Man, that was a long sentence.
Okay. So today is Wednesday, which, for anyone who visits comic shops, or has seen a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, is new comic book day. Not to be mistaken for Free Comic Book Day, which is this Saturday.
So the new comic book that I picked up today was The Superior Spider-Man #9, which I had read somewhere was largely anticipated for a story point that was going to polarize the Spider-Man fan base, or at least piss a bunch of us off. I've been scrambling through the back issues of SS-M to be ready for issue #9. My feelings on the series, at least up to this most recent issue, have been mixed, but more or less hopeful for my idealized outcome. To re-cap, Marvel ended their title, The Amazing Spider-Man at issue number 700, after a fifty year run with Peter Parker as your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. As of #700, Parker was mind-swapped into the deteriorating body of his arch nemesis, Doctor Octopus, who swore, after stealing Parker's body and memories, and seeing the emotional events that turned hapless Peter Parker into a hero that he would become a Superior Spider-Man. And to some degree he did. Peter Parker may well have been a genius inventor, and strong asset to Horizon Labs where he built tech for Spider-Man, but Octavius definitely brought some ideas to the game that greatly increased Spider-Man's efficiency, both in his professional and personal life. The Spider-Bots, reminiscent of Octavius's own Octo-Bots patrol the streets of New York City, eliminating needless web-slinging. Also, his familiarity with villains and groups of villains like The Vulture and The Sinister Six, respectively, give him an edge that Parker never could have had. In fact, as an over-all character/superhero/what have you, Otto Octavius is doing a pretty decent job. There's really only one problem:
Dude's an asshole.
No matter how much good intention Octavius pours into his efforts, he doesn't seem to be able to get over his ego, his emotional scarring from a troubled past, and more importantly, his violent tendencies. Going back a few issues, we watch as this new Spider-Man puts near fatal hurt on Goofball and The Jester for humiliating him on a web-cam. We never actually see him do it, but there's a bit where two jerk-off students from Empire State University end up locked in the trunk of their car, and the car totaled for their verbal bullying of a diminutive physics student/tutor to whom Otto takes a liking. There are bits where he does some good, like saving the life of a little girl with brain damage by using a device and performing a surgery that could only have been invented/performed by Dr. Octopus, but if it hadn't been for Dr. Octopus holding the world hostage against his threat to microwave the planet, the girl wouldn't have had brain damage at all, and her parents might also still be alive. But woohoo! The surgery was a miracle! He saved her!
(Sigh)
There are myriad other instances of Otto Octavius's particular brand of douchery, and all through it, there is Ghost Parker riding shotgun and voicing protests that go unheard until...Issue #9. If you have not read that issue yet, and are planning to, please consider this blog post finished. Nothing more to read here. However, if you have read it, or for any other reason you are not averse to what is going to be a spoiler, please; read on.
Using the same brain scanner that saved the life of the above mentioned little girl, Octavius tracks down the little piece of Peter Parker that remains and, in a HUGE showdown in which all of Peter's family and friends--in militant memory form--go all battle royale against Peter's anxieties and fears, embodied by every villain (including the thief who took out Uncle Ben way back in Amazing Fantasy #15) Spider-Man has encountered in his entire run as a costumed superhero. Finally it is down to Parker and Dr. Octopus, in his classic Dr. Octopus get up with the bowl cut, Elton John specs and green unitard, which he then rips off to reveal himself as a slightly beefier Spider-Man underneath. The two go back and forth over who has the right to Parker's body and life and at the very last, (GASP) the remaining memories, essence of Peter Parker are dragged to trash and deleted.
Seriously. That's what happened.
The guy at the comic shop told me it would piss me off, and it kind of did, but I've got a couple of straws that I'm still grasping at, and I'll tell you what they are so that if you're in the same position as I am, confused as to how anyone in their right mind could think that Otto Octavius could be a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker, could outright murder Peter Parker and continue living in his body, assuming his life and functions thereof, there may still be hope.
By hope I do not mean that hey, maybe Dr. Octo-douche didn't delete all of Peter, maybe the Peter Parker we've been reading about was actually a clone and we get to re-live that old double-done clone arc from years back. No. What I mean simply, is this:
Spider-Man, Peter Parker, is a hero. Dr. Otto Octavius is a villain. Maybe there's some good in the old bastard, but that doesn't really matter. As one fan pointed out in his letter to the writers, specifically in regard to issue #700, and I quote: "You seriously want me to believe, embrace, and get excited over the fact that the villain who murdered the hero will make a better hero than the hero ever did?"*
That's pretty much what it comes down to for me, and why I believe that Peter Parker will one day come back as Spider-Man. I have to believe he will, by virtue of what it right and wrong and why we have heroes in comic books to begin with. Without spilling a huge diatribe (too late) on the nature of right and wrong, why comic books are important as moral stories as well a modern mythology/chronicle of moral and immoral men and women in this day and age, lets sum it up plain and simple for what it is:
The villain can change, but he doesn't get to murder the hero, steal his life and expect that that behavior is okay, or somehow virtuous in its own undertaking. Killing people and stealing their lives/physical appearance is a job for the Talented Mr. Ripley, or maybe this guy:
I know there are a lot of people out there who are happy, even excited about this change. And I will admit, while I'm not a fan of the premise, and up to today had been hoping that this Superior Spider-Man business would be a short-lived mini series, I have enjoyed watching it play out. Not because I'm pulling for Dr. Octopus to somehow be a better Spider-Man, but its been interesting to see what he does with the role.
But if this is the direction that Marvel, and on a larger scale this nation/world are taking, morally, there won't be much more of Mine for Marvel to Make. This has been a fun ride, and hopefully it will continue to be, but the time is coming, and that very soon to do the right thing.
Please don't let me down, Marvel. Please.
Yours Trepidatiously,
J. Schiek
*Letter from Rob Walton, The Superior Spider-Man #3
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