OK, I have to give credit where credit is due. Otto's rant after Lamaze exposed Peter's work as Otto's was hilarious. "A retractable platform! Over some piranha? Or a kraken." Indeed.
I was surprised to see Slott wrap up the issue of Peter's thesis so quickly and not only because it denied us such comedy gold. The trend of the last few issues of this title and "Superior Spider-Man Team-Up" has been to put "Peter" in situations that the real Peter will find difficult to resolve when he returns. Slott seemed to be setting up not only Peter getting expelled from his Ph.D. program, but also losing the money that he, Jay, and Sajani fronted to start Parker Industries. It seemed like the start of a major storyline, so it was odd to see it so quickly resolved.
On one hand, I have to salute Slott for so cleverly resolving it. Using Stunner's virtual-reality technology to convince her that he was still alive was one thing; using it to convince Lamaze that Peter was a child genius who was the source of Otto's inventions was another thing. I totally didn't see it coming. It's a great fake, making you think that the technology was introduced for one reason, only to reveal that it was really introduced for another reason.
On the other hand, I'm not really sure that it works, though. OK, I believe that Otto convinced Lamaze that he was alive. But, why would the ESU faculty so quickly accept Lamaze's recant of his accusations? A simple J-STOR search should pretty easily reveal that Lamaze was right. As a result, I again felt like Slott again dropped the ball in his rush to finish the story. He seemed to have backed himself into a corner, and he was unfortunately left needing both a deus ex machina and a serious dose of willful suspension of belief on the part of the reader to exit it. This sort of denouement is happening too frequently lately.
Finally, I'm intrigued by the Carlie development, but I'm not sure if we need another mystery. Are we supposed to believe that the Goblin is actually, what, Norman Osborn's mind inhabiting Otto Octavius' body? I guess we'll see. Also, I'm starting to agree with Phil from a few issues ago: when are the Goblins going to do something?
** (two of five stars)
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