Superior Spider-Man #6 Review

Superior Spider-Man is becoming a frustrating read. Even as Dan Slott continues to address some of the early problems the series faced, he's introduced a glaring new problem with these two most recent issues. Issue #5 ended on a strange note as it wasn't entirely clear whether Spider-Man shot and killed Massacre after taking the villain down. If he did, the rest of New York certainly wasn't too put out by the fact. Early on, issue #6 makes it clear that Spidey did, in fact, murder his enemy. That's... not exactly a small development for the character, and the bizarre way Slott handles the wider reaction to the act is a major thorn in this issue's side.

No doubt many readers predicted something like this would happen eventually. What better way to leave a lingering impact from the Otto/Peter body switch than to have Otto break Peter's cardinal rule and then leave him to deal with the consequences after the inevitable switch back? But this seems a little early in the game to be dealing with such a dark twist. And again, it's strange that Spider-Man's circle of friends and allies don't immediately freak out about the killing. If anything, they seem more disturbed by his use of excessive but non-lethal force against the villains in this issue. Kill a bad guy and you get a free pass, but punch someone too much and suddenly your Avengers membership is called into question.

It's a shame, because there's a lot to enjoy with issue #6 otherwise. Dan Slott brings back Screwball and puts her to much stronger use than in her previous appearances. Screwball and her partner Jester's wacky antics inject some nice levity into the book. Who doesn't love seeing J. Jonah Jameson get smacked in the face with a pie? The subplot involving Otto's efforts to earn Peter a PhD has picked up now that it's become more of a focus.

In general, there's plenty of entertainment to be had from watching Otto succumb more and more to Parker luck and realizing that he really doesn't have all the answers to suddenly turn Peter's life around. As for Peter himself, Slott continues to reduce the amount of page time to this ghostly stowaway, so that his remaining appearances are more effective and less obtrusive.

If only this one story decision wasn't weighing so heavily on the book, Superior might stand a chance of becoming as enjoyable as Slott's Amazing Spider-Man run ever was.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com