With ‘Avenging Spider-Man‘ having ended in issue #22, we still had a lot of questions from the series. Who would Spider-Man (I’m sorry the Superior Spider-Man) team up with now? What was going on with his captured ex-partners he was holding onto for some reason? Well the first issue of ‘Superior Spider-Man Team-Up’ looks to be tackling both of these questions head on!
We open the issue with Superior Spider-Man attacking every super hero that he seems to run into. What a jerk! Well, with him going around attacking other heroes it wasn’t long until The Avengers showed up to put a stop to this as Spidey’s strange behavior has already been on their radar. That’s why they put him on probation.
Honestly, with how Otto has been straining his ties with The Avengers, I felt that this issue might be the breaking point and yet, somehow, he’s able to completely redeem himself by the issue’s end.
Basically what it boils down to is that one of Spider-Man’s foes is taking down heroes and controlling them. I won’t spoil the particular foe because he, and those he works with, are leading up to a bigger story line (though you want see who that is until near the end of the issue). I’m sure long time readers can make a guess if they’ve been following certain events from Avenging.
What I will tell you is that Otto has found a way to stop him and uses The Avengers help to do so. That means he pretty much needs to pull off the save as Hyperion was just taken under control and having someone with the power of a God whose pure evil is generally a bad thing.
All in all, Spider-Man saves the day and because not only did he find the problem but also found how to solve it. Captain America both apologizes for his actions and tells Spidey he’s off probation. In typical Otto egotistical fashion, he thought the probation was a joke in the first place and swings off in a huff.
Where he swings though is back to his under ground lair where he has the Sinister Six trapped and his inner dialogue makes him feel that he should have a team, but it should be a team of his own choosing.
It’s frustrating because it feels almost exactly how Avenging Spider-Man changed. Right now I don’t exactly see the point of the title change if we’re for all intents and purposes getting the same book. If things drastically change and this book is all about Spidey’s Sinister Six as a team it could make sense though I have a feeling that’s not what we’re going to be seeing.
The first issue of ‘Superior Spider-Man Team-Up’ was a good read. In fact even with some spotty art in areas it was a fun read. There was some great Spider-Otto-Man lines, a small bit of character development and some great fight scenes.
I just hope they make a clear cut reason on why the title had to be renamed and my only guess so far is that it’ll be to form his own group. We’ll see though.
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #1
Writer: Christopher Yost
Artist: David Lopez Lopez
