Good thread, good thoughts. I think there are some legitimate concerns in questioning how they're going to approach the Otto Parker/Mary Jane relationship--there's some very choppy waters there thematically when it comes to the full ramifications of engaging in a serious relationship under false pretenses--but overall this is a new and interesting story with transhumanist themes and the potential for new ground on both characters. And, as you said, it's the easiest change to undo ever. Either Peter still lives in his own body and he only thinks he's Otto, or Peter still exists in Octavius' semi-sentient arms or octobots and will return in some other capacity. Perhaps Otto will even find a way to save Peter, ultimately redeeming himself.
Comparisons to the Clone Saga, Sins Past, and One More Day are totally overblown. Those stories were terrible for very clear reasons: they all involved characters acting totally out of character as if the writers didn't know what they were doing. In the first, Peter Parker finds out he's not "real" so he just gives up his identity and stops trying to help people. Stupid. In the second, Gwen Stacy bangs Norman Osborn and has two kids who are now grown up and evil. You can't even make that work in the timeline, let alone square that with the character personalities. In the third, Peter "responsibility" Parker sells his wife to the literal devil. These are bad stories.
Compare that to 700 where we get a Peter Parker who is himself to the very end. Who refuses to yield who he is and regrets even trying to kill Otto via self sacrifice. Who "dies" without any regrets over the high ideals he's held himself to--even though it seems as if he set himself up for failure by holding to those ideals. And most importantly, who through force of personality alone shares these ideals in the clearest way with his enemy, instilling Otto with them as well. In a very important way, Peter Parker won and Otto only gained a Pyrrhic victory at best. Otto gets to be Peter Parker, but he also feels the burden of Peter Parker. All the good that Otto does as SSM is a living testament to what Spider-Man stands for, because it was his mercy and his standard of personal responsibility that gave Otto this chance to redeem himself. You can't read these issues and tell me that Dan Slott doesn't understand the character or is out to disrespect him.
No, I think 700 is far more like Kraven's Last Hunt, a story in which Peter has the hell beaten out of him physically and psychologically again and again, where Kraven "kills" Peter, buries him, and then takes over as a new Spider-Man and proves that he's a better Spider-Man. And yet the conclusion Kraven comes to is that Peter is a good man, he's just never been able to see it before--that he just needed to walk a mile in the man's tights. And it is this new-found understanding that ultimately defeats him. Sound familiar? And that book is considered one of the great Spider-Man stories of all time.
By all means, be upset that Peter's temporarily on the bench if you want--or express justifiable squick at the very nasty implications of an intimate Otto Parker/MJ relationship--but this has great storytelling potential and I can't wait to read it. I think this has a chance to be a real watershed moment for Spider-Man in a good way.
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