With "Amazing Spider-Man" #700 behind us, Yost takes on the task of showing us Otto as he begins to contemplate his future as Spider-Man. I have to say that he manages to do so in a way that saves the concept for me a little, mostly because he shows Otto as still being Otto. My main lament with "Amazing Spider-Man" #700 was that Slott showed Otto as sloughing off his entire personality in order to honor Peter's legacy. Yost backs off that approach a bit and it makes this whole affair a little more believable.
Yost begins by showing Doc Ock exalting in his defeat of Spider-Man. To be honest, I somewhat missed this angle in "Amazing Spider-Man" #700, since I was more focused in how weird Otto's sudden conversion to heroism was. But, fair enough, I have to give Slott credit for letting Spider-Man be defeated. Moreover, as Otto says, he wasn't just defeated; he was totally defeated. I mean, a lot of people have compared this storyline to Bane breaking Batman during "Knightfall" (mostly due to the presumption that this entire change will be temporary, just as that one was). However, it really goes beyond that; after all, it's not like Bane then became Batman. So, Yost reminds us that we have to give Otto his due here.
But, he then reminds us why Otto isn't usually someone whom we want to generally shower with praise. We get pages and pages of Otto's usual bluffing here as he contemplates how superior to Peter he is, examining all the ways that Peter failed to meet his potential. Moreover, Yost makes clear that Otto is still in there somewhere as he begins to take a possibly different approach to heroism than Peter. After all, how many superheroes have several secret lairs scattered around the world?
It's Otto's return to one of his secret lairs that sets up the events that really make this issue for me. As Otto fights his own security system as Spider-Man, he realizes just how frequently Spider-Man beat him. Yost echoes JJJ, Jr.'s comments in issue #700 about Otto being a loser and Otto seems to take those sentiments to heart here. I felt like Yost did a great job showing that it took Otto defeating himself as Spider-Man to create that self-doubt. It's really using this whole body-switch shtick to its full potential rather than a convenient gimmick. It shows Otto engaging with the world in a way that he didn't previously. As such, Yost now makes Otto's journey not only about addressing Peter's weaknesses, but his own as well. (At least now he doesn't have the weak chin.)
It's this tweak that makes me happier. Slott asserted that Otto essentially became a better person the minute that he received the totality of Peter's memories. But, here, Yost lays the groundwork for Otto to get to heroism his own way, striving to correct the weaknesses that he also let hinder him achieving his full potential. If Slott focuses on that story, I might be able to handle "Superior Spider-Man" a little better than I thought I would.
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