Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott / What is your verdict?

[Keeper of the Crows]

There’s so much to love about this series. We see a villain struggling with being a hero in his own way, learning more about Otto on the way as we see the journey of Spider-Man from a new perspective. Meanwhile, every action Ock takes gave me a deeper appreciation and understanding of Peter Parker and why he is the true Spider-Man-- even when Peter doesn’t appear in many of the issues! It was also a great change of pace and something new.

I didn’t vote in the poll, since there is so much talent out there that I (personally) don’t think comparing Slott with the quality of other writers is an accurate way to measure his performance on Superior Spider-Man, which was a great achievement, in my opinion.

[Legion564]

If it wasnt rushed i think it would have been a lot better.

[Nosocialize]

I would say 4 stars. He did a good job with a wacky idea, but the ending for Otto was abrupt and felt rushed

Def felt abrupt. There wasn't even a "he's not really dead dun dunnn dunnnn" moment!

[Nosocialize]

Goblin Nation had potential but in the end felt rushed. Slott could've cut the symbiote story (which was like what, 3 issues?) and focused on Goblin Nation so we could see a more profound effect on Ock and Peter maybe try to solve it in at least 2 issues.

On a much more positive note

I loved the art and I loved Peter's comeback. SSM also brought a lot of new stuff that can be explored like Anna Maria and Spidey 2099 in 2014.

I'd like to add to that and say the 2099 element, while cool, seem hamfisted into this story hard. It was so exposition heavy and a slog to get through.

[MaC]

I went with 3 stars but it is really closer to a 3.5 With Superior Spider-Man, when it comes to concepts, ideas, it's a 4 star book. Above average easily, so many fresh and interesting ideas and twists on the Spidey mythos and a great character in Spock. The art was usually enjoyable as well, though I am not the biggest fan of Ramos and I find in all Slott's books the action is a little too tight and doesn't have room to breathe. Not enough wide or from a distance take on the action. Everything is always jammed together on the page in a way I don't find appealing.

But what knocks the book down to 3 stars for me is the execution, which I find horrible. There is a tightrope to walk in stories like this and Slott kinda strapped a jetpack on and flew rings around it. Which, on the one hand, has the benefit of making the book light and fun despite it's dark and oftentimes gross subject matter. The bad side of that for me what that in order to tell the story he wanted and none of the story he wasn't interested in, every character in the book comes off like an idiot. We don't get enough time with the characters, especially MJ, being appalled and shocked that Peter is executing supervillains. Everyone turns a blind eye to Spock's not at all subtle descent into egotistical psychotic omnipresent watch dog of the city or his transformation of NYC into a Police State. The Avengers are a collection of dunces. Spider-Man's supporting cast are portrayed as imbeciles.

I also found the entire ghost peter aspect a let down. I think Slott was right and the editors were wrong about the inclusion of Ghost Peter, because killing off Ghost Peter and then having Peter's return come from..Ghost Peter not being dead, imo it stunk.

I understand Slott's point about us knowing what's happening because we saw Spock murder Peter, try to seduce his wife, etc. But in my opinion that doesn't hand wave away the blatant stupidity of the vast majority of the cast who take almost no action or have the faintest inkling that something was up. I understand you can't have a series if everyone figures it out, but for this reader having Ock be blatantly evil from almost the onset of the series is a bit much. It's not as if he acted with subtly or subterfuge manipulating people and revealed he was an evil dick at the last moment when he had exploited dire circumstances and people's trust in Spider-Man. He basically got in Peter's body and started acting like an evil dick who sometimes saved people to keep up his cover and facilitate his massive ego. And hey, it's Slott's right to not be interested in telling that type of story and tell the story he told and it was very succesfull and I'm glad for him, his Thing series is one of my favorites. But for this reader it took me out of the story.

I also found the entire thing a bit rushed and poorly paced. Especially the extremely underwhelming final arc to get Peter back in the webs in time for a mediocre movie by another studio to open and get rightly massacred by reviews and track to an impressive drop to #2 on it's second weekend and I can't say I'm interested in Amazing Spider-Man #1, though I will have to check out Spider-Men to see how Ben Reilly gets brutally murdered so I can be sad about it(no I will be reading the reviews and spoilers and if thats the case I won't buy, if he has a cool showing and isn't just there to job to not-Dracula, one of the lamest characters added to the Spidey mythos, I'll open my wallet.)

