Superior Spider-man #1

Superior Spider-man #1

"Hero or Menace?"

Story: Dan Slott
Art: Ryan Stegman
Colors: Edgar Delgado
Cover: Ryan Stegman

Peter Parker is dead.  Long live the Superior Spider-man!  A new era begins with Superior Spider-man #1!  Is the first issue a hit or a disaster?  Hit the jump to find out!


Summary: Following the shocking events of Amazing Spider-man #700, Doctor Octopus is still inhabiting Peter Parker's body and begins his saga as the Superior Spider-man.  Otto takes on a "new Sinister Six", uses Peter's position at Horizon to help make him "superior", and begins to make his move on Mary Jane.  Otto displays a decidedly more brutal approach to justice than Spider-man has in the past, and only the "spirit" of Peter Parker can stop him from going too far over the line.

The Good:  I'll start with the art because it was certainly a major highlight of this book for me.  First of all, the Skottie Young variant cover (pictured below) is fantastic.  I love Young's work and I especially love his baby-Marvel characters.  As for the book itself, I'm absolutely thrilled to have Ryan Stegman doing the artwork on this title.  Stegman is one of my favorite Spider-man artists and was the perfect choice for this title.  I love how he draws all of the important characters, especially Peter Parker/Spider-man (or Otto-Peter Parker in this case) and Mary Jane.  In fact, Stegman's Mary Jane might be my favorite.  What is really great about this issue, is how Stegman manages to convey that Otto is in Peter's body with little touches, like the "mad scientist" glasses, the lab coat, and even his facial expressions.  I was very excited to have Stegman on this title and with this first issue he certainly delivered.

As for the story, there was a lot to like here.  Dan Slott took a major risk by "killing" Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-man #700 and understandably upset a lot of readers.  Personally, I was cautiously optimistic going into this issue based on what I know about Slott and his passion for the character.  I think just about everyone knows that Peter will be back at some point, and as long as we get a compelling story in the meantime, I saw no reason why this book couldn't be good.  Throughout this issue Slott nailed Otto's character and behaved exactly how I would expect him too in Peter/Spider-man's body.  I think Slott did a great job in this issue of showing that Otto will uphold his promise to Peter to be a hero, while at the same time, displaying a lot of his villainous traits as well.  His brutal beating of Boomerang at the end was a nice touch, and I was absolutely stunned when Peter Parker himself showed up in "spirit form" to stop Otto from going too far.  This was a great and shocking way to end the first issue and sets up what looks to be a very interesting title.

The not so good:  Honestly there was not a whole lot that I didn't like in this issue.  My only real complaint would be that Mary Jane should take more notice of the differences that Otto is displaying as Peter.  I'm sure that will be coming soon and that Slott just isn't focusing on that particular part of the story yet, so it's really not that big of a deal at this time.  Other than that minor complaint, this was a great first issue that sets up what looks to be a compelling story with Otto and Peter.

Overall rating: A (9/10)