Amazing Spider-Man 698-700 Review

Hey, it's your friendly neighborhood Spider -Man

here, and I'm swinging by the Geekcast Radio

Network. Okay, sure, I know. Josh Keaton was

spectacular Spider -Man, not the 94 Spider -Man,

but it's the only Spidey promo we had. Also,

huge, huge spoiler warning. Anyone that doesn't

want to get spoiled on Amazing Spider -Man 698,

99, and 700, turn it off now, because we spoil

the hell out of those final three issues of The

Amazing Spider -Man. When I was 10, Uncle Ben

enrolled me at science camp, and the man who

ran the camp was Dr. Otto Octavius. He was a

genius. As for you... Hands up! All of them!

Spider -Man! What are you doing here? That's

simple. You brought him, didn't you? Me? I never...

You web -headed fowler! Hey! It's nice to see

you too, Picklefuss! I think your spider powers

can compare with the shattering impact of my

unbreakable hydraulic tentacles. It was a thought.

Don't waste your time thinking. It may very well

be the last thought you ever have. Hello and

welcome to yet another GeekCast Radio special

episode. This time, we're going to be jumping

over to Marvel. I have with me Spade of the Vault

Matrix. Hello. How are you? Huh? Hello. Yeah,

Steve and I have been reviewing the DC stuff,

the Batman books, and everything that's tying

into Death of the Family, and I tried explaining

a little bit of that to you the other day, and

you were like, huh? What? Yeah. But we are here

because... Amazing Spider -Man ended with issue

700 so In this little introduction what we're

gonna do is we're gonna give you the listeners

a brief overview of how we came to know love

hate or just tolerate spider -man over the years

and And then we'll go into we're actually gonna

review 698 99 and 700 all three of those books

So how did you? Like what was your first exposure

to the character of Peter Parker spider -man?

Well, actually my first exposure was thanks to

my dad believe it or not when I was Nine my father

started getting comic books and he started like

just you know, bringing home some comic books

and One I can't remember if it was for like Easter

or my birthday. He bought me the Marvel They

had collections called Marvel masterpiece collections.

I don't know anybody remembers these but they

Encapsulated like the first ten issues of the

fantastic four the first ten issues of spider

-man the first ten issues of Avengers of x -men

so he over the course of like a year bought a

bunch of these for me and That's where I first

really got into spider -man. Well, I don't want

to say really got into spider -man I always thought

spider -man was interesting, but I was more of

an x -man and Fantastic Four fan In fact, my

first comic book was fantastic for number 300

the one where um Johnny Storm got married That

was my first comic book, believe it or not, and

I've still got it. But over the time, over a

couple of years, I started reading some Spider

-Man, and then in the early 90s was when the

Todd McFarlane run of Spider -Man was released.

