OPINION: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700 & BEYOND

For those of you who don’t read Spiderman or don’t want things to be ruined for you, stop reading right now. Still here? Alright lemme’ get started…

This Wednesday Marvel released the final issue to THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. After the bomb shell that Doctor Octopus has swapped bodies with Spiderman via-octo bots & other scientific mumbo jumbo, this issue starts in a very dire situation.

After Peter in a dying Octavius body escapes from prison with the help of The Scorpion, Hydro-Man & others our hero finally comes into contact with Octavius himself in Spiderman’s body. They fight & Peter almost gets the upper hand with transferring his being back into his own body until Octavius reveals that he’s out-thought Peter in every conceivable way.

As Peter’s final act of trying to recovering his body fails, the lingering effect of the octo bots pulses infects Otto’s mind & forces him to live through all of Peter’s life in a matter of seconds. This causes Otto to respect Peter & say he could never do what Peter has been able to. Then like Uncle Ben does to a young Peter Parker, our Peter tells Dr.Octopus that famous saying.

“With great power comes great responsibility.” & Then Peter dies in the mangled body of Dr.Octopus & my childhood hero dies. I can’t say I’m happy about it at all, since Peter Parker is my comic book hero & someone that I look up to regardless of being a fictional character.

What I hate about this turn out is that Peter doesn’t go out valiantly or heroically whatsoever. Instead of sending out everyones most beloved character in a matter that respects the character Stan Lee & Steve Ditko worked so hard to create, his last moments literally fall on deaf ears. I understand that it’s supposed to be an unfair situation that happens to our hero, but this is Spiderman.

He’s everyone’s favorite character. I grew up cherishing this young man who against all odds became a beacon of hope for the suppressed & unjustly treated citizens of society. He was the testament to all outsiders & exemplified what it means to be your own rock in a world that is constantly trying to drown you. But for the character to die the way he does isn’t just insulting to fans across the world, it’s insulting to the very core of the character himself.

The fact that Dr.Octopus at the end of the comic says that he will be a better Spiderman than Peter has ever been is insulting the character on every known plane of his existence. No one can be a better Spiderman than Peter Parker, because he is Spiderman. That’s like saying James Rhodes could be a better Ironman than Tony Stark, which you’d be a fool to think since Ironman exists because of Tony Stark. There’s a reason these iconic characters are brought to life through these individuals lives, they are these characters & that’s it.

So going into January with THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1 is a tough pill to swallow for many fans right now. I was cool with Peter Parker dying in the ULTIMATES version of comics, because that was some bizarro character that I didn’t care for ‘cause it wasn’t main continuity. Hell you could make ULTIMATE Peter Parker into a guy who swings around in a ballerina suit & I wouldn’t care—-as long as they left my Peter Parker alone. 

But they didn’t. I don’t understand why both Spiderman titles feel the need to erase Peter Parker from the equation. Apparently they wanted a darker & edgier Spiderman comic, but isn’t that what the symbiote is for? I love Spiderman BECAUSE he’s happy, light-hearted & hilarious. If I wanted brooding I’d go read Batman or Spawn. Lemme put it into a different way for you to understand how I feel about this.

Imagine if MARVEL comics was a restaurant & Spiderman was a very well made dish that everyone loved to order because it tasted great & never let them down. Now imagine you went to go eat at your favorite restaurant & order the Spiderman spaghetti ‘cause you know it’s really good. Suddenly upon being given your food you’re handed a hamburger with roasted calamari in it. You’re confused by why they’d change such a delicious meal & you ask the waiter why they would do such a thing. 

The waiter might say, “Oh y’know to shake things up a bit.” Or “We were getting tired of making the same thing.” Either way you’re confused, annoyed & disappointed that they’d change something that didn’t need changing at all. You still paid for it but it doesn’t help with leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Now you’re questioning if it’s even worth going back to the restaurant if you can’t even get what you always came in for.

But you know that in about 6 months to 1 years time everything should return to status quo, at least you hope so. This is how I view this decision really. 

I’m starting to think that the overwhelming influences of darkness from other comics & movies are what somewhat influenced this decision. The Dark Knight trilogy is infamously known for being gritty & realistic which inevitably spawned every Hollywood agency into making more realistic comic films. This is great to an extent but it almost tarnishes the properties in a sense as well with this constant need for realism.

