In the past months we have reviewed both Amazing Spider-Man #700 and Superior Spider-Man #1 and after such a pair of issues it only felt right to break the trend and also follow on to the second issue for those who were still a little sceptical of it all.
Unsurprisingly the story is still Dan Slott and the artist is Ryan Stegman so I won’t cover old ground from my last review. Instead it means that the story can be looked at.
With the bombshell dropping at the end of the first issue that Peter Parker (the real one) isn’t completely gone, the whole story opens up. Continuing on straight away with what is dubbed simply. “Second day on the job.” Spidey is returning stolen property and further endearing himself to the public. On the outside there is a calm exterior, but on the inside there is a screaming Peter Parker who is outraged by the limelight being given to this impostor! What makes it worse is the J. Jonah Jameson finally shakes his hand as an equal...
This is a continuing theme throughout the issue as Otto is starting to use criminal masterplan logic to arrange what should be a perfect life for Parker. And in some cases actually looks like it’s working. Even with the derision that his spectral accomplice is more than happy to hand out, Otto uses his genius to create Spider-Bots which revolutionise his coverage of the city. Where Parker saw duty and responsibility, Otto sees opportunity.
Otto’s new approach takes a lot into account, including the wooing of MJ. Even he can’t understand why Parker let her get away and for the most part he plans to change this. Being the man he is, the idea of emotion and relationships escapes him. All he can do is see it as an equation which has an escaping answer. It’s only when he uses the influence of the costumed identity that he realises the real reason that Parker and MJ struggled to make it work. In a stroke of personal genius he does the one thing Parker never could. He lets her go to move on and stops the cycle.
As this is all going on, to Parker’s envy and later admiration towards the end, there are subtle hints and clues being dropped as Otto continues. Even though MJ is frustratingly oblivious to them all, Carlie is seeing them and combined with her last encounter with Peter in Otto’s frail body, things are slowly adding up.
It seems that the adage about not being able to fool everyone all of the time is starting to ring true and Otto’s war for Spider-Man’s body is beginning on two fronts, with a detective’s enquiry on the outside and a ghostly presence on the inside. The series is really starting to pick up now and if you aren’t on board you best start.
Matt Puddy loved the cover to #2 too...
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