Comic Info
Comic Name: The Superior Spider-Man
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Humberto Ramos/Ryan Stegman
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2013
Superior Spider-Man #8
Reprints The Superior Spider-Man #6-10 (May 2013-July 2013). Otto Octavius continues to inhabit Peter’s body, and Peter’s spirit tries to wrestle control from him. As Otto faces off against the Avengers and Cardiac, Peter discovers that he might be closer to freedom than he thinks…but Doctor Octopus now knows Peter better than he does, and with evidence that Peter is still alive within his mind, Otto’s not keen on letting Peter back into his life.
Written by Dan Slott, Superior Spider-Man Volume 2: A Troubled Mind is the second volume in Dan Slott’s follow-up series to his long Amazing Spider-Man run. Following Superior Spider-Man Volume 1: My Own Worst Enemy, Superior Spider-Man 2: A Troubled Mind collects the three part “Troubled Mind” storyline along with the two bookend stand-alone issues.
I am the first to say that I’m not a huge fan of Dan Slott and what he’s done with Spider-Man. That being said, Superior Spider-Man is growing on me a bit. I still think that the series has faults, but I did enjoy this volume slightly more than the last volume.
I think all of Slott’s Spider-Man stories have a weird and slow flow. It doesn’t feel like much really happened in this volume and despite Peter Parker’s personalities changing with each writer, I don’t see it being rather true to the characters in the book not to really suspect that Peter is “not Peter”. The biggest example of this obviously is the fight with the Avengers and a resolution that seemed really out of character for the Avengers involved. Slott does an alright job with the characters he handled for a while but I don’t really care about many of the supporting cast he’s created.
Superior Spider-Man #9
What does work in this series is the weird dynamic between Peter and Doctor Octopus. I like the Jekyll and Hyde concept or even closer the Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket role with Peter serving as Doctor Octopus’s consciousness as he becomes “a real hero”. I like that Peter is fallible and that is seen in the showdown finale of “Troubled Mind”.
I don’t really like Humberto Ramos’ art (nor have I ever really liked it). He is very stylized, but as opposed to someone like Michael Allred who also presents cartoon style characters, I don’t think Ramos’ art has much life. I do however like Ryan Stegman who takes over in the back half of the book. He manages to keep a hint of Ramos, but has nice and much more real character portrayals that help the story.
Superior Spider-Man isn’t great, but I’d much rather read it than most of Slott’s run on Amazing Spider-Man. I will say that I thought Slott started out ok on Spider-Man, but I thought that quickly faded. It is possible that instead of improving, Superior will also lose its luster, but as of now, it is a slightly better than average read. Superior Spider-Man 2: A Troubled Mind is followed by Superior Spider-Man 3: No Escape.
Related Links:
Superior Spider-Man 1: My Own Worst Enemy
