The series is part of the wider Spider-Man franchise and is set in the shared Marvel Universe. It's a sequel to the original 2013 Superior Spider-Man series.
At one point in the past, as told in the original 'Superior Spider-Man'' story, Otto Octavius, the supervillain known as Doctor Octopus, managed to upload his mind into Spider-Man's body. Otto then took over Peter Parker's life as well as Spider-Man's costumed career. Despite his original intentions, he became more heroic, eventually surrendering the body back to Peter's mind when faced with a villain he couldn't defeat himself.
But that was a long time ago. In the present, Doctor Octopus is definitely a supervillain again, and his memories of that time are scrambled, leaving him unaware of Spider-Man's secret identity. However, the return of the superhuman Supernova, who was working with "Peter Parker" during Otto's time in Peter's body, starts to uncover some of that forgotten history.
In parallel, Spider-Man is working with a sidekick, Spider-Boy, who was erased from history during one of their adventures. He's now been restored, but nobody remembers Spider-Boy - and, in his secret identity as Bailey Briggs, he no longer has a life to return to. Which also means that nobody except Bailey remembers some of the things that happened after Otto became Peter, when Otto started to worry that Bailey's powers would detect him as an imposter...
The first issue was released November 15, 2023.
Superior Spider-Man contains examples of the following tropes:
- Baddie Flattery: Mr. Negative is impressed with "Spider-Man's" brutality after watching Otto beat the Inner Demons senseless and impale the gangsters on their own swords. Negative goes on to say that he didn't think Spider-Man had this level of ruthlessness in him, to which Otto remarks that this is merely a taste of what he's capable of.
- Batman Cold Open: The first issue opens with Spider-Man and Spider-Boy easily defeating minor supervillain Mirage, who's tied up with webbing and left for the police. Mirage plays no further part in that issue's story.
- Batman Gambit:
- In flashbacks, Otto is shown capturing Slyde by manipulating the criminal into taking a particular route so that he is thrown into the air and lands in the ocean, forcing Slyde to remove his suit as he will otherwise drown.
- In the present, Anna Maria manipulates Supernova into leaving her alone in her cell by reminding the other woman of how long she's spent trapped, prompting Supernova to leave the cell where she's trapped Anna Maria so that the other woman can work on breaking out of her cell.
- Later on, Otto lures Supernova to the location of his new prison by interfering in the fight with Spider-Man and throwing him away, guessing that she would follow the thrown wall-crawler in the right direction to fall into his trap.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Issue #4 has Peter and Otto fighting inside Peter's mind for control of his body. This time, Peter wins.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Otto tries to steal the Fantastic Four's technology to "transfer them to a more secure location". When called out on his theft by Mr. Negative, Otto retorts that it's not stealing if he knows all of the Fantastic Four's security codes.
- Bloodless Carnage: Downplayed. In the first issue's backup story, the Inner Demons are sprawled out on the ground from being stabbed with their own weapons and beaten senseless by Otto, who smashed their faces into concrete. While blood can be seen when Bailey arrives, far less is shown than would be plausible given the injuries that Otto inflicted on them even with the Demons' Healing Factor taken into account.
- Blue Is Calm: Inverted with Supernova. After being turned into a living star, Estrella Lopez/Supernova glows blue-white from the sheer amount of energy she's emitting. But she's anything but calm, screaming for bloody revenge on Spider-Man and constantly blasting away in his direction. Much of her text is written in bold to emphasize the venom and hatred in her voice and she curses him when he vanishes into a crowd.
- Break the Cutie: Invoked. Otto-as-Peter disassociates himself from Bailey to prevent the boy from exposing Otto's Grand Theft Me of Peter's body. He does this with a searing "The Reason You Suck" Speech that reduces Bailey to tears, something that the Fantastic Four stand-ins call Otto out on as he mentally pats himself on the back for it.
- The Bus Came Back: Anna Maria Marconi, Otto's love interest from the original run of Superior Spider-Man (2013), reappears after being absent ever since Otto made a deal with Mephisto to beat Spider-Norman. She appears both in a flashback to Otto's time as the Superior Spider-Man and in the present at a cafe while Peter is battling Supernova.
- Casts No Shadow: Peter points out that Mirage's use of holograms to confuse others has a critical weakness: since none of the holograms are tangible, they can't cast a shadow under the light from a streetlamp that Peter is hanging on. Realizing this enables Bailey to catch and clobber Mirage.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Supernova loses sight of Spider-Man, she starts targeting Spider-Boy in hopes of either getting the boy to spill Spider-Man's location or get Spider-Man to return and help his sidekick. Given how she's a living fusion reaction who can incinerate virtually anything in her path, there's nothing Bailey can do but run and try to keep others out of the line of fire. Even a grazing hit from Supernova melts straight through his Bug Pack and forces him to burn himself getting it off before the rest of him catches fire.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Mr. Negative tries to steal the Fantastic Four's Negative Zone power batteries and the Fantasticar in hopes of using them to augment his powers and become unstoppable. But as the First Family's stand-ins explain, of course the Fantastic Four would lock their car and prevent it from taking off without permission.
