factor and, because this is after the Avengers in Space or whatever, the people are quick to draw lines and start smashing the Spider-Bots as the Goblins go hunting. Carly, or whatever she’s going by now, makes short work of one of them while the Phil finishes the poor bastard to send a message to Kingsley.
Otto is still laying on the beat-down until Stark shows up without his armor, having given it to Flash, who tries to reclaim the symbiote. The symbiote, however, decides it wants to be on it’s own and in control. It’s at this point that Otto learns that maybe fucking with Venom wasn’t a good idea and tries to cast it out, but he can’t on his own.
Cue Ghost-Peter to the rescue! Venom is freed from Otto and goes back to Flash, while Otto bullshits his way out of trouble again. Meanwhile Kingsley and the Goblin Kingpin decide to go to war, Captain Watanabe frees Mary Jane from her questioning but warns she’ll keep an eye on her and Peter, and Aunt May wonders if Peter’s on drugs. Otto takes steps to nip this in the bud by meeting with Mary Jane and blaming the symbiote, thinking he’s fooled them all.
But, things unravel as Stark notes the test they did and the results were deleted by Otto, cue them calling him in for questioning as the story ends. There’s not much left to say except we are at the precipice of the end of Superior Spider-Man in about 5-6 Issues, with a relaunch of the Amazing Spider-Man. What this means for Otto, no clue, but Peter is getting his body back and ditching the cool tech. Now, we all knew this was inevitable, but…what’s going to happen to Anna is my question. She doesn’t deserve this sort of thing…
Anyway, this is another must-have issue, so it gets a 5 out of 5.
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.
Superior Spider-Man #23 Review
Well, this is familiar…
Okay, before I take a long nap to deal with the flu, let’s get through this review of Superior Spider-Man #23, a.k.a “The Net Closes In.”
The story picks up where it left off, with the fake Crime Master running away like a little girl and Otto about deep fry Flash. But Flash surrenders and Otto can’t just execute prisoners, not after that whole fiasco in issue #5. So while the man has surrendered and is arguing that, Otto tells him to show a sign he’s in control of the symbiote, planning on executing him as soon as he did. Honestly, Otto is freaking murder-happy in this issue.
But Flash refuses to go out like that and manages to rouse the symbiote into action to save themselves, leaving Otto to interrogate the police until Anna Maria calls. Turns out that because of his men calling him about Venom, he left in the middle of some private time with her. In that case, the murder-happiness can be explained for once and you can’t blame him.*Wink**Wink*
Back with Carlie in the Goblin Underground, the Goblin Kingpin has finished the journal and noted that, while it is Otto inside Spider-Man’s head, he doesn’t know who it is behind the mask. It troubles him since he feels like he should know this, which he should if he was the original Green Goblin. Carlie’s sister tells him that she’ll get the answer from her while he goes to run errands in town.
Otto takes Anna to his place the next day to prepare for their brunch with her parents while Flash, in the meantime, is having a better relationship with the symbiote than he did in his own series and leaves his disguise behind so that they can lay low. Right until he hears abut MJ’s place and figures out that he can see Peter Parker for help. Yeah, that can’t end well.
MJ is at her club, the Grand Opening after the fire, and Chief Watanabe shows up to inform her that Carlie went missing. The last message Carlie left to her was to stay away from Peter Parker, which gives Chief Watanabe a subject of interest, even though MJ didn’t tell her that he’s Spider-Man. So, unaware he has a bull’s-eye on his back as both identities, Otto’s luck once again takes an interesting turn when Flash turns up for brunch just as Aunt May’s surgery has finished and she’s pain-free again.
With Mayor JJ, he’s reached his breaking point when it comes to Spider-Man and goes to Alchemax to have them develop new Spider-Slayer suits for the city. No guesses who he’s going to have them turned on, but you can tell he’s desperate since the original Spider-Slayer murdered his wife and was put down a little while ago and now he has to turn to his research for help. They put Tiberus Stone on it, along with his assistant, Miguel O’Hara, a.k.a Spider-Man 2099.
