Amazing Spider-Man #698: "Dying Wish Prelude: Day in the Life" (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

** (two of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "Getting close is not a good idea, sir!"  "Quiet!"  "This here?  It's the part of the movie where that guy pops up and eats your face."  -- Guard #1 to Guard #2 as he's leaning into Doc Ock, showing that Guard #1 would probably last the longest in a horror movie

Summary
At the Raft, armed guards respond to an alert in Cell Block 6.  They confirm that Spider-Slayer, Morbius, and Lizard are all secured, leading them to Doc Ock's cell.  Doctors in his cell confirmed that they set off the alarms since, despite assuming that he only has a few hours left of life and after weeks of no activity, Doc Ock suddenly started saying something.  One guard wonders how dangerous Doc Ock could be from his deathbed, but another notes that they're talking about the guy who took over New York City's machines with his mind and almost fried the entire planet.  He leans over Otto to hear what he's saying and Otto manages to mumble, "Peter Parker."  Elsewhere, the golden octobot repeats these words as Spider-Man swings through the city.  Rhapsodizing about how great it is to be enjoying the moment after the difficult events of the last few weeks, he's interrupted by a cry for a help.  "Destructor" has robbed a Korean grocery-store and Spidey makes quick work of him.  A cop later explains that he's a "bluffer," a crook with no powers who pretends to be a super-villain to avoid the harsher sentences that come with holding up stores with toy guns.  She asks Spidey to file some paperwork at the station, but he refuses, declaring that he can't because he has a life.  Entering his apartment, he contemplates how well his life is going, noting his "high-end apartment" and "boyish good looks."  He then checks his messages, and, upon hearing a message from MJ, wonders why they aren't together, a situation that he intends to rectify immediately.  He also gets a message from Jay reminding him to visit Aunt May in the hospital and one from Max Modell reminding him of his evaluation.  He meets with Max and pledges that his previous inventions were mere "trifles.'  He then works in his lab, marveling at the simplicity of his design for his Web-Fluid, particularly since he invented it as a sophomore in high school.  Lamenting that it was his last real invention until he came to Horizon Labs, he pledged not to lose a single moment to "stagnation" and live to his full potential as a man of science and as a man.

Making good on his pledge, Pete meets MJ at her club and tells her that they're supposed to be together.  MJ expresses shock when he suggests they go somewhere just the two of them, telling him that she promised to go to see Aunt May at the hospital.  Peter agrees to accompany her, winking at two women while MJ gets her coat.  At the hospital, May works on using her cane and Jay expresses appreciation to MJ and Peter for being there for her first steps since the accident.  Pete again tries to talk to MJ, but she demurs, reminding him that they're there for his aunt.  Then, his Avengers I.D. card rings, telling him that he's needed at the Raft.  He tells Jay that he has to go to a work emergency and Jay expresses frustration, saying that his family needs him there.  Pete is set to argue with Jay, but MJ steps into the fight, covering for him.  Spider-Man heads to the Raft, marveling at the fact that he's an Avenger.  He's greeted by Cap, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, and Wolverine and Cap informs him that Doctor Octopus is asking for Peter Parker.  The Avengers escort him to Otto's cell, but Spidey asks to keep the discussion private and requests that they turn off the cameras.  Otto asserts that he's Peter and Peter, revealing that he's actually Otto controlling Peter's body, tells him that he's now Spider-man.  He has all Peter's memories and "everything that comes with it."  Otto/Peter tells Peter/Otto that he's now trapped in his body, broken after years of his brutal beatings.  He pledges not to reveal the secret of how he engineered the switch and Peter/Otto enters into cardiac arrest.  The Raft staff try to revive him as Spidey leaves with the Avengers.

The Review
First things first:  I knew that Doc Ock became Spider-Man going into this issue.  Since this issue was released the second week in November and I'm reading it in the third week of January, it was hard to avoid spoilers for that long.  As a result, it's difficult for me to review this issue, since so much of it depends on the reader being dropped in media res and wondering why Peter suddenly became such an overconfident prick.  However, even if you didn't know that going into the issue, you know it by the end of it, meaning that any review has to take that reveal into account.  Essentially, the spoiler just saved me from having to re-read the issue.

Unfortunately, either way, I'm not a fan of this issue.  I'm going to try to save my comments on Otto-becoming-Peter until the end of the arc, but, putting aside my feelings on that change, I feel that Slott makes some fairly sloppy mistakes in this issues.  These missteps make it difficult to buy the transfer.  He still has three issues to sell me on it, so fingers crossed, because he didn't do it here.

