This is "Nothing is Better," a feature spotlighting classic older comic books. This time around, we look at the high degree of difficulty that Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman had to deal with in successfully launching Superior Spider-Man a decade ago.
I truly don't mean to suggest that it is all that much more difficult to write comic books today than it was 50-60 years ago, but I think it is fair to say that there are certain aspects of the experience that are different today than they were in the past, and a major aspect of that difference is the simple fact that new comic books are inherently built upon the works of the past. In other words, once your audience has become familiar with something, it is harder to impress them with the same thing that they are already familiar with, even if the later story is better than the original story. Captain America can only return from suspended animation once, ya know?
However, that familiarity also tends to build a certain level of cynicism, and an unwillingness for fandom to just "go with it" with an idea. In 1984, fandom freaked out at the idea of Spider-Man getting a new costume, but part of that was because there wasn't necessarily an inherent belief that a change like that wouldn't last. "Just" twenty years into Spider-Man's history, the idea that he might get a new permanent costume wasn't all together unbelievable. That same thing occurring FIFTY years into his existence, however, does NOT have that sense of "hey, maybe this is just how things will be going forward."
Therefore, when Superior Spider-Man #1 launched in January 2013, it had a lot of things piled up against it succeeding, and yet, it DID succeed, which is very impressive.
What was Superior Spider-Man?
As I explained in a recent Look Back, Superior Spider-Man #1 (by Dan Slott, Ryan Stegman, Edgar Delgado and VC's Chris Eliopoulous) launched out of the events of December 2012's Amazing Spider-Man #700, where Doctor Octopus swapped bodies with Spider-Man, leaving Peter Parker in the dying body of Octavius. In the end, Peter is unable to switch back with Octavius, but before he died, he used his connection with Octavius through their shared memories to essentially blast him with Peter's sense of responsibility, forcing Octavius to relive through the experiences Peter had gone through that had made Peter such a great hero to begin with...
In the end, the blast of responsibility was enough so that Octavius, who had initially taken over Peter's body just to continue to be a super-villain, was now intent on being a superhero, as well, so Peter died knowing that Spider-Man would still be a hero. However, Octavius was still his own egotistical self, so even as a hero, he decided he had to be BETTER than Peter, and he decided to become the SUPERIOR Spider-Man!
So that's how Superior Spider-Man launched - out of the death of Peter Parker, leaving one of his greatest enemies in control of his body! That's a hard thing for audiences to deal with, and just personally, my wife refused to keep reading the series after that point (she had started reading it with Brand New Day), despite me telling her she should give it a shot. She didn't like the concept. I imagine there were other people that felt the same.
And then, though, on the other hand, you had the cynical "This is just temporary, so who cares?" people, so Slott was dealing with a really tough starting point here with the new series. So how did it work out?
How did Superior Spider-Man succeed?
The book ultimately worked for the main reason most comic books work, excellent artwork from Stegman and Delgado, and strong character work from Slott (with a fun twist, as well).
One of the best things about Slott's comic book writing is the clear evidence throughout his work that he is as big of a Spider-Man fan as ANYONE, and because of that, we often get great bits where he throws in things that only longtime fans would know about, and yet he then makes them work. In Superior Spider-Man, that was the usage of The Living Brain, oen of Spider-Man's earliest "rogues" (not really a rogue, of course) from the Steve Ditko/Stan Lee days...
Look how gorgeously kinetic Stegman and Delgado's Spider-Man is in this issue! It's like he is bursting off of the page...
Throughout the issue, Octavius as Peter struggles with the fact that, due to Peter's actions, Octavius isn't really a villain anymore, so we see him struggling with doing things for selfless reasons, as he almost finds himself shocked that he is doing these things. At the same time, he is also struggling with the fact that all the work he has planned will be credited to Peter Parker and not Otto Octavius, but ultimately, he was content with it, since he "is" Peter now...
(Slott comfortably evades the sketchy questions of consent when it comes to "Peter" and his relationship with Mary Jane Watson. He toys with the reader a bit to make them think that he is about to allow Octavius to do something untoward, but it never goes that way, and obviously, Slott knew all along that it never would).
Throughout the issue, Octavius' new take on Spider-Man is continually clever. It is hard to write a genius character, because you then have to have them do, you know, genius things, but Slott handles that well, and then we see Octavius tear apart the Sinister Six and see him take out his anger on someone else restarting the supervillain team that OCTAVIUS formed (again, Stegman/Delgado are electric on these pages)...
And then the big twist...that Peter is somewhere inside Octavius, fighting him for control of the body...
It's a great hook for the first issue (and Slott, of course, later zigs when you think he will zag with the "Peter" personality within Octavius' control), and it shows that even a cynical reader can be given a story with outstanding artwork that they will enjoy, and that is why Superior Spider-Man was such a success, even after starting with such a high degree of difficulty (now I just need to get my wife to read it one day).
Okay, folks, this is a feature that is a BIT less conducive to suggestions (as it really is about stuff that speaks to me, ya know?), but hey, feel free to still send suggestions for future installments, to brianc@cbr.com! Maybe you and I have the same take on things, and I'll use your idea!