At the brunch, things take a surprisingly dark turn as Aunt May is somewhat upset that Peter didn’t mention that Anna Maria was a “Little Person”, and she let’s it be known that she’s concerned that any children they had would share this trait. Flash thinks it’s time for him to leave, which I can’t blame him for, but Otto manages to coax him into agreeing to have full artificial limbs implanted since, as a veteran, it could be revolutionary for those who have lost so much in war.
One hour later he’s set up and Peter goes to have a consultant brought in, namely the Superior Spider-Man. He outfitted the machine with sonic device that separated the symbiote from Flash. I know you’re thinking that’s a good thing, not being attached to an alien that occasionally drives you into a murderous rampage. Now, here’s the reason why that’s a bad thing.
While the symbiote has a decent working relationship with Flash now, it acts like a jilted lover in the face of Brock and Spider-Man. So separating the pair of them and leaving it isolated and alone will cause it to react…poorly. Thus it tears down the container and latches onto Otto, forming the Superior Venom.
Now, I hadn’t expected Aunt May to react like she did but given her age it seems plausible that she would be concerned. This issue is mostly a tie-in to the last portion of the Darkest Hour arc, which is living up to its name as we see all the many ways things are closing in on Otto. It was relevant, had decent characterization, and I can’t wait for the next issue.
Superior Spider-Man #23 gets a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #22 Review
Introducing Venom!
This issue marks the first time that Venom has shown up since this series was canceled a little bit ago, so I’m really excited about. Let’s hop straight into the thick of things.
The story starts with Flash returning to New York after his run in the Venom comics had him in New Jersey and to the side of Betty Brant. For those who don’t know Flash Thompson is Agent Venom, a secret avenger wearing a Symbiote that allows him the use of his legs since they were amputated because he was a badass at war and saved an ally. The Symbiote is supposed to be docile through the use of drugs, but that was a lie considering that when he was marked as a possible Demon Lord it passed the mark onto his new side-kick, Mania. He’s a Spider-Man fanboy, pre-body-jacking, but had the misfortune of running across Spider-Man after an insane clown tried to kill his girlfriend and a fight ensued since the Symbiote treats seeing Spider-Man (when not doped up) like a jilted lover.
Now, Betty Brant was his girlfriend until her brother, Crime Master, had targeted her and Flash (who she broke up with because he was Venom and kept it a secret) and was killed for it by her. So, naturally, she isn’t pleased to see him but called him up first when someone with the name of her dead brother shows up . Thus, ass-kicking ensues.
On the other side of town, Otto is getting his company off the ground. It’s a busy day, what with his girlfriend, a vigilante he’s tangled with, and former employee of Horizon working for him as well as his biggest investors, Aunt May and her beau, visiting. He reveals he finally got those artificial limbs working so Aunt May could walk without a cane. At least the douche managed to keep his word on that, so it somewhat touches my heart.
Meanwhile, the police chief is investigating Carlie’s kidnapping last issue. She thinks Spider-Man is responsible for this since her place has been ransacked and he’s got those spider-bots everywhere. She’s wrong, but only because she has no reason to suspect that its due to the Goblin King, simply because no one good knows he’s around.
Back with Otto, after Aunt May leaves, he finds his girlfriend working with glowing marine-life and asks her to meet Peter’s parents. She thinks he’s moving too fast, but she likes that about him and, yes dammit, its sweet as hell. But since they have a free moment they decide to get busy before he’s called away for Spider-Man business…Naturally his luck, much like Peter’s, ends when his men spot Venom fighting and has him come along with bots in tow.
He gives the police there a call telling them to hold off so he can handle this. Mayor JJ agrees to it, but only because Otto has him by the balls. But he thinks of a way out of it involving his robots and thus we have more fodder for a future plot.
Meanwhile, Venom is cleaning up the trash, learning that the original Hobgoblin, Kingsley, has been selling super-villain identities. For the record he’s sold Mysterio and his own Hobgoblin identity as franchises. Flash gets pissed when he learns he’s fighting a wannabe and then Spider-Man shows up.
Now, as far as Otto knows, Venom is a villain, so he naturally unleashes hell using the Symbiote’s weakness: Fire and Sonics. He goes down quick, banking on the fact that Spider-Man knows him as Flash. He’s been out of town, so he doesn’t know that Spider-Man isn’t who he used to be and is about to be fried.