- Near the end of the first issue, Peter gives Supernova the slip and tries to blend into a crowd to deny her the satisfaction of attacking him. He hopes that she'll give up and try looking elsewhere. But Peter underestimates just how unstable and violent she is, as she starts taking out her frustration on anyone who might know where Spider-Man is in hopes of drawing him out.
- In #4, Otto attempts to take over Peter's mind again and is totally taken back by how much more prepared Peter is, making it clear the only reason it worked last time was because he got Peter at his weakest.
- Dramatic Irony: In the backup story of the first issue, Ant-Man tells Bailey not to keep his hopes up that Spider-Man will change after the latter becomes violent and arrogant as a result of having his body snatched by Otto. But in Superior Spider-Man (2018), Otto becomes kinder and more empathetic, to the point of reluctantly admitting that he's inferior to Peter as a hero. Otto does wind up going back to his old ways, but only after making a deal with Mephisto to lose all the experiences that made him a hero.
- Earpiece Conversation: When Peter infiltrates Octavius's old base, he is forced to follow cues from Otto through an earpiece to convince the criminals waiting in the base that he is still the "Superior" Spider-Man.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he continues to be an unrepentant bastard who gleefully siccs Supernova on Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus' love of Anna Maria Marconi remains. When Anna Maria is kidnapped by Supernova to lure out Spider-Man, Octavius immediately proposes an Enemy Mine to rescue her, even lending Peter his old Superior Spider-Man gear.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Otto once contemplated killing Spider-Boy, but was unable to go through with it, muttering, "I—I can't strike a child." Unfortunately, he is fine with Murder by Inaction, refusing to let Spider-Man help Spider-Boy against Supernova and even taunting him over how Spider-Boy might be killed by Supernova.
- Supernova shows a callous disregard for the lives of others, nearly torching several people while trying to get at Spider-Man. But even she is horrified when she accidentally collapses a building on top of Spider-Boy while trying to scare him into divulging Spider-Man's location. She rushes to remove the rubble and apologizes to the barely conscious boy.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When one of Octavius's drones catches sight of Spider-Man unmasking, Octavius immediately regains all his memories of his time as Spider-Man.
- Eye Scream: A minor example; Octavius cries out that he's blind when Spider-Man knocks off one lens of his goggles, but Spider-Man points out that he didn't even damage Octavius's eye.
- Fate Worse than Death: Estrella Lopez is left personifying the power of the tritium research as "Supernova", but is then trapped in an impregnable prison to "burn out" her power (which should take 3.2 billion years before she is accidentally released).
- Flying Firepower: New villain Supernova was a scientist named Estrella Lopez who developed a method to harness a tritium fusion reaction that resulted in her transforming into a living sun, giving her the ability to fly and shoot flames and energy beams akin to an even more powerful Human Torch. The problem is that she can't turn it off, leading her to curse Spider-Man for her predicament, especially after Otto trapped her in a capsule with the intent of leaving her there forever.
- Follow That Car: Subverted. When Anna tries to get a cab driver to drive her to Supernova’s destructive fight with Spider-Man so she can help, the cabbie angrily yells at her to get out of the car. Turns out most people aren’t willing to risk their lives and run straight into danger.
- Foil: Peter and Otto are contrasted by their treatment of Bailey in the main and backup stories. Peter is patient and supportive of Bailey, giving the boy opportunities to defeat villains on his own and think creatively while keeping him out of serious danger. Despite not remembering Bailey, Peter continues to look out for him, treating Bailey to ice cream and ensuring that his Secret Identity remains safe. Otto is neglectful of Bailey by comparison, refusing to interact with him more than anything and giving him little structure or guidance. He knew who Bailey was at the time but feared Bailey's ability to potentially expose Otto's theft of Peter's body. This leads Otto to verbally tear down Bailey and abandon him for purely selfish reasons.
- Framing the Guilty Party: The flashback reveals that Otto utilizes Slyde's theft of tritium to claim a sample for himself, claiming that the criminal disposed of the tritium before he was caught.
- Freak Lab Accident: Estrella Lopez is transformed into Supernova when she tries to prevent Otto from stealing the results of the work she solved. But she drops the tritium fusion reactor. The resulting reaction that spills over her turns into a living fusion reaction akin to a humanoid sun. Unlike the Human Torch, she can't turn it off, leaving her swearing revenge on Spider-Man for making her this way.
- Friend to All Children: In the backup story of the first issue, the Fantastic Four take Bailey under their wing after the Superior Spider-Man disowns him with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech designed to Break the Cutie. Lampshaded by Otto, who says the Fantastic Four is prone to taking in "infants" and tells them to "have another one for your brood."
