The Superior Spider-Man run

By Mark Rodriguez

The larger a comic book character is, the more you know he's never really go away. Superman died, whoop he's back. Batman died, whoop he was actually blasted back in time and found his way back. Jason and Bucky came back as the Red Hood and the Winter Soldier. Batgirl is back in action and has left the wheelchair. Sure, Jean Grey is still dead, but we have a teenage Jean from the past to fill that spot. And you know it's a matter of time before Wolverine gets his healing factor back if he hasn't already. So yeah, if you haven't guessed.... Doc Ock is out and Peter Parker has returned to being the original Spider-Man.

I did find this series to be an interesting read, and it was cool how it all flowed into one long story from start to finish. For a more detailed look at the first couple of issues, let me link to these real quick.
Superior Spider-Man # 1
Superior Spider-Man # 2
Superior Spider-Man # 3
Superior Spider-Man # 4

So let me give you the quick run-down of the overall series the best I can. Doc Ock was old and dying, but with his last breath he managed to switch his mind with that of Spider-Man. As Parker, now trapped in the dying villain's body, he managed to give all his memories to his enemy before he would pass away. The Doc has won, but now with a new sense of responsibility, he decided to show the world that he was the Superior Spider-Man.

The first few issues dealt with the Doc rejoicing in his new younger, stronger body, and all the new things he started doing. His costume now had claws, and he was more vicious to his enemies, beating them bloody or nearly killing old enemies like Boomerang and the Vulture. When the mass-murdering Massacre escaped, Spider-Man flat out killed him, showing that he was done giving these guys mercy. He also finds out that Parker never earned a doctorate and goes back to college to earn one.

The Avengers also get involved after seeing how Spidey killed Massacre and also brutally beat up two silly thugs that were more stupid and harmless than anything. However, none of their scans showed that anything was wrong and Spider-Man continues to act as if nothing was wrong. Parker's ex, Carlie Cooper starts getting suspicious and starts to investigate why he is acting so differently. Meanwhile, the Doc starts getting closer to his college tutor Anna Maria.

Meanwhile the Green Goblin is back and he's collecting all the leftover villains and henchmen in the underground tunnels in the city, building an army against Spider-Man.

Peter Parker was still lurking around, but as a ghostly image, watching in horror as Doc Ock took down his enemies violently. Doc would soon realizes and uses his mind machine to completely purge all of Peter Parker from his mind. In a sense, Peter 'dies' again and is 'gone for good'. Now the Doc is free to live his own life and he goes into super villain mode. He takes over Spider Island as his base of operations and hires tons of henchmen to help him in his fight against crime. He created little Spider-Bots that are crawling all over the city reporting any crime anywhere to him via live video feed. He also has a new costume, complete with retractable spider legs on his back.... because THAT'S not Dr. Octopus-ish or anything...

I did like this new costume I have to admit. The first one was basically a slightly modified version of the original, but going with a new more dramatic look really made the character his own.

We then get a storyline that bring back Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099 to the past to find out what is disrupting his timeline. With Parker's memories gone, the Doc attacks him, thinking he's some kind of impostor. The story involves him having to rescue Tiberius Stone, ancestor to his greatest enemy Tyler Stone from falling into harm since his death would cause disaster to his timeline. Time goes out of whack and the timeline is in danger of destroying everything, and the only thing that could stop it was an equation that Parker knew... which Doc Ock has most likely erased when he purged all of Parker's memories. The Doc manages to save the day at the last minute, but now Tiberius realizes his evil potential and starts up Alchemax, the evil organization that Miguel is fighting against. Even though he can't touch Stone without messing up the timeline... Miguel still got a job as an intern to keep an eye on him.

Meanwhile, Carlie and Detective Yuri Watanabe AKA The Wraith, follow the paper trail of exactly where Spidey is getting the funding from his Spider Island operation... and finds it's coming from Dr. Octopus' hidden bank accounts.

In a short and humorous scene, Otto runs into the Black Cat... but since he had erased most of Parker's memories by now, he doesn't know about her flirtatious history with Spidey. He simply beats her up and leaves her webbed up waiting for the police to pick her up. The Black Cat is confused, angry and swears revenge

This was just so funny for some reason. Since their relationship mirrors Batman and Catwoman's, this is the equivalent of Batman ignoring the sexiness and just socking Catwoman out and leaving her tied up for the cops to pick up. 

