Who killed Captain Stacy?

[cyberghostface]

So there was a certain scene in A+X #11 that caught my attention...



Was it really Otto's fault? Let's see.

From Amazing Spider-Man #90...












So basically Spider-Man deliberately causes Dr. Octopus to lose control of his tentacles... the tentacles attack him and knock over debris, killing Captain Stacy... and Otto is the one to blame?

Comments

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Yes. Otto wasn't just some nondescript face in the crowd who happened to have tentacles attached to him. He was a supervillian (or "arch criminal" if you're living in the Adam West Batman series), so ignoring him wasn't an option. Ultimately, George Stacy's death was a result of his actions.

[cyberghostface]

Ignoring him wasn't an option but making him lose control over his tentacles in an area surrounded by civilians wasn't a smart move either.

[cainofdreaming]

It wasn't smart, yes, but I'd say there's a good chance that Otto would have done something similar anyway. He has used the tactic of dropping stuff on people to prevent pursuit repeatedly during his career.

[cyberghostface]

He didn't, though.

[cainofdreaming]

Because he didn't have the chance to.

[cyberghostface]

He was battling Spider-Man for three issues here and he never made any attempt to knock a building on someone until Spider-Man rigged his tentacles to lose control.

[cainofdreaming]

Was he in a situation where he needed a distraction because Peter was close to beating him during those three issues? He doesn't go endangering people just for the heck of it, like the likes of Carnage, only as a means to an end.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

What was the alternative? Waiting until he had Otto in a place where there were no civilians and dong nothing until then?


The context missing from this is that Peter didn't choose to fight Otto on the roof. His plan was to take Otto by surprise inside an apartment, where there were no civilians, but Otto attacked him first, so he, not Peter was the one who chose to have the fight in that area. GIven that Peter was already attacked, his choices here were to use his webbing and make Otto lose control of his tentacles or to let Otto beat him to death.


So we have the entire sequence of events being started by Otto's criminal actions, Otto choosing a place to fight Peter that put civilians in danger, and Otto putting Peter into a situation where he was forced to make Otto lose control of his tentacles. I don't see why Peter would bear more responsibility than Otto for George Stacy's death.

[yvonmukluk]

Hmmm...

I know context is for the weak, but cyberghostface I'm getting a suspiciously partisan vibe on the subject of Otto Octavius from you lately, leaving out that sort of key information. I have had it with supervillain apologists!

[cyberghostface]

A.) I can only post 1/3 of an issue and B.) context doesn't really change Spidey's actions here. It wasn't a do or die situation that Ock forced Spidey into, Spidey tried getting the better if him and didn't consider the potential consequences.