Cue Cliffhanger.
Okay, so great introduction issue for the arc, but for those who haven’t been following Venom since Spider-Island it will leave them confused as to what he’s doing or what he’s been up to. Nice to see some progress and there was a short, but explosive fight. The artwork was impressive as well, so my complaints are minimal in that some facts will only make sense as long as you have read the Venom comics.
Issue gets a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #21 Review
This issue basically shows Otto got lucky that the universe seems to love him at the moment…
Yeah, this issue has a string of coincidences that saves Otto and hands the bad guys even more ammunition, but I liked it.
The story starts Stunner attacking the Daily Bugle for information on how to find Spider-Man so she can break his face in for killing Otto, who she loved. Yes, the irony is delicious given Otto is Spider-Man. Once it is pointed out that the spider-bots are worse than N.S.A and lets him track crimes-in-progress, she gets the idea to commit a crime in progress with the one currently staring her in the face.
Back with Otto, he’s trying to save his skin from the claims of plagiarizing the works of Otto Octavius since he’s wearing Peter’s body as a meat suit. He suits up when he receives word on Stunner and goes to handle this personally since she’s kinda of his problem at the moment. She states she regained her consciousness the moment Spider-Man killed Otto, and attacks. Again, irony.
We then skip to Carlie at the grave of Otto Octavius, where Peter was buried in his body. She mourns for him, thinking that she should have listened to him after everything they went through when they broke up and vowed to rat Otto out. Unfortunately for her the powers that be decided against this since the grave was booby-trapped and Otto’s body exhumed by someone, leaving her captured.
Back to Stunner vs Otto, she explained that after he was killed by Kaine once she gave up her life to bring him back in a ritual, which put her in the coma, only to wake once he died and have nothing left but her pain and hologram. Otto quickly traps her in new webbing since he’s pressed for time, while having something akin to pity and respect for the woman who he does owe a lot to, sending his bots to remotely shut down her VR program while he pays a little visit to Lamaze for screwing him over back at the campus.
He finds Anna Marie defending him, once again showing that she’s too good for Otto. Stunner decides to interrupt that by tossing a bus at him filled with innocent people that heads straight for her once it misses him. It’s not intentional, but she was this close to offing her main competitor for Love Interest until Otto saves them. Unfortunately it leaves his hands filled as Stunner beats him over the head, demanding the last words he utter be Otto’s name.
He can’t fight since Lamaze pushes Anna down under the bus to get away, douche-bag, and Otto was begging Stunner to stop so she didn’t get hurt. He was this close to confessing his identity to save Anna when those spider-bots shut her down. The day is saved and so are the girls, but to ensure that Stunner’s not a problem Otto steals her VR equipment and meets her in an avatar of his old body before it broke down.
He breaks her heart, surprisingly gently, before paying Lamaze a little visit. While we get an outline of what was said, we do know he withdrew his complaint about Peter the next day. In other words, Otto gets away with everything he’s done. But what should have been a happy ending (for him) is spoiled when we learn that Carlie was kidnapped by a goblin that claims to be her sister and they have her evidence she was going to present to the Avengers, meaning things have gotten worse in the long run.
Okay, issue looked good and the story progressed. We have Otto acting as somewhat less of a douche, always a bonus, but the show stealer was Anna Marie and her influence on him. She’s one of the best characters in Superior Spider-Man and makes him want to be a better person. I’m actually afraid for her once the Goblin Nation arc kicks off.But first Venom and Mania are coming next issue, sweet! Issue gets a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man 20 Review
Also known as the issue where Otto fucked up several more times than the last time!
Yeah, this issue is more of Otto screwing himself over and Peter as well once he gets his body back.
The story starts with a flashback to the moment where Peter and Otto had swapped bodies and Peter died. His death woke up a few coma patients, one of whom I believe was Madam Web and predicted the death of all Spiders and the other being a woman who seems to like Otto. It then skips to Otto making his way to dinner with Anna Marie, which his relationship with her so far has been his only redeeming quality lately and makes me fear her impending death all the more because when Spider-Man is happy bad things happen, regardless of who is wearing the suit.
