Comics Recap #3: Superior Spider-Man

In the 90s a big trend was to replace a superhero with another character.  Remember when Superman "died" and was replaced by four characters?  Or when Bruce Wayne was broken by Bane and was replaced by Jean-Paul Valley?  Or when Hal Jordan went insane and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and was replaced by Kyle Rayner?  And Marvel has plenty examples of its own too.

One of the latest examples was when in Spider-Man issue #700, Dr. Octopus switched brains with Peter Parker just before his old body was killed.  While this could have been just a couple-issue arc, Marvel has carried it on into the "Superior Spider-Man" series.  Since they were on sale before the new year, I bought the first 5 issues.  Later I bought issue #6AU which is the Age of Ultron edition, in which Superior Spidey learns a little humility and to be a team player.

Despite that it was a cheap, shopworn stunt, I found I did actually find this Spider-Man superior.  The reason why is simple:  this Spidey is smarter than the old one.  Peter Parker had a tendency (especially in the Raimi movies) to sit around going, "It's so hard being a superhero and dealing with MJ and Aunt May and a job.  Oh, woe is me!"  By contrast, the Superior Spider-Man analyzes the problem and then finds a solution to it.

That's what these first five issues largely deal with.  Starting off, a new gang claiming to be the Sinister Six tries to rob a bank.  In swoops Superior Spidey, but when he finds it tough, he retreats and then formulates a new plan.  His efforts to win back Mary Jane don't go as well.  Meanwhile he uses his job at a lab to create new gadgets to help him fight crime, especially little spider-bots that allow him to spy on all of New York.  This is obviously supposed to make us think of drones, the NSA, the Patriot Act, and so forth.  Is it better to be free or safe?  The thing is, Superior Spidey doesn't give New Yorkers a choice about it.

Which is part of the charm.  Maybe he doesn't stick to the superhero playbook, but he's pretty damned effective.  The climax of this first volume involves an old foe who's escaped from prison and gone on a rampage.  This leads Superior Spidey to make that ultimate decision:  take the guy back to jail to probably escape again or just kill him now and be done with it?  You can probably guess the answer.  And really I can understand the logic behind it.  How many times has Batman let the Joker get away to go on another rampage?  When do you say enough is enough?

No matter which side you come down on with those issues, to me what they've done is make a replacement character who's in many ways better than the original.  It made me think if they'd done this with one of those Superman characters or with Jean-Paul Valley in the early 90s maybe people wouldn't have been so ready to welcome Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne back.  Because let's face it, a lot of times with these replacements they rig the deck.  Because I'm so familiar with that story, Jean-Paul Valley was definitely rigged to be unlikable:  French, paranoid, and part of religious cult--that's not how you're going to win over readers!  If they'd allowed him to be more likable then maybe people would have realized that a Batsuit with flamethrowers has it all over tights.

Anyway, in the end I'm sure Peter Parker will get his mind back somehow.  Maybe via another deal with the Devil or something.  In the meantime, though, it'll be interesting to see where they take this character.  If they let people vote to decide like 25 years ago with Jason Todd's "death" then I think you know which one I'd choose.