Despite Black Cat being on the cover of issue 20, she was only in this short scene. The real story lied in Peter, along with Aunt May and her husband who is also Jameson's father, investing in Parker's own business. Otto counted his chickens before they hatched though... the one thing he was counting on was earning his doctorate... but surprisingly Professor Lamaze, a former classmate of Otto, accuses Pete of ripping off Otto's work. Unable to say anything, Lamaze swears he will ruin him. Otto swears to destroy him first.

Elsewhere, a comatose Angelina, AKA Stunner overhears that Doc Ock was dead (a second time... she was there when Kaine killed him the first time) and wakes up. She goes to her hideout and hooks herself up to a VR machine and sends her avatar Stunner out to seek and destroy Spider-Man. Spidey is out to find Lamaze to stop him but is attacked by Stunner. During the fight he rescues both Lamaze and Anna Maria from a falling bus. As Spidey holds the bus back, Lamaze runs out, leaving Anna Maria behind, even though eventually she is saved as well. The Spider-Bots help him find where the signal for the VR avatar is coming from.

When Paige first saw this she joked that is looked like OttoSpidey is desperately reaching out for her boobs.

Otto finds the real Stunner and uses the same VR tech to show that the classic Otto Octavius is alive and well. However, he must walks out of her life since he has fallen for another. Oh Doc, you heart breaker you. Otto decides to use this same trick on Lamaze. The next day he takes back his accusations since the Doc visited him the night before, telling him that Parker helped with most of his ideas but swore to keep it secret. Now as Dr. Peter Parker, he proceeds to open Parker Industries.

Gotta love that Back to the Future reference. Guess even Doc Ock watched it too.

Meanwhile, Carlie visits Otto's grave, sad that Parker died as a hated villain. She falls through the grave, since it was actually empty. She's kidnapped by a goblin named Menace who takes her to the Green Goblin. Menace shows Goblin her book of clues and notes she's been taking since her suspicions of Parker acting different lately and he realizes that Dr. Octopus is in Spider-Man's body.

Then we have a story dealing Agent Venom, who is actually Flash Thompson in complete control of the symbiote and trying to take down a bad guy named Crime Master. Due to Otto not having any memories of Flash or other symbiotes, he attacks him as if he were the original Eddie Brock 'I want to eat your brains' Venom. Luckily he manages to escape before Spider-Man can kill him.



Flash goes to visit Parker, while he is having dinner and introducing Anna Maria to his family. Dinner doesn't go well when May discovers that Anna Maria was a 'little person' and asks how their children would be. Despite the arguing, Otto convinces Flash to stay so he can use his new technology to rebuild his missing legs (as Agent Venom, the symbiote forms legs for him, without it, he needs a wheelchair). This was part of Otto's trap as the device not only gave him new legs, it stripped him of his symbiote. The symbiote, being scared and confused, leaps out and grabs onto Otto turning him into the 'Superior Venom'.

As Venom, Otto goes out acting even more violent against criminals, even silly things like those that text while driving. Anna Maria calls him since she's worried about him and he returns to assure he's alright. mary Jane also arrives and calls him out on the jerk he's become. Otto turns into Venom in front of her and heads out to fight more villains. We also find out that without the symbiote, Flash will die soon, so they also have to hurry and find it. Iron Man arrives to help him out.

The Avengers are alerted and soon get involved. Tired of having them mess with him, Otto-Venom goes all out against the Avengers. He even calls up on all his Spiderling Henchmen to join in and fight the Avengers. Iron Man arrives with Flash and uses sonic attacks to drive the symbiote off of Otto. Otto realizes the symbiote was in control all along and soon the symbiote returns to Flash. Once freed, Otto makes the excuse that the reason he's been acting so strange lately was due to being affected by the symbiote all along. He and Agent Venom met before and microscopic parts of the alien costume got onto him and were affecting him. While Mary Jane buys this, the Avengers don't.

Later the Avengers re-check the results of the previous tests they ran on Pete, and find that they were deleted by Peter himself Cap decides it's time to bring him in. Meanwhile the struggle Otto had to rid himself of the symbiote, brought ghost Peter back, realizing that there are almost no memories left of him. He needs to hide in case Otto notices his existence again, so he dives into Otto's own memories, reliving his memories from birth to death.

The Green Goblin and Hobgoblin go to war, and in the end, the Green one reveals that he is in fact, the original Norman Osborn, complete with the scar left over when his own Glider accidently 'killed' him. Osborn kills the Hobgoblin and starts taking over the city. The real Hobgoblin is revealed to be alive hiding out elsewhere, since Osborn only killed a hired thug playing the part.

