WARNING: This Might Turn You Into A Doc Ock Fan
The Overview: It's Spider-Man teaming up with the X-Men as a giant spider terrorizes New York City and its inhabitants. This is the first first issue where we see Doc Ock interacting with other superheroes and Chris Yost plays it out beautifully. But for those opposed to what Dan Slott has done to Peter Parker, will they be on board after seeing this "superior" version of Spider-Man? Well.... you'd be surprised.
The Good: For those who are willing to give this Ock/Spider-Man thing a chance, this will not disappoint. I had a blast reading Otto Octavious' witty dialogue as he interacted with the X-Men and Chris Yost just captures the essence of the villain so wonderfully. I'm serious. I'm the type of person who loves to laugh and rarely does so when reading comics but just the stuff that goes on in Doc Ock's brain is just absolutely hilarious. It almost makes me want this creative team to go back to all the ASM issues with Doc Ock in it and rewrite those books from his perspective. Chris Yost doesn't disappoint either when writing the voices of the X-Men characters, which is expected given his extensive experience with writing them. If this is how Doc Ock will be written over in Superior Spider-Man then I'll definitely be enjoying it and Peter Parker can take his sweet time on his inevitable grand return.
The Bad: Well, while the art in this book is pretty good, there were a few minor details that I had problems with. I wasn't a fan of the... umm, nose I think, that Spider-Man had. That design choice just didn't work for me. Another thing is, am I missing something about Wolverine's costume? Is it supposed to change colors? When you read the issue it literally will change from yellow/blue to yellow/red and back several times throughout the book. That just seemed strange to me.
Another thing is that I wasn't that big a fan of the Wolverine and Spider-Man fight scene. I mean, this hasn't been the best week for Wolvie. He gets his butt knocked down by a young Cyclops over in All New X-Men and here he just gets totally decimated and as Spider-Man put it, totally embarrassed. Is Spider-Man really that much stronger and faster? If so, it just seems that Wolverine is so inconsistently written these days. Is he the best and what he does or what?
The Verdict: I know there are a lot of fans out there who might be refusing to read Spider-Man anymore after ASM 700 and that's really too bad. This is a great story that is fun, short and sweet, and truly a laughter-inducing good time. Those who may be opposed to the idea of Doc Ock in Spidey's body may be quick to point out that the X-Men should be smarter than this and not as oblivious but it's actually played out well here, in my opinion. Almost everything here is done smartly and if this will be the case in the team-ups to follow then I honestly can't wait. I am eagerly anticipating more of Doc Ock's thoughts as he interacts with the rest of the Marvel Universe in his new role. This book is great so just pick it up! Even if you haven't been reading Avenging Spider-Man but know about the whole fiasco over in ASM, this is a great place to start reading. Get it now.
5/5 stars
