Can Aunt May and Doc Ock find a way to cure Peter?
The Amazing Spider-Man #80 first gives a summary of what happened to Peter Parker. Peter Parker is in a coma after a disastrous fight with the U-Foes, during which he got hit with a deadly dose of poisonous gas and radiation. Ben Reilly has taken on the mantle of Spider-Man with the support of the Beyond Corporation, who bought the rights to the Spider-Man name and likeness as part of their Super Hero Development Program. The doctors are at a loss on how to cure Peter but Aunt May is on a mission to find a cure.
The story starts off with Aunt May meeting up with Otto Octavius, a man she used to date and one of Peter’s old enemies. He immediately starts flirting with her by calling her beautiful and giving her a flower. She is charmed but wants to get down to business. They search the area where Spider-Man fought the U-Foes in order to find enough of their DNA for a cure. They find a scrap of cloth and take it to Otto’s safe house. He gets them both wine, while they both go to his office. He tells her that he will try to be the good man she believes he is but if she is in danger he will have to act.
They find radiation on the cloth they found and if they follow the signature it will lead them to a cure. Octavius suits up in his tentacles. They find themselves following the signature to an apartment building. Octavius wants to go in there aggressively but Aunt May thinks of a lighter approach. She gets the office manager to let them look at the last resident’s apartment. He tells them he had four criminals living there. It was the U-foes, a group that put Peter in a coma but the criminals were taken by an organization called Infinite Solutions. Aunt May Finds radiation on the carpet with Otto’s scanner but they need more to save Peter so they go to the organization that took the criminals.
He tells her the organization supposedly takes super-powered individuals awaiting trial or transfer to prison. Aunt May suggests talking to the front desk as a visitor, when that doesn’t work Octavius grabs her closely and climbs up the building. They break into the building, following the radiation signature. One of the members of the U-Foes named Vapor is to the left. While the other member’s X-ray is on the right. The guards see them requiring them to split up. Doc Ock will distract the guards and get the sample of DNA from X-ray. Aunt May will get the other member. She says she wants to thank him properly when she’s done. They are very cute together.
Otto Octavius chooses to use a direct approach by fighting the guards and X-ray, forcibly taking his DNA. Aunt May is kind to Vapor, telling her that her nephew Peter was a casualty of her fight with Spider-Man. She feels bad for Aunt May and agrees to give her the DNA willingly. Meanwhile, Doc Ock has the owner hostage in his tentacles asking him to tell him the real reason behind this sham of an organization or else. He searches through their computer for information. Aunt May sees all the passed-out guards and the person in his tentacles. She tells him he promised he would be different this time, to let him go. He drops the man, telling her he was doing what had to be done for answers.
She slams the DNA she collected in his machine at him, telling Octavius she wants no part in this. That she will find some other way to save Peter. She says that she was a fool to think he would change, leaving. The next day she gets a phone call from Peter’s doctor. An Anonymous person turned in DNA samples needed to cure Peter of his Coma. She rushes to the hospital to find Peter standing up awake. They embrace lovingly. Meanwhile, Doc Ock is following the lead he found at the organization. He finds that they own some of Parker Industries, something Octavius helped build. He also finds out Ben Riley’s suit is a copy of the work he did. He won’t stand for it.
The art by Ivan Fiorelli, Carlos Gomez, and Paco Medina is just wonderful. The facial expressions are my favorite. I loved when Otto and Aunt May were flirting with each other and you can see when the other was flustered. The emotions in each panel were very well done! I also liked how the action looked! Doc Ock’s tentacles looked really cool in a fight scene. Everything was detailed from the setting to the background characters. The coloring was really vibrant as well which was beautiful to see. Everyone did a great job!
As for the writing by Cody Ziglar, what can I say besides the truth that he writes amazing chemistry between Dr. Octavius and Aunt May? I always thought of them as a couple as just something funny. Like haha Spider-Man, I’m going to be your new uncle! Ya know? I thought of them as a joke but never took them seriously as a couple. In this, they are so cute that I seriously love them together and want them to see each other again in the future.
He writes such good chemistry with all the flirting he adds to the dialogue between the two. It made me smile a lot of the time. When they are not flirting, he writes them in a very true kind of way. They are all true to their characters with Otto being a know-it-all with a temper and May being spunky yet kind. Overall this was such an enjoyable read!
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