Amazing Spider-Man #699: "Dying Wish: Outside the Box" (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

*** (three of five stars)

Summary
On the Raft, doctors work to save Doc Ock, who went into cardiac arrest at the end of last issue.  Although one doctor questions why they're working to save the life of the guy who almost wiped life off the face of the Earth, another doctor reminds him that they've taken an oath to save everyone.  However, when they do manage to revive Otto, she then spits on him.  However, as revealed last issue, Otto isn't Otto:  he's Peter Parker.  Peter wonders how he's going to manage to free himself from the impenetrable Raft in a failing body while, in the hallway, the doctors hypothesize that he has mere hours left to live.  Peter wonders how Otto managed to switch their minds and then begins to think about all the evil that Otto could commit with his body and memories:  robbing banks, murdering Captain America, assaulting MJ, killing off Aunt May and Jay after they make him executor of their estate.  Panicked that Otto will undo the trust that Peter has worked so hard to secure, he manages to pull himself together.  He begins exploring Otto's memory for an answer to how he engineered the switch, just as Otto has explored Peter's memory.  After seeing glimpses of Otto's unhappy life (and a disturbing memory involving Aunt May), Peter discovers the truth:  every time he used the command helmet that Otto built to control his octobots, Peter allowed Otto access to his mind.  From saving New York from automation to activating the octobots during Spider-Island to using his Spider-Armor during "Ends of the Earth," Peter used the command helmet and inadvertently allowed Otto to map his mind and develop the "ultimate last-ditch survival plan."  He also discovers how Otto made the switch:  after Peter shut down his Spider-Sense during his fight with the Hobgoblins, Otto used his golden octobot to hack into Peter's brain and rewrite it with his own brain patterns.  Desperate, Peter realizes that he has control over the octobot and activates him.  However, before he can do anything, the Lizard speaks to him from the next cell, asking if he's really dying, as the doctors were discussing earlier.  Not waiting for an answer, the Lizard confesses to Otto that he's really Curt Connors stuck in the Lizard's body, a punishment that he views as fitting for his crimes.  Horrified, Peter focuses on the task at hand.

However, he soon realizes that he has few options.  He considers going to the Avengers, but dismisses the story as so unbelievable that they would be unwilling to help him, noting that he's at that moment wondering if the Lizard is lying to him.  He then plays "What Would Otto Octavius Do?" and searches Otto's memories for some sort of escape plan.  Finding one that he thinks could work, Pete directs the octobot to break into a nearby office and hijack a computer.  Initiating "Master Planner Contingency Sigma 6.0," "Otto" calls to a number of allies to help him escape prison, offering $6 million dollars for the assistance.  With the octobot exhausted, Peter is forced to wait for help.  As one of his organs fail, he begs God not to let him die this way.  However, just then, Hydro-Man breaks into the Raft.  He threatens the doctors in the common room with drowning unless they tell him where Otto is.  When one of them does, a voice asks Hydro-Man if he's pulled the "micro filament" through the drain with him.  When Hydro-Man confirms that he has, the voice instructs him to use it to create a large, upright ring.  When he does, a portal activates and the voice is revealed to be the Trapster, who arrives with Scorpion.  The three super-villains then break into Otto's cell and the Trapster introduces himself to Otto.  Pete, of course, remembers him and marvels that his life is now in the hands of "Paste-Pot Pete."

The Trapster removes Otto from his iron lung and puts him in a portable life-support system.  Pete hopes it's sufficient, given that only Otto's heart and lungs are working.  Scorpion notes that "Plan Sigma" says that they needed to break out two more villains.  When "Otto" expresses surprise that Hydro-Man and Scorpion are there, the Trapster reminds him that it's his plan, which calls for breaking out two more guys and re-forming the Sinister Six.  Hydro-Man suggests the Wizard, since he and the Trapster have worked with him before.  Meanwhile, Pete (as Otto) asks about the guards lying on the floor; Hydro-Man confirms that they're alive, but notes, "But about the other guys..."  "Otto" then demands that they leave just the four of them.  Scorpion suggests they break out Smythe and Morbius appeals to Otto to help him.  Pete tries to focus, denying both requests, but then realizes that he could use a "good man" like Connors.  However, the Lizard pretends to be a mindless beast and the Trapster leads the way from the prison.  Pete reels in horror that he brought super-villains into the fight and almost released the Lizard.  He reminds himself that he shouldn't be a part of this plan, since he's Spider-Man.  When Scorpion says that he and Hydro-Man will "clean up," meaning kill some guards, "Otto" forces them to leave, arguing that he doesn't have much time.  Inside Otto, Pete realizes that he shouldn't be risking other lives to save his own life.  He realizes that he needs a plan that will capture these bad guys and get back his body, so he sends the trio to get Spider-Man, alive.