He runs across Black Cat and makes short work of her, earning her ire, before getting back to his dinner date and explaining his plans for the future in his own company. We then go to the next day where Aunt May is putting up a ton of collateral for this, Carlie plans to take her paper trail to the Avengers, and MJ is making plans to see the firefighter who saved her. Then we come up to the meeting where one of them recognizes the work he’s proposing as Otto Octavius’ and plans to ruin him and have him seen as the laughingstock of the scientific community.
Note that this is the same man Otto has been antagonizing all this time in the college. Naturally Otto plans to have him murdered for it. At the same time the woman who loved Otto has decided to avenge his death by killing the Superior Spider-Man. Irony, thy name is Otto.
The issue gets a 2 out of 5 (filler to me more than anything) and this series isn’t going to make it past 30-35 issues after everything that’s happened. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Otto going in as before, but I just don’t see it happening unless the Avengers have been hit with the stupid stick once Carlie presents evidence. What I’m more concerned about is the fallout from it is going to leave broken hearts, broken wallets, and leave Peter Parker a broken man when he returns.
Superior Spider-Man 19 Review
Also known as the issue where Otto fucked up one too many times!
After reviewing the last chapter of Battle of the Atom today, I was in a bad mood. But this, Superior Spider-Man #19, pulled me right up out of it. Read on and find out how.
The story begins with Carlie and Wraith harassing a money guy who caters to villains to get a paper trail on unveiling Otto as Spider-Man. Before he snuffed it Peter managed to tell her they swapped bodies while in Otto’s and she’s one of the few people competent enough to follow up on a lead like that apparently. The Avengers have no excuse.
Meanwhile, at Alchemax, Superior Spider-Man decked Spider-Man 2099 right when they needed him the most. Ty Stone has sabotaged the time door and is going to blow the place in a literal time bomb. Otto thinks he can fix it but there’s one thing missing, an equation from Peter Parker that he did on his first day at the job. He spends eight minutes trying to find it, but it is gone and he has no way of retrieving it.
Eventually the smarter people retreat while Miguel tries to do the noble thing and sacrifice himself and Stone so that Alchemax doesn’t come to fruition. Even though it would mean that the future would be completely rewritten. But, Ty manages to coax him into escaping by wagering that his friends and family wouldn’t be safe in the new timeline, and it ultimately ends with him saving them both.
So, with his time stabilized, the boss of Alchemax in the future destroys the machine and strands him in the past. This is stupid because he’s right next to his ancestor and can sterilize him or something, but Miguel has more of a heart than Otto and they know it. Ty Stone is untouchable unless he’s willing to erase his friends and family from the future. The bad guys wins, all according to the history books.
Nine hours later the little douche bag is celebrating when we learn that Miguel O’Hara is his new personal assistant to keep tabs on him and Jameson is willing to keep the feds off of the former owner of Horizon’s back as long as he doesn’t do anything. The moment he’s gone though, he and a few others bring Otto back into the timeline and says they’re even for all the good Peter has done and they never want to see him again.
Otto goes over the missing calls and shows he has wrecked Peter’s life further after costing him his job. He abandoned Aunt May for a dinner and missed Anna Marie, although he has the excuse of being dead for those, but MJ calls it quits completely on dealing with him. Meanwhile the former owner of Horizon heads for greener pastures overseas and leaves behind the other two staff members, one who opted out while the other betrayed his trust to an extent and he was short on it after the betrayal of Ty and Otto. Otto, however, was never one to waste a resource at hand (except deleting Peter’s memories without a damn back up) and offers her a job.
As the issue ends, Carlie and Wraith have found their paper trail on Otto. His actions and changes have drawn attention and have put a bull’s eye on his back now. This is one of the many breaking points Otto has had coming and the Goblin Nation arc bring more after the next filler.
It is important to note this is a sobering experience for him as it cost him his life once again. Instead of retreating because he deleted Parker’s memories like the rest, he tried to prove himself better and paid the price for it, only to be brought back at the mercy of his former boss. Who he thought he was better than. His ego will never let him live that down, that he was inferior to Peter Parker and only brought back by mercy earned by him.
