In the months leading up to Spider-Man 2, Marvel has been pumping out a lot of Spidey/Dr. Octopus projects, from Negative Exposure to Out of Reach to the Doc Ock story arc in Spectacular Spider-Man. None of them have really grabbed me, but this latest release stands out as the best of the bunch thus far. The reason is simple: Otto Octavius is portrayed both as human and sympathetic, and as corrupt and a bit mad. Wells and Andrews portray Otto as vulnerable but frightening at the same time, and it makes for an interesting character study.
Forever hounded by his atheltic classmates and abused by his blue-collar father, Otto Octavius has always felt like an outcast. Only one thing in the world has given him any sense of solace or happiness, and that's science. When it comes to science, Otto is in control, leaps and bounds ahead of his peers and even his instructors. But even in success, respect eludes him, as does power. That yearning for respect manifests itself as a hidden anger, and as for power... well, Otto knows exactly how to get that.
The art on this book is quite surprising. One normally associates Kaare Andrews work with the amazing cover art and designs he created for Incredible Hulk a while back or the manga-inspired stuff we've seen on Ultimate X-Men and X-Men Unlimited. He takes a much different approach here with more traditional line art and a darker tone. His work here reminds me of the styles of Sam (Scratch) Kieth, Bill (Daredevil: Love and War) Sienkiewicz and Tim (Hulk: Gray) Sale. He employs an exaggerated style that reinforces the intensity of emotion that the characters -- especially young Otto -- experience. It's effective, and Andrews's vision of a nuclear holocaust is appropriately creepy and disturbing.
Given the number of Doc Ock stories we've seen as of late, a question of continuity arises here. The historical setting of the story isn't even entirely clear, though it reads more as being set in the 1960s than today.
This is not only the best Spidey/Doc Ock story to come out of Marvel recently, but this is one of Zeb Wells's strongest efforts for the publisher thus far. He achieves an excellent balance in Otto's character here. Anyone who was treated as an outcast in their formative years can relate to the character here. I also loved how Wells taps into an ugly part of our past. I remember the fear of nuclear war as an ever-present notion in the 1980s, and Wells explores it to great effect here. Today, people fear planes falling out of the sky and envelopes full of white powder, and it was interesting to revisit a different kind of terror and political climate in the nuclear references here.