- Glad I Thought of It: Otto blatantly takes credit for a method Estrella Lopez, one of his research assistants, thought of to control the reaction of the tritium.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Otto has no qualms with stabbing the Inner Demons with their own swords, smashing their heads against concrete, and leaving them in a bloody mess because Mr. Negative's powers give the gangsters a Healing Factor. But seeing the amount of damage that "Spidey" dealt to them horrifies Bailey.
- Grand Theft Me: Otto attempts this on Peter again after he believes the only way to save Anna Maria and stop Supernova is to become the Superior Spider-Man. This time, Peter's ready. However, Octavius is later able to use the spiders that previously comprised Spiders-Man to move a copy of his consciousness into what seems to be the entire population of New York.
- Groin Attack: Peter kicks Doctor Octopus in the groin when the villain is briefly distracted by the arrival of Anna Maria Marconi.
- Healing Factor:
- Mr. Negative's powers grant his underlings, the Inner Demons, the ability to rapidly heal their wounds. This lets them survive being stabbed, pummeled, and getting their skulls cracked by the Superior Spider-Man, albeit not without a great deal of pain and significant recovery time.
- Bailey suffers burns on his fingers from prying off his flaming Bug Pack before getting a building collapsed on top of him by Supernova. After Peter manages to get Bailey to a hospital, the doctors assure Peter that Bailey's superhuman metabolism will let him recover within a day or two following surgery.
- Hypocrite: After relearning Spider-Man's Secret Identity, Otto taunts Spider-Man and exploits how Peter is distracted by worry as Spider-Boy faces Supernova alone. But Otto has the gall to complain when Peter kicks him in the groin in retaliation after Otto is distracted by the arrival of Anna Maria. He later tries to take Peter's body for himself to go and rescue Anna Maria rather than accept Peter's argument that they just work together in a more conventional way.
- It's All About Me: Ultimately Otto attempts to re-take Peter's body for the final confrontation with Supernova, still convinced that only he can be the "Superior" Spider-Man rather than simply work with Peter to find another way to pull this off.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Peter and Otto engage in a new Battle in the Centre of the Mind, Otto protests that Peter basically defeated Osborn with all of Otto's own tech last time, suggesting that he could have won on his own, even if Peter counters that there were other factors to take into account.
- Just a Kid: Justified. Peter forbids Bailey from taking on A-List supervillains like Mysterio or Doctor Octopus on account of the boy's age and experience. Bailey agrees and offers to perform crowd control and get people out of the line of fire when Supernova attacks them.When Peter tries to defuse the situation by vanishing into a crowd, Bailey is left to face Supernova's wrath alone after Doc Ock attacks Peter to prevent him from rejoining the fray. Bailey suffers burns on his fingers after Supernova lights his Bug Pack ablaze and is knocked unconscious after Supernova collapses a building on top of him.
- Kick the Dog: Doctor Octopus gleefully watches as Supernova attacks Spider-Man and Spider-Boy without any regard for the collateral damage she's inflicting in her misplaced retribution. After relearning Spider-Man's identity, Otto doubles down by preventing Peter from rushing to help Bailey. He taunts Peter over Bailey facing "certain death" and laughs as Peter grows increasingly frustrated and impatient with him.
- Living Lie Detector: Bailey's psychometric Spider-Sense allows him to indirectly act as one. After seeing Spider-Man dole out horrific injuries to the Inner Demons, Bailey tries to see into Peter's future to see what's wrong with him. But Otto refuses to let Bailey touch him, lest the boy reveal that Otto stole Peter's body.
- Meaningful Name: Estrella Lopez lives up to her name becoming merged with a fusion reaction and becoming a living star.
- Metaphorically True: In issue #3, Peter and Octopus make an uneasy alliance, and the spiders in the glass box in Peter's lab keep insulting Otto, who complains about it. Peter answers that spiders have a mind of their own, which is true: they are the remains of an Alternate Self of Spider-Man called Spiders-Man.
- Misplaced Retribution: Once released, Supernova declares her intention to seek revenge on Spider-Man, unaware that the person responsible for her fate was Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man's body rather than the wall-crawler himself.
- Mythology Gag: Otto's research into using tritium as a viable power source is taken from his storyline in Spider-Man 2. Estrella even quotes Movie Otto while describing it as "The power of the sun in the palm of my hand."
- Never My Fault: Estrella blames Spider-Man for her transformation into Supernova, as the Freak Lab Accident that transformed her wouldn't have happened had Otto given her proper credit for her role in his research instead of stealing the idea for his own. But while her gripes with Otto are understandable, it was her inadequate handling of the fusion reactor that led to the accident.