I loved Otto going in, but his ego is too much to stand for so long and needs some sobering and this goes a long way in doing so. On top of that we got Spider-Man 2099 in the present. Perfect issue: 5 out of 5.
Edit: It also seemed like I missed the bottom panels on the double spread, which seems to be a foreshadowing of Ghost Peter returning. It’s an asspull, but whatever.
Superior Spider-Man #18 Review
Despite the cover, there’s not a lot of fighting!
Now, remember how Otto erased Peter’s memories? This would be one instant where it bites him in the ass, because Miguel O’Hara has met Peter Parker before. If he kept those memories he would probably have been more inclined to listen to the time-traveler and not cause a scuffle that he loses and wounds his ego.
The battle begins with claws drawn after Otto tries to knock out O’Hara, but Otto’s can’t scratch his outfit because it’s future tech. Low-future tech at that, which insults Otto into trying to crush him with a car. At this point Tiberius uses a device he literally kept up his sleeve to make Otto’s spider-sense go bonkers and endanger a child, which O’Hara saves since he doesn’t have spider-sense. O’Hara notices with his enhanced senses that Tiberius was responsible and disappears with him as Otto claims he would never endanger a child to the child’s mother, which he normally wouldn’t, and then shifts the blame on her for trying to take over Horizon.
Smooth, Otto. Really smooth.
At this point they notice the pair are gone and Otto tells his men to start searching for O’Hara since future Spider-Man is far more dangerous with the knowledge of Parker’s identity. It’s then that his girlfriend calls, Anna Marie, and reminds him of his thesis. Since it’s using Horizon’s resources that means they’ll own it and he would be damned before they get his projects, so he decides to smuggle it out immediately.
O’Hara, in the meantime, is facing the hero’s dilemma. His father, the future Stone, is stabilizing, meaning he’s doing what he’s suppose to. But that means that the future evils Alchemax will commit will come to pass. He’s weighing his own existence against just ridding them from the time stream for the good of all, like a hero normally would, since he has the power to change things now.
Unfortunately Tiberius heard the words “Ancestor” slip from O’Hara’s mouth when talking to his father over his line. He puts together that whoever his descendant was he was someone important enough to send a future Spider-Man to save. He tests this theory by throwing himself over a building. He risks the timeline for this and naturally that pisses O’Hara off and leaves him webbing the guy to a wall and calling for some help from the future to give him an info dump on current events and the connect between everything.
In the meantime, one of Horizon’s employee’s goes to the past while cloaked and catches Tiberius stealing data, while the Otto’s boss catches him smuggling out his goods and states he’s not the man he brought into Horizon. Otto receives a call about the Hobgoblin (Green Goblin in disguise) and decides to leave to handle him, costing Peter his job. At the same time O’Hara learns that Tiberius sabotaged Horizon to literally explode, on that very day, and rushes back to stop it, with Otto spotting him as he hangs up on MJ calling him.
At the end O’Hara arrives to tell them he needs to change the future and that they’re about to blow up, when Otto cold-cocks him and possibly damages his time traveling device to prevent a paradox. In short, Otto has screwed Peter’s life over royally and endangered the people at Horizon at this very moment because of his ego.
The issue was beautiful as always but, to my sorrow, Otto is turning into an unlikeable character. If he put aside his ego for one second so many problems could have been solved. Then again he is a former super-villain. On the other hand, breaking the Status Quo does make things more interesting, but Karma tends to be a bitch about it and I have the feeling that Anna Marie is going to pay the price.
After all, she’s a love interest and the Green Goblin is running around. The fact that he went after a future hero rather than villain only worsens things. Her days and relationship are numbered.
The issue gets a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #17 Review
Future Badass, Meet Present Badass
This review is for Superior Spider-Man #17, which has been long awaited since it brings forth Miguel O’ Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099.
For those of you who don’t know he’s a scientist who was pressured into messing around with human experimentation and decided enough was enough once it ended badly the first time. He intended to quit but his boss, Tyler Stone, had him drugged with a drug called Rapture that could only be gained by working for the company. Rather than remain an addict, he used the Human Experimentation process to give himself powers and took on a Day of the Dead costume to battle him.
