Spider-Man: The Dan Slott Years
by Phil Perich for the Capes and Lunatics Podcast
Rumors have been circulating that long time Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott will soon be ending his almost ten year run on Amazing Spider-Man. While Slott has been denying the rumor for awhile, the March 2018 solicit for Amazing Spider-Man #797 states that “Dan Slott has saved his most harrowing Spider-Man story for last…” and even the title of the story arc seems to play at the writer’s departure, named “Go Down Swinging”. Slott’s tenure as Spider-Man writer has had it’s share of controversy with mixed reactions to different story arcs and events.
Brand New Day
One of Spider-Man’s most controversial era’s began in Amazing Spider-Man #546, the beginning of “Brand New Day”. This was the first Spider-Man story following the polarizing “One More Day” arc where Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson basically “sell” their marriage to the Marvel Universe’s version of the devil, Mephisto in order to save the life of Peter’s Aunt May. Brand New Day begins with Peter Parker once more living back home with Aunt May and struggling to make ends meet. After twenty years of published stories with a married Spider-Man, Dan Slott along with writers Marc Guggenheim, Bob Gale and Zeb Wells once again told the tales of a single Peter Parker who as Spider-Man faced old familiar foes and new villains such as Overdrive, Mister Negative, Freak and more. The Brand New Day arc lasted 102 issues (#546-#647).
Superior Spider-Man
The Superior Spider-Man era is definitely in contention for one of Slott’s most controversial moments writing Spider-Man. In Amazing Spider-Man #698, it was revealed that one of Spider-Man’s deadliest enemies, Doctor Octopus manages to swap bodies with the hero. Otto Octavius found himself in the younger, super powered body of his enemy while Peter Parker was trapped in the dying body of the super villain. In Amazing Spider-Man #700 the impossible seems to happen: Peter Parker dies in the body of Doctor Octopus while Otto Octavius, pushed by the memories of Peter Parker, promises to become a better hero than Peter Parker ever was, a “Superior Spider-Man”. The series than restarted with Superior Spider-Man #1 and while Otto strove to be the best hero, he ultimately proved to be a brutal, violent anti-hero inflicting over the top violence on most of his enemies, many of whom were even former allies. The worst came when Otto confronted the serial killer Massacre who Peter Parker had let live before. Otto kills Massacre to prevent further killings. Otto also faced an internal battle as Peter Parker’s psyche returned with the hero set on regaining his body. Otto was successfully able to fight off his nemesis until Otto’s girlfriend, Anna Maria Marconi, was kidnapped by the Green Goblin. Realizing he wasn't the hero he thought he was, Otto willingly “deleted” himself so Parker could take back control of his body and save Marconi after he realized Parker was the “superior” Spider-Man!
Parker Industries
Some of the “improvements” Otto made to Peter Parker’s life was going back to college to get the doctorate that Parker never did and eventually to start his own tech company, Parker Industries. Even after Peter Parker returns to his own body, he continues to act as the head of the company that put him on the level of a Steve Jobs or Tony Stark. Eventually Tony Stark’s fortune waned to such a small level that Peter Parker and Parker Industries were the main source of funding for the Avengers. Parker even bought the Baxter Building to use as Parker Industries New York headquarters until a time that the Fantastic Four would return. But Parker lost the Baxter Building and his entire company when Otto Octavius returned in a new clone body and attempted to use the company he built in service of Hydra. Parker as Spider-Man shut down every resource of the company, saving the day but destroying the house that Octavius built and his own fortune.
Spider-Verse
When a family of hunters, including Spider-Man’s enemy Morlun begin hunting all Spider-Men across the multiverse, the surviving Spider-Men and women have to band together to stop the hunters. Peter is even forced to work with the Superior Spider-Man, from a point in time when Octavius still had control of his body. While the hunters are eventually defeated, we see how Otto survives “deleting” himself at the end of the Superior Spider-Man series: Predicting his own fate, Otto uploads a copy of his mind into a device in his web shooter which eventually interfaces with his Living Brain robot. And the most controversial Dan Slott moment of Spider-Verse? When the hunters track down and kill “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends”! Literally killing our childhood there, Slott!
Clone Conspiracy
One of the themes that seems to always pop up in the Spider-Man story at least once a decade or so is cloning. Whether it’s a Spider-Man clone, Gwen Stacey clone, the villainous Jackal cloning himself, Spider-Man has become synonymous with cloning. Dan Slott upped the ante when a new version of the Jackal returned offering people with life threatening injuries and diseases hope through a new medical technique. While the public at large thought the Jackal was saving poeple, he was actually cloning them. The madness continued when the Jackal started cloning any and all enemies of Spider-Man who had died over the years and even some of the hero’s friends and allies. But the ultimate shock came when the Jackal unmasked to reveal himself to be Ben Reilly, Peter Parker’s clone who had seemingly died years ago and who Peter had considered to be like a brother. In the aftermath, Otto Octavius put his mind into the aforementioned clone body and Ben Reilly escaped and after a period of mental instability is attempting to seek redemption and put his life back together as the Scarlet Spider once again.
While I haven't agreed with every direction Slott has taken the book, I think overall the “Slott Years” can be considered a success. I’m very curious to see what everyone thinks. What are YOUR thoughts on Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man run? What other moments stood out to you? Let’s chat, I LOVE feedback!
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