The stakes get raised.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Slott, Christos Gage
Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell
What They Say:
The Spider-Slayer Squadron were supposed to be under Mayor J. Jonah Jameson’s control…but now they’ve been drafted into The Goblin Nation!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a good number of Peter’s immediate friends and, well, targets, now out of the way thanks to MJ’s quick thinking, Octavius’ focus is more on trying to figure out how to stop the Green Goblin. Osborn has definitely played Octavius like a fiddle without realizing for so long that it was actually Octavius, which just makes it all the sweeter from his point of view as he’s long viewed Octavius as the number two enemy Spider-Man had. And with Octavius being the one that took out his main nemesis, he’s intent on having a double dose of revenge through him, which is why his plan has gone so big and overboard in a way, from the assault on Spider-Island to the way he stayed off the radar for so long.
Now that the city is in chaos, the Avengers strung out trying to help and the C and B list players doing what they can as well, there are a couple of interesting things going on. MJ manages to get in touch with Octavius to find out what’s going on, but their relationship dynamic continues to suck hard. We also see how Jameson is putting his plan into motion with the Spider-Slayers, but it’s come at a cost as he’s pretty much losing everything around him in a big way in order to get his own revenge for everything. And Octavius himself is trying to do his best to save Carlie by figuring out how to reverse the effects of the Goblin serum. Without it actually killing her in the process. Like usual, a lot of balls in the air to be juggled in order to make a cohesive story.
With all of these areas running, we do get Goblin drawing Octavius out once again in his Spider-Man outfit in order to get his revenge, setting the stage for it to be at ESU after Goblin shows him so many other important places of Octavius’ being blown to bits. While we do get to see Octavius’ superior attitude again pushing away the common man and the public servants when he needs them the most, the real focus comes in going up against Goblin. But Osborn, knowing that he really is Octavius, knows all his tech so well and has superior tech through his Oscorp side. What this turns into is the mechanical limbs that he uses being taken over and going out of control. It’s admittedly a bit of a simple gimmick in how it’s done and what Octavius struggles with, but it also provides another of those really tender and emotional moments in the series with a death that occurs there, shocking Octavius in a way that really does reaffirm in many sense that he did shift to being a hero, just through less than usual means and methods.
In Summary:
While we’ve seeing Miguel in the background since he first appeared from 2099, he starts to make a stronger appearance here towards the end as the Spider-Slayers attack and his involvement in the creation allows for an expected out – at least for the moment. There’s a lot going on throughout this issue as Octavius does continue to be in a bit of a panic as he looks for some solid footing to work off of, and it is really interesting to see him struggle through this. But it also makes a big impact with a surprisingly key death scene that happens here that surprises a little bit, both for the dying words and the way you know it makes such an impact on Octavius. Events have been moving towards this for some time and seeing all the mistakes Octavius made now biting him hard is harder to watch than one might have expected after originally starting this series.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 12th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