Even when the 2099 line of series ended, this dude was so popular that he ended up in several crossovers and Spider-Men games recently and, when it was falsely dropped that he was going to be the Superior Spider-Man, people got mad at the lie. Hence why he’s here now.
Anyway, it starts with him recognizing the temporal distortions using his enhanced vision and dealing with bi-planes and dinosaurs. At the source of all evil, Alchemax, he discovers that for once it’s not their fault. That’s fairly rare.
Remember all of those events in Marvel screwing with the time stream in the heroic age? Yeah, like sending Galactus to the Ultimate Universe, it has royally screwed with the time stream and is removing Tyler Stone from existence piece-by-piece. Normally that would be a good thing, but he’s Miguel’s father (not that he knows it) and if he’s removed then no more Spider-Man 2099. So, in the interest of self-preservation, and because he has already gone and would create a paradox if he didn’t, Miguel is forced into the present.
In the mean time, we see the fallout of the events of the Run, Goblin, Run arc.
Former Horizon employee Tiberius Stone (note the last name) has blown the whistle on all of their dirty little secrets in order to get revenge, leading to the company being folded into another company that has employed him. He’s relishing the fact that he now has power over them and threatens Peter that he now even owns Spider-Man’s Web Fluid Formula. You don’t threaten the Superior Spider-Man and because his spider-sense was reacting around him, it’s all the justification he needs to beat the man to a pulp.
The Daily Bugle is getting the information from a source, but after the last screw-up they aren’t taking chances with it, since what happened in the last issue. In the Goblin Underground, Phil Urich is reprimanded harshly by the Goblin Kingpin of Crime since his actions could have led to the Goblin Protocol being discovered, but then the goblin gets an idea and lets up on it. At Horizon Labs, the gang apparently has a time machine lying around and decides to go back to the past to get dirt on Tiberius when the machine activates itself and out pops the future Spider-Man.
Otto catches up with Phil, who is still cocky since everything he’s doing at the moment is above the board. Otto, not really caring, decides to end him when Miguel appears and web-lines him since the douche is his Grandfather, meaning if Otto wastes him then no more Miguel O’ Hara.
So, now we have a reason for the two Spider-Men to duke it out. One’s ego and the other’s self-preservation. Considering Otto has so far fought with just about everyone Peter has teamed up with, I really didn’t expect much else but I’m dying to see it through to the end. Miguel has different abilities than most other Spider-Men as he doesn’t have Spider-Sense but enhanced reflexes, sight, natural webs, and can move so fast he leaves a decoy behind.
It’ll be an interesting match-up to say the least.
The art is beautiful as always and I really cant find anything wrong with the issue barring no Spider-Man beating down the other…yet. For this review I give it 5 out of 5 and worth picking up.
Superior Spider-Man #16 Review
Well, in a way this is exactly what happened…
The latest issue of Superior Spider-Man is the conclusion of the “Run, Goblin, Run” arc.
With his identity exposed, Phil Urich is screwed and he knows it. Naturally, like most people in a familiar situation, he snaps when Spider-Man arrives and takes his girlfriend, Nora Winters, hostage. At the same time this is going on, the writers used television shows to give insight into not only Phil Urich’s past attempts at being a heroic Green Goblin, but the public’s opinion on the current situation and stating whether or not publicly unmasking him like that was the right thing to do. Also, we have the police captain doing the vigilante thing and interrogating one of his men to trace the money back to an offshore account.
Anyway, back with Phil, the girl he takes hostage proves to be more than dead weight by knocking him away. Finally, a damsel who can get herself out of distress. Phil then uses a sonic attack, only to stop when he got his uncle caught up in the attack and Otto detonated those nanotracers under his skin. Fridge horror kicks in when you realize that if those things had gotten deeper or were slightly bigger, he would have essentially blown the man to pieces.