If you guys don't know what that entailed that

was the that that first issue Was where the lizard

really came back and was a real big problem for

spider -man. In fact, it was for the first or

second spider -man Off shoot, you know He's got

what like six different comics running and that

was the first and that in the 90s was the first

or second I want to say it was spectacular spider

-man 90s Yeah, that was the Todd McFarlane run

that's where he started doing work for Marvel

and a friend of mine would you know every Wednesday

we would bike over to the comic book store locally

here in Baltimore and we would buy a we would

buy a couple of issues and I would always buy

x -men Fantastic Four and some other Marvel and

by spider -man Avengers and some other books

and then we would just go back to one of our

houses and just read them all day was though,

I started to notice that Spider -Man started

to repeat the same. Back then, the word emo didn't

exist. Like the most bipolar superhero I had

ever seen even to this day. I didn't really like

that back in the day, especially as a kid. And

a lot of folks to this day will call Peter Parker

the lightest superhero on the planet. They are

actually quite accurate with that. I would argue

that Cyclops is a close second. Yeah, I would

agree with that. Yeah, Cyclops was definitely

that. Yeah. Yeah. But over the years, I've kind

of paid attention to Spider -Man without reading

the comics. I've read synopses. Let's just say

he's had some really weird stories. I mean the

clone saga one more day Geez, how much how much

rec conning can one superhero go through? I mean

really And it's so like I I have never like these

are the first in a long time 698 to 700 are the

first three issues of Amazing I've read in probably

15 years. The last Amazing Spider -Man I remember

reading it was almost like a tie -in or almost

a story basically from the animated the old animated

series in the 90s. It was something along those

lines or maybe it that's obviously that's where

they got the cartoon from some of the comic stories

but I haven't read the book in years. This year

is like my first foray into like comics as far

as anything Because as a kid I collected, you

know, I didn't even really collect comics I would

just oh hey new x -men or new new spider -man

or whatever else and I found myself reading some

really crazy stuff as a kid like I remember going

into eight waldon books of all places waldon

books those aren't you don't that story that

franchise doesn't even exist in malls anymore

waldon books i would go in there and i would

look and i would see oh x -men and i would you

know see it kind of kind of wasn't related to

the animated series but it had that same obvious

style and i was like oh okay i like that i like

that i like like that and i looked over and i'm

like spider girl spider -man what the f was that

and i picked up a couple of the spider girl issues

and i was like this is just weird was that in

like the late 90s early 2000 yeah well spider

girl i i would have to look it up i'm not looking

at any information at this point i think it was

95 96 somewhere around there i think there have

been a couple of spider girls yeah i i don't

know all i know is it said spider girl spider

man's daughter That's, that's all I know. I don't

remember anything else from it. The first time

she debuted was 1999. Oh, really? Huh. Okay,

well then. Maybe that's, yeah. Oh, what if, volume

105? Oh, okay. I think what you're talking about

is the, uh, either the Ultimate, no, Ultimates

was mid -2000s, was mid -2000s. Anyway. Yeah,

fighter girl. Yeah. Yeah, Spider -Girl. But I've

never really been like that into comics. I don't

dislike them, obviously. I like reading them.

I've been doing the DC stuff reviews with Steve

and stuff like that, but I just like... It wasn't

one of my main focuses. And then over the last

couple of years, toys have considerably... Toys

and toy companies have considerably had a...

psychological effect on myself and i was like

i've essentially traded toys for comics at this

point where i'm buying more comics than i am

toys nowadays uh i will admit the one of the

first marvel i want to say it was a marvel there

was a marvel toy line in the late 90s early 2000s

the toy biz toy line the super posable toy line

Think that was the toy this one I have the original

spider -man from that toy line and the reason

I bought it was because it had like 29 points

of articulation And it actually came with a spider

symbol wall mount the L in the wall or push pin

and put the wall mount on it and then Like spider

-man could hang off and do he could do the the

web action and I had that on my wall for years

And some of those toys, like I bought the Venom

one and had that next to him. And they were just

fantastic figures. Unfortunately, now they're

only like three inches tall. Yeah. Yeah. How

I really came to know Spider -Man was through

the 1994 animated series. Watching that show

is... Most people might say that it does not

hold up today. For me, it's not about holding

up today. For me, watching it today, it's about

transporting myself back to being a teenager

and watching it. Watching all those old Marvel

cartoons is what made me want, back then, to

read the comics because I wanted to see what

other stories they were going to tell besides

each episode that was on TV. And then of course

the Spider -Man films. I like the Sam Raimi trilogy.

I think Peter Parker, Toby Maguire's Peter Parker

is just way over the top as far as the emo part.

