Wednesday Comics: Amazing Spider-Man #700 and Superior Spider-Man #1

This review will be short.

It will also be full of spoilers, so if you don't know the shocking twists, please turn away now.

Okay.  You were warned.

The bold new twist that has occurred in Spider-Man comics is this:  Doctor Otto Octavious aka Doctor Octopus contracted cancer.  He then switched bodies with Peter Parker and began living his life.  Peter tried to switch bodies back, but only managed to get a little bit of his memories back in and then he died.

Let me write this again: Peter Parker died in the cancerous body of Doc Ock.

And now Ock has been infected with some of Peter's thoughts and sentiments.  He felt Peter's memories, so that his loss of Uncle Ben and the feeling of doing good felt like his own.  To that end, "Otto Parker" has vowed to carry on the role of Spider-Man in his own fashion as the Superior Spider-Man.

Bold?  Yes.

Awful?  Hell yes.

First of all, even if it wasn't obvious that Peter was coming back, this is a terrible death for Marvel's flagship character.  He may as well have his neck broken and stuffed in a fridge.

And the "Otto Parker" brings nothing to the table.  For a few panels, it's interesting to see how he approaches the new Secret Six, but then it becomes boring?  Why?  Because Otto Octavious is insufferable.  Some of the best moments in Spider-Man stories is when Spidey would put the inflated Doc Ock in his place.  But now he's supposed be some kind of hero, but one we don't like, care about, or want to win.

Oh, and the ghost of Peter's memories is lingering in "Otto Parker" stopping the Superior Spider-Man from doing things like killing.  It's dreadful.

On a creepy note, "Otto Parker" is trying to get into Mary Jane's pants.  The comic shows him often leering at her physique.  But as my comic book guy pointed out, if he pretends to be Peter and has sex with her, that is technically rape.  They would need to change the title to The Superior Spider-Perv.

This would at least be tolerable with a good writer.  But Dan Slot's overly wordy script and pointless plot twist wear on you.

Honestly, I think this may go down in history as worse than the Clone Saga.

It's that bad.

1/2 out of 5 stars.