Superior Spider-Man #10

[cyberghostface]

Given that this is basically the start of the new "wave" for the title given that Ock is now in complete control having banished Pete last issue, a lot goes on.

So MJ's nightclub is being ambushed by Vulture's minions now working for the Green Goblin.


But "Peter" is having dessert with his new tutor Ana-Maria and doesn't hear the call. During, she ends up spilling some dry ice that almost burns her but Peter catches it with his hands.

Comments

[stillanerd]

I cannot help but see an utter train-wreck in works for Doc Ock's new relationship with Anna Maria. It fact, I would say it will potentially be even more devastating for Anna Maria than it would have been for Mary Jane had Doc Ock not broken it off with her. Because not only is Anna Maria convinced that this is who Peter really is like, Doc Ock is treating her with love and respect regardless of her dwarfism, perhaps for the first time in her life. It's not just going to be heartbreaking for her but utterly tragic.

Speaking of relationships, could Pedro the Firefighter be any more of an all-too obvious replacement love interest for Mary Jane without having the words "replacement love interest" stamped across his fire hat? Clearly, the guy is designed to remind MJ of Peter--the guy who she still is very much in love with--and if these two do end up getting together, he's probably is not going to like that fact, especially since he has the same name as her "ex."

And, after this issue, I'm leaning even more into notion that the Green Goblin is actually Peter Parker in Norman Osborn's body. And yes, I'm actually being serious. Ask yourself this--out of all the spider-bots the Green Goblin could've hacked, he specifically chooses the one patrolling outside of Mary Jane's nightclub, something even the Kid Goblins wonder about. And notice that the Kid-Goblins weren't actually ordered to firebomb the club. That was something they decided to do on their own once they realized the spider-bot couldn't detect them. And we also know the spider-bot was deactivated because all the landlines and wireless connections at the club were also disabled. My guess, if the Green Gobliln really is Peter, maybe he deactivated the spider-bot in a misguided attempt to protect MJ from Doc Ock. But when the fire happened, that's when I think the Goblin, realizing what the Kid-Goblins did but not wanting to draw suspicion, reactivated the spider-bot. Hence why SpOck was able to detect the spider-bot at MJ's club and send a dispatch to the fire department, in spite of the fact that the issue clearly established it was deactivated.

And think about this? Notice that the Green Goblin is gathering up all the minions of the super-villains but no actual super-villains themselves. What's more, he's actually getting them off the street under the pretext that he'll "protect them from the Spider." One could say that this Green Goblin is doing more to reduce crime by doing that than what Sp-Ock is doing.
end of spoilers

[nefrekeptah]

I think you're kinda really stretching it there. Never mind the obvious question of "how on earth did THAT happen," there's also the problem that if Norman didn't want the kids to attack the club, why did he send them in the first place? He's got plenty of other henchmen that wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. No, I think it's more likely that he did send those kids to firebomb the place, as a message to SpOck.

EDIT: Also, I don't think Otto got that call from one of his bots - if I remember correctly, he's also connected to police and emergency lines. If it was an octo-bot, he might be more concerned, as from the scans here he doesn't seem to realize what that call actually means.

[stillanerd]

Oh, I admit this theory is a long shot, and one of the big monkey wrenches is the Green Goblin is still using the Vulture's kid underlinings. As for how Peter could have gotten into Norman Osborn's body, let's not forget Julia Carpenter was in the same hospital as Norman. After all, just because she's in a coma doesn't mean she still can't use her psychic powers or be aware of what's going on. Remember the scene where Norman Osborn mysteriously disappeared in Amazing Spider-Man #697? One possibility is that was actually a Flashforward taking place shortly after Amazing Spider-Man #700 and that Slott made made it to look like it was taking place at the same time as issue #697 in order to hide the twist. Perhaps Julia was able to reach out and grab Peter's astral form/soul right at the moment he died in issue #700 and into her mind, then placed Peter into the nearest body, which was Norman Osborn--who if you recall was rendered comatose and was practically a vegetable after what happened to him in New Avengers when his Super-Adaptoid powers overloaded his brain.

