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Comic Book Review – The Superior Spider-Man #9

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Anghus Houvouras reviews The Superior Spider-Man #9…

“It Ends Here! ‘Superior No More!’ The hottest comic in comics comes to a turning point that will get you angrier than you were after Spidey #700! The time has come to see who will live, who will die, and who will emerge as the one, true Superior Spider-Man!“

“Wow” I thought as i finished the latest issue of Superior Spider-Man.  “Dan Slott must really hate Peter Parker.”  Not only has he dragged the character over an acre of broken glass over the past year, but now he is squeezing lemon into his wounds and showering him in salt.

This issue is both brutal and brilliant.  Longtime fans of Peter Parker have been waiting for the inevitable confrontation with Doctor Octopus.  It seems after switching bodies with the wall-crawler, a small sliver of Peter’s consciousness remained.  Octavius discovered the anomoly thanks to an Avengers intervention in issue #8, and now he’s using some high tech gear to dive into his own mind and cut Peter out like a cancerous tumor.
It’s a fascinating issue featuring all kinds of crazy.  Octavius and Peter finally get a proper battle as Superior and Amazing duke it out for the fate of Spider-Man.  I thought for sure that writer Dan Slott was hovering his hand over the reset button ready to kick everything back into a more proper continuity, but then something brilliant happened: he pulled his hand away.  Instead of the return of Peter Parker, we get a more depressing burial.  Once again, Octavius triumphs erasing the last remnants of Peter Parker from his mind.  It wasn’t the conclusion many needed, but it certainly is the one they deserved.
The Superior Spider-Man has been among my favorite ongoing Marvel titles because of the unconventional nature of the narrative.  And it has exceeded my expectations by being one of the few mainstream comic titles that is willing to not only tinker with the formula, but swap out huge pieces of it wholesale.  Slott keeps making twists and turns and defying expectations.  I wondered how much longer this wonderfully insane title could continue, thinking for sure that Marvel editorial would reset the status quo in record time.  And yet, here we are nine issues in with a chance to return things to normal, and they not only abandon that idea, they jettison it into the upper atmosphere and let it explode.
I for one am pleased as punch.  Normal is boring.  Normal is redundant.  And as I’ve said since the title launched, Superior Spider-Man works because it continues to delve into the unexpected.  Dan Slott, keep this Superior train moving forward for as long as possible.  Issue #9 is the high point in a series which continues to surprise and entertain.  

Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the graphic novel EXE: Executable File, is available from Lulu.com.

Originally published May 3, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.

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