Update: The writer responsible for this powerful story arc has admitted to receiving numerous death threats via Twitter and
Facebook about his decision.
Update 2: Superior Spider-Man #1, the new series that spins off Amazing Spider-Man #700, hits the shelves January 9th!
Big fat spoiler alert! If you have not read Amazing Spider-Man #700, do NOT go beyond this sentence unless you want me to really ruin the story for you. Here goes:
So really, what the heck is Marvel doing to Spiderman?!? I mentioned in
our post about our favorite nerds that Peter Parker was mine, and ended my paragraph of reasons why with the debatably Oscar-worthy line: "We may not be superheroes, but there's a bit of Peter Parker in all of us."
Apparently, that's not good enough for Marvel anymore, because in issue #700 of Amazing Spider-Man, they killed Peter Parker off. It was a tense story with lots of emotions so if you haven't read it, I'll give you the short version: Otto Octavious - you know him as Dr. Octopus - is dying. In a last-ditch effort to escape death, he creates a brain-swapping device that literally puts his brain and personality into Peter's body, and vice-versa. Through a series of unsurprising moves, Peter/Doc Ock manages to escape the island of a prison he's in, meet up with Hydroman and The Scorpion and goes on a crusade to get his body back. The problem is, he's got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. This makes things like walking and speaking coherently extremely difficult, not to mention trying to out-wit a nemesis who knows all his moves. If that weren't enough, everyone in the world thinks he's Dr. Octopus. Because he is.
Confused yet?
Rather than end the story on a high note, with everything working out and Spidey saving the day just in the nick of time, Marvel decided to end it in a gut-wrenching, OMG-how-could-you-do-that note: Peter fails. Sort of. Through a telepathic link between the two, we see Peter live out his final seconds in Otto's body, pouring all his experiences, tragedies, loves and losses, into Otto's brain, essentially causing him to have a last-minute change of heart and choose to take on the mantle of Spider-Man willingly. Peter even seems to give him his blessing, dying with that iconic phrase on his lips: "With great power..."
It was an interesting story, to say the least. Marvel knew they were taking a risk with this one, but killing off a character is nothing new (cough-Jean Grey-cough). In fact, it's been done with Spider-Man before, though that was in the Ultimate universe and they replaced him with a middle-school kid. I'm telling you, reading anything from Marvel these days requires a willingness to suspend common sense for awhile.
The difference here is that it seems to cement itself as a permanent (or at least long-term) change in the pages of our favorite Spidey issues, because with #700, they gave way to a brand new series: "Superior" Spider-Man. Not kidding, that's the actual title. Truthfully, that's what ticks me off. Though Otto seemed to have a change of heart, the last panels of ASM #700 still show his arrogance. He vows to match his new powers with his "unparalleled" intellect to become a "better Spider-Man than you ever were." He's a good guy now, but he's not.
So honestly, I'm a mess of emotions over this. I would love to see Dr. Octopus become a solid world-class hero, and frankly, out of all the villains to replace Peter, he'd be the best choice. But at the same time, why can't we just leave Peter Parker alone? The guy has been through so much and could never catch a break. Or maybe this time, he finally has?
What say, you? Sound off in the comments if you like.
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