As Marvel ramps up for an overkill of Doctor Octopus projects, timed so that all the trades will hit in time for the movie, we can all be grateful that the first one out is also likely to be the strongest one. Brian K. Vaughan, who has put new twists on the apocalyptic genre in Y: The Last Man and the teen super-hero genre with Runaways, puts a spin on Spidey and his four-armed foe with Negative Exposure, which uses the now-familiar "Marvels" trick of an outside observer from the press as our narrator. However, while the narrator may be an outsider to the world of Spidey and Doc Ock, he's not just the narrator of the story, he's also very much involved, whether it's Vaughan's interesting and realistic take on the journalistic thought process or the interest that the titular villain takes in him near the end. Negative Exposure has all the hallmarks of a classic Spidey vs. Doc Ock story, but the involvement of another point-of-view makes it a pretty intriguing read, and I'm curious to see where it goes from here.
Since Marvels, many creators have tried the outside narrator trick, some successfully and some not so much. Vaughan succeeds because he's got the secret down: the voice has to ring true, it has to be distinctive and it has to be interesting. Jeffrey Haight, staff photographer for the Daily Bugle, hits all three. I haven't worked in a real newsroom, but I know some journalists and did some time at the college paper, enough to get the sense that Haight's point-of-view is real. Particularly his reaction when he thinks that he might get a photograph of Octopus killing Spider-Man; it's insensitive, and maybe even a bit sleazy, but it speaks volumes about the character. His rundown of the realities of staff photography versus freelance, and his mixture of art and commerce sensibilities, all come together to create an interesting narrator.
Vaughan's story is tugging at the strings of suspension of disbelief, asking why no one has put together Peter Parker's many candid shots of Spider-Man with his secret identity. However, while this sort of thing can be dangerous, asking questions that shouldn't be asked or the whole suspension of disbelief goes out the window, Vaughan does it well, with a great version of Peter Parker's modesty versus Spider-Man's cocky attitude shoring up the whole notion of the secret identity. Haight's views on Parker's talent and personality are great, because it lets the reader see how someone who doesn't know Peter's secret might react to him.
So I've talked about Haight, Spider-Man and Parker... what about the title character, Doctor Octopus? Vaughan and Johnson have a great handle on him as well. His arrogance shines through in the dialogue, and I love his reasons for attacking a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit as it speaks to both how he views himself and how he views others, and makes him more than just a maniacal villain. There are some great action scenes between Spider-Man and Octopus, and while I have some quibbles with Humberto Ramos's redesign of the costume, in general I think it looks pretty good and Johnson does a nice job of giving it the right air of menace and cool.
The first issue of Negative Exposure is much more about the narrator than it is about Spider-Man or Doctor Octopus, but it's a good setup of an interesting supporting character and it features a fairly classic Spidey versus Doctor Octopus battle in the middle of it. At this point, the story could go off in several different directions, so it's hard to fairly judge the whole thing based on the first issue, but based on strong story and art, it's certainly off to a good start.
