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    Superior Spider-Man #1 Review
    Review

    Superior Spider-Man #1 Review

    Matthew PetersonBy Matthew PetersonNovember 18, 20233 Mins Read

    Supernova is back, and she wants revenge on Spider-Man. Spider-Man has no idea who Supernova is. Your Major Spoilers review of Superior Spider-Man #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!

    Supernova is back, and she wants revenge on Spider-Man. Spider-Man has no idea who Supernova is. Your Major Spoilers review of Superior Spider-Man #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!
    You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link

    SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1

    Writer: Dan Slott
    Artist: Mark Bagley/Nathan Stockman
    Inker: John Dell
    Colorist: Edgar Delgado
    Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
    Editor: Ellie Pyle
    Publisher: Marvel Comics
    Cover Price: $5.99
    Release Date: November 15, 2023

    Previously in The Superior Spider-Man: The current Spider-Man faces a new villain, hailing from his Superior past. As she fries New York with all the power of a living star, former Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, makes a life-changing discovery!

    NEW SIDEKICK, NEW VILLAIN, NEW WAY TO DIE HORRIBLY

    We open on the streets of New York City as Spider-Man and Spider-Boy descend on a group of evil-doers… all of whom are Mirage! (It’s his gimmick, see, making holographic duplicates that confuse his would-be pursuers. Spider-Boy takes the lead, excited that his mentor is letting him fight the D-listers. Things go well, and the Webbed Wonders retire to have ice cream in Times Square. That’s how Supernova finds them, blasting away with her fusion powers. The fight gets the attention of everyone in the city, including one Doctor Octopus, whose Octo-Droids record the entire battle… including the point where Peter Parker realizes that it’s not HIM she’s mad at. Unmasking in an alley and slipping away in the crowd, Spider-Man wins the battle.

    But it’s the Octo-Droid that records his face for Doc Ock who wins the war.

    OCTAVIUS IS BACK!

    Picking up right where The Superior Spider-Man #1 left off, this issue has one major development, as Doctor Octopus is once again aware of his time as Spider-Man, which may be the key to the eventual defeat of Supernova, who was once his lab assistant. The rest of the issue has some charming moments, but features TWO different moments where a character starts to explain something before being cut off dramatically. The second feature is a “flashback” story, taking place during Ock’s time as Spider-Man and addressing how the presence of Spider-Boy would have changed that story, which feels important, but is also very confusing. At the end of that tale, Spider-Boy leaves the tutelage of Spider-Man to join the kids of the Future Foundation, freeing up Octavius to spiral into perfidy the way it actually happened. Or would have happened? I don’t know. Mark Bagley’s art on the first story is pretty good stuff, but gives us a grotesque, fat monstrous Dr. Octopus that is truly off-putting. The backup story isn’t quite as well rendered, art-wise, but features Medusa, She-Hulk, Ant-Man, and Ms. Thing, which brings a smile to my face. (Neither art team really makes the orange-and-blue Spider-Boy uniform feel balanced, though. It needs some sort of adornment.)

    BOTTOM LINE: INTERESTING, BUT A BIT CONVOLUTED

    All in all, Superior Spider-Man #1 is going to be essential reading only for those who already have encyclopedia knowledge of Slott’s Spider-Man lore, but also adds retconned wrinkles to those, making for a book that wants to serve two different impulses, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. The clear expectation is for Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus to have to work together, reuniting the brains and the brawn of Superior, but I hope that it’s not quite that straightforward.


    Dear Spoilerite,

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    SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1

    63%
    63%
    A Lot Of Moving Parts

    Even if you've been keeping up, there's a lot of altered states going on here, as well as no actual Superior Spider-Man in view. It's fun, but not in any way new-reader-friendly.

    • Writing
      6
    • Art
      8
    • Coloring
      5
    • User Ratings (0 Votes)
      0
    Dan Slott Edgar Delgado Ellie Pyle Joe Caramagna john dell mark bagley marvel comics Nathan Stockman Review Spider-Man Superior Spider-Man
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    Matthew Peterson
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    Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.

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