Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Superior Spider-Man #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Just so we're clear:

1) JJJ, Jr. hated Spider-Man for years because he was a vigilante who hid behind a mask and flouted the law.  But, now, he's angry at Spider-Man for having let someone (Massacre) live and essentially encourages him to go murder said person.

2) Although an evil genius, Otto is so unclear on how the real world works that he thinks that he's going to be allowed to essentially turn Aunt May into a cyborg without anyone asking him to present a valid medical license or prove that it's a safe medical procedure.  In fact, he not only doesn't have proof that it's safe, he's so confident in his abilities that he's actually going to use Aunt May as a guinea pig.  (Plus, he also assumes that she'll say yes.)

3) Empire State University has such low academic standards that it's going to allow a Ph.D. candidate who abandoned his Ph.D. years ago (in a field where years is essentially decades in other fields) to return and simply take a few weeks of one course to fulfill his course requirements.  Moreover, even if its academic standards weren't so low, its ethical standards are, given that the dean specifically mentions Peter's readmission being connected to a "generous donation."

4) Otto is so careless that he fails to even try to act like Peter, engaging in such haughty (even for Otto) behavior that Max and Uatu are now suspicious and calling his professor a nickname that instantly calls into question why he knows that nickname.

5) Massacre, who is "incapable of assigning any value to human life," takes a woman and her child hostage, but then decides just to let them go, even though it's an enormous loose end.  He simply threatens to follow her for five to ten blocks to make sure that she doesn't place a call, as if he could, like, abscond to Mexico in the time that it takes her to walk five to ten blocks.

6) The Green Goblin might be Norman Osborn, whose face, if we recall, melted off his body in "Avengers "#24.

People are going to keep accusing fans like me of not liking this series because I'm not enough of a visionary to see the amazing things that Slott is doing.  But, they're wrong.  I don't like this series because Dan Slott has suddenly been possessed by Scott Lobdell.  He clearly has no plan, bouncing from topic to topic like a mouse on speed.  He has turned everyone -- from Carlie, to JJJ, Jr., to May, to MJ, to Otto, to Peter -- to lobotomized versions of themselves.  I can't believe it, but, if this series doesn't improve next issue, I think I'm done.

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