The Superior Spider-Man : 7

Written by: Gary M. Kenny, CC2K Comics Editor

By now you probably have heard that Doctor Octopus kicked the bucket but not before body swopping his mind with Peter Parker. Our friendly neighborhood spidey died in the body of one of his oldest foes. But Spider-Man isn’t dead, Doc Ock took over the hero duties and he’s performing as well as you would expect an evil genius to perform: dastardly. There is a ghost of the original Peter Parker some how trapped in the mind of Doc Ock aka the Superior Spider-Man, as well. If you haven’t heard that, what have you been reading these past few months? 

Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Humberto Ramos

*SPOILER RECAP OF THE ISSUE* Issue 7 of Superior has Doc Ock or evil Parker chasing after a vigilante named Cardiac. Cardiac has stolen a gadget created by Doctor Octavius, which he plans to give to a dying little girl. Spider-Man is trying to stop him not because stealing is wrong but because you don’t take from Doc Ock. Evil Spider-Man attempts to kill Cardiac only to be stopped by the Avengers. Captain America has some choice words with evil Spidey, expect a big battle in issue 8.

Dan Slott writes a good superhero comic. Each issue is fun, action packed and a damn good read. Every issue has evil Spidey losing himself more and more. We are treated with less Peter Parker Spider-Man and more of Doc Ock in a new body. While this is a big change from the norm, after 7 issues i’m starting to root for Peter to crawl back from beyond and end this Superior Spider-Man series. Maybe it was too evil too soon. At the end of Amazing Spider-Man 700, the evil Spider-Man was attempting to do some good. Becoming a better person and trying to give back some good for all the evil he has done. These past few issues of Superior just feels like he’s saying “screw it.” I know Slott is trying to show a conflict in his mind. I just feel like this process should have taken a bit longer to surface. Like don’t show ghost parker for a bunch of issues or hide him in the scenes and then let the audience meet him. Maybe Marvel only approved Doc Ock Spidey for a few issues and Slott has to rush his story. All in all it’s making this reader crave his traditional web head.

Humberto Ramos is becoming my favorite artist for Spider-Man. His cartoonish style, the way he shows so much emotion in Spidey’s eyes (goggles). It’s basically 1980s saturday morning cartoons in a comic. Each scene is perfectly positioned and keeps the flow, fast paced, and exciting. Do yourself a favor and glance back into this run. Look at the facial features, especially the lips, he gives so many quirks, from nervous twitchesto lip bites; especially to major characters and you’ll see them over and over again. This type of craftsmanship makes his characters stand out, they become more life like.

The Issue 7 Cardiac story, felt like filler in a long epic run about our hero losing his mind/body.  It’s a bit drab and i’ve read a few Cardiac stories like this before. Slott is just taking us for a few more issues until we get old web head back. I mean it’s not like we aren’t getting Peter Parker back, right? *Issue 9 is supposed to be the big curve ball Dan Slott loves to throw us. We shall see*

3.5 out of 5