Spider-Verse Review: Superior Spider-Man #32 by Dan Slott, Chris Gage, and Giuseppe Camuncoli

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Superior Spider-Man #32

Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage

Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell, and Antonio Fabela

Backup by Christos Gage, Adam Kubert, and Rain Beredo

 

The short of it:

Months ago time tried to eat itself, and while we all know that the Spider-Man of 2099 wound up stuck in the present, there was a brief moment where Spider-Ock vanished into the time stream as well, only to return with no memory of what had happened, but a torn up costume to show for it. This is that story, the missing time, and yes, with Miguel O’Hara pulled to the present, Ock found his way to 2099. This will not do, however, and he gets right on trying to find tech that he can use to send himself back home. Of course, 2099 is a much different time and place, and he’s attacked by the Public Eye…well, no, it’s more like he takes them out of the sky while they sit shocked that he didn’t run away like the Spider-Man they’re used to. Same goes for Gabe O’Hara, Miguel’s (Spidey 2099) brother, who winds up playing the role of a getaway driver who sets Ock up with a lab…whoops?

Ock quickly uses the provided Holo-Agent to find out where he can find the things he needs, and then proceeds to go on the warpath against Stark/Fujiwaka and Alchemax to get the tech he needs. He pretty much just goes full on Ock, but why not? This is the future, his actions won’t come back to bite his reputation in the present. He also reshapes his Holo-Agent into his girlfriend, Anna Maria, to take along with him for the trip. He’s a genius, he made himself a time machine that’s capable of bringing him back in case he doesn’t wind up in the right place. Good thing, too, since his first stop is the home of the first issue of What If?!, complete with Spider-Man of the Fantastic Five. Well, I mean, he’s dead, and so is everyone else, so whatever, try again! Then we see three more worlds, and three more dead Spider-Men, and they all have the same death wound. Ock blames their deaths on them all being Peter Parker, but the Holo-Anna points out the identical wounds and things about them.

So it’s time for another trip, now that he’s looking for a killer of Spider-Men, but instead we wind up in a world where Pavitr Prabhakar is the Spider-Man of India…and on the run from a guy trying to kill him with the same weapon that killed the other Spider-Men. Pavitr is horribly outmatched, and pretty much earmarked for death, when Ock shows up and saves him by bailing him out of the timeline and away from the killer. Pavitr is honored that he was recruited to fight the villain, and believes himself to be the first. Ock’s room of Spider-Men (and a Woman..and a Monkey), however, show that he’s already been hard at work.

The backup shows the origin of one of those Spider-Men, a Peter Parker who went hyper violent after Gwen Stacy died, going as far as to be trained by Wolverine and moving far away from New York and his life as Peter Parker. So, Wolverine promptly dies, and Spidey tries to draw the bad guy out, but he doesn’t do too well. And, like with Pavitr, Ock shows up for the save, only this Spidey is willing to put Ock down if he gets in his way. He wants to kill this beast, and expects Ock to stand in his way, though when he finds out that Ock is all for killing it…he’s all in.

 

What I liked:

  • Ock’s complete disregard for anything resembling maintaining a heroic persona once he hits 2099. For the love of, the man steals a truck!
  • 2099 is not ready for someone like Ock. I admit to a very limited understanding of the canon there (I never read it), but I just have to assume that there aren’t a lot of guys flying/swinging through the air doing whatever they want. Something tells me that if they ever go back and revist that era, Ock’s presence is going to lead to those flying guys being armed to the teeth.
  • Spider-Ock: Leader of Spider-People.
  • House of M Spider-Man: Dead like he deserves to be.
  • Giuseppe Camuncoli got right back to work as if he’d never stopped drawing Superior Spider-Man, and the book benefits from it. Ramos might be the artist most synonymous with Slott’s Spider-Man run, but Camuncoli has been solidly bringing his own style of storytelling with great results, and I’m just really happy he was on this issue.

 

What I didn’t like:

  • Unless Spider-Verse leads to an ongoing Spider-Ock book by Slott or Gage, then his return is just a cruel tease.
  • Not enough Adam Kubert.
  • No Mayday (expect to see this as my complaint in every Spider-Verse book she isn’t in, it’s going to be the Marvel version of “Not enough Booster”).
  • The cover says “over-sized”, and the book cost five bucks. You know what over-sized is these days, by Marvel’s standards? Twenty-six pages. I’m pretty sure that their previous five dollar books were, at the very least, over thirty pages, so this is actually kind of insulting.

 

Final thoughts:

I didn’t realize how much I missed Spider-Ock until he was here in front of me again, and then I missed him a lot. I really took having that book around for granted, because now after a few months of no asshole Spider-Men, having the supreme prick of Spider’s doing what he does best is just a breath of fresh air.

I also miss Grady’s crazy inventions, Max Modell, and everyone else at Horizon. This will probably fade as more time is spent developing Parker Industries, but this issue reminded me that I miss those guys.

Spider-Monkey needs to die. That whole Marvel Apes thing was awful, and I’m happier every time I forget it existed.

Look, it’s THAT EASY TO KILL WOLVERINE! Do we really need an overpriced weekly miniseries? Just have Morlun start stabbing him until he doesn’t get back up. I mean, seriously, if he can do that to a Wolverine with a healing factor, what would he do to the Logan that’s running around 616 right now?

Spider-Verse is the most excited I’ve been for an event at Marvel since AvX crushed my hopes and dreams, so instead, I’m going to compare it to the event before that where I was stoked and impatient for. SPIDER-ISLAND! I have total faith in the awesomeness of Spider-Verse because Dan Slott can do no wrong with Spider-Man. At all. Period. The man did Spider-Island and Superior Spider-Man, he gets a free pass to do whatever he wants because the end result is going to be awesome Spider-Man.

And that’s how Dan Slott became my number two favorite Spider writer.

Number one is Tom DeFalco, because of Spider-Girl. Only way Slott takes that spot is if he launches a Spider-Girl ongoing series featuring Mayday in the lead, and then proceeds to write it with the same love and attention that he brings to Spider-Man and DeFalco brought to May.

If he kills her, however, I’ll probably rage drop Spider-Man and get all cynical like my buddy Greg, who is not a fan of Dan Slott’s (we don’t talk about him, it never leads to any sort of agreeing).

I miss Spider-Girl. SHE’LL BE BACK SOON! SPIDER-VERSE! Where all our favorite Spider characters finally come back! May, Ben, and Ock!

What are the odds that Ock somehow weasels out of all of this with a new book for himself? I’d buy it. I’m going to be buying a LOT of Spider stuff in the coming months.

 

Overall: 8.5/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.