DAN SLOTT RUINED MY CHILDHOOD! I would have said this about Superior if I reviewed it back in 2013-2014.

Since then I actually started getting more into Spider-man comics not just the adjacent media. Reading the 2021-22 runs made me crave more complex portrayls of Spider-man. Superior is that book.

Dan Slott has a very complicated legacy, I think he truly understands characters but also loves to subvert expectations (it doesn't always turn out well), so you never know what kind of a book you will get with him. He wouldn't have written Spider-man for over 10 years if he didn't get Spider-man on some level.

The first half of this book has some edgelord moments and Peter-bashing (moaning ghost of Parker becomes very repetitive and distracting) but that goes away rather quickly. Otto is a bit of annoying know-it-all asshole in the beginning but later Slott takes him to places where Peter wouldn't be allowed to go (becoming a legitimate scientist seems like a no brainer for Parker yet this aspect of his is overlooked in most cases).

Issue #9 is the turning point for me when this book stops being just fun evil Spider-man fluke and becomes something more meaningful. This issue is one of the most emotional issues of Spider-man I've read lately, Slott really makes you feel the stakes. After taking Peter out of the story Slott elevates it with No Espcape arc where the murder of Smythe doesn't feel like shock value moment like the killing of Massacre before.

Stegman, Ramos and Camuncoli are all pretty great on the art (Camuncoli in particular being my favourite). Some people really don't like stylized art of Ramos but I think it works very well Spider-man mythos.

This is a mature book and not in a sense that it's violent and shocking, but in a way that it requires you to look at things from a new perspective. A lot of people lost their shit over this run back in the day and overlooked a really great book.