Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure #1
Negative Exposure Part One
Seeing yet another frontpage photo by Peter Parker in the Daily Bugle, rival photographer Jeffrey Haight wonders how Parker manages to pull off the great shots of Spider-Man in battle time after time.[1] He is envious of Parker because no matter how good he is, Jeffrey Haight never had a photo on page one. That’s when Peter Parker enters the office and finds Jeffrey looking over some of his most recent photos. However, Peter doesn’t even recognize his own work, dismissing them by saying that once you’ve seen one Spider-Man photo you’ve seen them all, a popular mantra from publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Haight tells Peter not to buy into that, saying his photos — other than a few compositional issues — have a certain ineffable quality. He finds it remarkable how Peter manages to photograph the same characters in new ways week after week. Modestly, Peter tells Jeffrey that he pretty much just points and shoots. Jeff can’t believe it when Peter says he doesn’t think about composition much because he’s only taking photos for the Bugle to pay the bills and that his real interest in chemistry. Haight can’t believe this keen photographer’s eye has been given to such a dork. Peter then tells Jeffrey that he has to go because he has to catch a bus back to Queens.
After Parker is gone, Jeffrey thinks about how the youth has mad “old dinosaurs” like himself nearly obsolete at the Daily Bugle. However, unlike the others who huddle around a police scanner, Jeff has tried to make more out of his life. His most recent exhibit titled “Thuglife/Stilllife “ got a great review, it was a series of photographs of property owned by criminals that was confiscated upon their arrest. That project also allowed him to meet Anna Kefkin, who works at the evidence locker at One Police Plaza and she has been good about giving him tips. Speaking of Kefkin, it’s at that moment that Jeff gets a call from her who tells him that Major Crimes is investigating something that the Da Vinci exhibit down at the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts which is under attack by none other than Doctor Octopus. Recalling the nuclear accident that fused the mechanical arms the body of Ott Octavius, Jeff thanks her for such a huge lead and rushes to the scene.[2]
At the Met, Doctor Octopus has easily overpowered the museum guards and decided that the only people worthy of seeing the brilliance of Leonard Da Vinci are geniuses such as himself. He then focuses on the Vitruvian Man, Da Vinci’s study of the perfect male form. Octavius remarks how it depicts a man with eight appendages and sees this as a sign of his own brilliance. While outside, Peter Parker arrives on the scene and sees the huge mob outside. Also arriving on the scene is Jeffrey Haight who hopes to get some great photos of the battle. He, like everyone else, gathered outside the Met, fail to see Peter Parker slip away to change into Spider-Man. The web-slinger then sneaks into the building and sets up his camera and confronts Doctor Octopus just as he is attempting to leave the scene with the Vitruvian Man. By this time, Jeffrey Haight has managed to get into the museum after bribing some of the cops with some basketball tickets. He photographs the battle as Doctor Octopus tries to lecture Spider-Man on the importance of Da Vinci’s work. When Otto snares Spider-Man in his mechanical arms and begins choking the life out of him, Haight hopes he’s not documenting Spider-Man’s death. However, the web-slinger quickly snatches away the Vitruvian Man with a line of webbing and then tosses it into the air. As expected, Doctor Octopus lets go of Spider-Man in order to protect the priceless painting from shattering on the floor. This allows, Spider-Man to knock Ock out with a single punch and catch the painting himself.
Thinking he got himself a front-page photo, Jeffrey rushes back to the Daily Bugle to get a look at his photos. However, when he arrives he is horrified to discover that Peter Parker is already there with photos of his own. He’s surprised to see this since he didn’t see any sign of Parker at the museum. Peter gives a lame story about how he stopped in to get a get-well-soon card for his Aunt May when the attack happened and he took photos from behind a sarcophagus on display. When Peter says his pictures didn’t really turn out. Haight refuses to believe that they are anything but perfect shots, as usual. Jeffrey decides to get to the bottom of this.
Later that day, at Ryker’s Island, Doctor Octopus is welcomed back by the prison librarian who asks Otto if he wants to see the newspaper story about his defeat. Otto is only interested in knowing who the photographer was. The frontpage photos are credited to Peter Parker, whom Otto dismisses because he’s dealt with the youth before, he wants to know who else was there, after seeing another photographer on the scene. Looking through the paper, the librarian finds a photo by Jeffrey Haight on page 11. Hearing this, Otto is pleased as he has deduced that Haight would harbor some hatred for Parker for overshadowing him.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, Jeffrey Haight, J. Jonah Jameson
Continuity Notes
This story takes place during the period in which Peter Parker was a photographer for the Daily Bugle, a job that he has had almost consistently since Amazing Spider-Man #2. His photos of Spider-Man are taken using a specially designed camera that can automatically take photos of the web-slinger. According to the Marvel Chronology Project, this story takes place around the time of Amazing Spider-Man #170. See below for my thoughts on the chronology.
Jeffrey recounts the origins of Doctor Octopus as they were originally told in Amazing Spider-Man #3.
Topical References
Obsolete Technology: 35mm SLR Cameras, Peter and Jeffrey developing their photos in a dark room. The Voice, E3
How This Story fits In Continuity
This limited series is a bit of an odd one. Doctor Octopus has a vastly different design in this story, appearing to have mechanical arms with little suction cups on the arms like a real octopus when he had not previously employed this sort of style in the past., suggesting that maybe this story takes place in the “present” or at least in the same era as most other Marvel books published in 2003. However, it is at odds with Spider-Man continuity at the time since, in this story, Peter Parker is working as a photographer at the Daily Bugle, something which he wasn’t doing in Amazing Spider-Man having moved on to working as a science teacher at Midtown High in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #31.
I agree with the Chronology Project’s placement of this story because, in my opinion, the way Doctor Octopus is drawn in this story was likely a stylistic choice rather than one rooted in continuity. To understand this viewpoint you have to understand what was going on at Marvel in terms of the editorial on books. At the time, Marvel was ramping up promotion of the second Spider-Man film that was being released by Sony Pictures, slated for a 2004 release. This came in an era where Marvel actively promoted movies that were based on their properties that were being produced by other studios because they were the only ones putting out Marvel movies (in those days we’re talking the Spider-Man films at Sony, Blade over at New Line Cinema and X-Men over at 20th Century Fox) Marvel was still recovering from bankruptcy protection from the 90s that they couldn’t afford not to promote these films. These weren’t the golden days when Marvel Studios was a hitmaker putting out their own movies or Marvel being bought by Disney.
That all said, this series appears to make Doctor Octopus somewhat resemble Alfred Molina, the actor who played Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. This seems plausible since the look was later used by artist Humberto Ramos who did the artwork for a Doctor Octopus story a year later in Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #7-10. In that story, Doctor Octopus is seeing upgrading his mechanical arms to have suction cups.
Most importantly, Jeffrey Haight mentions that Peter Parker is still in college, placing this story as happening during a period of time when Peter was regularly attending classes as Empire State University.
Lastly, when you look at the costumes worn by the various other villains who appear in this limited series (either in photos or the main story) they are all depicted wearing their classic costumes. As such, I think it’s easiest to accept that this story takes place when the Chronology Project places it and we can all dismiss the issues with Doc Ock’s appearance as nothing more than a stylistic choice by the artist.
