by Dan Slott, Christos Gage, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Humberto Ramos
Collects Superior Spider-Man #'s 11-16
Well, I guess NYC has no problem with the death penalty. The story starts with the execution of Alistair Smythe, the mastermind behind the Spider-Slayer machines. There's a certain irony behind this: J. Jonah Jameson hires the Spider-Slayers to slay Spider-Man, but the machines wind up murdering Jonah's wife, Marla.
The theme of the arc this time is responsibility, and the cage it produces. Now that Otto's taken Peter's place, he's responsible to Peter's boss to produce inventions, responsible to his professors to stay focused on class, and responsible to the entire city that he must protect. In a way, Otto left his own cell in the Raft, the super-prison, and entered another.
Wouldn't be much of a comic if Alistair just keeled over -- so his lil' slayers storm the Raft! There's a brilliant game of cat and mouse, when Spider-Man reveals that he's set up his own defenses along the Raft, to prevent Smythe from escaping. Then Smythe reveals his next move --
-- infecting the Raft's other prisoners with lil' slayers and inciting a prison riot! It's a creative game of predator vs. prey, with the roles shifting back and forth between Spider-Man and the Spider-Slayer. Giuseppe Camuncoli draws a gritty super-comic with teeth. He's so good at the dynamic, gangly postures of Spider-Man that it's a joy to read.
There are great twists along the way, so I won't spoil it. In the end, Spider-Man strong-arms Jonah into donating the Raft to him. . . to create his own Spider-Island!
It's Otto's way of breaking out of his cage. Breaking free of Peter's legacy, and creating his own. When responsibility becomes an obligation, you use it in a way that's palatable to you. Yes, Otto will be Spider-Man, and he'll protect New York, but he'll do it in his own way. It's. . . almost inspiring, if it weren't so dastardly!
The next few issues are smaller stories that build the pieces for a later arc. Smaller stories like, oh, Spider-Man taking down Shadowland with his giant Arachno-bots and Spider-henchlings! It's just crazy that he takes down an entire borough of New York City and the Kingpin in one fell swoop, but, it's still believable. That's just how far this Spider-Man is willing to go to protect New York City, and the drastic measures he's willing to take.
I heard that Shadowland was one of the more lackluster storyarcs of Daredevil's, so to see its ruin in a single issue -- and in someone else's comic, no less -- just tells you how important it really was.
The overall story is to move the Hobgoblin (now played by Phil Urich, Ben Urich's nephew. Ben Urich is an ace reporter at -- where else? -- the Daily Bugle), to a new position. That of the "Goblin Knight," a warrior in the Goblin King's crusade to end Spider-Man, once and for all. Join us in Volume 4 to see what happens next!
BONUS PANELS:
Here's Otto-as-Peter pinching the cheek of his boss!
Spider-bot-on-mini-slayer action! And a great splash page!
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