On occasion, I spotlight cool comic book moments from various points in comic book history. Here is an archive of all the past cool comic moments that I've featured so far over the years.

Today, we take a look at when Peter Parker returned as Spider-Man, retaking his own body from Otto Octavius...

To set the scene, a dying Otto Octavius, in effect, switched his mind with that of Peter Parker's, but really what he did was more akin to an override. His mind was in Peter's body, overriding Peter's control of his own body, while Peter was in Otto's body. The problem was that, as noted, Otto was dying. Peter was unable to switch control of their bodies in time, but what he WAS able to do was to overload Otto's mind with all of Peter's memories, which all echoed the lessons that Peter learned about responsibility. All of that forced Otto to at least become a hero. He then decides to really become Spider-Man, but a SUPERIOR Spider-Man than Peter. However, it soon became apparent that Peter's consciousness was still in his own body, just not in CONTROL. He and Otto fought for control until Otto succeeded in erasing Peter's memories within his body, to the point where Peter was basically at the point of nothingness. Eventually, though, we learn that Peter's consciousness survived, it is just nearly erased. The good news is that this consciousness has access to Otto's memories, so it re-lived Otto's life through Otto's mind. Now here's a clever twist by writer Dan Slott, revealed in Superior Spider-Man #30 by Slott, scripter Christos Gage and artists Giuseppe Camuncoli and John Dell. As Peter re-lives Otto's life, eventually he gets to the part of Otto's life where...he received all of Peter's memories!!!





So Peter is restored, but Otto is still in control of the body, but the problem is that his time as the "Superior" Spider-Man has gone horribly wrong. Norman Osborn, that jerk, has been toying with Otto for months and has chosen now to strike at New York City and Otto personally, kidnapping Otto/Peter's new girlfriend. Otto knows that he can't beat Norman, so he voluntarily gives up his, in effect, life, to Peter, which gives us a powerful moment..











What an awesome return for Peter.

If YOU have cool comic book moment that you'd like to see us feature, first check the archive to see if we've done it already, and if he haven't, send it in to bcronin@comicbookresources.com L.'.