Hero or Menace?

Having taken over the body of Peter Parker, Otto Octavius visits the grave of his physical body to say a final goodbye to his former life.[1] As he leaves flowers at his own grave, Otto gets an alert about shots fired at Empire Statue University and quickly goes into action as Spider-Man.

As it turns out, Boomerang has formed a new Sinister Six which includes the Beetle, Overdrive, Speed Demon, the Socker, and the Living Brain. They are raiding the Marla Jameson Science Building in order to steal a barometric oscillator. As the main team obtains the device, Overdrive arrives in the Big Wheel to recover the device. When Spider-Man arrives on the scene he is insulted when he hears Boomerang refer to his team as the Sinister Six. At first, Otto is doing well against these crooks until Speed Demon joins the fight. His speed is faster than Spider-Man’s own agility and can hit before his spider-sense can warn him. Not liking these odds, Otto decides that this isn’t worth it and surprises everyone by abruptly fleeing the scene.

Boomerang tosses an explosive boomerang at the fleeing wall-crawler but it misses. However, as it turns around and heads towards an officer on the scene, Spider-Man suddenly has a change of heart and doubles back to save the officer. The resulting blast stunds the wall-crawler enough for Boomerang to get up close and put a razorrang around Spider-Man’s neck. However, he is unprepared when Spider-Man pops the new talons he built into his gloves and uses them to slice open Boomerang’s chest. Boomerang can hardly believe Spider-Man would attack him like this and orders his Sinister Six to retreat. Although the villains escape with what they took, they leave the deactivated Living Brain behind.

In the aftermath of the battle, Spider-Man has the police ship the Living Brain to Horizon Labs where Otto works in his guise as Peter Parker. When the vintage robot arrives, Grady Scraps is excited to see such a legendary robot and asks if Peter needs any help. Otto, annoyed by Grady’s fawning tells him he does not and returns to his lab with the robot. Max Modell visits “Peter” in his lab to talk to him about his concerns over Peter developing weapons for Spider-Man.[2] He is also concerned about the supplies and equipment Peter has been requesting as they could be used to create explosives and biological weapons. Otto plays on Modell’s trust in Peter as well as the preliminary work on his next batch of inventions to satisfy Max. Seeing “Peter’s” next big ideas impress him and he decides to leave Peter to his work.

Otto then begins thinking about how all of his inventions moving forward will be credited to Peter Parker instead of Otto Octavius and begins to get upset. However, he reminds himself that it will be worth it because now he is Peter Parker. That’s when he gets a call from Mary Jane who asks Peter if they are still on for their dinner date. He confirms that the plans are still on and Otto gets a sinister grin when he thinks about what he has in store for the Watson woman.[3]

Later that evening, as Mary Jane talks about everything that has been going on with her recently, Otto doesn’t listen because he is too busy gloating over all the advantages he now has now that he controls the body of his greatest enemy. Chief among these perks are his perverse interests in Mary Jane. She gets his attention back when she asks why he is wearing his ear piece while they are having dinner. He tells her that he is listening in on the Sinister Six, explaining that he recently injected Boomerang with his newest invention, nano-spider-tracers. They are currently potting their next scheme, to steal an atmospheric condenser. Mary Jane is troubled that Peter isn’t going after them right away, but he insists that he needs a tactical advantage against them. She is also concerned when Peter pours himself a glass of champagne.[4] He assures her that everything is fine and asks Mary Jane to continue telling him about her day as he listens to the Sinister Six plan to attack Horizon Labs to get the condenser they need.

The following morning, the new Sinister Six attack Horizon Labs and thanks to Speed Demon, they quickly get the device they seek. However, on their way out they find Spider-Man waiting for them. This time, Otto has had time to prepare against his enemies. When Speed Demon tries to rush him, he ends up slipping around out of control because Otto had previously treated the concrete with a frictionless material. The rest of the team are easily defeated because, as Peter Parker, Octavius also planted power dampening devices that disables the equipment that give the Sinister Six their powers. Soon the only person left standing is Boomerang who is shocked when Norah Winters of the Daily Bugle arrives to document the battle. Apparently, Spider-Man tipped off the media so they could document Bommerang’s sound defeat.

Lunging on Boomerang, Otto begins pummeling him, ranting and raving about how he wants the world to see him defeat this inferior version of the Sinister Six. Before Otto can land a killing blow, something stays his hand. That something is the consciousness of Peter Parker, who still secretly lives on inside even though Otto is in control of his body. Otto wonders what stayed his hand as he is unaware that he is bein influenced by Peter Parker. Peter is pleased to know that Otto can’t see or hear him and vows to do whatever it takes to get his body back.[5]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Sinister Six (Boomerang, Beetle, Overdrive, Speed Demon, Shocker, Living Brain), Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Max Modell, Grady Scraps, Bella Fishbach, Uatu Jackson, Norah Watson

Continuity Notes

1. Since Amazing Spider-Man #600, Otto Octavius has suffered from a degenerative illness that was killing him slowly. To escape death, he appeared to swap bodies with Peter Parker. See Amazing Spider-Man #698-700.

2. Max started having his concerns about Peter building weapons for Spider-Man back in Amazing Spider-Man #696 when he accessed Peter’s “black box” storage unit and saw all the weapons he created.

3. “Peter” and Mary Jane made plans to go out for dinner in Avenging Spider-Man #15.1.

4. Mary Jane’s concerns are valid since Peter seldom drinks and is a total light weight. The best example is Amazing Spider-Man #600 when Peter thought he got drunk at Aunt May’s wedding and slept with his then-roommate Michele Gonzales. Turns out he was drinking anything alcoholic, that’s how bad Peter is at drinking.

5. Which he does eventually (which shouldn’t surprise anybody) in Superior Spider-Man #31.