Inferior Octopus/Superior Goblin Part 3.1: Erasing Spidey

Last time I proved Otto’s victory in ASM #700 was hollow. However, he did later ‘kill’ the real Peter in Superior #9. Didn’t he?

Whilst the Peter in ASM #700 was merely a copy of his mind Otto soundly defeated the real (well, arguably real) Peter Parker in Superior Spider-Man #9. This should definitively prove Otto’s place as Spidey’s greatest enemy…right?

Well, to answer that we’re going to need to provide a lot of context.

As touched upon last time, the remnants of Peter’s memories in his body took on a life of their own. Up until Superior #8 Ghost Peter had been struggling to regain dominance of his own body and/or influence Otto’s actions. One such instance occurred in Superior Spider-Man #8. In the issue Otto tracked down the anti-hero Cardiac and discovered a young girl (Amy Chen) wearing a device of his own creation: the neurolitic scanner.

Amy had been orphaned in a car accident that had also left her with brain damage. When Doc Ock had increased the Earth’s temperature during the ‘Ends of the Earth’ story arc, it caused severe complications for Amy’s condition. Cardiac stole the neurolitic scanner, hoping it could help Amy.

Upon learning this Otto resolved to use the scanner to perform surgery on Amy and save her life. Just prior to the surgery Otto’s right hand began to shake, the influence of Ghost Peter. Ghost Peter didn’t trust Otto’s skills, believing he was merely arrogant.

However, Otto asserted his dominance and commenced the surgery.

It was a complete success and with the pair now on friendlier terms, Cardiac willingly handed over the scanner to Otto. By the end of the issue Otto used the scanner upon himself and discovered the existence of Ghost Peter.

In the next issue Otto attempted to erase Peter’s memories and free himself from his meagre influence. Peter resisted though and as a result Otto took a more direct approach.

What ensued was a battle inside Spider-Man’s ‘mindscape’ between Peter’s mind and Otto’s. Artistically Peter and Otto’s bodies were used to symbolise their minds and by extension Peter’s memories were represented by buildings and real people he’d known in life.

Peter summoned the memories of his loved ones to help him battle Doc Ock, stating that they gave him strength.

However, Otto was prepared for this and in turn (somehow??????) summoned up Peter’s negative emotions and memories, personified in the form of his rogue’s gallery.

These ‘villains’ overwhelmed Peter’s ‘loved ones’ erasing his memories of them. As their duel continued both men adopted the forms of Spider-Man and had a ‘debate’ about their respective worthiness of the mantle.

Otto gained the upper hand by citing alleged failures on Peter’s part. These included Peter’s lack of more lethal methods leading to both the Vulture and serial killer Massacre living to harm the innocent. Between them they used children as their henchmen and mass murdered innocent people, including Peter’s friend Ashley Kafka.

But Otto’s most devastating blow related to Amy. He accused Peter’s interference as almost averting Amy’s life saving surgery. Peter countered that he didn’t trust Otto to pull off the surgery. However, Otto revealed that he knew Peter was lying, demanding he tell the truth.

This truth was that Peter didn’t want Otto to obtain the neurolitic scanner because with it Peter’s existence would be revealed.

Although Peter claimed his actions were the result of a momentary lapse, Otto declared him unworthy of being Spider-Man. With that he completed the erasure of Peter’s mind, visually represented by Peter being buried under rubble.

Otto consequently walked away in full command of Peter’s body and mind.

For the sake of argument, let’s remove all ambiguity and treat Otto and Peter in this story as 100% the real and original versions of the characters.

With that in mind these events are pretty clear-cut aren’t they?

The mind/wills of Spidey and Doc Ock came into direct conflict. Otto dominated Peter and erased him, in effect killing him. The battle even occurred in Peter’s mind/body so he would’ve had a ‘home field advantage’. This is in stark contrast to ASM #700 when ‘Peter’ was in a weakened body he was not used to fighting in and dying to boot.

Otto’s victory here definitely proves him the superior of both Peter and all other Spider-Foes!

Or at least it would…if it wasn’t totally and utterly contrived.

I’m going to start by addressing probably the single biggest factor in Otto’s win, Peter endangering Amy Chen.

Let me be totally blunt.

Spider-Man would NEVER endanger the life of a child!*

And he certainly wouldn’t do it to save his own skin!

That is something most real life civilians would never do, let alone a larger than life super powered hero.