The Review
OK, as JT and X promised, I got some answers in this issue and, as a result, I will say that I'm a lot happier than I was after last issue.  Although I still see some (many, really) flaws in his explanation of how Otto switched minds with Peter, Slott at least made a significant effort to give us one.  Moreover, he didn't just have Otto exposit the story, but had Peter discover it using his own wits.  This unique approach to exposition made me appreciate Slott's usual care in crafting a story and made me ease up a little on the criticism.  We'll see how long it lasts.  :)

The Really Good
Overall, I'd say that the best part of this arc so far is Slott using it to create a real existential dilemma, really getting to the core of who Spider-Man is.  After all, Peter is in this situation because he didn't let Doc Ock die at the end of "Ends of the Earth."  Had he let Otto die, he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.  But, it's pretty easy to behave ethically when you don't really have much to lose; it's not like Otto seemed like that much of a threat at the end of "Ends of the Earth."  But, here, Peter faces a much more dire situation and, as such, resorts to a more drastic solution, using super-villains to help him escape the Raft and, possibly, his predicament.  How Peter manages to lead the Sinister Four in a way that doesn't compromise his integrity and allows him to regain his identity is clearly going to be the driving force of the next two issues.  Slott was smart to use this approach, since it's no longer just about Otto's victory lap or a two-sided slugfest.  Instead, Slott puts Peter's entire belief system on the line, forcing him to decide if his life will still be worth something if he sacrifices his morals to get it.  Color me impressed.

The Unknown
Slott has Peter give a pretty realistic overview of the possible crimes that Otto could commit as Spider-Man, from using Avengers security codes to kill an unsuspecting Cap to using his powers to enrich himself.  It, of course, raises the question why Otto hasn't already started doing those things.  After all, in issue #687, he was aspiring to be more disastrous than Genghis Khan, Hitler, or Pol Pot.  Clearly, he didn't steal Peter's body because he decided that he wanted to be a superhero.  But, we haven't seen enough of Otto-Man (Spider-Otto?) yet to know his grand plan, so I'm anxious to see where Slott goes with it.

The Bad
1) Although I'm emotionally satisfied with Slott's explanation for how Otto switched minds with Peter, I'm not sure that I'm technically satisfied, if you will.  I mean, I get that, each time Spidey used the command helmet, he gave Otto access to his mind.  However, would Otto simply rewriting his brain patterns over Peter's really give him the sort of access that he has?  I get that he would access Peter's body, but would he really access his memories?  Wouldn't they have been overwritten by Otto's brain pattern?  Moreover, if Otto's brain patterns control the octobot, why would Peter be able to control it?  Wouldn't control still be in Otto's hands, so to speak, even if he were in Peter's body?  Plus, why would Otto bother to put Peter's mind in his body?  Why not overwrite his brain entirely and not allow for the chance that Peter would save himself?  Was it just to force him to understand his genius?  Plus, if all Otto did was switch brain patterns, then why couldn't the Avengers help Peter?  Sure, it's somewhat unbelievable.  But, if it's really a matter of brain patterns, wouldn't someone like Iron Man or Reed Richards be able to take a look and confirm that the switch happened?  Presumably one of them has at least Peter's brain pattern on file, if not Otto's?  It seems worth a shot, since, after all, his life is on the line.  I'm not really sure that Slott could resolve this dilemma any other way than he did, by having Peter dismiss it as too unbelievable, but I felt like it was the clear flaw in an otherwise mostly solid story.  It's almost like the original sin of this whole new origin story.

2) Slott made the Raft look like a minimum-security, country-club prison.  First, I'm not entirely convinced that the builders of the Raft would allow neighboring super-villains to talk to one another through the walls.  Second, if you're building a super-villain prison, you probably find a way to keep a fairly prominent super-villain like Hydro-Man from invading.  After all, we saw that Reed Richards locked out the Frightful Four from the Baxter Building in issue #660.  You'd think that, if he could lock the Sandman from the Baxter Building, he could've helped the Raft lock out Hydro-Man, particularly, you know, since it's A RAFT ON WATER.