It's just... Just go Spidey, baby. I know. I

know. It's the amazing version and all this and

all that. I actually prefer... the new film,

Amazing, with Andrew Garfield. I like where they're

going with that. But that's my extent with Spider

-Man. What are your just overall thoughts on

the film franchise? Well, going back to what

you said about the animated series, I loved that

original animated series to this day. When I

was, I was, let's see, I think it was like 13

or 14. And my cousin who was 31 at the time Actually,

he found out that I really liked that series

So what he did was he went back through his collection

and what he would do is he would record all these

spider -man shows and x -men shows and He would

record them and then he would create a duplicate

tape of each episode sequentially for me For

both spider -man and x -men and he did that for

all the seasons and I still have those tapes

and that was just that was awesome and Yeah,

it was just such a good show except towards the

end towards the end of its run. It got weird

like they started to just They started to throw

like everything at him It was like, OK, you remember

this thing from season one? Well, it's going

to show up again. But in combination with with

things from season two and something earlier

from season three. Oh, but that thing from season

three never actually aired since we're airing

things out of order. And it's like, ah, and it

just got bonkers. And then it went away. And

then how many times have they tried to reboot

cartoons of Spider -Man? Spider -man well, okay

after the 94 series in 99 there was spider -man

unlimited Which is kind of supposed to be it

was supposed to be a direct continuation of the

94 series It's set in that same universe and

then he goes off to one to go or whatever some

Alternate dimension to save Jameson's John Jameson

the astronaut uh... so there was that series

that only lasted thirteen episodes there is the

spectacular spider -man series which stars josh

keaton as the voice of spidey uh... and that

lasted i think again i'm not looking at information

i think it was two or three seasons might be

more i'd i'd i'd think it is more uh... and now

they've got uh... ultimate spider -man On Nickelodeon,

I think that's still in its first or second season

so there have been multiple spidey cartoons since

The 94 series and even before then there was

two series before that there was 81 spider -man

and his amazing friends with Bumblebee dan gilvazan

is the voice of spider -man and then in the 60s

there was the 67 spider -man cartoon as well

which one was the one where he was teamed up

with firestar and That's spider -man and his

amazing friends. That's the dan gilvazan cartoon,

okay? that's the 80s cartoon and then the original

60s cartoon and then wasn't there wasn't there

another one um there might have been i i don't

know top my head there's so many um yeah it just

won't stop yeah exactly So funny Okay, what about

the film series really quick before we get into

these reviews? I like the first one the second

one was okay. The third one was And then I saw

Amazing and it was all right It was okay. I think

I think the thing that I've really liked about

it was when Stacy had a brain and She was a capable

character. I loved um, what's his name Dennis

Leary? He was fantastic as Captain Stacy. I loved

him, but everything else was just kind of meh.

I didn't care for Peter Parker. I did like Uncle

Ben, though, but I kind of wanted Uncle Ben to

just come back from the dead just because I did

like the setting because it really it felt like.

Modern day it felt like how people would actually

behave in this situation But the thing I think

I like the best was the whole crane sequence

See a lot of people hate that they're like really

they're gonna line that up And he's gonna be

able to swing from all I thought it was cool,

too I liked it as well, but you've also got to

realize I come from a family from New York City

My my father was born and raised in New York

City Parts of my mother's family are from New

York. Mm -hmm. I mean I have New York blood in

me That's kind of like something like that would

actually kind of possibly happen Yeah in New

York City because New Yorkers have a very oh

you're gonna F with me Fine. All right boys.

I mean they have a very that that's their attitude

and that i could actually see happening yes all

right so we're gonna take a quick break and then

we're gonna come back with the uh with the book

reviews we'll be back after this good my neuro

neutralizer ray has inhibited your synaptic responses

now i finally have the chance to find out who

you are behind that mask Alright, so here's how

this whole thing started ladies and gentlemen.

I was like, ooh Spider -man amazing spider -man's

ending I have to read the final issue and then

I was gonna start in on the the follow -up series

Which we'll get to in a bit and then you're on

Twitter You're like you can't just read 700 without

knowing what happened the two issues before and

I'm like, alright fine Welcome Yes, thank you.

And then the next morning I sent you the links

and yeah downloaded it and And then your brain

proceeded to melt on Twitter. Pretty much, yeah.

Like I said, folks, this is the first time I've

read Marvel books in a long time. First of all,

the cover for 698, I thought that was the kingpin.

Oh. Honestly, I really wasn't sure when I first

saw that picture. I wasn't sure who it was, but

I knew it wasn't the kingpin. Yeah And in 698

it's it's got this whole story there was one

page I'm trying to remember if it was page 13

or I don't know there is there was one page in

one of these issues that just Freaked me the

hell out which one Oh no, it was page 18, in

698, page 18, when he reveals the master plan,

or kind of reveals the master plan. This whole

body switching thing, it, like... No, it wasn't

so much a body switching thing. Well, it was

a mind, yeah, it was a mind switch. So, uh, just...

For everybody's knowledge, we are going to be

spoiling the hell out of the last three issues,

if you have to guess that already. Yes. I'll

put a spoiler warning at the beginning of the

show. But yeah, no, 698 was really, really interesting.

I love the art in the books. I think the art

in 698 was done really, really well. As far as

the story goes this just all kinds of fucked

up Well, yes, it's spider -man. What do you expect?

But I do have to agree the art for all three

books was very well done. It was very poignant.

It was very direct the use of the use of the

art to convey Not just what was going on but

the actual emotion that was going through the

characters was very interesting Because the way

they framed the body language was very well done

It was if you go back and look at it. Just look

at the way that Doc Ock's face is Manipulating

and contorting as he switches from the jovial

spider -man to his real nature It's very very

interesting and especially as you get into 700

towards the end you see his body language change

and it's very very good that the that the Artists

were able to convey that through the use of just

Shadowing and just the art and the coloring in

general it very just a master stroke really Yeah,

and I love how they do in these issues And I'm

sure they've done it all along or they might

have I don't know I haven't read any other back

issues besides these but I love how they do the

Daily Bugle headlines I think that's really cool.

