Today, Shelby and guest writer Gino Killiko are discussing Superior Spider-Man 7, originally released April 3rd, 2013.

Shelby: What exactly does it mean to be “good?” Does it it mean always following the rules to the letter, or is there some leeway when it comes to breaking rules in order to do good unto others? That raises the question of how one determines if the good they are doing is worth the rules they are breaking; stealing food is bad, but what about stealing food to feed hungry children? What if you’re stealing from someone who has so much food they’ll never even notice it’s gone? Technically, you’re breaking the law, but so much good is accomplished from your actions, where do you draw the line? We’ve been dancing around this ethical morass ever since Otto took over as Spider-Man, and this issue Dan Slott decides to address it head on.  

Ghost Peter is having a pretty good night; he was able to momentarily regain control of his right hand, long enough to write a garbled nonsense message (he did not regain control of the language center of his brain). It’s a good thing his control is growing, because he needs every ounce of it to keep Otto in check as he confronts Cardiac, a Robin Hood-style vigilante. Cardiac steals medical devices, this time from a warehouse of confiscated super-villain goods, and uses them in his secret hospital, where he cures the terminally ill who can’t afford care otherwise. Otto, however, sees him as just another thief, especially when he discovers Cardiac is taking a device which used to belong to one Dr. O. Octavius. Just when Otto is about to do some real damage, Peter “shouts” loud enough to distract him, and Cardiac makes a break for it. It seems like things can’t get any worse for Otto’s ego, but then he gets called in by the Avengers: not to save the day, but to undergo a series of tests to determine if he is actually Spider-Man. Instead of being rational, Otto confirms all their suspicions by starting a fight with Captain America: a dumb move, it turns out.

Who’s the bad guy in this issue? Slott is going out of his way to show us that Otto’s attempts at being a superhero are coming apart at the seams. Cardiac acts as the perfect example of what a vigilante hero should be. Not only is he stealing technology that has been confiscated from super-villains, items that basically don’t exist, he’s using them to treat the sick and dying. Is there anything more noble? And yet, to Otto, Cardiac is nothing more than “a common thief”: certainly not a Hero, an Avenger. Otto has completely forgotten that, not that long ago, he was put in the same category as the villains he loves to beat the shit out of. Personally, I think Otto’s blindness to his hypocrisy stems from a martyr complex. We know he was the victim of abuse and bullied as a kid; as an adult, he believed he was “taking revenge” on the world that bullied him, but what he was actually doing was putting himself in a position to continue to be a victim. This time, though, the bullies were the good guys. Finally, Otto has found himself in the position of the bully, the one on top, the one with the power. He can’t see that all he’s doing is perpetuating the cycle of putting himself in a position to be a victim. He’s been able to get away with it under the guise of doing good, because for a while the good he was doing was still enough to justify his actions. As Otto has become more and more reckless with his authority, the scales have tipped; his rule-breaking can no longer be justified.

Slott continues to impress me with his intelligent handling of this story. What could have been a shock-and-awe, cash-grab of a Freaky Friday-esque comic book arc is actually a fascinating look at the ethics of being a vigilante super-hero. I’ve always understood in the back of my mind that super-heroes occupy a sort of gray moral area; technically, they are breaking the law, but they’re obviously not bad guys. This title, however, has brought that question of ethics to the forefront, and has me pondering all sorts of heady questions about my own definitions of ‘good” and “bad.” On top of that, it’s just a good read; this book is fun and exciting and suspenseful and dramatic. On that glowing note, I’m going to turn things over to Gino Killiko, our reader on the high seas! Welcome, Gino, glad to have you writing with us! What do you think about this issue? I got so into my analysis of Otto’s motives, I barely touched on Peter’s growing control over his own body; do you think Peter Parker, Spider-Man is starting to appear on our radar?

Gino Killiko: Indeed Shelby, it seems as though Peter is quickly making advances into regaining control of his mind and body. Thus far it has always seemed like a great strain for Peter to make Otto react to his presence yet in this issue, he gets through to him physically and mentally on several occasions. Furthermore, the last of the occurrences, when Pete quips about “game over” at the Avengers meeting, Otto hears it, although it seems as though Peter was mostly cheering to himself, not so much trying for another breakthrough. The twist however is that Otto realizes that this is happening during the Cardiac encounter, and if he makes it out of the Avengers confrontation mostly unscathed next issue (advance spoilers: he will) he’ll likely be pouring his efforts into keeping his brain tethered to Spidey’s body for the foreseeable future.

Before I continue to analyze the interesting themes and situations provided here, I have to take a quick trip down subjectivity lane and play bad cop to Shelby’s good cop. While the questions posed by Slott and the overall story-telling remain engaging, the massive amount of exposition in this issue delivered through Cardiac’s thought balloons felt clunky, and Ghost Peter’s habit of stating the painfully obvious kind of grinds my gears. Also, as Otto wakes up, it looks to me like Peter’s using his left hand to brush his scribble off the night table, although he clearly states twice that he’s controlling his right hand, and indeed seems to be doing so on the previous page. I found this so jarring as I read it that I literally re-enacted the scene to ensure that I’m not crazy (I’m not, right?).

That being said, I’d like to revisit Otto’s terrible decision to blow off the Avengers which you mentioned. Not only does the panel you brought in show us how much trouble and suspicion Otto has just brought upon himself, one would think that with his genius intellect, he would know that no amount of blood tests and urine samples could prove he isn’t Peter Parker. Unless the Avengers have some sort of brain scanning device, he could simply submit himself to the tests and be on his merry way. Ock’s overblown ego is what lands him in such a bad way with the Avengers, and in a more global sense, what has been the downfall of his tenure as Spider-Man so far. In fact, against expectations, Otto’s Peter Parker impression has gotten decent over time, so long as he keeps his cool. Once Spidey gets angry though, we’re treated to Mr. Superior’s Ock-talk ™.

As you pointed out Shelby, the façade is really starting to crack. Up until now Octavius lost it either when faced with extreme danger to others (Massacre) or when his own issues with bullying made him see red (Jester and Screwball). When facing Cardiac though, Otto goes psycho right from the outset, showing that without Ghost Peter’s restraint, he’s teetering on the edge and ready to go overboard at any second.

His enormous ego inflates his failings as Spider-Man to unmanageable proportions both when he learns that his own technology is being stolen and when he is confronted by the Avengers. If Ock remains in the suit for much longer, although that does seem like it gets less likely every issue, he’ll have to work more of Peter’s empathic attitude into his act if he doesn’t want to repeal his promise to uphold Spider-Man’s ideals and become the true villain (again) of this series.

Gino Killiko is a long time Batman trade paperback collector who’s recently made the jump into monthlies and branched out beyond the Bat-verse. Probably due to his self-diagnosed OCD, he is now reading way too many comics for his own good. In his spare time, Gino prefers not to write about himself in the third person. 

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