Superior Spider-Man #31 (Story 2)

Background

Dan Slott hastily ended the controversial Superior saga with Superior Spider-Man #31. Despite its fair share of fist-pumping moments, it felt rushed and left a lot of questions unanswered. Some of those questions will probably never be addressed while a few will no doubt carry on into Amazing Spider-Man Volume 3. There were a few loose ends that were tied up in this Christos Gage written epilogue featured at the end of Superior #31. Gage, who wrote a number of arcs during the Superior saga that were plotted by Slott, is joined by current Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 2) artist Will Sliney on this short story.

Story 'Actions Have Consequences'

After leaving the city for safety during the events of Goblin Nation, Aunt May, Jay Jameson Sr., Mary Jane and her new boyfriend Ollie all return to New York after the defeat of the Green Goblin. Peter, who hasn't seen May since he was mind-swapped with Otto Octavius months ago, is obviously worried about his surrogate mother. Jay is quite upset with the way that Pete has treated his aunt though (not knowing that it was actually May's ex Otto). Realizing that his continued connection with Spider-Man will only bring harm to his loved ones, Peter announces to Jay and May that he is going to quit building tech for the webbed one.

Pete's talk with MJ doesn't go nearly as smoothly. MJ believes Peter's far fetched story, but she is sick of being involved in Pete's superhero drama and decides that it would be best if she goes her own way. After Pete runs off to confront Jameson Jr., Carlie Cooper, who is in the process of being cured of the goblin formula she was injected with back in Superior Spider-Man #24, meets up with Mary Jane as she is leaving town. She too is getting away from Peter and all his superhero craziness.

Meanwhile, Pete has changed into his classic Spidey duds to try and make amends with Jonah Jameson. Spider-Man encourages his nemesis to not give up but to stay and fight. It's too late though, the Spider Slayer incident was too much to overcome and Jameson has already resigned as mayor of New York.

General Comments

This whole story (if you can call it that) feels like it's only here so that Slott doesn't have to address a few facts in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1. Those facts are that MJ and Carlie are leaving the main cast and that Jonah is stepping down as mayor. The dialogue here is awfully stale and only serves to move along the main points that Gage has been told to convey. I found it particularly disturbing that Mary Jane, just like Miguel O'Hara, doesn't bat an eye when Peter announces his body has been controlled by Otto for the past several months. This is not the compassionate and intelligent Mary Jane Watson that so many great writers have molded into such a compelling character through the years. I miss that character.

I'm also guessing, based on what I've seen here, that Peter doing damage control is going to be a running theme for the foreseeable future. I don't know about you, but I'm already sick of it.

Overall Rating

This was a pretty unnecessary epilogue that only served to set up the third volume of Amazing Spider-Man.