Hehe, Sh Ock, that was a good one.
But yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I wouldn't mind if Peter got a decent death (Much as I loathe Ultimate Marvel, Peter at least died with dignity there) but here he got casually swept under th rug and the series went about trying to establish a Complete Monster as a suitable successor.
Why do you hate Ultimate Marvel, Asger?
MOO!
Honestly I found it tried way too hard to be hip and modern and 'edgy.' Oh look Captain America's a racist, oh look the Blob is eating someone. Yeah that's what I call cool. Also my god the designs, man they can really blow. Thor was probably the worst offender. And it all took itself way too seriously. I mean I love comic books and superheroes and even I can admit hos silly it gets. It could have done with bringing in more Silver Age elements, at least those would have made it mildly fun.
PETER'S COMING BACK!!!
Except that this series is NOT trying to establish Sp Ock as a 'suitable successor. It's about showing that a straight-up, un-repentant villain, regardless of how efficient he is, can never be a true hero. Sp Ock isn't being Spiderman to try be a better 'hero' at all; he's doing it to show Peter off, regardless of the fact he probably considers Peter to be dead. He's proving to himself, and attempting to prove to everyone else, that he is a true genius, by doing more good than Peter ever did, but in the process, is committing rather questionably morale acts. It serves as a Take That to everyone (in&out of universe,) who thinks superheroes should be more 'aggressive' or 'proactive', by showing that a 'Superhero' who tries to use such tactics isn't really a hero, and is really just a glorified villain posing as a hero. It might even a Take That to 90sAntiHero's in general, as well. And I'm sure that when Peter finally comes back, this will all be evident all the more.
And whenever the series itself says anything contrary to Spock being anything more than Spock being a villain, it's really either out of sheer irony, or trying to misdirect us from what's really going on.
Also: Sp Ock has all of the power, but none of the responsibility. Forgot to add that in.
I don't know about that, Dan Slott has spent a lot of time in interviews and on websites defending Sp Ock and his early actions, trying to make it look like this is a quest for redemption, and that Otto can still be a hero.
So you can't be correct, unless Dan Slott is a gigantic troll who spent years telling blatant lies about his own story to make it seem more interesting and original than it was, while using a mixture of shock value, plot holes and temporary comic book deaths to ensure that no matter what he wrote, it would still be a bestseller for sure.
... Oh. Huh. I just read that back and a whole bunch of stuff about the series started to make sense.
At least Doc Oc never sold his daughter's soul to Mephistopheles like Peter did.
Peter didn't know he would have a daughter, and by the time he did, it was too late to renege on the deal. And we're all better off admitting that that wasn't Peter, it was Joe Quesada possessing Peter in an attempt to make the comic he wanted, regardless of whether or not the readers wanted it. As for Superior Spider-Man, I'm staying away until Peter comes back.
I'm a geek.
Apparently he is back now.
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He's an Inferior Spider-Man, but that's not why I'm mad
Peter Parker is awesome. He appeals to people because he's relatable: he has flaws and is an everyman, but he genuinely wants to do the right thing and is able to be upbeat and heroic despite the tragedies of his life.
Doc Ock cannot hold a candle to Peter Parker. Yes, villains getting redemption is a thing. But how does Doc Ock deserve redemption? He murdered Spider-Man, then selfishly did it again while claiming that after 8 issues, he knew more about being Spider-Man than the guy who'd worn the costume for 50 years. But he's not Spider-Man, he's just a generic grimdark 90's-esque character. He kills, he makes villain quotes, and he shows hardly a speck of remorse for his past actions (missing the most essential element of an atoner character).
He's also incredibly shilled. The recaps state that Ock "might become the greatest hero of all", characters who have known Peter Parker for years are derailed so that they don't realize Ock is an impostor, and the creative team mockingly refers to Peter as "your parents' Spider-Man".
Honestly, despite Peter being one of the few Marvel characters I care about (DC fanboy here), I'm not mad that he's dead. Comic book characters die all the time. You don't see me raging at Ultimate Spider-Man either. What I hate is that he died in a way completely disrespectful to his character: a villain swaps bodies with him and he dies, with nobody any the wiser. No Heroic Sacrifice, no last words to his family. He's just dead and nobody sheds a single tear for him. It's pure shOck value.
If Peter Parker died, then Ock transferred his mind to a clone body and appeared as a mysterious new Spider-Man (with only the Avengers and some others knowing that it wasn't the same guy under the mask and everyone else thinking it was the same Spider-Man), I probably wouldn't mind. Because it's not Spider-Man I care about. He's just a mask.
The guy I care about is Peter Parker. All my complaints? They're not because Ock is a bad Spider-Man. They're because he's a horrible Peter Parker. A mask belongs to whoever wears it at the time, but a life cannot be supplanted by another life. That's why I'll ultimately hate this arc, no matter what happens.
(By the way, if Peter had died and J.J.J. had suddenly gained spider powers and become Spider-Man, I would have loved the hell out of that story.)