While we did name Superior Spider-Man as the best superhero book of the year, one of the biggest knocks on the series is the impression that every character who knows Peter Parker and/or Spider-Man has had to swallow “a big ball of dumb” not to realize something is seriously wrong with him, given his major attitude shift. Mary Jane thinks it’s weird, but also thinks Peter’s trying to distance himself from her to spare both of their feelings. The Avengers have been giving him the stink-eye for a while but have had more important things to do than figure him out. Carlie Cooper was flat-out told by Old Decrepit Dr. Octopus with Peter’s brain that a Freaky Friday was going on, but she had to prove it to believe it – and then was immediately captured by the Green Goblin. Otto talked his way out of a telepathic invasion by the X-Men over in Superior Spider-Man Team-Up. Now, Superior Spider-Man #24 has allowed Dan Slott and co-writer Christos Gage to kick that can down the road a bit longer, because everyone’s sneaking suspicions can all be blamed on an evil alien symbiote.
The “Darkest Hours” arc continues, because Otto Octavius is trying to double-dip his spider-hogging by not only taking control of Peter Parker’s body, but also Flash Thompson’s pet goo monster, leaving the latter with new robot legs for his trouble. But that trouble is really that the chemical cocktails he’s been using to control Venom have changed his biology to the point where he actually requires the symbiote to live, and if he doesn’t get it back, he’s going to die in hours. Yikes!
Otto is so jacked on the Venom power boost that he’s out to prove he’s the best thing ever and that he has ultimate control thanks to his “iron will” bringing it to heel, but after smacking around jerks, he gets embroiled in some drama in his personal life that he makes worse because, as we all know, symbiotes exaggerate your negative emotions, and Otto’s never been that good at controlling those in the first place. Things go haywire enough for Mary Jane to hit the panic button and call the Avengers – although the shot of them at the end once again doesn’t have any of their big brains on hand, which means that they won’t be able to do much more than confirm he’s not a Skrull again. So critics might get worked up at a third outfoxing of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Then again, Slott tends to be unpredictable, but Gage tends to have a logical approach – he wrote the issue of Avengers Arena that explained why none of the faculty of his Avengers Academy figured out that a bunch of their students were locked away by Arcade, so he might help make it seem more legitimate that the Avengers don’t figure out the Doc Ock body switch yet again. That is, if they don’t. The next issue is a double-sized landmark #25, and they’re promising a shocking turn of events and implying that someone’s going to die. Maybe this is when everybody figures it out, but if they don’t, Venom makes a handy excuse as to why not…. except that the Avengers are aware that Flash Thompson’s been sporting the thing lately, on one of their secret teams… and then there’s the Thunderbolts…
Yeah, this whole aspect of Superior Spider-Man is the one thing that I have to willfully suspend some disbelief to go along with – but it’s not that hard, because the rest of the book has been so entertaining. Things are getting ugly right now, though, as the friends and family of Peter Parker are throwing down the gauntlet, and Otto doesn’t ever take that well. Humberto Ramos is going hogwild, as his exaggerated, hyperkinetic art style is perfect for tentacled goo-monsters like Venom. It’s hard to gauge the full impact of this issue until we see what Slott and Gage are building to, but I’m optimistic. With the Green Goblin mucking with Hobgoblin’s business, Venom rampaging and the Avengers stepping back in, we seem to be leading to a gigantic clusterfudge of epic proportions, and it’s time to brace ourselves for more controversy from the Spider-squad. I’m ready for it.