Oh, yeah the way they they played around with

that a little bit. Um, yeah Oh, what was it?

In an interview the author, the writer did with

Comic Vine, he said that that was something that

they liked to do. They liked to play around with

tropes that Spider -Man had used in the past

and kind of put little twists on them. Well,

I think it's because the world of Spider -Man

is so... Because one of his adversaries is J.

Jonah Jameson, who owns the Daily Bugle, who

owns J3 Communications, it makes sense. He's

Mayor Bloomberg. Yeah, sadly. If you think about

it, because now he's the mayor of New York. Yeah.

So he's Bloomberg. He's Michael Bloomberg. Yeah.

For those of you who don't know, Michael Bloomberg

is a business slash technology mogul who is now

the mayor of New York City. Yeah. that's news

and technology mo sorry yes that's that's a little

strange but no i love the art i love the way

the suit looks in in comic form again like i

said i haven't read a lit read this in a long

time and i just like the way that how how overall

the art is drawn there's um the page 16 where

he's where it's that middle panel where it's

spider -man kind of ducking down and swinging

i think that looks really cool As far as the

story it this might be more this was probably

more sick and twisted than the deal with the

devil because this is just Well the the main

writer I can never remember the writer Dan slot.

Thank you. He has said he's going to go have

to go into hiding after this now I Don't doubt

that so why don't we why don't we just go ahead

and let's get into the story I think Okay. You

wanna synopsize it there? Where to begin? Alright,

so in 698, it is revealed that Doctor Octopus

has switched minds with Peter Parker. And what

that means is Peter Parker is now in Doctor Octopus's

body and is dying. For those of you wondering

what the heck, how did that happen? Back in,

what was it, 690 or 680, somewhere in between

there, Dr. Octopus released all of these nano

-Octopus bots in order to improve the world.

Well, of course, instead of improving it, he

tried to take it over. Spider -Man found a helmet

that Dr. Octopus was using to control all of

these little robots. He put it on and he kept

wearing it. What was happening was while he was

controlling those robots, the helmet was mapping

out Peter Parker's brain. Then, after all of

the... after that happened... then another little

mini -series called Spider -Island happened.

At the very end of Spider -Island, one last little

Octobot attacked Peter Parker and switched...

How did he did this? I'm not sure, but managed

to switch Octococ and Peter Parker. So he switched

their bodies. Right. So, that is the setup. Eventually,

it is discovered by both Peter Parker and Doctor

Octopus in each other's bodies that they have

access to all their memories. So Peter Parker,

using the memories of Doc Ock, starts a plan

to escape out of the... I can't remember the

name of the prison. The Raft. Yeah, the Raft.

Manages to get out of the Raft using Hydra Man...

Pastepot Pete and the Scorpion. Am I missing

anybody there? I don't think so. Okay, it was

those three. Yeah. And pretty much hatches a

plan to get revenge slash get his body back.

Things don't exactly go the way you think it

will. No, not at all. 698 was really, really,

really good. I love the way that the writing

is going. When I first read 698, I'm thinking,

okay, Doc Ock in Spidey's body can't be good.

At all. But yet in in 698 you see him doing all

the normal spider -man things you see him You

know saving a kid from a Falling gargoyle or

you know you see it you know you see him do all

this stuff And that's all well and good you see

him interacting with Mary Jane the way that he

kind of normally would but you also see Kind

of like behind the scenes when no one's looking

where he is snickering to himself saying ha ha

ha no one really Realizes this isn't the real

Peter Parker blah blah blah, and I like that.

I thought it was pretty interesting I thought

it was a really good night. That was in 698 right?

Yeah, yeah, but in retrospect if you go back

and look at it you start realizing Oh my god,

these are all of the tropes of spider -man throughout

all of the past 40 years The saving a kid, the

bank robbery. Just the bank robbery with the

stupid costume villain that nobody has heard

of. And the comment he makes to himself is like,

really? A bank robbery? Really? Yeah. And you

start to realize, wait, you realize in retrospect,

oh my god, this is so the... the writers just

setting something up, setting everything up,

and you really don't realize it at first. And

it's really quite ingenious because you think,

oh, the average day as Spider -Man and blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah. Wait, that's not Spider

