"Dying Wish: Suicide Run"
Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Humberto Ramos
Inks: Victor Olazaba
Colors: Edgar Delgado
"Spider-Dreams"
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Pencils: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inks: Sal Buscema
Colors: Antonio Fabela
"Date Night: A Black Cat Storybook Adventure!"
Writer: Jen Van Meter
Pencils: Stephanie Buscema
People who worked on the whole book...
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel Comics (Dan Buckley)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: December 26th, 2012
Okay, on to the actual review. To start...for everyone...pay attention....THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!! Seriously, you have been warned.
Now that those of you are gone that shouldn't be here...this was a wonderful book. As you can see from the intro, there were three stories balled into a 104 page book with all of the variant covers added to the back pages, all of the covers for all of the Amazing Spider-Man run AND letters that were answered by Stan Lee himself. So before you snub at the price tag, it is well worth it. When I picked the thing up it felt like a magazine in my hands.
On to the actual story. We pick up with Doc Ock in the body of Peter Parker. He is spending some time with M.J. which some people are saying is insanely wrong because he is tricking her. I am torn here considering he has all of Peter's memories AND Doc Ock is sort of a dick. So it makes sense that he would put some moves on the lovely Mary Jane Watson.
Peter, still in Doc Ock's body, is not having as good of a time. He and his group of villains are not doing too well keeping him kicking. He actually flatlines briefly for a wonderful sequence in "heaven" that shows him interacting with all of the people he has lost throughout the series. It was pretty powerful. I applaud Slott for this moment every time I have read it (I am up to four reads now...)
Peter Decides that the only way for him to get his body back is to use the golden Octobot that Ock used against him in the first place and he goes to steal it from the police headquarters. Once he has it in hand he goes to Avengers Tower for his final showdown with Doc Ock. Doc Ock, now Spider-Man, holds Peter's friends hostage to urge him into the final fight which starts to show how Ock acts in the body, until he protects Aunt May from Scorpion. He starts to have flashbacks from Peter's past which shakes him heavily.
The fight leads to fall out of a window where Peter gets his final chance to use the Octobot which Doc Ock was ready for and defends his neck against. Peter lays on the ground, dying while he forces Doc Ock to remember his whole life because he realizes that he has access to them and if he sees all of the memories he will not be able to be such a violent man anymore and that he will fight for the greater good.
As the title states, Peter has a dying wish. He is stuck in Doc Ock's body as it gives up on him and he makes Doc Ock, "forever" trapped in Peters body, promise that he will be Spider-Man. That he will protect everyone. Surprisingly, Doc Ock agrees and he takes on the mantel of Superior Spider-Man.
Whew...that is a lot of book to rehash. I really like how they handled it and I think that it is an interesting way to move Spider-Man forward. I am not sure how long Superior will last and if they will find a way to put Peter back into his body after he is gone...it is Marvel after all and they do bring people back frequently. I think the fact that Doc Ock is in Peter's body and still retains all of his memories makes it so that he is sort of two people and that he is still somewhat Peter Parker.
Regardless, if you are a Spidey fan or a fan of comics and you want to keep reading Spider-Man this is a definite pick up. The book is well done, penciled by one of my favorite Spidey artists Humberto Ramos and it was a great conclusion to the highest numbered Marvel title ever. The two stories that followed were also fun reads but I wont go in depth with them. They are an added bonus at the end of an already long and great tale.
So now I sit here, a week away from the first issue of Superior Spider-Man and I grow anxious. This book made one of my favorite superheroes ever even more interesting. This whole time I said that I had faith in Dan Slott and he did not let me down. Kudos good sir, now let's see what the future brings.
I think it's so much more than Doc Ock simply being in Peter's body with all his memories. Memories are nothing more than files on a hard drive. What Dan Slott explores here is a more philosophical question: 'what makes us, us?' When Peters attempt to fully transfer himself failed he used the orb to beam his core essence, his soul, over to Otto. Otto then didn't just see the memories, he FELT them, as Peter does. He realizes Peter would do it all again: "Even ME? Saving my life?" Then Peters all important reply: "Yes! It's who I--WE are".
ReplyDeleteSo did Peter Parker die? Perhaps a consciousness born of Peter Parkers soul did. However the very essence of Peter Parker, the core of what so many fans have related to and loved for the last 50 years, did not.
Yet amidst all this is Slott's greatest trick. He killed the Amazing Spider-Man, and it was Peter Parker who killed him, the moment he throws himself and Otto out the window with the intent of killing him. So in the end it really was the end of The Amazing Spider-Man.
That is an incredible way to look at it. It gave me a different insight when I did my fifth read-through. I do agree that it is the death of the "Amazing" Spider-Man but I think it is a good start to a new type of Spider-Man. Perhaps a darker one. I am not saying that they are going to stick with the Doc Ock thing forever, but I really do think that it will be an interesting arc in the history of Spider-Man.
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