Phil realizes he’s beaten and surrenders, leaving Otto contemplating killing him (in public and in front of his uncle) when Captain America calls and reminds him he’s on probation, which I thought was settled in Superior Spider-Man Team-Up but apparently not. At this point you would think Captain America would have Tony or Pym go over those brain scans or realize that he doesn’t really care about being on probation. But he spares him and leaves Phil to the police and the Goblin sees the opportunity to do some recruiting and has one of his agents rescue him.
Now, because Phil had been turning in stories with Nora Winters, she has to be let go and his uncle has to take some time off since it is too public, which is a consequence of Otto’s taking over the airwaves. To rub salt into the wound, Otto goes on air about him escaping and calls him a minor threat after ruining his life and leaving him with nothing to lose and he vows to bring the Green Goblin his head as his new Goblin Knight.
Congratulations Otto, you have just created your own supervillain after having gained a new love-interest…I’m sad that I’ve gotten attached to her.
Now, the art here was fantastic and there’s nothing like watching Otto dig his own grave. On top of that we see that the plot is moving forward and the net is closing on our Superior Spider-Man. Not to mention that Spider-Man 2099’s Miguel O’Hara is coming next issue, which is something I am looking forward to. Overall, this issue gets a 5 out of 5.
B.O.P out!
Superior Spider-man Team Up 2 & Scarlet Spider 20
Twice the Spider-Man, hold the responsibility.
This review encompasses two different comics I enjoy crossing over: Superior Spider-Man & Scarlet Spider.
For those of you who don’t know, the Scarlet Spider series follows Peter Parker’s surviving clone, Kaine. He, like Otto, was a villain who murdered and killed for profit and other reasons. When Peter stopped his original cell degradation, he stole a stealth suit from him and disappeared so that he wouldn’t be arrested by the Avengers until he ended up in Houston and robbed some human traffickers of their money.
Since then he’s fought primordial beings, a guy who can make flames snakes, and Carnage, been killed by werewolves and resurrected by the Other, given an evil side that considers just about everything other than him prey, and fought alongside Wolverine to kill a bunch of assassins by assassinating them. He was basically the predecessor to the Superior Spider-man, with his tagline being “All of the Power, None of the Responsibility” and so far he’s ridden with guilt that he shouldn’t be alive as a clone and a murderer.
In the first part of the arc, Kaine comes to find out why Peter is acting like…well, him. Seeing as he’s Peter’s clone, the spider-sense doesn’t work on Kaine and Kaine doesn’t have his spider-sense anymore. Otto, remembering the fact that he got beat down and killed by Kaine, decides to repay the favor and they fight.
Kaine is stronger that Peter and soon overpowers him, but then comes the clones. Lots of fighting and Kaine saving Otto later, Jackal comes in with his clones and they pair get captured.
Jackal was the one who made the clones and sees Kaine as a disappointment, while Kaine wants to kill him. He breaks free of the chains made specifically to hold him, kicks some ass, and frees Otto. Otto then causes an explosion to prevent his DNA from being used to create more clones, which he was a hatred for, and leaves Kaine to die. Kaine escapes, lectures him, and tells him to start acting like a hero.
To this arc I say, despite being a firm supporter of Otto, FUCK YOU, OTTO! CLONES ARE PEOPLE TOO!
Otto is a fucking hypocrite to call him out on pretending to be a hero when he’s been doing the same thing. They both have a supervillain body count and dark past that is nothing to scoff about. Considering Otto actually stole Peter Parker’s life and derailed it, this makes him arguably worse. And for him to hate clones, isn’t he cloning the Sinister Six to form his new team?
Unlike Otto, Kaine actually makes an effort to redeem himself without going for glory after rescuing a girl called Aracely, who was at the human trafficking robbery, left to die among corpses from people who were smuggled into the country inside a storage container. Also she may have a Mayan God stuck inside of her, seeing as a cartel wants her dead to unleash it.
When it comes down to it I like Kaine more because you don’t hear about wanting to leave his own legacy behind, just a guy trying to atone for his past and live up to Peter’s legacy. Kaine has suffered for being the good guy compared to Otto so far, he’s died because of it twice and gotten himself a monster inside of him because of it the second time. Otto disappointed me here.