-Man. Yeah. yeah it's it's not it's so not because

he does take it with that with the bank robbery

guy he does take it a little further than he

should obviously and then kind of transitioning

into 699 obviously picks up where where that

left off but the cover for 699 it's awesome but

it also it's it's creepy as hell it kind of looks

like It almost homages, I would think, at least

to me the tentacle arms almost homage what was

in Spider -Man 2's Doc Ock, as far as how the

arms look on the cover. Well, these are more

pincer arms. The ones in Spider -Man 2 had three

fingers. Yeah. Plus also, I think it's also an

homage, at one point Spider -Man wears Doc Ock's

arms. Yeah at one point and I can't remember

when that was but if you look the thing that

I really really like about it Means if you look

at the cover and you look behind the actual the

amazing spider -man It's a human brain made out

of octopi doc ock arms Yeah, and it's a brain

stem coming down and wrapping around spider -man

Yeah, and then what I also notice about the cover

is that they essentially shred his mask not on

spider -man himself But up like next to where

it says the amazing spider -man the spidey logo

is shredded Shattered I would say shattered as

opposed shattered shredded same thing. Yeah same

difference But no, I absolutely love the cover.

I thought it was great And then getting into

the story. And the artwork continues to be very,

very good. I mean, very, very good. Yeah, it

is. I mean, it's just so good. Mary Jane looks

like she's supposed to look. Spidey looks like

the way he's supposed to look. I think you can

kind of tell that this isn't the real Peter Parker,

even before it's kind of revealed. Even if you

didn't see a cover of Spider -Man wrapped around

with Doc Arkhoms, because The awk version of

Parker he He acts like at least to me. He acts

a little bit like what Peter did when he was

Bonded with the symbiote kind of a dick Yeah,

pretty much kind of a dick. Yeah pretty much

So the story for 699 continues Where they're

trying to save the and it's so Okay, I know like

time in the marvel universe is just you just

can't figure it out but between 698 and 699 how

many months or weeks do you think has passed

because how Ox body looked in 698 it was deteriorating,

but it wasn't deteriorating as much as it is

in this this this Was it page two or no page

six the page three panel 698 he said he maybe

had our Days or maybe weeks to live and now it's

like I have hours so I would say it's maybe a

week because if you think about it when when

Ock was I'm not sure how to refer to him now,

but when When the breakout occurred, Pacepot

Pete added components to Ock. He gave him glasses,

he gave him things that were on Pete's backpack

just to prolong his life. So he's hanging on.

The breakout happens in 698. No, the breakout

happens in 699. Oh, does it in 699? Yeah. Okay,

so then I would say... I would say from 698 to

699, it's maybe a couple hours to maybe a day

or two. I mean, I would say it's enough time

for Spider -Man to leave the raft, get back to

New York City, and I would say it's at least

24 hours. I would say at least 24 hours, maybe

48, maybe. But it's not long but then from from

699 to 700 I would say maybe a day maybe a day

or two week maybe yeah, and and that's something

that That's something that interviews that a

dance slot has stated Time is all screwed up

in the Marvel universe Yeah, yeah You know, in

both of the big companies, universe time is all

kinds of messed up. So, yeah, so the story here

is that they use Hydra Man, what's the Pete guys?

Paste Pot Pete. Okay, Paste Pot Pete, I thought

you said Pist Pot Pete, okay. That's a completely

different super villain. Yeah, exactly. So they

use these guys to help Peter and Ock's body escape

and he's gonna go after Spidey Ock. That's the

best way I can call Ock and Spidey's body. But

that's the whole thing for for issue 699 is he's

coming to the realization there's a couple pages

where he's talking to the lizard and he finds

out all the stuff and then he's like ooh i need

to stop him from ruining my reputation as the

you know as spider -man so i need to get out

of here so let me you know use my brain and use

doc ox memories and and get all this stuff going

when i find interesting about the spider -man

peter parker spider -man and doc ock memory thing.

It reminds me of a Dean Koontz adapted movie

from one of his books called Hideaway. It was

starring Jeremy Sisto and a bunch of, I think

Alicia Silverstone was the daughter in it. In

that, he is, Jeremy Sisto's character and Jeff

Goldblum, who is also in his character, they

are linked to each other. like one is like on

god's side and one is on the devil's side kind

of thing but they can see what each other is

doing and that's what the whole memory thing

is to me in in in these last three issues where

they can spider -man and and dr octopus can see

each other's memories and i thought that was

really really cool and really strange at the

same time Well, it makes sense especially from

a scientific standpoint because if you think

about it Memories are nothing more than electrical

impulses stored in certain parts of the brain

if you're doing a Mental transfer of sorts the

hearts that make up who you are as a person in

the brain Have nothing to do with the memory

sectors nothing to do So you could effectively

just dump it in there and the memories you could

still technically access but at the same point

Memories don't work like that. You don't just

Remember something that way you have to have

like a trigger to remember something. I think

I mean, that's how I remember things Yeah, and

it obviously we don't exactly know how the brain

works we're not quite there yet but this is one

of those things where I go okay just step into

a machine and have your brain maps so you know

someone can stick a box in your forehead and

oh wait that was that meant forever sorry hey

at least I didn't Reference another Batman movie,

but anyway. We referenced a bad Batman movie.

