Last time I looked at the first issue of Superior Spider-Man and whether Otto was living up to his promise to Peter to be a better man. Unfortunately it seemed to me that Doc Ock wasn’t living up to that promise … to say the least. But you know I’ll give Otto the benefit of the doubt, it’s his first week or so in the body I presume, he’ll need some time to adjust to his time as a hero. So maybe things will improve with “The Superior Spider-Man #2”.
Ok so the issue opens with Otto returning the barometric oscillator which the Sinister Six stole last issue. Already I take issue with this. You see thanks to his nano-tracers Otto knew where the Sinister Six’s base was, he used those tracers to snoop on the Six and he made the decision not to attack them then and there. Instead he allowed them to attack Horizon Labs, something Peter never would have done, and it was there that he stopped there crime spree. Otto made sure however thought that he got maximum media exposure while apprehending the six by inviting local news crews to the attempted burglary. Now, I’ll give Otto the benefit of the doubt there and say he wants to foster a good relations with the people of New York in a way that Peter struggled to for years. To do this he allowed the media to actually see Spidey doing good. However an alternate interpretation could be that Otto was using the media to massage his ego. This interpretation seems further validated in this issue when we see that he waited a whole day before returning the barometric oscillator, allowing himself to be lead story for “two days in a row”. There’s more evidence to him simply seeking self-aggrandisement when he’s thanked personally by Mayor J.J and the dialogue makes it perfectly clear that he knew the Mayor would be there, allowing for maximum exposure of his “heroic” act. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing it’s different from how Peter would handle things and yes Otto may be doing this out of a need for recognition … but it has the side effect of improving Spidey’s image so I‘ll say it’s a good idea and the start of Otto making himself a better Spider-Man.
So after returning the gizmo to the Marla Jameson Memorial building Otto makes his way to another date with Mary Jane. Now when the cover to this issue was released a lot of fuss was made as to whether Otto’s “relationship” was leading to a potential rape or not. This isn’t something I want to discuss. I have my opinions on it but they're not really relevant now. I will say this, Otto’s attempted interaction with Mary Jane is extremely dishonest and the interactions between Mary Jane and Otto creep me out that being said I think that they were supposed to. Ok that's all I’ll say on the “rape” matter. So Otto and MJ meet for coffee and the dialogue is, well the dialogue shows us Otto’s arrogance apparently peter was a “fool” to keep such a “ravishing creature” away. This dialogue tells us so much about Otto he’s a man who still even after seeing Peters sacrifices and heroism can't help but think of him as a fool and beneath him. Next his interest in MJ, as we discussed last time, is purely physical he seems to take no interest in her as a person. I’ll talk more about this later because thankfully Otto’s date is interrupted by a fire engine leading to Otto rushing off to save the day.
Ok, so Otto seems infuriated that being Spider-Man interrupts his social life and he resolves to fix this leading to the creation of the Spider-bots! The Spider-bots are tiny robots that patrol the city for Otto and report crimes to him. I love this. It’s smart, it’s efficient and it’s an improvement on how peter patrolled the city. A lot can be said about Peter and his flakiness, we the reader know that Peter always has a good reason for being late to a date, a party or work but the rest of the world didn’t and it always led to him having problems. Otto’s robots and patrol app remove that as a problem. The spider-bots are brilliant, simple and a perfectly valid way to help fight crime. Best of all it actually makes Spidey more effective as we find out in a few issues. Of course they have potential problems and they’re not strictly in the spirit off Spider-Man but I think there a genuine improvement to the way Peter was living his life. Even ghost Peter admits that it’s quite clever (I love the petulant look on his face as he grudgingly admits this.) So now with his army of 800 Spider-bots patrolling the city Otto finally has the time to actively pursue MJ. And this is when it gets creepy again.
