I thought it was pretty obvious that the extremely negative opinion of Spider-Man was Shocker's somewhat hypocritical perspective on him and not altogether deserved — after all, when Shocker meets Peter Parker without knowing who he is, he ends up really liking the guy.
That's not to say the fic is without problems. I never really could get all that comfortable with the characterization of the Rhino, who's a harmless Gentle Giant with the intelligence of a three-year-old — not at all the more hardened bad guy from canon. The Shocker's inventions are impressive, yes, and it makes sense that Reed Richards and Tony Stark would take note of them and even admire the craft and intelligence that had gone into them, but not to this extent.
The Shocker just becomes a leeeeeettle too much the guy that everyone gushes over and praises, and his "I just steal money, I don't kill people" isn't really challenged enough... and again the Rhino has been softened up so much so that the fic can feel justified in lashing a lot of pity on him and ignore that he is a villain. It's not a bad fic, but it does seem rather one-sided.
Ah yeah, the Rhino thing. I will admit, Aleksei is kind of a dumbass as far as villains go... but he's not borderline retarded like the story makes him out to be. Also he got his ass kicked by Bullseye of all people if I recall... Bullseye's badass and all, but Rhino shouldn't be that inept.
I will admit that maybe we are to see Herman as a hypocrite in that situation... but the thing is, the counterpoint isn't even raised in the narration, or by the New Avengers or Black Cat. It just really kinda rubs me the wrong way.
But ah... I dunno, I'd still say people should go for the first half of the story. I find it too rare to find a Marvel story that has great Continuity Porn for the comics.
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Eh...
I wanted to like this fic, I really did. Hell, for the first half of the story I actually really did enjoy it. It had a great writing style, tons of Continuity Porn for anyone into classic Marvel, and the idea of centering a story on one of my favourite Spider-rogues is an idea that just gets me giddy. But unfortunately it, much like the other fanfic I reviewed, really took a nosedive at the halfway point.
The Shocker makes for an interesting and sympathetic character, sure. And highly intelligent no doubt. But having Reed Richards and Tony Stark gushing over his technology? No, bullshit. And then there's the part where Shocker starts whining about Spider-man being some sort of bully that only picks on his usual villains... ignoring the times Spider-Man has dove in headfirst aganst the likes of Juggernaut and the Hulk, knowing full well he stood no chance. It's a little ambiguous if we're supposed to side with him, but it is still BS hat nobody makes the obvious counter argument.
It's an okay story in the end, not entirely offensive... but I really wish the story had avoided making Spidey into a Ron the Death Eater, and having the foremost geniuses of the MU complimenting technology they could have built in their cribs.