[Darthfury78]

But what knocks the book down to 3 stars for me is the execution, which I find horrible. There is a tightrope to walk in stories like this and Slott kinda strapped a jetpack on and flew rings around it. Which, on the one hand, has the benefit of making the book light and fun despite it's dark and oftentimes gross subject matter. The bad side of that for me what that in order to tell the story he wanted and none of the story he wasn't interested in, every character in the book comes off like an idiot. We don't get enough time with the characters, especially MJ, being appalled and shocked that Peter is executing supervillains. Everyone turns a blind eye to Spock's not at all subtle descent into egotistical psychotic omnipresent watch dog of the city or his transformation of NYC into a Police State. The Avengers are a collection of dunces. Spider-Man's supporting cast are portrayed as imbeciles.

I also found the entire ghost peter aspect a let down. I think Slott was right and the editors were wrong about the inclusion of Ghost Peter, because killing off Ghost Peter and then having Peter's return come from..Ghost Peter not being dead, imo it stunk.

I understand Slott's point about us knowing what's happening because we saw Spock murder Peter, try to seduce his wife, etc. But in my opinion that doesn't hand wave away the blatant stupidity of the vast majority of the cast who take almost no action or have the faintest inkling that something was up. I understand you can't have a series if everyone figures it out, but for this reader having Ock be blatantly evil from almost the onset of the series is a bit much. It's not as if he acted with subtly or subterfuge manipulating people and revealed he was an evil dick at the last moment when he had exploited dire circumstances and people's trust in Spider-Man. He basically got in Peter's body and started acting like an evil dick who sometimes saved people to keep up his cover and facilitate his massive ego. And hey, it's Slott's right to not be interested in telling that type of story and tell the story he told and it was very succesfull and I'm glad for him, his Thing series is one of my favorites. But for this reader it took me out of the story.

I also found the entire thing a bit rushed and poorly paced. Especially the extremely underwhelming final arc to get Peter back in the webs in time for a mediocre movie by another studio to open and get rightly massacred by reviews and track to an impressive drop to #2 on it's second weekend and I can't say I'm interested in Amazing Spider-Man #1, though I will have to check out Spider-Men to see how Ben Reilly gets brutally murdered so I can be sad about it(no I will be reading the reviews and spoilers and if thats the case I won't buy, if he has a cool showing and isn't just there to job to not-Dracula, one of the lamest characters added to the Spidey mythos, I'll open my wallet.)

I will only say that ghost Peter killed the whole essence of the story. The whole series was filled with all the cast members not knowing that Spider-Man/Peter Parker was controlled by Dr. Ock. What might have been better was for the story to continue so that everyone would know that Otto hijacked Peter's body base on the evidence provided to the Avengers by Carlie Cooper. In addition, I wanted to see the Black Cat go direct at knowing that the Spider-Man who beat the crap out of her wasn't the man she knew. I wanted to see Otto suffer the full fury of her vengeance.

I liked the idea of Peter's mind trapped inside Otto's dead body. They never retrieved Otto's body to do the mind transfer that could have been conducted by Dr. Strange, after the Avengers go to Hell to retrieve Peter's soul. A much better outcome from what we got at the end. I feel that Slott was forced to end Superior Spider-Man so that ASM could take advantage of the movie, which has nothing to do with the comic at all. And the Spider-Verse was intended to be a Spock event, not Peter Parker. Marvel certainly know how to kill their own sales momentum.

[sabongero]

I liked that Spider-Ock shot down his former professor, who was walking with an air of arrogance. After Spider-Ock verbally Ottoslapped him with some slick jagged verbal assault, the look on his former professor's face was priceless. That reaction was as the old saying goes, a Kodak moment. Gonna miss the Spider-Ock's twisted sense of humor here. And his creepiness as well. And his rather violent methods of dealing with criminals. And his insightful ways not to repeat Peter's mistakes. That MJ date was something else. I didn't expect him to let her go, that was sound reasoning though.

[krazijoe]

It was all right. It started with a OH #### moment and ended with a DUH. Otto had no choice but to give up because he is nothing under pressure.

[krazijoe]

I'd like to add to that and say the 2099 element, while cool, seem hamfisted into this story hard. It was so exposition heavy and a slog to get through.

They had to give Otto another Spider-Man to jump into...

[exile001]

I loved it and gave an extremely solid 4 (4.5-4.75). I'd have been delighted if Slott could've had a second year on it.

His work is way, waaay above average for DC and Marvel, but 5 would be perfect and it did have a few small wobbles. SSM and Snyder's Batman have been the only two books I have been desperate to read as soon as released.

