WARNING: this article contains spoilers for Spider-Geddon #0, from Christos Gage, Clayton Crain, Jed MacKay, Javier Garron, Israel Silva and VC’s Travis Lanham, out now.
The debut issue of this year’s big Spider Event is here, and it brings us not one but two stories packed with Spider-Men. The main story in Spider-Geddon #0 is all about arguably the most popular version of Spider-Man this year: Peter Parker from the blockbuster PS4 game, Spider-Man! He is, however, accompanied by another fan-favorite character -- one who may have his own agenda beyond merely saving the multiverse.
“New Players,” the main story in Spider-Geddon #0, continues the adventures of the PS4 Spidey, as he deals with J. Jonah Jameson’s slanderous podcast at the same time as confronting new villain the Tarantula. Employing his tricks from the game -- the electric webbing, the web bomb -- to trap the villain, Spidey is doing well until he’s interrupted by none other than the Otto Octavius. Declaring himself the Superior Spider-Man of Earth 616, there’s no doubt that he is our version of the popular anti-hero, though the last time we saw him, he was going by a very different name.
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First appearing in Amazing Spider-Man #697 (although he wouldn’t get his title until a few issues later) the Superior Spider-Man started life as Otto Octavius, aka one of Peter Parker's biggest foes. Following a scheme to cheat his imminent death due to his failing physical form, Otto body-swapped with Parker, trapping the latter in his dying body and leaving Otto free to assume the body, name and life of Spider-Man. His life as a superhero lasted for 31 issues of Superior Spider-Man until the day came when he realized he could no longer compete with Peter Parker, and sacrificed his consciousness so that the original Spider-Man could return.
During the Spider-Verse storyline though, in which Otto had been pulled from a point in time before his death, he joined Peter Parker in the battle against the Inheritors and learned of his upcoming demise. Utilizing technology acquired from 2099, Otto was able to duplicate his consciousness and store it in his gauntlets for 100 days, at which point it would “wake up” after his death, and he would be reborn. Once this happened, a series of events led to Otto using the cloning processes of notorious villain the Jackal to make himself a new body, one cloned from his old body but also using Peter Parker’s DNA.
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After a short stint as the Superior Octopus during Secret Empire, the last we saw of this version of Otto Octavius was in Amazing Spider-Man #800, where he had assumed a false identity -- Elliot Tolliver -- and taken a job at Horizon Labs next to his former love Anna Marconi, swearing that he would once again reclaim the title of Superior Spider-Man.
It’s unclear as yet if this version of the character seen in Spider-Geddon #0 is the same digital duplicate that swore to reclaim that title, but what is clear is that this Superior Spider-Man has something up his sleeve.
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In Spider-Geddon #0, Otto works alongside PS4 Spidey to bring down Tarantula while at the same time trying to recruit this alternate Spider-Man to his cause. Along the way, Otto learns all about his counterpart from this world, a version of Doctor Octopus that was originally a mentor to Peter Parker. Following the storyline depicted in the game, Peter tells Otto about his former mentor who succumbed to a Neuromuscular disease that cost him his body and his attempts at creating enhanced limbs that would eventually cost him his mind. Otto seems strangely concerned about the fate of his alternate self, leading Peter to take him to the Raft, where his version of Doctor Octopus has ended up.
Throughout the issue, Otto works closely with Peter as the two form a bond, with Peter ending the issue following the Superior Spider-Man into the multiverse to fight the oncoming Spider-Geddon. Otto clearly has his own agenda, however; when they leave Earth-1048, he leaves behind an Octo-bot to keep an eye on the Raft.
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While the Superior Spider-Man definitely appeared to be turning over a new leaf and embracing the life of a superhero, it's a safe bet to assume that he's up to something, though it remains to be seen just what that could be.
Perhaps by keeping an eye on this alternate version of himself, he has begun to catalog all the Doctor Octopuses from across the multiverse. There’s no doubt that his ego is big enough to create an army made up of no one but himself, and if the Superior Spider-Man amasses an army of Otto Octaviuses from every corner of the multiverse, would anyone be able to stop him? We already know that the Superior Spider-Man has a new ongoing series coming in December, so no doubt the seeds planted here will bear fruit in that upcoming book, but we’ll have to keep reading Spider-Geddon to see if Otto Octavius can be trusted, and whether he consider himself a Superior hero... or villain.