Comic Info
Comic Name: The Superior Spider-Man
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Dan Slott/Christos Gage
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli/Humberto Ramos
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2013
Superior Spider-Man #11
Reprints The Superior Spider-Man #11-16 (August 2013-October 2013). Peter Parker is dead, and with his mind gone Otto is free! With his recent tough stand on crime, Spider-Man is now an ally of Mayor J. Jonah Jameson and Otto Octavius intends to use that to his advantage. When Jameson orders Spider-Man to ensure that the Spider-Slayer doesn’t leave the Raft alive, Spider-Man turns that order into a means to build his credibility among the people and take out some of the biggest threats to the city like the Kingpin. As Spider-Man’s dangerous methods grow, Peter’s friends and allies continue to suspect something is wrong, and a showdown with the Hobgoblin could reveal the truth about the Hobgoblin’s secret.
Written by Dan Slott with scripting help from Christos Gage, Superior Spider-Man 3: No Escape is the follow-up to Superior Spider-Man 2: A Troubled Mind. The volume collects the three issue “No Escape” storyline, a stand-alone issue, and the two issue “Run, Goblin, Run”.
Dan Slott’s run on Spider-Man hasn’t impressed me much, but I am starting to enjoy Superior Spider-Man a little. Despite a storyline that could have easily been a six issue storyline, Slott has continued to improve what started out as a rather gimmicky story.
I’m actually not horribly interested in the Otto aspect of this story and that is odd since as the title character, it is kind of about Doctor Octopus. That makes the first storyline in this book involving the Spider-Slayer, the weaker part of the story. I have never found Spider-Slayer to be that interesting of a character and felt no remorse of his murder nor the set-up of Spider-Island 2.
Superior Spider-Man #16
What does interest me in this story is the behind the scenes working of Spider-Man’s friends. I like the Carlie and Watanabe storyline and their quest to prove that something is wrong with Spider-Man. I also like how the world is taking this big change in a hero that had always been rather harmless and the change that he’s become a killer. It is the idea that Otto might get caught that keeps me returning to the title…not Doctor Octopus himself or his plans for Spider-Man themselves.
Dan Slott’s use of Phil Urich has also always bothered me. I enjoyed Phil Urich as the Green Goblin in his short lived series and also liked his appearances as the older and wiser Phil Urich in Spider-Girl. I never liked seeing him as a villain, but I did enjoy the “Run, Goblin, Run” storyline in that once again it has the world debating Spider-Man’s actions.
Superior Spider-Man 3: No Escape is a bit unbalanced but a quick and easy read. Slott is a bit all over the place and constantly adding uninteresting supporting characters (like Anna Maria Marconi and Dr. Lamaze) in addition to his previously uninteresting supporting characters like Max and the people at Horizon Labs. This volume presents some hope with characters like Carlie and Watanabe taking a more proactive role in a series which would be much better served by supporting characters being the focus. Superior Spider-Man 3: No Escape is followed by Superior Spider-Man 4: Necessary Evil.
Related Links:
Superior Spider-Man 1: My Own Worst Enemy
