The Superior Spider-Man's thoughts on the Bat-Signal

[flint_marko]

 

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Comments

[chrisdv]

I choose to believe it's just because the Bat Signal came first & Otto's just a petty little man wearing someone else's body like a suit.

[starwolf_oakley]

There was something like this in BATMAN: YEAR TWO, IIRC. A group of criminals think they can pull off a heist, because if the Bat-signal is on that means Batman is headed for police HQ and won't be there to stop them. They are very, very wrong.

[theflames]

Though... chances are they should've been right. I mean, he always seems to go to the HQ...

[captainbellman]

I'm willing to believe, for the purposes of the story, that the location of the heist was on the way there.

[starwolf_oakley]

Reading the story (specifically DETECTIVE COMICS #575), I was wrong. The bat-signal was on, but the crooks just thought they were too small time for Batman to bother with.

[sigmund_droid]

I love how he calls him an idiot and then not an idiot.

[espanolbot]

The idea is meant to be that it reminds him that he's out there, not an automatic "come here now!" thing for Batman to respond to. As they said in the Dark Knight, if he doesn't respond it means he's busy.

Also Batman is a better character than Spider-Man most of the time anyway, but that's just my opinion.

[ablackraptor]

True I was going to say something to that effect, that the signal's more about reminding them he's there then say 'hey, come here!'

Well, in fairness, they're two very different characters that fill different niches. Batman's more crime noir and mystery mixed with superheroics among other things, and Spider-Man's more coming-of-age mixed with superheroics and aesops about growing up. Its hard to really say which is better because they're both too different. If you compared Static Shock and Spider-Man, or Mon Knight and Batman, then you could make arguments about which is better, as both are similar to the other.
Just my thouhts on the matter, back to being me.

[glprime]

Totally tangential to almost everything, but I wouldn't respond to calls for face-to-face meetings either. 21st century vigilante; voice conference for strategic pow wows, texts for anything else that's worth knowing about. Otherwise you do your thing, I do my thing.

Also as they said in DKR: "...A friend that allows you to keep your hands clean..."

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I like the way that, unlike Peter, Ock knows how to play to Jameson's ego.

...or just that doing so is probably a better idea than antagonizing him, anyway.

[nezchan]

...and by the next day, once he's calmed down a bit, veteran newspaperman Jamieson realizes that Spider-Man's entire persona has suddenly changed and starts getting people to dig around for more info.

Or at least thats how a story I'd want to read would go.

[mrstatham]

Yeah, I would actually like people to realise that this Spider-Man is actually a despicable piece of shit, given his actions as both Peter and Spider-Man, but that would be asking the citizens of the Marvel Universe to develop a brain cell or two unless they're blessed with editorial backing.

[nezchan]

Personally I'd love to see this as a story about Otto arrogantly thinking he's pulling the wool over everyone's eyes, while the real focus is on everyone around him twigging to the fact that something has just radically changed, and finding their own ways to deal with it. From what I've seen here, I'd find the actions of the supporting cast way more interesting than that of the lead.

[kingofmadcows]

So I guess everyone on that rooftop is now blind.

[an_idol_mind]

While I don't hate this direction overall, I'd prefer it if we could see more of a blend of Otto and Peter's personality. So far it's all Otto, with Peter's personality only surfacing as a plot device. I'd be more on board with a long-term amalgamation of the two personalities.

[mastermahan]

I'm quite accepting of this whole storyline, but I simply can't believe this new status with J. Jonah Jameson. This is JJJ, the guy who devoted a huge amount of city funds into harassing an Avenger with an Anti-Spider Squad. His hatred of Spider-Man has never been particularly rational, and calling a couple press conferences and recovering something stolen from a building named after his late wife shouldn't make his suspicions about masked vigilantes just disappear.

[flint_marko]

I think it was punching off Scorpion's jaw that won him over.

[captainbellman]

Kudos to your choice of avatar. Call me a simpering fan of James Cromwell's acting talent (it's almost as if it's proportionate to his stature!), but I really missed Dr. Arden in those final few episodes. I equally loved how they killed the old bastard, but still - having him around to make a few more dry, sarcastic quips in "Continuum" might have been nice.

[captainbellman]

Keeping in mind the final truth of this video (no, not the one about pie), I think the message being pushed (clumsily) in this haphazard mess of a story-arc is that, contrary to what OMD, BND, and OMIT have told you, Spider-Man *can* be allowed to develop into a mature adult!...providing that said mature adult is a creepy sociopath.

And, to a smaller extent, that Otto Otavius *can* be a heroic figure...so long as he is written as a character who bears little or no similarity, at ALL, to any previous portrayal of Doctor Octopus...even the ones that were poorly written.

It takes grand skill to be able to completely misunderstand and mis-write TWO iconic and beloved characters in one go. Not even Loeb managed that during his Ultimate Universe tenure, and he pretty much ruined everything single-handedly there.