If you were hoping for some kind of story referencing Doc Ock’s fate regarding the whole Superior Spider-Man storyline like I was, you won’t find that in The Arms of the Octopus. Instead it’s a weak irrelevant crossover between Superior Spider-Man, Indestructible Hulk and All-New X-Men wherein a time-displaced young Doc Ock appears in the present temporarily. But writer Mike Costa won’t even commit to too much Doc Ock in the main story, shunting him off to the side so we can focus on the far less interesting Dr (Hey) Jude!
The story is no great shakes: the various brainy characters collaborate to fix this latest time-travel nonsense that Marvel can’t seem to get away from in between pointless fights against even duller characters. Costa does write a decent Superior Spider-Man though as we see Otto pushing the young X-Men’s abilities like a good teacher encouraging gifted students to achieve their potential. And how do you calm down Hulk and get him to turn back to Bruce Banner? Puppy bomb! That was an ingenious and adorable detail. There are too few good moments like these though amidst the overall slurry of tedium.
Also included is Wolverine: In the Flesh #1 (probably to pad out the slim volume – it has nothing to do with the main storyline) where Logan teams up with celebrity chef Chris Cosentino to find a serial killer. This one was absolute garbage. Logan and Chris make fun of vegetarians (I’m guessing Cosentino is a big meat fan?) while the killer drones on to his victims about how girls never spoke to him in high school and he didn’t have any friends. If you’re gonna be that stupid and generic with the motive, why bother? Just have the killer be silent or murmur gibberish instead – that’s creepier and less eye-rollingly awful.
This comic may have a lot of (robotic) arms but the rubbish story ain’t got no legs!
The Arms of the Octopus
No comments:
Post a Comment