Dan Slott continues to keep the entertainment coming at a furious clip with Superior Spider-Man #21, as ghosts from the past of Dr. Otto Octavius come back to haunt the man now living in the brain of Peter Parker.
Not only did we end last issue with Doctor Don “The Schnoz” Lamaze accusing Parker of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis from Octavius (who he secretly actually is), but we’ve also got Otto’s ex-paramour – a woman named Angelinea Brancale – out of her coma and out to get revenge on Spider-Man for killing Dr. Octopus (who, again, he secretly is). Brancale also happens to have access to an elaborate virtual reality machine that lets her project herself as a massive strongwoman called Stunner. This leaves our hero(?) scrambling to find a way to defuse both situations without compromising his double-secret identity. His solution to the problem may have some very interesting repercussions for the future.
What will likely have more immediate consequences is the B-story, wherein Carlie Cooper, Peter’s ex-girlfriend who has finally realized the truth about Peter’s death while in the dessicated body of old Doc Ock, visits Otto’s grave to be the first to know to mourn Peter Parker. Suddenly, though, it’s revealed that there’s no body in the grave, and Carlie gets abducted by the Goblin Kingpin of Crime’s henchman Menace, who refers to Carlie as her sister. And the Green Goblin now has her journal, which means he may learn the truth about everything – if he doesn’t know already. We still don’t know who’s under the mask this time around.
Slott is just amazing at connecting the dots over long periods of time, managing many plotlines at once, and making it all a pleasure to read. Superior Spider-Man has become the book I’m most excited to read every month, because while I can guess where it’s going, I have no idea how it’s going to get there. Giuseppe Camuncoli’s artwork is kinetic, detailed, and it matches Slott’s fast pace. Slott doesn’t make huge deals out of small plot points until it’s time to make a huge deal out of them. He drops in Betty Brant’s return to the Daily Bugle as almost an afterthought, but you know that’s really going to matter down the line.
Superior Spider-Man is the most consistently enjoyable superhero book Marvel’s putting out. Two times a month, every month, always a blast. God bless Dan Slott.
