Amazing Ends: Avenging Spider-Man 15.1

So you're asking yourself, why is there another entry in Amazing Ends? Didn't the ending come in issue 700? Well you're in luck folks, see, when I planned this a while ago I 699.1 and this issue weren't out yet. And since they both seemed to be apart of the story, well it seemed like a good idea to include them. Now while I've made it clear that 699.1 wasn't a bad story, it had no place where it was. and that's just that.

Now Avenging here can go find a hot iron rod with razor wire wrapped around it to shove up it's backside. Oh, Spoilers from this point on.

This book should exist. I know that's hard to understand after I just said about the hot iron rod, but this isn't a bad idea. It's about Otto becoming Peter in a way. Why it should burn is because it takes place after 700. (Hence it being last) It seems to reverse all the character development of Otto at the end of 700 and well it feels out of place. Hell, if you read most of the issue, it could easily take place before. (Except for the Bugle Page, a single panel of the Doc Ock fight in 700, and the last page or two, and even then you could get away with the last pages if done a hair different.)

Also notice fewer pictures. Nothing much happens, really, and nothing really that funny to caption with.

So, Pete (Otto) wakes up in bed and gloats that he won.

Be less evil...you're the GOD DAMNED HERO!

He makes a date with M.J. We see him at his job, we get a lot of day in the life of for the first part. And a lot of badly written "I'm awesome sauce" speech from the Doc. Again kind of forgetting everything he learned the day before, when he realized Spider-Man had been pulling his punches, and the whole responsibility thing. It's kind of annoying.

Subtle...

So for some such reason Pete (Otto) goes to one of his former labs. This is of course an excuse for him to experience himself. I wish that could have sounded less meta-sexual.

Aw, Yes, the Sinister Six. (Only see five if you count Otto as Spidey)

So of course the alarms and traps go off, because he's Spider-Man not Doc Ock anymore. So the automatic gloat speech goes off and we see our "hero" listen to himself. And thus he learns a lesson. That Spider-Man always kicked his bloody ass for a reason. It makes me scared to think he could win a fight now, he's still the arrogant jackass.

Learned you're lesson, didn't you.

And so we get a small montage of the new suit and him swining off, declaring he is the Superior Spider-Man. Like he did in 700.

I can't wait...(Sarcasm)

I'll keep my complaints short, since this has been pretty obvious how little I cared for this.

Avenging Spider-Man has been an off and off book for me. When they're just having fun, I'm having fun. The  50th anniversary issue was pretty good too. But let's be honest here. This issue sucked. For two reasons. One it's horribly written and why would anyone want to root for this jackass. At the end of 700 we got an idea of a growth of character that disappears here. Now that could have worked (maybe) if this was essentially the time between 698 and 700. Where it's him figuring out this life and getting the first glimpses of why he sucked as Doc Ock.

Instead it's a retred of the last few pages and diminishes some of the impact of learning the truth of Spider-Man.

Come back tomorrow for complete thoughts and ramblings on all five books as a whole.