That aside there are dozens of instances of Spider-Man risking his own life in order to very directly protect children. In ASM #428, Spidey was on the back-foot evading attacks from Doc Ock himself. When he saw a young girl in danger from the debris of Otto’s blow, he swung in to rescue her. He carried her to safety even whilst Ock continued his assault. Ock actually chastised Spidey for this, He claimed the child was insignificant, a hindrance and that it would’ve been smarter for him to have left her behind.**

And the thing is, Ock was right. In protecting the child Spider-Man was putting his own life at a massive risk given how formidable a fighter Doc Ock was. And yet Spidey never even hesitated because he valued the life of an innocent child far beyond his own.

However, the greatest example of Peter’s kindness towards children can be found in ASM #248.

I’m sure most people reading this are aware of the story as it is regarded as an all-time classic. For those who aren’t though, it involves Spidey paying a visit to a young Spider-Man fanatic called Timothy Harrison. Spidey divulges to Tim the secrets of his powers, web-shooters, Uncle Ben’s death and eventually even his secret identity.

Timothy was dying with only a few more weeks to live, and he also promised to keep Peter’s secret. Nevertheless, Spider-Man entrusted his privacy, potentially dangerous information about his powers, and the wellbeing of all his loved ones to a child.

He had no way of guaranteeing Timothy wouldn’t spill the beans before he died or leave evidence that might be discovered post-humorously. His trust in Timothy also wasn’t to serve some kind of greater good like saving the boy’s life, or protecting the city, or anything like that.

On paper it was a major risk, but one Peter took simply because he wanted to make a dying child feel a little better.

I ask you, if Spider-Man would do that, how believable is it that he’d ever endanger the life of a dying child who could  be saved just to protect himself?

The answer is it’s not  believable at all, not even as a mere moment of hesitation.

But let’s say it was. Let’s say that it was possible that for the most fleeting of instances Spider-Man really would try to save himself at the expense of a child’s life. Even then his defeat in Superior #9 still wouldn’t add up.

Otto’s argument was hinged upon the idea that endangering a child’s life to protect himself made Peter unworthy of being Spider-Man. By extension he was telling him that he, Otto Octavius, was more  deserving of the mantle. That he was a better person than Peter was. Peter had little-no fight left in him after that, heavily implying that he accepted what Otto was saying (at least momentarily).

This is patently ridiculous.

Peter might hold himself guilty for a lot of things,. He might even hold himself guilty for endangering Amy’s life. But to honestly believe, even for a moment, that he is a worse person than Doctor Octopus?

Peter is aware that Dock Ock:

The latter was written by Dan Slott and released less than a year before Superior #9. In-universe that scheme occurred mere months before Superior #9 and (as mentioned above) was the very thing that critically endangered Amy Chen in the first place.

Through Otto’s victory in Superior #9 Dan Slott in effect wanted readers to buy that Spider-Man genuinely believed himself worse than three of the world’s greatest mass murderers…combined…

All because he momentarily  endangered a child’s life.

To say this would be a ridiculous false equivalency would be an understatement.

Even with Peter’s famous sense of guilt he has still recognized that there exist people more guilty himself. Consider the two most famous deaths in Spider-Man history, those of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy.

Peter clearly blames himself for both of their deaths, he stated that explicitly in Amazing Fantasy #15 and ASM #122 respectively. However, in both instances he clearly assigned greater guilt to the Burglar and the Green Goblin. So even if Peter genuinely believed he was a bad person for a momentary lapse, he would still never concede Otto a better  person than himself.

Slott’s desire to paint Peter negatively wasn’t just reliant upon mischaracterization though. It involved good old-fashioned stupidity too.

Peter confessed that he endangered Amy’s life in order to prevent Otto ‘getting’ the neurolitic scanner. But this doesn’t match up with the sequence of events depicted in Superior #8.

In that issue Otto attempted to take the scanner by force prior to learning about Amy’s condition. When he eventually did receive it from Cardiac’s consent it was after Amy’s operation. Although Otto was using the scanner during Amy surgery he wasn’t taking  it and he was not using it in any way that would’ve exposed Ghost Peter. If Peter wanted to prevent Otto from possessing the scanner it would’ve made sense for him to have tried before Otto met Amy or after the surgery.

But he didn’t, he chose the moment before Otto began to operate for no logical in-story reason. The actual rationale behind this was clearly a way for Slott to paint Peter negatively and cheaply set up Otto’s consequent defeat of him in the next issue.

There is more to say about Peter’s defeat in Superior #9, but I’m going to pause things there and pick them up next time.

*Obviously I’m discounting instances where it is accidental. I’m talking about Spider-Man knowingly  endangering a child’s life.

**By the way Dan Slott has definitely read this issue.

In Superior Spider-Man #21 he reintroduces Stunner, who was rendered comatose as a result of the events of ASM #426-428. The story directly addresses her awakening from said coma and references how she wound up in one in the first place.

So Slott was clearly ignoring anything inconvenient to the story he wanted to tell.