That's bad enough. Oh, Batman Forever was not

a... It wasn't the greatest Batman movie, but

it was not the worst. Anyways. What did you think

of the story for 699? 699 was okay. The problem

with 699 is the first half of the comic was nothing

more than one gigantic exposition dump. Yeah.

And that was a problem for me. I think that was

a little bit dumb. But overall, it was okay.

I think it was that middle chapter that comics

really have a hard time doing. You know, I mean,

they've got to bridge the gap between the previous

issue and then the next issue. Yeah, I... I'm

kind of finding that with some of the bat books

with the death of the family thing where the

six the 15 issues for for last month for in December

over in DC those were all expositional books

and 699 like you said the first half is pretty

much all exposition of how how did Doc Ock manage

to do this and the rest of it is Peter trying

to figure out how he's gonna get out and then

the breakout Yeah, it's just an issue with comic

books in general they don't they don't move the

story along I think fast enough they they're

too worried about oh, did you miss last issue?

Okay, here's all the information info dump Yeah

Yeah, so Episode or episode geez issue 700 the

the grand finale And again with the info dump

oh god more info dump Okay, but I can forgive

in 700 because of the fact that it is not your

average It's not your average comic because the

main story instead of 20 22 25 30 or 40 page

52 pages For the main story, it's it's huge Yeah,

it's it's so huge. I love the cover. The cover

is so awesome Which is the the main one right

the the main cut the original cover the the Spider

-eye with if you zoom in it's all the different

characters from the entire series all of the

different Spider -man suits Yeah, love that cover

at that is a great cover Yeah next month in February

I am so going on I don't care I'm so going on

Amazon and I don't care if I have to pay 15 bucks

for the issue I'm getting that cover because

I want that cover so awesome But 700 is it it's

the final issue of the amazing spider -man for

Marvel The story takes such a Interesting twist.

I Don't know where they're gonna go with this.

I have no clue I know I've heard from a lot of

people that they just don't care to read Dr.

Octopus is spider -man in the upcoming series

of superior spider -man but if you think about

it With the way that this issue lays out this

Peter Parker the Doc Ock Peter Parker He is a

super genius. Okay regular Peter Parker He's

a genius in his own right but Doc Ock is like

ten times more genius than Peter is and You combine

that with the spider powers. That's just an amazing

spider -man forgive the pun, but I mean, that's

just one of those things where It just seems

like it would fit so well and I found it very

interesting that Well in 700 you have the culmination

of the story and then there was a Was it spectacular

spider -man? 15 .1 Was that the other comic the

backup? No, it wasn't a backup. It was that it

was the bridge between amazing and superior There

is a there For those that don't know, Marvel

is doing a .1 series of comics, which are these

little one -shots there, maybe 15 to 20 pages

maybe, that act as either bridges or bring in

or bring up to speed readers so they avoid the

info dump while profiting from you at the same

time. So you talk about the story where it's

the grandfather and the grandson? No, no, no,

no, not that. Okay. I'm not talking about that

at all I'm talking about a separate comic that

okay it completely shows Okay 700 has happened.

Here's a little bit time later where Doc Ock

is being is Thinking about being Peter Parker.

He's going he's living Peter's life. He's starting

to become a superhero he stops a guy from stealing

somebody's purse by pretty much just putting

his arm out and the guy runs into it. He rebuilds

the web shooters. He goes back to one of his

old hideouts and realizes Oh, that realizes there

is no way that I as Dr. Octopus could ever beat

Spider -Man. Yeah, because Spider -Man has things

like the spider sense like the Strength that

he never realized that spider -man had the it's

just the Experiences that spider -man has been

through, you know All of all of doc ox gloating

was for nothing because he could actually never

beat spider -man no matter how smart he was Yeah

See, that's the one thing I don't get about the

brain about the mind swap for this whole story

is How like how does Doc Ock and spider -man's

body how does he have okay? Yes, I understand

He has the powers, but like how does he have

the spidey said, you know what I mean? It's like

that's one of the things the spider sense is

purely physiological It has nothing to do with

whose mind is in that body. It is purely physiological.

