Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One is a Doc Ock origin story and his and Spidey’s first encounter. And it’s not bad for all that - Zeb Wells did alright given the tone of story he was going for and the characters he’s working with.
I’ll explain: “Year One” is usually something you see on DC books - Batman, Robin, Green Arrow (the less said about Superman: Year One the better…). This one originally came out in 2005 (probably to capitalise on the popularity of Spider-Man 2 which had Doc Ock as the villain) and maybe the DC identification with the Year One label wasn’t as firmly as entrenched as it is today so Marvel decided to slap it on.
But I think why “Year One”-style stories work well with the likes of Batman and Green Arrow is because those characters are essentially just human. It means a grounded story and a serious tone is more easily achieved when your protagonists are like you and me because it’s instantly more relatable.
Now take Spidey and Doc Ock - they’re something else. Spidey isn’t like Batman or Green Arrow because he has superpowers. Doc Ock isn’t like Joker because he’s got sci-fi machinery fused to his spine. That makes it more challenging for Zeb Wells to achieve the same serious and grounded story that you expect to see in a Year One-style book - and he sort of does and sort of doesn’t.
Otto’s origin isn’t especially imaginative - he’s bullied at school by mean boys and at home by an overbearing father, while his mother is also very controlling - so it’s no surprise that he grows up to become a warped person who has trouble fitting in or relating to others. He gets fused with the robot arms in the usual cartoonishly mad scientist style (there’s no other way to do it), but I did like the addition of Otto being fascinated by Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, which is a clever touch. There’s also the panel where Otto is drawn with people standing behind him, foreshadowing the multiple arms he’s soon to have - a cute nod.
I like that Otto isn’t one-dimensionally evil - Wells hints that he might’ve stood a chance at a loving relationship with Mary Anders, or a valuable friendship with Peter, but that his broken psyche and outsized ego stood in the way, making him a tragic figure. Besides the origin aspect, there isn’t a strong narrative here except something about Otto’s fascination with nuclear power and how it transfers over to Spidey conveniently, so it’s not the most memorable story.
I’m not a huge fan of Kaare Andrews’ work. Some of the figures are drawn like kaare-catures (couldn’t help it) which could be viewed as fitting as quite a few of the “characters” are very broad (the bullies, the love interest, etc.). He draws a decent Spidey though who’s made more striking by Jose Villarrubia’s great choice of red. It is odd though that in some scenes Otto is able to hide his robot arms perfectly within his coat and then in other scenes his arms are sooooo long he can clamber across the New York skyline on them, and then up close they’re thicker than thighs. It sticks out as a funny detail but I get it, it’s just one of those superhero comics contrivances.
It’s not up there with the likes of Green Arrow: Year One or Batman: The Man Who Laughs (about Batman and Joker’s first encounter), but Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One wasn’t a bad read and is about as good a serious origin story as you’re likely to get for this wacky character.
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