- No-Sell: Supernova is constantly burning with energy comparable to a miniature sun. This means that she'll burn away pretty much any attempt to restrain or bind her, as Peter's and Otto's webbing is vaporized within seconds of touching her.
- Psychological Projection:
- Otto's "The Reason You Suck" Speech for Bailey reeks of this. He accuses Bailey of being "an impostor" when Otto himself stole Peter's identity and life and calls Bailey a "sad, broken little boy destined for failure" when Otto himself was trapped in a decaying body after many, many defeats at the hands of the wall-crawler. He ends his tirade by declaring that Bailey will never be Spider-Man, the very identity that Otto is trying to subsume.
- At the end of issue #2 when Otto shows up to recruit Spider-Man's help in rescuing Anna Maria and Peter naturally assumes at first that he's looking to continue their fight, he impatiently cuts the hero off and declares that he has no time for Peter's "petty rivalry" with him, as if he hadn't been obsessively trying to take down the web-slinger for his entire super-villain career.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- After Bailey is affected by Mr. Negative's corrupting touch, Otto subdues Bailey with a punch and verbally tears into Bailey. It reduces Bailey to tears, prompting a What the Hell, Hero? from the Fantastic Four, who are unaware of Otto's Grand Theft Me.Otto: You actually believe that you could end me?! Deep down you know you are an impostor! Unworthy of that suit! Of those powers! Inside, you're nothing but a sad, broken little boy destined for failure! You will never be Spider-Man! Say it!
- Peter, Peter's alternate life and Uncle Ben deliver this to Otto after the latter tries to attempt another Grand Theft Me on Peter, telling Otto under no uncertain terms that he's no Peter Parker or Spider-Man.
- After Bailey is affected by Mr. Negative's corrupting touch, Otto subdues Bailey with a punch and verbally tears into Bailey. It reduces Bailey to tears, prompting a What the Hell, Hero? from the Fantastic Four, who are unaware of Otto's Grand Theft Me.
- Recycled Title: The series uses the same title as 2013's Superior Spider-Man, the original story in which Otto took Peter's body and identity.
- Secret-Keeper: Anna Maria Marconi is Otto's ex-girlfriend and is aware of Peter's Secret Identity as Spider-Man. When Supernova confronts them both, Anna Maria covers Peter's wrist with her hands to conceal his web-shooters from the supervillain.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: As Peter and Otto search for Supernova at the start of #5, Peter cuts off Otto's rants about how they're wasting time by pointing out that Otto was the one who wasted more time trying to switch their brains, and Otto concedes that's a valid point.
- Something Only They Would Say: When Supernova mentions that Spider-Man would say "The die is cast", Spider-Man realizes that she was tricked by Octavius in his body rather than her being someone he forgot. Supernova later realises that she was imprisoned by Octavius rather than Spider-Man when Spider-Man focuses on speaking in her defence and Octavius starts using phrases she last heard when she was imprisoned.
- Tailor-Made Prison: The container that Otto originally intended to use to contain the power of the fusion reaction he was developing also serves as the one location capable of imprisoning Supernova, as her extreme energy output will incinerate any means of containment.
- The Unmasking: After the defeat of Mirage in the first issue's Batman Cold Open, Peter and Bailey sit on a rooftop, eat ice cream and talk. Bailey's just about to completely remove his mask when Peter realises they're being filmed by a news channel and stops him. It doubles as foreshadowing for the end of the issue, when Otto's Ocktoid drone successfully films Peter unmasking, and Doctor Octopus suddenly remembers who Spider-Man really is.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Supernova is an incredibly powerful villain that Peter compares to "the Human Torch times ten" thanks to her being essentially a living fusion reaction. She causes enormous collateral damage without even trying to and Peter is powerless to subdue her after she ambushes him and Bailey. But given that Estrella was a scientist before the accident, she has little experience fighting superheroes. As a result, Peter is able to give her the slip relatively easily and blend into a crowd, leaving her with no one to vent her frustration on.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Bailey is aghast when Otto (who took over Peter's body at this point in time) leaves the Inner Demons with lethal wounds, asking if "Spidey" straight up murdered them. Otto retorts that the Demons' remarkable healing powers will keep them alive, but Bailey notes that they're still in pain and that it's not like Spidey to be acting like this.
- The Fantastic Four also call out Otto for his "The Reason You Suck" Speech for Bailey. Medusa says no child should be treated like that and She-Hulk asks what the hell is wrong with Spidey.
- A nurse in the hospital where Peter takes an injured Bailey angrily criticizes Spider-Man (contrasting him with Peter for bringing the boy in) for involving a child in a super-villain battle, saying that he should be locked up for that. She obviously doesn't know the full story, but as Peter was already guilting himself over Bailey being hurt he doesn't contradict her.
- Peter is horrified when Otto simply traps Supernova in a stronger prison to channel her power for his own experiments, when Peter had been told they were going to try and cure her.