It is a physiological reaction To whatever is

around you. It's the same It would be the same

as if say we switched bodies and Your hair and

you in my body your hair itched the top of your

head was itchy Okay, it's purely just physiological

it has nothing to do with memories and He even

stated in In that one one -off in the one -off

that spider sense and he made a quote of something

It's like I'm still still getting used to it.

It's weird Yeah Yeah, it's it's so strange it's

just it's it's so strange to I Don't know 700.

I love how they incorporate everybody in his

past in the story Without actually like bringing

them back and they They homage them, but they

don't you know I mean where the whole whole heaven

-esque thing yeah Yeah, I thought that was really

cool really cool and just a little bit of foreshadowing

Well, yeah, but you know foreshadowing has to

happen a little bit But I think one of my favorite

favorite pages from this one was page 13 where

it's the uncle Ben scene and It's at the bottom

where he's like you need to get up and fight

one more time. Come on Peter get up I love that

Just that whole thing of and you don't really

see like in okay the whole thing with uncle Ben.

Okay, he dies That's that's it to my knowledge.

They've never like actively Resurrected uncle

Ben He's always stayed dead. Sure. He's come

back in like flashbacks or as a ghost Dream sequences

or stuff like that, but he like it. It's not

like Who can I say it's not like Killing Jean

Grey and then having her resurrect herself as

the Phoenix, you know You know, it's not like

that with uncle Ben So the story goes that, you

know, Peter has to figure out a way to stop Doc

Ock and his body, and he gets to him, and he

basically says... that hey, look, he pulls the

Uncle Ben line. With great power comes great

responsibility. You can't just be a, like if

you're going to stay in my body, you have to

be me. You can't be yourself anymore. You're

not Dr. Octopus anymore. You are Peter Parker

Spider -Man. And through that interaction, you

see Peter Parker reliving the most poignant parts

through the years. Yeah. It was Doctor Octopus

remembering those parts, and it was like Doc

Ock as a young kid in high school. Doc Ock as

the Spider -Man with that ginormous piece of

machinery on him, as the base where he was in

floods, the part where he's fighting Venom as,

you know, Doc Ock. And that was really interesting,

as he... goes through all these memories and

realizes what Peter Parker has actually been

through and comes to the realization of holy

crap I don't want this yeah he's like no I don't

want no no I do not want this no thank you yes

return to fucking sender and it pretty much comes

up to well you well you were me now buddy yeah

cuz cuz Peter Parker in ox body dies yep and

the final page well not the final the the second

to last page is farewell Peter Parker know this

I will carry on your name you may be leaving

this world but you are not leaving it to a villain

I swear I will be spider -man better yet with

my unparalleled genius and my boundless ambition

I'll be a better spider -man than you ever were

from this day forth I shall become the superior

spider -man so it ended on a slightly a heroic

yet rather arrogant ending yeah well I don't

think okay We know at times as we've said before

Peter Parker the original Peter Parker could

be a dick when he wanted to be and I don't think

you know Octavius as Parker as spider -man as

the superior I I don't think the the arrogance

is is misplaced there because Sure, he's not

gonna be a villain anymore, but he can still

be an arrogant super slash anti -hero a bit Yeah,

and I I think this is an interesting way to go.

Yeah. And look, I know there are a lot of people

that love Spider -Man. A lot of people do. But

you have to you have to acknowledge that for

40 years we have had the same character. He has

not grown or evolved in 40 years. Right. Now,

in comic terms, he's what, maybe 30? Yeah. So,

yes, a lot of stuff has happened to him. I will

definitely concede that, but this is going to

be an interesting change, and I really am excited

to see where this goes. Excuse me. Yeah. I'm

interested to see where it goes, but at the same

time, it... it kind of brings up so many quite

like okay say for anyone that doesn't read these

last three issues and just starts superior i

feel bad for them well yes i know but what i'm

saying is like my question would be that new

reader or that reader that you know picks it

up starting with superior be like my question

that would be okay so what do you think do you

think this is the real peter parker or not if

they hadn't read these three issues and see that's

the thing if off is going to keep peters name

and keep peters life are they really start okay

yes all has different motivations awful have

different ways that he handle stuff obviously

as we've seen these three issues but keeping

the same name and character name and super hero

name How are we that's the one thing that's gonna

be interesting to me to see is how how they deal

with Oh, it's Peter. He's changed a little bit

that that's all this isn't the Peter We you know

new in love, but this is a Peter We know and

look and no one can grow to love That that's

my question is with them keeping the Peter Parker

and spider -man names is how are they gonna differentiate?