Also, in the very next page (which is not in the scans) Doc Ock mentions to the police of "There was a scheduling conflict. A fire across town. I rerouted the alert to the fire department." That not only suggests that he received one alert about Tombstone and another alert about the fire at MJ's club at the same time and chose Tombstone as a higher priority, but it also means the spider-bot at that club was active. But as these scans show, it had been deactivated as evidenced by no one being able to make a phone call. Which means it had to have been turned back on at some point.

[jlroberson]

The only thing Peter would do if he were in Norman Osborn's body is walk into a furnace.

[shadowpsykie]

I was going to make a Gwen Stacy joke.... but ... eh probably my cynicism towards spider-man since final issue of omd start of bnd.... ( though despite hitches, I like the current arc)

[darkknightjrk]

Nah, I think he'd need a REALLY long rope for that idea of suicide to work.

[stillanerd]

Oh, and another reason why the Green Goblin DIDN'T send the Goblin-Kids to firebomb Mary Jane's nightclub? Take a closer look at their conversation:

GOBLIN KID 1: Can't believe the new boss sent us here. We told him the Spider keeps an eye on this place.

GOBLIN KID 2: (Waving hand in front of spider-bot) Hm. Maybe that's why. Look. Nuthin'

In other words, they don't actually know why the Green Goblin sent them to that particular location and that particular spider-bot. And once they found out they didn't show up on the spider-bot, they decided to firebomb the nightclub just for the hell of it

[nefrekeptah]

Or he DID and the Goblin kids weren't sure if it would work.

Or he told them to firebomb the place, and didn't tell them the Spider-Bots wouldn't work.

Both are equally possible, and far more likely.

[gojirag]

You just blew my fucking mind

[stillanerd]

Thanks.

[seisachtheia]

Hm. You know, I think I'd like this whole story/arc/thing a lot more if it were a movie or a mutli-part episode of a TV show. Because man, there are some really interesting ideas and cool things to play with , but it's somehow much more enjoyable when you know that it's all going to be resolved (one way or another) within a certain (and relatively short) time-frame. That helps keep the anxiety of "how badly is this going to go wrong for X characters that I love" down. (I really want to make comparisons here to Farscape, what with its main character going insane with a side order of having his personality overwritten by that of the villain. ) WIth the open-ended nature of this kind of comic story, plus the publishing schedule, the same story you could tell in two to fiveish hours in a film medium could take anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years. And that's a long time to be on tenterhooks.

[md84]

The universe would truly have to be a cruel and unfair place for Kid!Loki to last a mere 32 issues while Superior Spiderman gets to stay for good.

[beoweasel]

I dunno, if the Young Avengers scans above suggest anything, it's that Kid!Loki is playing the conscience to Loki at the moment, seems to a thing now. :P

[cyberghostface]

Not caught up with that but it's not so much the actual Kid Loki is it? More like a representation of Loki's guilt?

[md84]

Correct. Kid!Loki was totally annihilated when his memory set was overwritten by Loki's. It's still a huge deal that Loki even has a guilty conscience at all. A pity he's trying his best to ignore it.

[big_daddy_d]

I almost ship Ock and Anna, except I see little evidence of his redemption and let's not forget the obvious issue staring us in the face. I fear this is going to end heartbreakingly for Anna, not unless Ock truly redeems himself and wants to make a go at being a good guy once everything goes back to normal.

[cyberghostface]

Well I don't know about redemption, but in his own way Ock is trying to better himself and feels remorse over his past crimes. It's not like say when Mac Gargan was playing Spider-Man. He just has a warped sense of morality.

[md84]

Ock's attempts at reform ring hollow since he's still benefiting from his crime. I hope that Ock eventually realizes that himself and works to fix that.

[grazzt]

To be fair, I think Doc Ock's girlfriends have a better survival rate than, say, Daredevil or Batman's.

[darkknightjrk]

It's possible--I get the feeling that once Peter gets his body back, Ock is going to be put in a younger version of his old body and he'll have a go as a sort-of scientist superhero like Hank Pym and the ilk.

[captainbellman]

I can't remember the TVTropes Lingo for it (and no, don't remind me), but there's a name for trying to over-emphasize your character's "abilities" by having them easily defeat a well-known heavy-hitter, isn't there?

