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No. 217813
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>>217807 Your summary of the issue leaves out quite a great deal.
Prior to this run, Octavius had long been characterized as someone that spent 99% of his time doing despicable things, but was capable of love, tenderness, sympathy, respect and other positive aspects. There's a few gems out there where Peter had trouble reconciling the fact that Otto Octavius had a shred of goodness in him, and that's one of the seeds that Superior Spider-Man sprouted from. Otto is capable of being a deeply flawed good man, and that's something the book has been exploring, alongside the difficulty Peter had in accepting that.
But at the same time, the girl that Doc Ock saved? Yeah, who was it that put her life in danger in the first place? Doc Ock, during his evil scheme. And then he put a good man to death. Twice.
And Slott hasn't deviated from portraying Peter as a good man. Good, not saintly, and he's hardly the first to portray Peter in that way. How many times have we seen Peter, frustrated and angry with the state of his life, make a bad call? When he interfered with Doc to try and stop the operation he said it was because Octavius is arrogant and full of himself. In Peter's mind, with all defenses stripped away, Peter was forced to admit that for just a moment he allowed himself to use that as an excuse for not trusting Ock, out of fear for his own life. To anyone that finds that to be portraying Peter as a terrible person (and Ock as a superior one, even though Ock was basically in the midst of gloating over murdering Peter) I recommend a steady diet of nothing but Silver Age DC comics. You won't find any heroes with flaws or moments of weakness in there. But in Spider-Man? Anyone remember the time "Dr. Turner" (aka "The Chameleon, armed with tech from the Tinkerer") went up to Peter and basically said "With great power comes great responsibility, huh? Man your great responsibilities seem to be making you miserable. How about I remove that great power for you? Make you a normal man, able to lead a normal life? With NO power comes NO responsibility, riiiight?" This isn't the first time (and won't be the last) when Peter found himself tested and was found less-than-perfect. The main thrust of the title is establishing that Dr. Octopus has good in him. Yes, as a corollary, we were bound to see an acknowledgement that Peter is flawed too. But if you think the run won't end with Otto humbled and a triumphant return of Peter, I've got a limited edition comic I'd like to sell you. Superman dies in it, and surely won't come back.
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