Doc Ock May Become the Superior Spider-Man Yet Again

The following contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #800 by Dan Slott, Nick Bradshaw, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stuart Immonen, Marcos Martin, Victor Olazaba, Cam Smith, Wade von Grawbadger, Edgar Delgado, Java Tartaglia, Marte Gracia, Muntsa Vicente and VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now.

Amazing Spider-Man #800 is the culmination of everything that Dan Slott has written involving Marvel's webbed superhero over the last ten years. From J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker's complicated relationship, to Peter burying the hatchet with Flash Thompson (again), to Aunt May finally accepting Spider-Man's inherent altruism, just about everything gets some kind of resolution.

But there are also some stories that are deliberately left unresolved so they can be explored later on, be it by Slott or another creator. Of those, the most intriguing pertains to what was arguably Slott's most controversial story, The Superior Spider-Man.

Debuting in 2013, Superior saw Doctor Octopus hijack Peter's body to avoid dying of cancer while Peter's consciousness ended up in Ock's then-dead body. Before he died, Peter uploaded a slew of memories to Otto, and the villain decided that from then on, he'd operate as a Spider-Man who would be better than Parker, all while the world was unaware anything had changed.

Superior Spider-Man swinging through the city

Though Ock-Peter was successful on the hero front, from taking down major supervillains to building his own private army to protect New York, it eventually blew up in his face. Peter was kicked off the Avengers, and his relationships with various friends and loved ones became massively strained. Once the Hobgoblin created a Goblin Army due to Ock-Peter's machinations, Otto decided that the right thing to do was to let the sliver of Peter's remaining consciousness that had been functioning as something of a conscience grow and take back control of his body in order to save the day.

With Peter back in control of his body, logic would dictate Doc Ock was forever dead... but this is the world of comics, and that never happens. During the Dead No More storyline, a gauntlet from the Superior suit containing Ock's uploaded consciousness was revealed to have transferred the villain-turned-hero's being to the Living Brain, a classic robot foe. Later, the Brain found Otto's corpse, from which it cloned an idealized version of Otto. Ock's consciousness was able to transfer into his new clone body, only to learn it suffered from a state of constant decay. Thus, he later transferred his consciousness to cloned body of Peter Parker's, one that that wouldn't decay at all.

Whew!

Thus was born the Superior Octopus, armed with his old tentacle pack and working with HYDRA during Secret Empire as part of the Hydra Avengers.

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How does this all tie in to Slott's final issue of Spider-Man? Well, Otto finds himself going up against the Goblin Childe -- a fusion of the Carnage Symbiote and Harry Osborn's son, Normie -- to protect Aunt May, legitimately declaring her a woman who "brings nothing but kindness into the world." He even leaps to shield her body from the blast of a classic Osborn pumpkin bomb, further proving his altruistic intent.

Cradled in May's arms, he admits that he's had parts of Peter's memories and morals rattling around his head for months, and as a result couldn't let anything happen to May. In Peter's eyes, this redeemed Otto, granting the villain a clean slate upon which to chart his future.

In the issue's post-credits scene, we see Otto taking advantage of the fresh start Peter has given him. Under the name Elliot Tolliver, he's applied at Horizon University where his girlfriend Ana Marconi (back when he was in Peter's body) also works. With a new look, Otto closes out the book with the goal to be Superior, his Spider-Man costume shadowing the wall behind him.

It should come as no surprise that Otto would try his hand at being Spider-Man once more. After all, prior to getting his new, cloned body, he tried to take over Parker's once again when his mind was in the Superior gauntlet, and he's nothing if not tenacious.

It remains to be seen just how long it will be before we see Otto suit up as the Superior Spider-Man again. With Nick Spencer taking over writing duties on Amazing soon, he could easily make his return in there, or perhaps he'll be involved in the recently announced "Spidergeddon" event beginning in the fall.

It'll be interesting to see how Otto has changed as a hero when he's trying to be good of his own accord instead of out of spite -- if that's where he truly is headed. With him working so close to Ana, it seems a given that he'll try to woo her and pick up their romance again, and his new identity of Elliot Tolliver is an anagram of "Otto Livelier," as in full of life and energy. Whatever his future entails, the post-credits scene is clearly a Brand New Day.

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