from Ox version to what the original was That

remains to be seen Yeah, I mean, in the little

one -shot I was talking about earlier, Ock Parker

mentioned that he started talking about Mary

Jane. He's like, Parker, so stupid having Mary

Jane around. She's such a liability, but good

God, that woman. He's like, hot damn. But yeah,

I'm super interested to see what happens with

Superior. We at the GCRN are in the process of

coming up with our own separate comics podcast

feed in the future. Depending on how Spada and

I feel after we read the first couple issues

of Superior, we may or may not do reviews of

that. At this point, it's probably no, because

we haven't read the book and we don't know what's

going to happen. but seven hundred was simply

amazing i'm not a fan of comics in general and

i don't like when dc does this and i know it's

a tie -in to whatever they're doing but i don't

like backups if i buy an issue that says this

is the story i expect that last page to be the

end of the minus ads but i expect that last page

to be the end And I started, because after the

end page here in 700, I'm like, ooh, there's

more. What the hell more is there? And then there's

this whole, there's like two or three different

stories in 700 of, like I said before, this grandson

and grandfather. And then there's like an anime

story of the black cat. And it's just that, like

if I eventually have this issue, or if I was

reading it, The physical copy that probably would

have taken me out like what the hell is going

because it's like they don't give you anything

like In that in that backup story that starts.

Um They don't give you nothing. They give you

nothing. The only thing it says is Chicago once

upon a time in the future. They don't say what

future they don't You know, you know, it's like

I don't like backup stories Do what in the nothing

You missed the joke. You're lame. Actually, I'm

probably the lame one for making it. Yes. Yes,

you are. But yeah, I don't know. Like I said,

it's what a way to go out, what a way to be able

to continue a story or to continue on with the

character in some capacity. And we'll see what

happens. Any other final thoughts? 700. Well,

first off, I have to say that The writer Dan

Slott has been reported by a couple of outlets

has been getting death threats because of this.

io9 .com is reporting that he's had quite a few

death threats, actually. So I can understand

where a lot of people are going bananas, but

guys, it's a comic book. Just grow up. That being

said, I think this was a good story. I liked

it. I'm actually kind of glad it took the direction

that it did. Could there have been things that

were done better? I could have done without the

exposition dump in 699, but it was building to

700. And 700 was a damn fine comic. This I really

like I really really liked this change because

Spider -man needed to change if Spider -man was

Peter Parker, and he was just gonna be Peter

Parker I wouldn't be reading it and now that

they've made this change. I want to see where

they go with this yeah, yeah Because you're you

you they have essentially taken a villain And

turn and they've had to turn him into a hero

because if you're obviously unless unless Doc

Ock is gonna you know Pull a pull a crank and

build his own new body or pull a thunderbolts

Now now they didn't just make a villain a hero

they have put a villain in the shoes of Quite

possibly the most popular hero in Marvel. Yeah

Well, he is their flagship character. As far

as single characters go and not teams, Spider

-Man is their flagship character, just like Superman,

Batman, and Wonder Woman are DC's flagships.

Yeah, I'd say Marvel's are Wolverine, Spider

-Man, and that's all I can think of. See, I see

Marvel differently. I see them where it's more

so Spider -Man, the X -Men, The the core X -Men

not like every single one ever but the core team

and then obviously the Avengers and and maybe

Iron Man Marvel has more you know Mainstream

I mean DC has a lot of mainstream characters,

but when you think DC you're thinking of Superman

or Batman or Wonder Woman You're not you know

some people might think Green Lantern But that's

that's about it. Yeah But yeah, no. So we'll

have to see what happens. We will let you guys

know whenever the comic show does come up. We

haven't worked out all the details on that. Any

other final thoughts before we close out? Nope.

Alright, so there you go. That's our review on

Spider -Man 698 -700. We hope you enjoyed it.

and we will catch you next time. See ya! I don't

believe what you're telling me. In your reality,

I'm a character in fiction? Yep, and I'm an actor

who plays you on TV. But there's someone here

I knew you had to meet. He's the man who created

you for fans all over the world. And I said to

Jack, what if his skin turns green? Excuse me,

I'm looking for some guy named Stan Lee. What?

Spider -Man? Pam? Hold my calls for a while.

I think I've finally gone crazy. Oh, man! Wow!

You know, Spidey, I've always wanted to experience

real web -slinging. And I've always wanted to

be appreciated as a real hero. It seems you've

made me into one. Thanks. Hey, don't mention

it. After saving all of reality, where do you

go from here?