Death of Doctor Strange:Spider-man Review

As someone who was excited for this, kinda disappointed.It's a fun one-shot but felt like it could have been more

1)The book is kinda wanks Doc's death a lot more than needed.It the opposite of Peter's deaths/comas when we never get to see what his replacements miss out on.Peter visits kids routinely and helps out the community which Sp0ck wasn't doing, he has specific kids he visits daily(or as often as he could) like the one from the Morbius encounter where he unmaskes.

Both are extremes on the spectrum but I'd rather we get get the Strange treatment than Peter's.

2)The Ben and Cat thing was the highlight.The dynamic works and I'm glad she came around.I like the dialogue, Ben has so much of Peter and I think Felicia can see that but yet he's not.This will likely pay off in the Queen Goblin arc.

Ben's not taking her sh*t but yet is ecstatic when she calls him Spidey.I love that, he does want approval but is not bending the knee for anyone.

3)The villains/tasks were shallow.All the fights felt like filler and on top of Strange wank it was too much of it.

Side note:-Ben is massively nerfed and can't even stop a speeding car and barely does so because of the suit....

4)The discussion of THE Spider-man is moronic.I think the fact both Ben and Miles asked for Peter's blessing and wouldn't exist in this role(or at all) w/out him should be enough to tell who's THE Spider-man.

First the Spider-verse concept being turned into 616 status quo and then multiple Spider-men is not enough, now they have to be THE Spider-man.Like you don't hear any DC legacies fighting over the THE, it isn't even brought up.Hoping this is just writing and not them hinting at something...

5)I do like the acknowledgment of Wong's team up w/ Ben and that Spider-man is Doc's go too for help.

Generally agreed, although since the tie-in is for The Death of Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange is the central character of that particular event, of course it's going to focus a lot on his impact on and legacy in the Marvel Universe. That said, I did like the ending where we get a small glimpse of the actual human being Stephen Strange was, that even while he had all these cosmic, eldritch battles to fight, he still took time to be there for an ordinary person who needed someone to be there. No wonder he was the one superhero who still considered Spider-Man (Peter) a trusted friend and ally despite most of them being alienated from Spider-Man due to Spidey not keeping in touch as much as they'd have liked.

As for the issue of multiple Spider-Men and which one has to be "THE" Spider-Man, it's a somewhat fair question in-universe. We the readers know Peter Parker is going to be around forever in one form or another as the Spider-Man comics keep being published, but within the context of the Marvel Universe setting, he's still mortal, he can still grow old, get hurt, die, or even just retire at some point, so worrying about who inherits his mantle and carries his legacy forward is a reasonable concern. Nobody wants another "Superior Spider-Man" debacle, after all.

And yes, Ben gaining Felicia's respect by the end, to the point they could have semi-friendly banter, was the highlight of this issue, though I was also impressed MacKay was willing to call back to Ben's role in the Damnation event as the Scarlet Spider. All in all, I liked this, and for anyone wondering why Beyond Corp wasn't tagging along through Ben's suit --- Ben hacked the suit so he could have some privacy every now and again, so I'd presume he had that mode activated the whole time, as he was around people who knew the original Spider-Man quite intimately.

I really enjoyed this issue. It read a little too quickly, but I appreciated the take on Ben and Felicia, as well as the commentary on why it's important for Ben to take up the mantle as Spider-Man. The things that Dr. Strange tasked Spidey with made sense, and I like a fun montage of weird scenarios as much as the next person; the goblin thing was especially funny.

-Pav, who appreciated the use of continuity as well...

Beautiful issue, really enjoy those "little stuff" stories.

And Spiderfan, if you allow me the impertinence, if I were you I would try to set aside all those concerns about a character being nerfed, less competent, or whatever, concerns that seem to hamper your own enjoyment. If anything, it's making characters too powerful what makes them less interesting, with few exceptions. All that "with preparation, Batman could Ben take Darkseid down" certainly ruined Batman. And Spider-Man was never about being the greatest hero, or the most competent. He hit by aunt May with a vase!. The main reason a certain writer says he's the greatest on the odd occasion is just as a nod to the readership, just because he's the most popular character.

[QUOTE=Shunt;5836073]And Spiderfan, if you allow me the impertinence, if I were you I would try to set aside all those concerns about a character being nerfed, less competent, or whatever, concerns that seem to hamper your own enjoyment. If anything, it's making characters too powerful what makes them less interesting, with few exceptions. All that "with preparation, Batman could Ben take Darkseid down" certainly ruined Batman. And Spider-Man was never about being the greatest hero, or the most competent. He hit by aunt May with a vase!. The main reason a certain writer says he's the greatest on the odd occasion is just as a nod to the readership, just because he's the most popular character.[/QUOTE]

I agree it's better to ignore it but I'll try to point out why I didn't:-

1)These aren't low showings which all characters have, this is like a pebble knocking out Batman.A speeding car to a Spider-man level character should not be such a threat, not to mention he has an impact absorbing suit that took a head on hit from Ironclad(fought Thor and Hulk).And did he forget he has webs?