Unless Tombstone's had a power-down recently, or unless being possessed has somehow given Spider-Man extra muscle mass/more brittle skin, he really should not have been able to scratch Tombstone. The real Spider-Man could barely punch him without breaking his knuckles.

[md84]

It's called The Worf Effect on TV Tropes (what can I say, I'm evil).

'Unless Tombstone's had a power-down recently, or unless being possessed has somehow given Spider-Man extra muscle mass/more brittle skin, he really should not have been able to scratch Tombstone. The real Spider-Man could barely punch him without breaking his knuckles.'

Tombstone's whole thing is that he's too tough for Spidey to just punch into submission. How does a writer who is supposedly a Spidey fan forget that?

[captainbellman]

*Grumble*...thank you. I suppose. I have a deep respect for evil.

As with ALMOST EVERYTHING in the post-JMS run, I can only think back to a much-better-written J. M. DeMatteis story, wherein it was demonstrated not only that Tombstone was essentially tougher than solid marble, but also that this had done tremendous psychological damage to him due to his inability to feel anything.

(It also played strongly to the guy's strange relationship with Robbie Robertson of the Bugle, with whom he'd been childhood friends. I miss having proper character depth like that in villains and supporting cast.)

I wish we had another DeMatteis at the helm right now. He got a lot of things right.

[mrstatham]

I personally find it really obnoxious that Tombstone is being presented as a threat over in Gambit's book, really, and here, he's just some throwaway villain that Slott's tossed in there. It's just really insulting.

[damar148]

Didn't Slott admit this is all to piss off the fans as much as possible before someone finally wisens up at Marvel, big chance at that, and tells him to stop and bring back Peter?

[cyberghostface]

No. He does like poking at the fans at certain points but this is still a story he wants to tell.

[nefrekeptah]

Who's to say he did? We don't see how Otto took down Tombstone, so why are you assuming that's what happened?

[cyberghostface]

Yeah... given the first issue how much he relied on gadgets ahead of time to take down his foes, the same thing could have happened here.

[icon_uk]

I can't remember the TVTropes Lingo for it (and no, don't remind me), but there's a name for trying to over-emphasize your character's "abilities" by having them easily defeat a well-known heavy-hitter, isn't there?

The other term I know for that is "jobbing", it tended to happen to Nightwing rather a lot.

[shadowpsykie]

I think it's called Worfing. taken from star trek where a character was often bright in and takes out the Klingon Worf, often times in one hit. just to show how "badass" he was.

often done with Diana Troi as well ( which sucks. because empaths are my favorite characters with so much potential bit are always used as punching bags to show how BAD they villain is)

[damar148]

You know, eventually they DO have to turn it around, especially with Amazing Spider-Man 2 on it's way, but the longer they keep pretending this is permanent, the more screwed up things will be when returning to 'normal'.

[cyberghostface]

I'm pretty sure Slott has the storyline mapped out.

[nefrekeptah]

I love this so far. Not just contrasting the differences between Otto and Peter, but also illustrating how things are starting to go wrong for him - the attack on MJ's club is obviously a direct message to SpOck, but he's too busy beating up crooks and patting himself on the back to even notice.

[darkknightjrk]

Okay, this issue did a fairly good job at explaining why people in the 616 aren't freaking out about it, but when Spider-Man KILLS someone, then later savagely beats the shit out of two g-grade super-villains, MJ isn't flustered. BUT, you ignore her for a few months, and suddenly it's like he's a different person?

[stillanerd]

Well, to be fair, I think what we're supposed to take away from this is that Mary Jane has been suspicious of the way "Peter" has been acting lately, but didn't think it was much to worry about. Until she saw SpOck beat the crap out of Jester and Screwball and started to realize something was seriously wrong. I think that's what she wanted to talk about with "Peter" in this issue, but when he blew her off, that's when she really started to get even more worried that something is wrong (she does say that she no longer feels whatever there was of the guy she used to know but a sense of dread, after all). Although I do agree she should've been reacting with alarm over the news of SpOck killing Massacre, although this issue establishes that, incredulously, all the cops and the witnesses at the scene are lying to cover-up that SpOck killed Massacre in cold blood.