The story jumps 31 days later with the city gone to hell, and Otto finds out the Goblin has hacked all of his spider-bots to not recognize anything with a Goblin mask or logo. Spider-Man heads into the underground and is face to face with the Green Goblin, who reveals that he knows he is really Dr. Octopus thanks to Carlie's journal. He wants him to join him, but Otto refuses and is determined to take him down.

Green Goblin declares war on the Superior Spider-Man and sends all his men, including a new Goblinized Carlie, after all of his known friends and relatives. The Goblins also raid and destroy Spider Island, killing off all of his henchmen. Mary Jane, now so used to this has started kind of a 'fire drill' and has taken Aunt May and her husband out of town. This leaves the bad guys confused as they bust into places like Mary Jane's nightclub and Aunt May's house... with noone to kidnap. However, one of Goblin's women has tricked Anna Maria into going with her. Meanwhile, Jameson has had enough of the destruction going on in his city and started mass-producing Spider-Slayers...but due to recent events, he renamed them Gobin-Slayers.

Goblins also attack Parker Industries, and in a moment of self control, Carlie tells Otto what happened to her and that she knows the truth. Otto helps Carlie get cured from her Goblin form (named Monster) and heads out to stop the Goblin. The Goblin hacked into Otto's own costume and shows him how he blows up all the places that meant something to him, like the house he grew up in, the lab where he first became Dr. Octopus and even the secret hospital that Cardiac was running. He also mentions that he has captured one of his classmates. Fearing that it's Anna Maria, he runs off to rescue her.

When Otto finds the Goblin, the hostage turns out to be Lamaze... who he doesn't really care all that much about. The Goblin is disappointed and leaves saying he will try again. Just then Otto's mechanical spider arms start moving on their own and attacking him. Lamaze jumps in the way and stops one from impaling Otto's back. As Lamaze dies, he says he wanted to make up for running off and abandoning Anna Maria during the bus incident and says he knows what's its like to be a hero.

As Superior Spider-Man tries to locate Anna Maria, he's attacked by the Spider Slayers. Spider-Man 2099 shows up and shuts them off, since as Miguel, he was involved in making them. Just then the Spider Slayers are reactivated as the Goblin taunts that he controls them now. Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 fight them off, but Otto finds the chance get away, leaving the future superhero to face all the robots by himself.

Otto follows one of Goblin's henchmen, named Menace to a tunnel, thinking she will lead him to Anna Maria. There is indeed a hostage, tied to train tracks in the traditional super villain death-by-train manner, but it turns out to a cancer patient girl that Otto has saved earlier on in Cardiac's clinic. Completely freaked out and paralyzed by it all.... the real Peter Parker takes control and leaps into action to rescue the girl in the last second. Peter has relived Otto's life in the Mindscape, and though at times the realities were blurred and he even thought that he was Otto Octavius, Peter was able to come back and regain all his memories.

Otto can now see that Peter's consciousness has returned, but admits that he can't rescue his beloved Anna Maria alone. He finally steps down and admits that Peter was the superior Spider-Man. Otto rushes back to Parker Industries. Parker is confused as to the existence of Parker Industries.

Once inside Otto decides that Peter can't have any distractions in his upcoming mission. He goes to the mind swap device and erases all of Otto's memories. With the last trace of Otto Octavius gone... Peter Parker is back as the one and only, original Spider-Man.

It really is a tragic end. In the end Otto did go out as a hero instead of a monster.

Peter heads back into his wardrobe and slips on his classic red and blue Spider-Man outfit. Now he's ready to kick some Goblin ass, save the girl and save the city.

Shock and surprise! Peter Parker is back and just in time for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, hitting theaters everywhere!

My Opinions on the series as a whole:

I remember the series got a lot of flak when it was first announced. First off, the end of the Amazing Spider-Man after 700 issues with his death and defeat at the hands of Dr. Octopus... and the thought of a whole new series with him hijacking his body and taking over his life. The outrage was insane, and I guess with good reason since Spider-Man is as classic a hero as Batman or Superman and if he were to end somehow, he deserved a better ending. But c'mon. You KNEW he was going to come back. You KNEW this wasn't going to last. So all the NERD RAEG was for nothing. Right in the first issue we still saw Ghost Pete lurking, so yeah, big hint this wasn't the end of Peter Parker.

Then came issue 2 with the implications that as Peter, Otto might seduce Mary Jane and get to tap dat, which many considered a form of rape, since even though MJ would consent, it would still be under deceit since as far as she knew, she was doing it with Parker, not Octavius. Well no, while the Doc did try at first, he soon gave up and was just happy reliving the memories of all the times Peter had already slept with her. Ok... not much better... maybe even creepier... but at least the real MJ was untouched and hell, he even dumped her. 