And, Marvel help me, if I find out he’s the one who kicked started Kaine’s degradation again, I’m rooting for Peter to come back. Personal feelings aside, these issues get 5 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #15 Review
Otto once relished the life of Peter Parker compared to his previous life. Now he can’t wait to get rid of it. Shame on you Otto.
This issue of Superior Spiderman follows up with his destruction of Shadowland. Otto is feeling cocky, a combination of his ego and multiple successes. So when the Hobgoblin is actually managing to sneak past his security drones because of the Goblin Protocol courtesy of the Green Goblin, he takes it personally. When he takes it personally, someone is going to be hunted down like a dog, hence Hobgoblin is screwed.
On the other end it shows that in his obsession to catch the guy, he’s been ignoring Peter Parker’s life and loved ones. The fact that MJ has, yet again, noticed he wasn’t acting like himself while Carlie has decided on acting by following the money can only mean that he’s eventually going to get outed some time soon. It takes a call from his new love interest to get his tail to come out of his cave and, wouldn’t you know it, that’s when the Hobgoblin is spotted.
Otto doesn’t just track him down, he completely shuts down the man’s life by outing his secret identity on television after hacking every single television he could find. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, but he’s a semi-reformed villain with his own base and henchmen. And the mayor is in his pocket, so he’ll get away with it.
Now, I’m rooting for Otto, but he did steal his nemesis’ life and the least he could do is try and maintain it somewhat. He’s trying to be a SUPERIOR Spiderman, but in his blind obsession in leaving behind a legacy, he will ruin everything. Considering that there’s a green goblin running around, I doubt it’ll be long before we have another Gwen Stacy incident.
Not to mention outing someone’s secret identity on television is a bit of a dick move, even on villains considering this one was basically an evil Peter Parker.
The issue gets a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #14 Review
Okay, this is a bit late, but here we go.
Now, for those of you who read this but don’t know what Superior Spider-Man is about, it follows the life of Otto Octavius a.k.a Doctor Octopus after he accomplished his greatest victory yet by swapping bodies with Peter Parker after his old one was beaten too many times and left Peter for dead. As in Peter Parker is dead.
Yes, many fans have flipped their shit over it and called in death threats, but considering the comic is the highest selling one at Marvel right now we know its not going to change anytime soon.
Before Peter died he transferred the memories into Otto and instilled in him a sense of guilt. Add in the fact that he wants to leave a legacy behind, he’s determined to be the SUPERIOR Spider-Man. The differences are obvious, but somehow everyone is an idiot and doesn’t notice the brain swap and just think he’s being an asshole. Even after Otto has executed two villains on-screen in Peter’s body, everyone is just now figuring out he’s not the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man that they are familiar with.
Now, while I knew about Spider-Man before this year I never read any of the comics, but this one caught my interest and led to reading Ultimate Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider, getting me into it and leaving me partial to Otto and this issue takes place after blackmailing Mayor James Jameson to gain The Raft (a prison for villains that they always seem to escape from) and turn it into Spider-Island II.
Unlike most other heroes, he’s approaching the hero business like he would a crime, namely planning it out. He’s got a bunch of Spider-Bots running around to catch crimes on camera, Arachnaught droids, and freaking MINIONS. He’s got a small army on him and tonight he’s decided he’s going to completely screw over the Kingpin.
Kingpin knows he means business, especially after hearing the man forcing Jameson to condone the attack and going into details that he’s going to kill the Hobgoblin and Wisk, and cuts his losses and flee while leaving behind a body double. In the end the battle is won, Jameson is screwed further, and we catch sight of the Green Goblin, who is making Otto look like an idiot by taking in all the remaining men from every crime family Otto has taking down to become the new Kingpin.
Now, Otto’s proactive and I respect that, but his arrogance at believing he’s Superior to most other heroes has left him a little blind to the fact that his Spider-Bots have been hacked and he’s alienating a lot of the hero community lately, which was one of Peter’s strongest ties. Karma dictates that this will bite him in the ass, but until it does I’m enjoying everything so far and give this comic a full 5 out of 5 for beautiful artwork, fight scenes, and foreshadowing the looming threat.
Twilit Dreams Circle 