[Mister Mets]

Not sure I agree with the poll criteria (slight gap between "the best" and "above average") but it was pretty good as far as mega-arcs go. We've seen other stories where someone else takes over as the iconic hero, but it's never been as much fun.

[Coal Tiger]

I wasn't a fan of the premise and I've never been a fan of Slott, so it's hard for me to be that generous to a book like this.

[FN Spider-Man]

One of the things that I found really compelling about the book was that there was for a while there that it really felt like Ock was the "superior" Spider-Man and I began rooting for him even though he hijacked the body of my favorite superhero.

[Chris S.]

I went with 3 stars but it is really closer to a 3.5 With Superior Spider-Man, when it comes to concepts, ideas, it's a 4 star book. Above average easily, so many fresh and interesting ideas and twists on the Spidey mythos and a great character in Spock. The art was usually enjoyable as well, though I am not the biggest fan of Ramos and I find in all Slott's books the action is a little too tight and doesn't have room to breathe. Not enough wide or from a distance take on the action. Everything is always jammed together on the page in a way I don't find appealing.

But what knocks the book down to 3 stars for me is the execution, which I find horrible. There is a tightrope to walk in stories like this and Slott kinda strapped a jetpack on and flew rings around it. Which, on the one hand, has the benefit of making the book light and fun despite it's dark and oftentimes gross subject matter. The bad side of that for me what that in order to tell the story he wanted and none of the story he wasn't interested in, every character in the book comes off like an idiot. We don't get enough time with the characters, especially MJ, being appalled and shocked that Peter is executing supervillains. Everyone turns a blind eye to Spock's not at all subtle descent into egotistical psychotic omnipresent watch dog of the city or his transformation of NYC into a Police State. The Avengers are a collection of dunces. Spider-Man's supporting cast are portrayed as imbeciles.

I also found the entire ghost peter aspect a let down. I think Slott was right and the editors were wrong about the inclusion of Ghost Peter, because killing off Ghost Peter and then having Peter's return come from..Ghost Peter not being dead, imo it stunk.

I understand Slott's point about us knowing what's happening because we saw Spock murder Peter, try to seduce his wife, etc. But in my opinion that doesn't hand wave away the blatant stupidity of the vast majority of the cast who take almost no action or have the faintest inkling that something was up. I understand you can't have a series if everyone figures it out, but for this reader having Ock be blatantly evil from almost the onset of the series is a bit much. It's not as if he acted with subtly or subterfuge manipulating people and revealed he was an evil dick at the last moment when he had exploited dire circumstances and people's trust in Spider-Man. He basically got in Peter's body and started acting like an evil dick who sometimes saved people to keep up his cover and facilitate his massive ego. And hey, it's Slott's right to not be interested in telling that type of story and tell the story he told and it was very succesfull and I'm glad for him, his Thing series is one of my favorites. But for this reader it took me out of the story.

I also found the entire thing a bit rushed and poorly paced. Especially the extremely underwhelming final arc to get Peter back in the webs in time for a mediocre movie by another studio to open and get rightly massacred by reviews and track to an impressive drop to #2 on it's second weekend and I can't say I'm interested in Amazing Spider-Man #1, though I will have to check out Spider-Men to see how Ben Reilly gets brutally murdered so I can be sad about it(no I will be reading the reviews and spoilers and if thats the case I won't buy, if he has a cool showing and isn't just there to job to not-Dracula, one of the lamest characters added to the Spidey mythos, I'll open my wallet.)

This is a great review and you point out a lot of things that bug me about Slott. He seems to have such a handle and understanding of the characters in the Spidey mythos. I loved his Spider-Man/Torch mini and he seemed to get Peter, MJ, Johnny, and the FF so well. He wrote them with a wit and charm and got the nuance of the characters. His ASM run seems so tied down by these huge arcs and he never gets to explore the characters. Some of the best issues/stories of his run have been the slowed down arcs where we look at Peter and what makes him tick. The problem is we don't get to do that for very long before Spider-Island sets in or Ends of the Earth or whatever mega arc.

I was hoping the relaunch of ASM would give him time to bring Peter in to focus, but it seems like he is just going to hit accelerate and blow right through it.

None of this is to say I don't enjoy Slott's run. It has been a fun book and I always enjoy the issues. The run just hasn't lived up to the expectations and standard Slott set with his mini that still has a special place in my heart.

[deadboy80]

I give him 3 stars. Wasn't overly impressed. I picked up the first 10 or so issues then went by arc. Meaning i dropped it, then picked it up for the Spidey 2099 arc. Then dropped it and picked up the Goblin nation arc. I am however getting Amazing right now. Overall meehh.