This issue is better than the last one; Shinick does a great job of really showing how Otto's grief propelled him not only through this story but also in his war on Spider-Man. I'm not really sure that I buy that, to be honest; the idea that Otto only wanted to defeat Spider-Man to prove to Norman that science mattered more than soul seems a bit of a ret-conning stretch. It takes too far the idea that, at the end of the day, Otto was only a misunderstood soul. But, Shinick is really just playing from Slott's clues in "Superior Spider-Man," and I'll at least concede the idea that defeating Norman was part of Otto's drive to defeat Spider-Man.
The main problem with this arc is that I'm still not sure what the point of Norman and Otto's alliance was. OK, to defeat Spider-Man, sure. But, Otto seems to imply here that Norman actually only really cared about defeating Otto. Was Norman just using the alliance as a pretense to knock Otto off his pedestal, lest he kill Spider-Man first? I'd totally believe that from Norman, but I'm not actually sure if that's the point that Shinick is trying to make.
For all its promise, I'll say that this series ends with a whimper rather than a bang. After the rushed Superior Six and Daredevil/Punisher arcs, we've got another two-issue arc that leaves a lot on the table. In fact, Shinick is forced to include an odd two-page epilogue where Peter talks to the reader and basically says, "Well, I guess we're done with Otto!" Hopefully Marvel will take some time before relaunching another Spidey team-up series, giving themselves an opportunity to figure out the types of stories that they should be telling in it.
*** (three of five stars)
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