The Bad
1) Pete's narration makes a lot more sense when you know that it's Otto exulting in being Peter.  For the first part of the book, it just seems like a fairly simplistic narration, almost like one you'd hear the hero give in an animated series.  It's a little more arrogant than Peter normally is ("these boyish good looks"), but it more or less reads as if Slott is writing a Point One issue, meant to introduce new readers to Peter Parker.  Although it becomes clear that something is amiss when he meets with MJ (more on that below), Slott clearly wants us to think that Otto is actually Peter in the first part of the issue.  The problem is that, looking at it with the knowledge that it was Otto, it's difficult to believe that Otto would be thinking and sounding so much like Peter so quickly.  I think it's most notable in his banter with Destructor, because I'm really not sure that Otto would be that clever.  Otto is given to pretty cheesy denunciations of his various enemies, so it seems incongruous with his personality that he'd so easily make fun of Destructor for his ridiculous threats ("My God.  Who talks like that?").  Even if we're supposed to believe that it's Otto trying to sound like Peter, I somewhat doubt that he'd be able to pull off that mimicry so well.  As such, it feels forced.  It definitely doesn't have the impact of the "Sixth Sense" reveal that Slott clearly wanted us to feel.

2) Continuing off the above entry, it's Peter's comments about MJ and his aggressive pursuit of her that lets you know that we're off the map.  I am really, really nervous of where Slott is going with this plot.  After "Amazing Spider-Man" #603, where the Chameleon rapes Peter's roommate (though Marvel later claimed they only kissed), I think we need to establish a bright, clear line that Otto can never, ever be successful with MJ, because we immediately pass into rape.  Period.  I'm disturbed that I have to even write that sentence.  My only hope is that Peter's new aggressiveness signals to MJ that something is wrong.  Slott swears that the change between PETER and Otto is permanent, an issue I'll discuss in greater details in later reviews.  But, for now, right at the start, I want to make it clear how uncomfortable I am with this approach, if it is indeed true.

3) "I might finally get some grandchildren after all."  Sigh.  I've never been thrilled with Slott's portrayal of Aunt May but this comment takes the cake.  She never pushed MJ and Peter to get married when they were...well, married.  Right.  I forgot that part.  Maybe she was constantly pushing them to get married when they were, um, unmarried, though we just don't know that, since we never saw that part, since, you know, they were married.  God, can authors just stop fucking with Peter's life?

The Good
I usually put the Good first, but the Good here depends on the Bad above.  Despite the ease with which Otto banters with Destructor, Slott does show some growing pains on Otto's part.  Otto blows off the cop's request to fill out some paperwork and doesn't seems to get her hint that he doesn't have to hit everyone like he would the Hulk.  He also seems ready to pick a fight with Jay at the hospital, something that he'll probably have to learn he shouldn't do if he doesn't want people wondering why Peter is acting so strangely.  Both events center around his annoyance that people take him for granted, given the public service he performs as Spider-Man.  Moreover, he marvels at Pete's design for Web-Fluid and commits to using his genius to be even more productive as a scientist.  I know that Slott's whole point is that Otto is going to realize the legacy that now weighs on his shoulders as Spider-Man (and Peter Parker) and Slott does a good job laying that foundation in this issue.  (It's why he gets two stars instead of one.)

The Really Bad
Slott is going to have to tell us how Otto did it.  He is.  I mean, yes, it's a tweak on the "super-villain revealing his master plan to the hero in time for the hero to stop it" shtick, so I get that part.  But, even if he doesn't tell Peter, Slott is going to have to reveal to the reader how Otto manages to switch their minds, otherwise this whole enterprise is DOA.

The Unknown
1) It seems pretty clear that the golden octobot was somehow involved in exchanging Peter's mind for Otto's.  After all, Julia Carpenter referred to everything ending in a flash of gold back in issue #696.  However, given Otto's pledge not to reveal his secrets, I'm not sure we'll learn what role exactly the golden octobot played.

2) We also, of course, don't know how Otto discovered Peter's identity.  Did the golden octobot simply follow Spidey to his apartment?  If so, why didn't his Spider-Sense warn him?  Unlike most superheroes, Spidey has always had a reasonable explanation (again, the Spider-Sense) why no one could successfully do just that, follow him home and discover his identity?  How could the octobot do so?  It's another question that I think Slott needs to answer if I'm going to be on board with this enterprise.