And finally we have the issue where, at least as far as he knew at the time, Doc found and erased all of Pete's presence from his mind, and thus was rid of him forever. People were pissed at the thought that Ghost Pete was gone and this truly did become a new series all about Dr. Octopus.

Well... I enjoyed the series. I really did. From start to finish. Once in a while you have to do something to dramatically shake up the status quo. You know it won't last, but you enjoy it while you do. It happened when Batman 'died' and Dick took over as the role. It happened when I found out the classic X-Men were brought into modern day and stayed here. That's the kind of epic dramatic change that bring me back to series I've long been tired of and saw little reason to return to.

I also liked that the whole thing, from start to finish, felt like one good long story. Things like the Goblin slowly forming his army issue after issue, and certain issues feeling like they took place the 'very next day' after the last issue, all kept everything in close continuity. Reading several issues back to back felt like you were watching a weekly show. 

And boy was it a refreshing change to see it from the Doc's perspective. Yeah we got the similar song and dance as Spidey once again faced off against classic foes like Boomerang and the Vulture, but how with more brutal results... and the Doc's supreme arrogance. Yeah, one of the things he never changed was his arrogance and talking down to basically everyone around him. Otto-Pete still considered himself a super genius among a world of idiots and treated everyone as such. Plus he still lived his life with the super villain mentality even in his normal day-to-day. When Lamaze exposed his theories, he was already considering sending robot clones after him. When he made his speech upon opening Parker Industries, it sounded more like a 'take over the world' speech. And c'mon... an island full of hired henchmen?

Overall the Doc saw a new side of himself, a side that made him commit heroics and save peoples' lives. Even when Lamaze died, he still felt the pain and the rage against the Goblin. And of course we saw a strong and sincere love he had with Anna Maria. That was sweet. I did like their interactions since they brought out the 'normal guy' in him. And in the end he erased his very being in order to save her.

Now for my main question here though... was the Doc really alive and taking over Peter's body? Or was Peter merely tricked into thinking he was the Doc? It seems Doc downloaded all his memories and very being into a machine, and then implanted them into Peter's mind. Basically Doc's memories overrode Peter's. But this all lies in downloaded memories... data so to speak... nothing to do with his very soul. And in a world where Mephisto, Blackheart and Ghost Rider exists, yes the concept of souls does exist in the Marvel Universe. The fact that Doc didn't really die... but his memories were merely erased out of Pete's head makes me doubt the Doc was ever really alive at all.

Two similar instances come from Batman Beyond and TMNT Back to the Sewers. In Batman Beyond Return of the Joker, it's revealed that this new Joker was actually Tim Drake being taking over by a microchip with all of the Joker's memories in it. While this new Joker was basically continuing where the classic one left off.... this doesn't change the fact that he was basically a clone and the real Joker was dead and buried years ago. In this case the Joker never really 'returned', it was basically Tim Drake thinking he was the Joker. 

Similarly in TMNT Back to the Sewers, the living computer virus Viral hacked into a Foot Clan database that had some kind of downloadable back-up program with all of Shredder's memories, in case the real Shredder were to die. Viral gets taken over and becomes the Cyber Shredder. I assume the program was made before the Exodus episode where the Turtles banished Shredder to the ice asteroid.... so Cyber Shredder didn't know what the Turtles were talking about when they asked him how he escaped off said asteroid. Turtles Forever brought back the actual Shredder, since he never really died and was just frozen, and of course had absolutely no idea that there was a living computer program clone of him running around for a while.

The interesting thing is when Don finally destroyed Cyber Shredder with a Decompiler program, he basically killed Viral as well, who was completely unaware of her actions the whole time she was Cyber Shredder. One could argue she 'died' the moment the Cyber Shredder program took her over.

So I guess the main question lies in the fact that if for whatever wacky comic book reason Doc Ock were to come back to life... would he remember ANY of his actions as the Superior Spider-Man? Would he remember Anna Maria? Would any of this have counted at all? I assume Peter is going to now be stuck with the burden of Peter Industries, Anna Maria, and having a reputation for being brutal and even killing his enemies... but will all of Otto's actions be erased from history? Will status quo eventually wipe the slate clean? I guess I'll find out soon. I'll blog about the final issue of Superior Spider-Man (which is basically Peter back in action at this point) as well as The Amazing Spider-Man # 1 to see how Peter will cope with all the massive changes and things Otto has caused in his absence.