WARNING: SPOILERS! If you haven’t read Amazing Spider-Man
#700 and/or Superior Spider-Man #1, please stop reading. I also spoil Ultimate
Spider-Man as well if you're not up to date.
If you’re a Spider-Man fan you are all too well aware of the
big shake up to the world of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler. First they killed
off Peter Parker in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man. And then as if the need
to outdo their Ultimate timeline, the in continuity (usually referred to as
Earth 616) version of Peter Parker needed to die as well. But while the death
of Peter in Ultimate Spider-Man was pretty straight forward, the version of
events in Amazing Spider-Man were going to be far more complex.
In a bizarre twist, Spider-Man’s long time foe Doctor
Octopus managed to figure out a way to switch his brain with that of his
nemesis. For many years the character of Doc Ock had been portrayed as decaying
away and slowly dying. So Doc Ock ends up in Spider-Man’s body, leaving poor
Peter Parker stuck in the dying body of a super villain. Now I, like many other
fans, thought there would be some miraculous save when Peter Parker escaped and
confronted Doc Ock, hoping to get his body back. No such miracle occurred.
Doctor Octopus’s body died taking the mind of Peter Parker with it. But before
he died, Peter Parker managed to convince Otto Octavius to continue his mission
of justice.
This leads us to Superior Spider-Man. While Doc Ock agreed
to continue to honor Peter Parker’s heroic legacy, his super villain ego has
him determined to be an even better Spider-Man than Spider-Man (hence SUPERIOR Spider-Man). And here is
where problems with the title develop. Otto Octavius, while possessing all the
knowledge and memories of Peter Parker, has a completely different style and
mannerisms to Peter. His attitude is not that of bullied and noble Peter
Parker. YET NO ONE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE SEEMS TO NOTICE!
To give a brief history of Marvel Comics stories, not too
long ago there was a storyline entitled Secret Invasion. This storyline involved
members of the alien race, the Skrulls, kidnapping and replacing super heroes and
villains all over the world. Essentially an invasion force had infiltrated the
entire super human community. The story had a lasting effect on characters in the various titles in the Marvel Universe. This leads me to believe that super heroes might
be a bit paranoid about huge changes in a heroes personality. And yet no one
suspects a thing from Peter Parker.
And to be clear, Spider-Man is not hanging out with a bunch
of frat boys. He is an Avenger and is constantly surrounded by some of the most
brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe. Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Reed Richards,
these are people Spider-Man has on speed dial. And each of them is considered
the most brilliant scientific minds of their perspective fields. In fact they
all consider Spider-Man to be a peer, as Spider-Man has proven his own
scientific intelligence. Now while Otto Octavius can probably easily keep up
with them scientifically, these brilliant men should be able to notice
different behavior from a trusted colleague and friend. If someone you worked
with and hung out with all the time suddenly changed their tastes and habits
you would be suspicious of these things.
The above is also ignoring that the Marvel Universe is also
filled with telepaths and mind readers. S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to have an
entire division devoted solely to psychics. Not to mention powerful magic users
like Dr. Strange. Certainly the Sorcerer Supreme of earth would have a spell to
let him know his friend’s body is hosting a soul that is not his own. Also there are heroes with extremely heightened
senses and amazing attention to detail. Since I mentioned SHIELD, Nick Fury’s
whole job is to seek out deceit. And I find it hard to believe anyone could
keep a secret from Wolverine or Daredevil’s enhanced senses. Both are human lie
detectors and both have close ties to Spider-Man. |
| "Spider-Ock, Spider-Ock..." |
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that Otto
Octavius with access to Peter Parker’s memories is smarter and cleverer than
the entire Marvel Universe. If not even his closest family and friends can
deduce that Peter Parker is not Peter Parker, then it seems likely that they
may never. Obviously this must be temporary because the sequel to The Amazing
Spider-Man is currently filming and I have no doubt that Peter Parker will find
a way back from the beyond and into his own body well before its theatrical release (perhaps even to coincide with it).
Hi. Some things to keep in mind:
ReplyDeleteWe're only 5 issues in and not that much time has passed in the Marvel U.
Plus, he's NOT hanging out w/ a bunch of super heroes. Outside of a few brief interactions, when Spider-Man is with other super heroes, he's one of the dozens and dozens of new Avengers. Easy to get lost in a crowd. (Have you seen how many people are stomping around in that book now?):-P
And the Superior Spider-Man version of Spidey hasn't really had that many adventures yet. Especially that many adventures in the public eye.
Yes. Wolverine & Daredevil have both had run-ins with him, and for all their "enhanced senses' they can't tell-- if anything, their enhanced senses get them PAST his odd behavior, because they're telling them that this guy has the same heartbeat, voice, and-- well-- smell. Because he does. He has Peter Parker's physiognomy.
And when was the last comic when a mind reader or a magician pulled Spider-Man aside to verify it was him? How many times has that happened in the 50 years of Spider-Man-- no matter how oddly Spidey (or someone impersonating Spidey) has acted? The SHIELD/Dr. Strange argument is a comic book READER'S argument. It's not really a valid argument for someone living in a comic book WORLD day-to-day.
As for "When will somebody FINALLY notice?" Well we've seen that with Carlie Cooper in SSM #3. And (SPOILERS) you might just see that with super hero community... in the issue that drops tomorrow. :-)
It's not until Spidey's first, BIG out-in-the-public act of VERY different behavior (what took place at the end of SSM #5) where that first jumps onto people's radar. Wait and see...
Very interesting. Though I still think due to Secret Invasion the Marvel heroes should be more suspicious of any new personality quirks in their comrades. I know if I learned half of my friends had been replaced by doppelgängers at some point, I'd be more suspicious of people.
ReplyDelete