Let’s get right to it.
Brutal. Like a supercharged version of ASM 3’s first meeting between the two. However…
With the upper hand, our man starts some quality rambling while webbing up Ock’s arms, but just like in ASM 3, he rips right through the web to Spider-Man’s shock. I think it’s fun when Bendis hews close to the original material without outright adapting it. Ock gets the upper hand again, as we learn the ends of his tentacles can morph into different shapes and devices. He wraps Spider-Man up, guessing he’s one of Hammer’s homegrown superpeople. When Spidey continues to put up a fight even with most of his limbs pinned, Ock turns one of his tentacles into an electrode and zaps the crap out of him. Then he throws him out a window, just like in ASM 3, only this time, our man’s thrown onto the dock outside the dome instead of some convenient bushes, and he’s unconscious. As he comes to, he hears cops arguing about what to do with him.
Due to its formative influence on me, any scene even remotely like this always makes me think of the cops getting ahold of an unconscious Spider-Man in ASM 148.
The garbled thought balloon is pretty funny. Spidey escapes, losing most of his shirt in the process, which a dive team discovers going in after him.We find him in a ruined warehouse, hyperventilating. Soon, a badly beaten Peter is watching Justin Hammer on TV playing damage control, and diverting the media to Spider-Man’s involvement anytime someone tries to bring up Otto Octavius. MJ is in his lair with him, helping to patch him up, telling him to forget about Hammer, but he’s furious he’s being used yet again in his short career.
Cute. MJ is being surprisingly cool about this. For now. She reminds Peter that she was this close to being Spider-Man as she leaves. Peter turns the TV back on in time to hear some local anchors hoping Kraven beats him up, and he’s outraged all over again.
A classic Peter Parker dilemma! How will this new Peter Parker handle it?