Look at the new Spiderman movie that just came out, it’s a re-telling of something that didn’t need to be retold whatsoever. It’s not a bad movie, not by a longshot, but the film relies a little too much on trying to be gritty & dark like the Nolan Batman films when it doesn’t have to be. The Avengers is the only comic book movie this year I can completely say I actually loved because it celebrated that quirkiness of comic books without losing what it is.

A comic book.

What I’m getting at is that Spiderman doesn’t need to be a dark & brooding character. The point to Spiderman is that he’s the kind of character that holds so much regret & sadness within him but ascends above it all with his heroic perseverance. After the death of Uncle Ben, Gwen & Captain Stacy among others he’s lived through it all & refused to back down from being the hero that society needs. It’s that beautiful balance that makes the character so legendary & immortal in his 50 years of existence.

I’m not trying to bash Dan Slott or anyone else involved with this book, I’m still excited about it. But it doesn’t mean I can’t be a little cautious or god forbid pissed that they killed my favorite character in literary existence. What annoys me more is the after effects of what this entire decision to make Octavius into Spiderman could spawn from.

Let’s theoretically say that Peter Parker eventually becomes Spiderman again & Octavius becomes, well Octavius again. If after this point Octavius goes back to his “status quo” of being a bad guy after spending so much time as Spiderman, I’ll face palm in total frustration. Because then I’ll know that this is just a stunt for money & if the character of Octavius doesn’t learn anything from being his greatest foe & just eventually becomes evil again, this is pardon my language absolutely retarded.

I can’t see Octavius just returning to being himself after this whole shebang is over & done with. First off, his body is dead & shrivelled up like a prune. So if Dan Slott somehow bait & switches this with somewhat bringing back Octavius, I can’t respect that sort of artistic integrity. I mean this also isn’t the first time a villain of Spiderman has become him. 

It was called Kraven’s Last Hunt & it made total sense since Kraven was dying. 

But it’s just annoying knowing that this will all return to status quo & it’ll mean nothing. The only way I’m okay with this “Freaky Friday” idea here is if Peter is still alive & is Spiderman but Octavius’s personality is infused with his own. So technically Spiderman is still alive but his greatest villain sometimes gets the best of him & takes over his mind or something. That could be cool, or totally idiotic ‘n’ eye roll worthy. 

Nevertheless I’m not happy with the decision thus far & I find it ridiculous that Marvel feels the need to kill their best characters only to revive them months later. I mean Captain America got shot in the head, he’s totally good now. Remember Human Torch sacrificing himself to save the rest of The Fantastic Four? Well he’s currently in a spaceship full of kids in a Nation Lampoons family vacation scenario right now.

It’s just all bananas & I really think comic books are better than this. Why not make some new villains & new stories without removing the most integral part of the equation? Why do we need to rely on these scenarios? Superman died & then returned because human death doesn’t apply to him. Batman died for a little bit too & he’s totally fine.

I mean at least with Batman if Bruce can’t be The Dark Knight for a bit he has a extended family of characters that can make up for his absence in a heartbeat. Nightwing can look after Gotham if Bruce really needs to catch up on his reading or whatever else he wants to do. I can understand it in Batman’s situation, he has extras.

Spiderman doesn’t have anyone. He’s his own character & that’s it. Sure he has Scarlet Spider or Daredevil to look after the streets for him, but they’re their own characters that don’t fit into the mantle of Spiderman as easily as Nightwing would to Batman. I don’t want anyone else as Spiderman but Peter Parker, that’s the bottom line.

But that’s my opinion on this whole ridiculous situation that Marvel has created right now. Probably the one thing that makes me the most angry is knowing that the guy kissing Mary Jane in the photo above….is Dr.Octopus. So if they have sex & Mary Jane doesn’t know it’s Peter, is it technically rape?

My head is full of Jackie Chan’s looking confused right now, I need a drink. Thanks for reading guys, I’m going to go read some older issues of Spiderman to help soften the blow. Until next time, have a glorious day.

By: MILAN JEGENJAN