Octavius just can’t catch a break.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Slott
Art: Ryan Stegman, Livesay
What They Say:
Superior Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man 2099. Who will be the most superior Spider in the Multi-verse? Plus, secrets uncovered in time!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The arrival of the Spider-Man from 2099 certainly threw a few wrenches into the works in the previous issue but it’s also tied to some other far-reaching events that will begin here. The formation of Alchemax is certainly something I’ve wondered how it would be handled at some point and bringing us into those events with Tiberius Stone in 2013 definitely works well as we can definitely see that the family line is pretty twisted. Having Miguel arrive and putting him into the position of having to save him in order to protect his own existence certainly works as well to make for something fun, far reaching and complicated at the same time. Amid all the other events going on.
While Miguel was the focus before, it’s more Octavius this time around as he realizes that this other guy knows who Spider-Man really is, which complicates things, and the situation gets very intense quickly since Miguel makes a flip remark that Octavius takes very, very personally. With Miguel also getting lip from Tyler Stone in the future, it’s a wonder he doesn’t want it all to just end. Keeping everyone else in the mix at the moment that are oblivious to all of this only makes it even more of a mess in a way, but it works well as in the end we get a big split as everyone ends up going their separate ways in the confusion. For Octavius, he’s juggling a lot of things and it’s really getting overwhelming for him in a way that he’s not used to, especially after showing how he can do it in a superior way for so long compared to Parker. I do like that he makes his focus on rescuing his tech from Horizon Labs though as it plays to his true self-interest.
While the book gives us a few touches of other areas, such as Anna getting into contact with Octavius as well as Mary Jane attempting to get through, the other big area of focus is in having Grady doing some minor visits through the Time Door to try and figure out what Tiberius did to make all this happen because he’s obviously guilty. Well, he really is and that certainly adds some importance to events, but it all starts circling back to Horizon Labs again with what’s going on there, particularly with Miguel as he learns after bringing Lyla back with him that what’s going on there will be the real game changer for the timeline if he doesn’t stop more bad time travel stuff from going down. Time travel is always a wonky thing, but they’re playing it very well here by just having fun with it.
In Summary:
The dynamic between Octavius and Miguel is a lot of fun since Miguel realizes that Peter’s not quite the nice guy he thought he was and acts accordingly while Octavius is frustrated by not knowing what Miguel is all about, especially since Miguel knows that it’s Parker underneath. For someone who likes to be a few steps ahead, it just makes him all the more intense and prone to mistakes. Which we see that he’s made a few of already and is trying to correct when it comes to Horizon Labs. This issue continues to have a lot of moving pieces and it handles it well overall with the balance of characters and stories, though I’ll admit I wish we had a little more quiet time before it all began. But I continue to be excited to see what the Stone family may have in store and how, by the end of this arc, I’ll better understand the events of the Spider-Man 2099 series I started reading last year.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 18th, 2013
MSRP: $2.99
