Happy Iron Man release day! JT here with my first review of the week and it's a big one, Superior Spider-Man #9! With Doc Ock aware that Peter's still in his head somewhere, he sets out to remove the lingering remnants of Peter Parker.
Summary: This issue starts off with Ock getting ready to erase the remaining brain waves of Peter Parker, but first tells his pet robot to erase Peter's remaining memories from the Gold Ockbot that we all remember from ASM #700. He tries to erase Peter's memories remotely but Peter fights back, so Doc decides to go into his mind, where we see Peter and Otto face off. Peter uses his memories of MJ, Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, Captain Stacy, Jameson and his other friends and family to fight Otto, but Otto uses what he knows of Peter's villains and insecurities to combat them. He even has a burglar shoot Uncle Ben, which causes Peter to forget his name, and others as those memories are killed. An enrages Peter rips his face away to reveal Spider-Man, and takes Doc down. He cites that a hero would have given Peter his life back, the hero Doc promised he'd be, but his first reaction was to get rid of Peter when he found his consciousness, as well as killing enemies. Otto, down but not out, rips his face away as we see the Superior Spider-Man, and the two Spidey's fight one another. Dock says Peter's no saint, as Doc's been cleaning up his messes. He notes that if Peter had killed Massacre, he wouldn't have hurt the people he did when he got out of prison, if he'd done away with Vulture, he wouldn't have used kids to do his bidding. Lastly, he mentions that Peter's interference almost stopped him from saving a small girl during that surgery and asks Peter why he did it. Peter said he was afraid Doc would mess up, but he tells him he can see his thoughts and to stop lying. Peter says he knew Doc would find him and dispose of him if he got the helmet and he couldn't have that. Doc says Peter is no hero and no one to lecture him, and he defeats Peter, then his world comes crashing down around him as Peter forgets everything, even his name, the suddenly it's just blackness. The issue ends with Doc Ock once again in Peter's body, saying that he's free.
Thoughts: I REALLY enjoyed this issue. I know some people didn't but I loved seeing Peter lose, because for one, it's far from over, and for two, we get what we expected from issue one, Doc Ock is Spider-Man now, simple as that. I'm interested in seeing what happens when he runs into Green Goblin now. Most importantly, this causes two questions, one, with Peter's memories gone, is this Doc's downfall? Does he remember anything of Peter's now that he didn't already know? Because if so, this could lead to him messing up in the near future. Secondly, how does Peter come back? His thoughts aren't in his body any more, and the Ock-Bot was supposedly erased, so how will he come back? Slott obviously has a plan up his sleeve, and unless he's in the robot now, I have no idea what it could be. All in all, I enjoyed this issue and I look forward to seeing what Doc Parker will do now that he has 100% control of his actions.
Score: 9/10
I was less than impressed because it solves nothing. If this was the end of it then what was the point of introducing ghost Peter? We already know Peter wouldn't approve of Doc Ock's actions so the narration was unnecessary. But, we all know ghost Peter isn't really gone. It will come down to something like Peter (an therefore, any notion of self) is more than just a collection of memories.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, if Peter won it would have been lame. It would have been just a cheap gimmick where some big event had amounted to a 10-issue side story that went back to the status quo.
DeleteThat's actually why I liked it. Bringing Peter back was basically them testing the waters so if the series bombed they could bring him back soon, when they saw People would buy it anyway with Ock at the helm, they probably decided to go with the initial plan. Plus, everyone probably expected it was a matter of time until Peter got his body back after Issue one, so this was another great way to swerve the fans so they don't know what to expect.
DeleteI LOVED this issue. I know you were telling me about people really ticked off about this issue but the hell with them. If they are a real comic reader they know most things are never forever int he comic world. I mean come on now, how many times has Sueprman and Wonder Woman died? lol. Exactly.
ReplyDeleteI loved the steps Doc Oct took to rid Peter forever, well at least for now. I almost felt sad for Peter, then I remembered how much I love Doc Oct being Spider-Man lol. I can't wait until the next issue. Hopefully it's a long, long while before they bring Peter back lol. Great review bay.
I actually liked it! Basically, it's truthfully what I wanted to happen from the start. My whole problem with this series so far has been that I've never been able to buy Doc Ock's motivations, since he seems to veer from hero to villain with no real rhyme or reason. Slott's insistence that he was inspired to be a hero thanks to Peter's influence/memories never worked for me (and I don't think ever really worked as well in practice, given the aforementioned veering). So, I'm actually excited to see what Doc does now that he's freed from Peter! I also wonder how Peter will eventually return. After all, we know that the Carlie sub-plot is really there to engineer a return, so Slott's already written himself a back door. I wonder how we're going to walk through it.
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