If there’s one thing Otto Octavius isn’t afraid to do anymore, it’s reinvent himself.
Back in the Dr. Octopus days, he seemed rather set in his ways – same green jump suit, same bowl haircut, same old bad guy group name, same old always-losin’. Then when death came a-rappin’ at his chamber door, he wound up a decrepit old cyborg – uglier even than Adrian Toomes. Yes, he was technically a cyborg ever since he got the tentacle arms, but at this point, he was a walking iron lung. Up against the wall, he found a way to reinvent himself by stealing Peter Parker’s body and becoming his most hated enemy. Then, he revamped the Spider-Man look subtly to be a little more menacing. Then he revamped the entire process of being Spider-Man by adding robots, cooperation with city officials and the occasional murder, as well as cutting himself off from Parker’s social life in order to forge his own – which includes making out with his science tutor while trying to get a doctorate.
Now, in Superior Spider-Man #13, he’s upping his game to include blackmail, minions and a new secret headquarters.
The last two issues have seen the newfound trust between New York Mayor J. Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man reaching its peak, as Jameson brought Spider-Man in to provide security for the execution of Alistair Smythe, the Spider-Slayer who killed his wife. In fact, the last issue saw a private aside between the two, after Smythe attempted his escape from maximum security prison called The Raft (although ‘maximum’ is relative, given Jameson’s intentions to shut the place down after this because of all the damn escapes), wherein Jameson explicitly instructed him that Smythe was not to be recaptured, but outright killed, which is not how a mayor is supposed to behave even with death row inmates. A technicality, but that’s how it is.
Anyway, Smythe’s escape routes were mostly blocked by Otto outthinking him at every turn, but Smythe managed to cybernetically power up the Scorpion, Boomerang and the Vulture to aid his escape – leaving Jameson and a handful of civilians in mortal danger. However, Otto didn’t do what Peter would have done – instead, he just went straight for Smythe and set about the process of killing him. Interesting side note – the Lizard shows up to save Jameson, and Curt Connors is in control of the Lizard body. Wherever that winds up going should be interesting.
After the ugly business of killing Smythe is finally done, Otto turns on Jameson, blackmailing him with the recording of his ordering that murder in exchange for having Jameson turn The Raft over to him as his new base of operations, which he’s calling Spider Island II. Then he calls someone up – the Taskmaster? The Tinkerer? – and orders minions and a new uniform, determined now to set aside “the last of the chains Peter Parker saddled me with” as well as the remnants of his former life as Dr. Octopus, in order to “create something entirely new. Something wonderful.” Does anything wonderful ever involve minions? Despicable Me notwithstanding.
This may be too much for some people – as evidenced by a couple of angry missives in the letters column of this issue, as well as my erstwhile compatriot Iann Robinson’s complaints in our latest Book Report podcast, but I still find the whole saga of Superior Spider-Man fascinating. Watching superheroism attempted through supervillain methodology is weirdly compelling, as is seeing a Spider-Man with way too much confidence in himself. There’s a moment after his first killing of Smythe where he just casually swings by ol’ Fred Myers, splats him with a web and just says “As you were, Boomerang,” without even looking at him that’s just the kind of arrogant brush-off you’d never see from Peter, but it’s just as amusing as a Peter joke. Then there’s the hubris right before his second ‘movie monster not quite dead yet’ killing of Smythe, just after Smythe attempts to do the exact same thing that Otto did to escape death, where he flat-out tells Smythe that he’s Otto Octavius, and that he beat him to the punch – and, incidentally, I suspect that hubris will eventually come back to bite Otto in the butt, considering Smythe’s so damn mechanized that there may be some recording of that statement salvageable from what’s left of his computo-brain. Add to that the outright “I own you” moment with Jameson, and rustling up ex-military henchmen, and Dan Slott has created such a vastly different sort of Spider-Man that this feels like a singluar era in Spidey history that will be talked about for many years to come, and it’s one I’m excited to be experiencing as it happens.
The marketing is just too obvious that Peter Parker will make his triumphant return around the time of The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Amazinger Spider-Man (as will a new version of Electro who is now the original Electro’s illegitimate black son introduced in a series called Electrical Burns, a la Nick Fury Jr.), so I’m not worried that Otto will be Spider-Man forever. The character is 50 years old, and about 49 of them were as Peter Parker, and when the character turns 100, I’m betting at least 98 of those years will be as Peter Parker. I’m not sweating it when they tell Juan Rivas in the letter column that “Ock is here to stay.” I’m fine with taking this ride wherever Slott’s building the tracks.
However, I completely understand why some people are fed up with this – there doesn’t seem to be anybody to actually root for in this comic. The bent and twisted among us may be rooting for Otto in some ways – we kind of want him to reform completely in a recognizable way, but we also kind of like this Machiavellian antihero he’s become – but for a lot of folks, the hero is just some kinda jerk who annoys them. I get that, and I bet Slott gets that, too. My guess is that the supporting cast – Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Carlie Cooper, Aunt May, Robbie Robertson, Max Modell and the Horizon Labs crew – are all going to become the heroes we root for as they try to get to the bottom of what the hell’s up with Peter Parker, and I heartily approve of that notion.
In the meantime, we get this weird, bizarro-but-brilliant version of Spider-Man that may not technically be superior, but is highly engrossing nonetheless. Also, Giuseppe Camuncoli’s Lizard looks amazingly weirdo scaly.