I wouldn't complain so much if this was a one time thing, but Ben has been massively nerfed ever since his return

2)"And Spider-Man was never about being the greatest hero, or the most competent".

Peter has always been about being greater than what he was, being the best person and hero he can be."Be greater" was even his tagline like Miles's is "be yourself"

He always striving to be better, and w/ that comes being competent which he's shown to be multiple times.A decade of Slott trying to diminish him into a loser man-child doesn't change that.

3)"He hit by aunt May with a vase!"

Bad writing, Spider-sense even works on potential dangers.But atleast it was to further the plot.Here and in ASM it isn't integral to the plot.

Also Batman has been taken by surprise and stabbed by a random kid and almost bled out, does that mean he's incompetent?

4)"All that "with preparation, Batman could Ben take Darkseid down" certainly ruined Batman."

There's massive difference b/w wank(and Bat-god wank no less) and wanting character to be portrayed relatively in their power tiers.Complaining about Hulk being knocked out by Cap doesn't mean I want Hulk to be portrayed stronger than he is, just as strong as we've seen him be.

5)"The main reason a certain writer says he's the greatest on the odd occasion is just as a nod to the readership, just because he's the most popular character."

Already addressed, it's not about just readership but Peter's character.And strength has nothing to do w/ it in the first place, Superman isn't considered one of the best because of his strength.It's their character that makes them the best.

Again I completely agree there's no point in complaining since most don't care, but as someone who does indulge in Vs battles/CAV's it's annoying to see characters being massively nerfed specially when it's not essential to plot.

Thought this was a great issue and I wish Beyond proper was more like this. I feel like we got more insight into Ben and this situation than we have in the previous 4 issues od Beyond. I wish the Beyond team was more interested in telling a Ben story then showcasing all these boring Beyond scientists and their stupid background experiments. I would be more forgiving of them if the Ben stuff was more in line with this kind of story.

This was also by far the most skilled and competent Ben has been shown since Beyond started. Which I appreciate immensely. I think maintaining and comparing lists of "feats" for stories where the effectiveness and strength of each character has always and will always fluctuate by the whims of the creatives is a one way road to being unhappy, but the general ineffectiveness and incompetence of Ben outside this issue has been an annoying part of Beyond.

Anyhow, my general takeaway is that I think this issue highlights my major issue with Beyond in that Ben feels like a bit player. In this he felt more like a character than a prop, which has not been the case for 77, 78, 79, or 80.

It was better than I expected, but still not saying much. I thought it could end up like McKay writing Wolverine in Black Cat - Wolvie is, well, let's be frank (not the Castle one), kind of a dick, and people who put in enough work manage to see he has a heart of bronze under all the tough guy attitude (as opposed to none at all). She kept ribbing him and he never once did his usual "I feel like snikting you" routine over it. McKay's Felicia has that thing where she stopped being a lovable pain in the neck and became obsessed with proving something to someone every single panel she has. This still shows here and I think Ben took a bit more than usual but so far not too bad, I can ride with it.

But the issue was pretty much a repeat of Nicieza's Ben-Felicia issue, just with less sexual tension (Felicia wants Peter, and Ben is Peter... but not. Enough Peter for her - makes sense really). That's the thing with the whole "baggage" we mentioned - it was basically a full issue to go back to where the characters already were. And unlike stuff like Queenpin where Spencer's time to undo it was justified, all of the contempt here was just offscreen with "either you buy it or you don't".

Also, why did they even introduce this suit? I'm reasonably sure that a standard cloth suit would take as much damage from the car as that. If this suit is meant to tank Hulk level blows, then just have Ben being completely wiped out after stopping the car, but keep the suit fine. It sounds like maybe Wells came up with the suit after the fact, kept it in his issues, and every other writer either got told later or just don't care and they just say "Oh noes! Suit ripped!". Also the art kinda dipped a bit by the end - Ben's reactions looked almost meme worthy.

But, sure, not a bad issue, by any means. I like the fact this is the first artist that gave us Ben's classic blonde freestyle mane - I'm not a big fan of the whole "slick richguy" cut from Wells' issues (but Pichelli's unkempt one is even worse!).

Felecia giving Ben a hard time didn't really make sense when you think about it.