Amazing Spider-Man #700

[cyberghostface]

Dying in Dr. Octopus' body, Spidey confronts Ock (in his body) one last time. Peter is unable to transfer his consciousness back, but as his life flashes before his eyes Ock receives them as well via their mental link, with himself in place of Peter in them.



Ock (still in Spidey's body) tells Spidey he doesn't want this, and asks how he can do what Spidey does. Spidey (in Ock's body) tells him that he has to, because with great power...



But "Ock" is dead.





While this will probably last as long as Captain America's death did, I actually like the idea of a (reformed?) Ock as Spider-Man. I think there's a lot of potential with this idea and I'm definitely on board for Superior Spider-Man.

So I'm surprised to say this, but kudos to Slott. I'm looking forward to see where Ock!Spidey goes from here.

EDIT: There's an interesting write-up here.

Comments

[bardbrain]

Guys, guys. This isn't a permanent death.

This is just how the writer maneuvers Peter into a direct confrontation with Mephisto, builds up Doc Ock, kills off Kaine, and sets things up both for the real Peter and Mary Jane to be back together and for Spider-man to be an outlaw again.

This is the end of part one.

By the time this is over, we'll see dead Peter vs. Mephisto. Kaine will die. We'll probably at least see Ben Reilly again.

The whole idea here is constructing an epic out of things people hate, old and new. And that's what having a continuity lets a writer do.

[silverhammerman]

I would totally read that story of yours, it sounds pretty interesting. However, I think that if that's really the direction that Marvel is going with though, they should really make that clear as soon as possible. Because that's a cool story, I want to read that, but I'm still not at all interested in the whole Spider-Ock concept and I'm not going to read a book in the hopes that it will eventually change to be more to my liking. I'm not sure I'd want to see Kaine die though, I think his series is pretty good, so killing him off would be a bit of a waste.

[bardbrain]

We'll see.

My money is on any reveal happening late in Super Spider-man #1 or Superior #2. #2 would be smarter commercially because second issues always have a sales slump. They not only sell less than #1's but often sell less than #3's.

The flipside is, it probably means a very lengthy subplot that involves Peter in Hell... probably including an obligatory moment where he decides he belongs there and doesn't want to leave.

I think a story like this, done right, is all about approaching disturbing, dark, and icky story beats and then averting them climbing out of them.

That's great when a writer does that. It's just that online fandom seems to have PTSD from past disappointments and doesn't trust writers to do that.

[darkknightjrk]

That sounds good, up until Kaine dying. I've liked what I've read of him in Scarlet Spider.

[bardbrain]

Well, keep in mind that Slott brought Kaine back. I think he did so based on the idea that it was a limited run thing that he could let another writer play with... and then has other plans that Kaine will get folded back into.

I think Kaine is a big part of the meta-arc though and that we may well see Kaine with Peter's mind or even as a vehicle that Ben Reilly's soul winds up attached to by the end.

It helps that Kaine is a tragic figure. I think Slott had a tragic end to Kaine's story in mind the minute he brought him back and that his use so far is largely to set him up for a preordained role later in the story.

[cyberghostface]

Actually it was Marc Guggenheim who brought him back. What Slott did was (thankfully) change Kaine back from being the "Tarantula", some hairy spidey creature with eight eyes.

[big_daddy_d]

Except for the killing off Kaine part. I happen to love the new Scarlet Spider book.