The narration, which is Otto’s, describes the dates as “trials” as though this is a science project. Already there’s a clinical approach to the dates, Otto has an end goal in mind. He wants to be with MJ and he’s experimenting with different dates to find the perfect combination that’ll finally get him and MJ together. Otto’s not exactly a romantic soul and the way MJ insists on “taking things slowly” clearly infuriates him. Especially as he only seems to be getting pecks on the cheek each time. This leads to my least favourite and most favourite part of the book. Otto’s failure to get with MJ has annoyed him so much that he’s once again reverted to his old super villain ways and is monologuing in MJ’s club while she dances around the club, when eureka! He finally realise how to get him and MJ together, Danger. Otto’s spider sense warns him that danger is close by, and rather than attempt to get MJ to safety as Peter would, he willingly endangers MJ by taking them both web slinging. Not to mention the people in MJ’s club who just get left there without so much as a word of warning. For all Otto knows they could all be in real peril. This is where any promise Otto made about being a better man falls down to me. He promised Peter that he would protect his family, and he willingly takes MJ out into potential danger. I can forgive Otto for beating villains senseless or being rude to his colleagues, Otto’s a different man from Peter and he may see this as being a better man. But taking MJ web swinging is a clear violation of his final promise to Peter. The man is scum. He can’t hold a candle up to Peter Parker. The only redeeming part of this is Ryan Stegmans art and my favourite image of the series so far. Its Otto and MJ web swinging with Peter looming over them, the image is just fantastic and really captures Peters feeling of helplessness.
Anyway thankfully for MJ there wasn’t any real danger and Otto’s once again given the brush off after their fun web slinging. Otto’s furious that he’s once again been blue balled and starts getting a bit narky until he has an extremely creepy realisation. You see he has all of Peter’s memories, including the ones of all the past times MJ and Peter had been intimate. And he relishes reliving them, the subtext in my opinion being that he used those memories to pleasure himself, especially as Ghost Peter asks him “does he have to keep touching my body”. This for me is the final nail in the coffin for Otto actually caring for MJ; he was only interested in her for the sake of outdoing Peter and getting some action. However I do have an alternate theory about something which happens later which I’ll explain later but as for now Otto is satisfied and is ready for “a day free of obsessing over Mary Jane Watson” and he can “move on to other conquests”. I really don’t like the way Otto talks about women by the way; his language is aggressive and talks volumes about his wish for control and dominance.
Shockingly thought the most unlucky woman in New York, Mary Jane, is attacked by the vulturettes? vultureites? some green cherubs in her own club. Luckily for her one of Otto’s spider-bots sees the attack and he swings into action. Otto make it to the club and saves MJ when the cherubs defenestrate her, I love that word. A quick aside for a moment, as MJ falls Otto goes to use his webs to catch her and Ghost peter shouts “web net” not “web line” sure enough Otto makes the web net and Mary Jane is saved. Was this peters influence? Or is it Otto’s own scientific knowledge of momentum and inertia? You see it was a similar mistake made by peter in his early career which led to the death of Gwen Stacy. I’d like to give it to Otto, but unfortunately I’m going to have to say I believe it was Peter’s influence you see the web was shot by the right hand, the hand which we know Peter gains control of later in the series. Anyway just a quick aside back to judging Otto. So Otto’s rescued MJ and it turns out Otto was right, when put in danger MJ can’t resist Spidey and she goes to kiss him! But shock of shocks he rejects her and tells her that they can’t be together.
If you’re reading this blog it’s probably clear that I don’t like Otto as a person. I do like the series and I do like to hate Otto. He does something here very noble and peter admits that there are things which Otto can do which peter can’t. It’s a moment which really shows that Otto does have the potential to be a better man than Peter and I like this moment. Now to rip it apart. It’s been clear since Amazing Spider-Man #698 that Otto wanted to be with MJ. In what way is left intentionally vague but the subtext is that Otto wanted a sexual relationship with MJ and he’s done a lot of things to get with MJ. Now here he has the opportunity and he balks at the last moment. Out of a new found sense of pride? I doubt it. I personally believe that it was reliving all the moments of Peter and MJ’s love life that changed Otto. Without getting into the metaphysics of having someone else’s memories I don’t think Otto has instant access to Peters memories, if he does why does he have to think “Accessing Parker Memories” instead I believe that he has to install them almost like software on a computer. He’s now installed Peter’s true feelings for MJ in his brain and that’s rewired him as a person, changing him. He’s not Peter Parker and he’s no longer just Otto Octavius he’s becoming a hybrid and he uses the logic of his Octavius brain to finally end things with MJ. His was not an active choice by Otto more of a natural evolution of his personality due to the influence of Parker’s memories. To be fair though I will say this Otto has finally started his path to being a better man.
So at the end of issue 2 I think we’re starting to see Otto’s reformation, he’s improved on Peters crime fighting methods and he’s done something noble and lived up to his promise to Peter by letting MJ go. He’s not a good man yet but I’ll accept that he’s trying and improving. We’ll see whether he can continue this trend in Superior Spider-Man #3.
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