There was a time when classic Spidey, you know, Peter Parker went on a 'NOONE ELSE WILL DIE' rampage and tried to make sure noone else would die, even super villains. One of the villains he saved, the psychopath Massacre, has returned in this issue.... but how will the Doc Ock version of Spider-Man deal with him?
'The Agressive Approach ' opens with the Superior Spider-Man watching over the city with the Spider-Bots as his eyes. He thinks to himself that Peter Parker lacked ambition in his life, but the Doc won't commit the same mistake. As well as fighting normal crime, he also continues to capture the rest of Vulture's children henchmen that escaped during the last issue. There's even a scene of a lesser criminal, the White Rabbit, that quickly surrenders because she doesn't want to end up like Boomerang and the Vulture. I'm loving the continuity.
After stopping enough crimes, the Doc decides he has other things to do and has his robots rewire other calls to the authorities. Ghost Pete follows and reminds him that as a superhero he has to keep going and fight all the crime he can.
The Doc visits Aunt May in the hospital, who at this point has finally reached the age where she needs a cane to walk. I swear, for being one of the oldest women in the Marvel Universe, she sure has lasted forever. The Doc asks a doctor for any kind of surgery that can repair her legs, but he says she's too old for that kind of radical surgery. The Doc shrugs it off and thanks him for his 'opinion'.
Back at the mad lab, Octo-Pete spends an all-nighter creating a special kind of exo-limb that will be grafted to a person's brain and spine, enabling them to walk. He plans to use this on Aunt May, which freaks Pete out, and his bosses also think this is going too far and is much too soon to use on human trials. Doc snaps at them reminding them that he is Dr. Peter Parker. His boss reminds him that he has no such title. The Doc looks into Pete's memories and discovers that he has never earned such a title while he was in college. The Doc is furious at this since he earned his doctorate when he was 16, being and evil genius and all. He storms off determined to rectify this.
Meanwhile, at Ravencroft (Spider-Man's Arkham), Dr. Kafka is walking with a guard as they go see Massacre. The guard asks why she is so worried since Massacre doesn't have any super powers. She is still worried due to his complete disregard for human life. When they open his cell, they find a dead security guard. Massacre was the guard she was walking with all along, and he kills another guard. Kafka tries to reason with him, saying he needs her to leave Ravencroft. Massacre says he doesn't need ALL of her...
Doc Ock re-enrolls into college, which is the same one he went to when he was younger. The girls seem to like him and he flirts back, as Peter reminds him that he's too old for their mothers. Pete is worried since earning a degree will take him away from his duties as Spider-Man and as one of the Avengers. Although... considering he's also with the Future Foundation he should just plain give up living a normal life and be Spider-Man full time...
 |
| Watch out ladies.... he's older than he looks and he's into tentacles.... |
Doc Ock recognizes the teacher as one of his former classmates from back in the day (how is that for weird??). He calls him 'The Schnoz' (I assume whatever nickname Otto had for him back then) which surprises him since he hasn't been called that in years. The teacher is not too happy and tells the Doc that his thesis better impress him. Some girl (she's off panel) says Ock is gonna need to be tutored and gives him her card, but vanishes before he could see who it was. Just then, he gets called in for duty.
At Ravencroft, Spider-Man and Jameson discuss Massacre's escape. Jameson calls him out on having saved Massacre's life and promising he would never escape to kill again. Otto and Pete see that Massacre had taken out one of Kafka's eyes to get past the retinal scanner. Pete wants to regain control of his body and stop Massacre once and for all... but the Dock wants to outright kill him.
Massacre is holding all the people at a small diner hostage. He tells everyone that he wants everyone to toss their mobile devices and money on the floor. He will lock them in the back and escape in their cars, and noone has to die. One of the employees activates the silent alarm. Massacre tells everyone that man broke the rules, and he shoot up everyone. He leaves a lady and her child alive for the time being since he needs them as hostages.
Spider-Man shows up at the lab and tells Jackson (on of the lab partners) that he knows he once gave Facial Recognition Software to The Wraith to help her track down criminals. He now needs that software installed into his Spider-Bots so he can locate Massacre before he kills anyone.
At Times Square, Massacre lets the woman go, but warns her that if she makes a scene, he will kill her and anyone else in the area. She agrees and leaves. Massacre head off wondering where to go now.
Elsewhere, the leftover Vulture kids are worried that they'll be eventually captured by Spider-Man and the cops already know about Vulture's hideout. They panic when they spot one of the Spider-Bots, but suddenly someone stomps on it. The Green Goblin shows up and tells them that he can keep them safe from Spider-Man since he knows all his tricks.
This is an interesting issue, and I have to say again that I'm loving the continuity. It feels like I'm watching a new tv show, each episode following up the next. It was mostly a set up issue, showing some of the aftermath of last issue and foreshadowing an epic battle next issue. I'm enjoying Otto's life as Peter. He sometimes forgets that he's supposed to be Peter and 'breaks character'. We've seen him monologue to himself 'accessing memories' whenever he needs to remember something Parker did before him. Now he's actually saying it out loud making his lab partners think he's nuts.
The whole scene where he realized that Peter never had a 'Doctor' title and is like 'screw that, I'm going to finish college and earn my doctorate right now!!!' was funny, as is seeing him go to college and recognize a teacher as a former classmate back when he was young. I do find it amusing how both Peter and Otto went to the same college, at different time frames of course... but still.
Massacre is also an interesting character. I never read his past story but the comic does explain that he lost all human empathy after suffering brain damage in the same car bombing that killed his wife. Spider-Man saved his life from a SWAT Team because he didn't want anyone to die, not even a super villain. I do wonder what his deal is. I honestly think he would have let the hostages in the diner live if the employee didn't trigger the silent alarm... just like he let the woman live after she drove him to Times Square. But he also didn't have any problems cutting Kafka's eyes out. He's hard to figure out, and now that he's free, even he doesn't seem to know what he's gonna do.
I really want to see what happens next issue, which I hope to get soon. But I also wonder how the Green Goblin is going to factor in all of this. I can't even begin to wonder what the hell he's been up to lately. All I know is that he was killed by his own Glider waaaaay back then... and then came back to life and was somehow behind the whole Clone Saga mess that never seemed to end. Let's see what happens next.
No comments:
Post a Comment