Superior Spider-Man
by J.D. Cook
The first Annual Comic Book Commentary is commenting on…The Superior Spider-Man
Most people were outraged when Dan Slott put Dr. Otto Octavius consciousness inside of Peter Parker’s body. There were even some people sending him death threats apparently. Those people need to seriously re-read their Spider-Man issues and realize that sending someone death threats is totally not what good old mild manner Peter Parker would ever do. It’s a bit ironic that people like that even read Spider-Man. Anyway I was not one of the vocal protestors on this one; unlike with a certain Mandarin incident in Iron Man 3. The more I read of the Superior Spider-Man the more impressed I was. Slott is clearly an extremely talented writer. Dare I say genius? What he’s done is completely meta! He’s taken Spider-man and turned the audience against him! We used to read the book and root for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man but now when I and many others read the comic we root against Spider-Man. We want to see him beaten and defeated because we know the truth whereas no one else in the Marvel Universe really does.
Essentially Dan Slott has turned the audience into…J. Jonah Jameson. We’re suddenly the angry ones writing editorials about how much we hate the Superior Spider-Man and what a menace he is! While in the comic itself Spider-Man is almost fully accepted for the first time in his history. Even by…J. Jonah Jameson the new mayor of New York! It’s probably why Dan Slott is suddenly crossing over Superior Spider-Man with other heroes because hopefully he knows that readers want to see the Superior Spider-Man in danger of losing and being discovered for the fraud he is. We want to see Spider-Man 2099 wallop on him and say ‘you’re not the real PETER PARKER!’ Besides that I must note how entertaining it is to picture the Superior Spider-Man talking like the voice actor for Dr. Octopus in the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon show I grew up with. Slott does an awesome job of making Superior Spider-Man really sound like Octavius inside of Parker instead of just a new Parker.
Unfortunately on the flip side while I totally admire the genius of his writing. I can understand why people are still upset. I mean Spider-Man is one of the top 3 best super heroes up there with Superman and Batman. So naturally people are super attached to him as Peter Parker but I’m sure Marvel and Slott knew the backlash would be epic press and it has been. Finally to those frustrated right now I’d say with almost complete certainty that Peter Parker will be back and that it will be AMAZING (see what I did there)when he returns! You see turning the audience against Spider-Man and making him a villain only works if eventually the real Parker comes back to his life and finds it utterly transformed. I mean how would you feel if you lost control of your body and when you returned few to anybody knew you left and the imposter completely improved almost everything you had. Then imagine the reaction of the Marvel Universe as Spider-Man slowly slips back to being good old Parker.
Its exciting stuff and I can’t wait to see what Slott has up his sleeves when Venom comes to town in November. I’m just going to be pretty damn bummed if Flash 
Thompson loses the Symbiote which looks pretty likely judging from the upcoming covers. (Thankfully I did my big top 7 Arcs of Venom Volume 2 in order to find closure with my favorite jock turned war hero turned super hero). That said I’ll have no problem with it story wise because it’s a writers prerogative to do as they wish with the characters that inhabit the universes they control…they wouldn’t be writers if they couldn’t and that’s another reason why I don’t ever get mad about what Slott or any writer does in any medium. Even if I don’t agree with it and rant against it like with Iron Man 3 (which I’m happy to announce I’ve actually come to terms with recently) I completely think writers should be free to make whatever decisions they wish to. If they weren’t free to do what they wanted especially in comic books we’d get nothing but the same material constantly regurgitated.
Alright that’s my first Comic Book Commentary of the modern age. Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to argue In the Comments! The next article in the series will be released every ‘Thor’s Day’ from now on!
