Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Out of Reach

(Marvel, 2004)
™ and © Marvel Entertainment Group

The ink has barely cooled on the first few issues of Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure, and out comes Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Out of Reach, hot on its tentacles. Unlike the first issue of the former series, which took a different look at Peter Parker’s freelance photography, Out of Reach #1 is a routine adventure in which the ornery Doc Ock robs a bank, forcing Parker to miss Mary Jane’s birthday lunch. The requisite fight scene is stylishly drawn (I’m beginning to warm to the bad doctor’s new look), and there is one semi-intriguing development — a young scientist who has developed a virtually indestructible bank vault — but the storyline is prohibitively pedestrian for readers looking for a new spin of the Spider’s web.

If Mitchell had expanded the events of the first couple of pages, which focused on a young Otto Octavius, the issue would probably have had more depth. Since Otto Octavius was a nerdy science geek who was picked on a lot in school, it would have been nice for the story to draw parallels between his childhood and that of a certain web-slinger.

—Brett Weiss

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