Review: Superior Spider-Man #5

Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Otto Octavius continues to masquerade as Spider-Man in the captive body of Peter Parker. The hero helplessly watches as his greatest enemy forces him to cross the most important line of all!

I haven't been the biggest fan of Spider-Man comics in recent years, what with 'One More Day' having done a decidedly good job at turning me off the character for the best part of five years. However, Dan Slott has done a wonderful job at coaxing me back with this pseudo-relaunch as the Superior Spider-Man. Where I'd grown quite bored of the regular Peter Parker status-quo (great responsibility, yada yada yada), there's a perverse joy in watching one of the biggest supervillains of modern day comics masquerade as said hero. Doctor Octopus in the body of Peter Parker has instantly become far more entertaining than the traditional angst-ridden hero. Having no guilt over his less-than-noble methods has allowed Otto to become a better Spider-Man than Peter ever was!

This particular issue brings Octavius head to head with one of Peter Parker's greatest failures (at least recently) - the mass-murdering psychopath, Massacre. Where the Amazing Spider-Man would capture the disturbed villain and seek justice, the Superior Spider-Man has no qualms with tit for tat. If Massacre is willing to kill, so too must this new Spider-Man. Peter Parker's ghostly conscious was able to stay Otto's hand once already, when the good Doctor was about to kill a hapless villain, but will he have the willpower to do it again?

To me, the most fascinating part of the book is not the hero's dilemma (or lack thereof), but instead the surreal deal a businesswoman is willing to enter into with Massacre. Having seen the negative publicity his actions have brought to her own company (where his last set of killings took place), she's quietly approached by the madman himself, angling for a multi-million dollar payday to commit atrocities wearing brand products from competitors of her choosing. At the expense of innocent lives, this woman can drive business away from her rivals and back towards herself. If it were not a horrifying loss of life, it'd be ingenious.

While this is going on, Octavius procrastinates by visiting a tutor in aid of finishing Parker's long incomplete doctorate. Scarily, this meeting had romantic overtones, at least in my interpretation. Anna Marconi is a delightfully wry little person (her words, not mine) and over the course of their session, the pair develop a playful mutual respect. Science soon turns into dinner, turns into what I think was flirting. I'm not sure though, as Octavius would no doubt be terrible at doing so and the idea of him flirting makes my stomach turn a little. The idea of Doc Ock romancing someone in Peter Parker's body is creepy on so many levels!

Another standout moment comes when Spider-Man is in the middle of saving several of Massacre's hostages. Octavius remarks just what an oddity it is to be saving so few lives, when only a short time before, he was threatening to kill billions and render Humanity extinct. He's clearly learning from his experiences as the new Spider-Man, but something tells me he's going to take all the wrong lessons along the way. He may strive to save lives now, but lots of people are going to suffer for him to achieve that.

8 out of 10

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Review: Alpha - Big Time #1

Writer: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Artist: Nuno Plati
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Oh how things change in such a short amount of time.

Mere months ago, the character of Alpha was introduced to much fanfare by Marvel. If not a resounding thud...as everyone dropped their issue of Amazing Spider-Man back on the stands and resolved to come back next month, once this awful kid sidekick had finally gone away. Now, he's back with his own mini-series to annoy you in brand new ways!

Alpha was created in a similar fashion to Peter Parker's Spider-Man i.e. the classic "science project gone wrong". However, where Spidey took to heart his Uncle's mantra about great power coming with great responsibility, Alpha went completely the other way, proving with great power comes no responsibility whatsoever. He used his powers irresponsibly, didn't care who got hurt, took revenge on those who'd wrong him (*cough*schoolbullies*cough*) and most impressively - to hit on girls. Poor Andy Maguire proved a monumental irritant and raised the ire of the internet community in a fashion not seen since Damian Wayne first reared his grumpy head. His initial reign of terror ended just as quickly as it had began, with the Avengers de-powering Alpha, leaving him with only a fraction of his true potential.

Picking up where we last left him, Andy has returned to regular life, but not quite the one he had before. His profile has been raised so high, he'd be hard-pressed to be considered "normal". Similarly, his literal power-trip has left him on the outs with the "cool" crowd. Instead, he's somewhere inbetween. Stuck in social limbo. This gives us the smallest glimpse of humility in Andy. Has he finally learnt his lesson? Hell no. We're only on Issue 1!

After being flown back to New York City for his monthly checkup at Horizon Labs with our formerly-Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the now "Superior" Peter Parker has had a change of heart. On account of Andy's good behaviour, our newly villainous wall-crawler has decided to restore Alpha's abilities, a little bit at a time. On the outside, this appears to be a gesture of good faith, but with Otto Octavius' mind currently occupying Peter Parker's body, the true intent is to exploit the Parker Particles that gave Alpha his abilities in the first place. More so than Peter ever would have thought to.

Sufficed to say, Alpha goes on to try and become the hero he's always dreamed of, but his usual reckless standards slowly begin to creep in. I have to admit, I love the narrative device of only giving Alpha a percentage of his powers back at a time. It almost acts like a metaphor for his personality. Everyone hated him at 100%, so now they're dialing him back to 10% and seeing if there's a hero worth working with at Andy's core. However, if he's still screwing up this badly at 10%, it doesn't bode well for future issues when Doc Ock cranks up the juice.

As insufferable as Alpha had been previously, I was surprised to find I really enjoyed this issue. Finding him down on his luck and slightly more modest, worked wonders for his likability. Also, coming at the story from Andy's perspective gives us the true entry point we were lacking in the previous Amazing Spider-Man arc. Where before, all we saw was Peter freaking out about having created this horrifying potential supervillain, we're now firmly on Andy's side, knowing his true intentions and just how genuine he is in wanting to become a superhero. Even when he screws up towards the end, it was in service of doing the right thing. I particularly liked the teenage point of view, where instead of thinking "oh my god, I did something terrible", he's thinking "oh my god, I'm in so much trouble".

Fialkov has done a wonderful job of re-introducing Alpha to an already-hostile fanbase. Before, Andy was nothing but a plot device in service of an anniversary issue. Now, he's his own flesh and blood person, with thoughts, drives and emotions. Human beings are complicated animals and sometimes it's easy for comic books to forget that in pursuit of "hero hits villain", but this series adds some much needed nuance to this new character. It's early days yet, but this issue proves to be a wonderful new beginning, with genuine promise.

8 out of 10