MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

If you’re a fan of comic books and you use the internet, which I think is likely given that you’re reading a comic book blog right now, you’ve probably already seen that the ending of Amazing Spider-Man #700 was leaked today and anyone who has seen the spoiler now knows who becomes the Superior Spider-Man, a plot point which has been shrouded in secrecy for months now.

Again, SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you’re curious, if you don’t care about spoilers, or if, like me, you are so fed up with Dan Slott and his shitty shitty oh so shitty Amazing Spider-Man stories and don’t care anymore, here is the link.

Of course, since this is a spoiler preceding even the release of advance copies, either it’s fake or some sneaky intern at Marvel (or Dan Slott, for all we know, given his track record of fucking with readers) took pictures of the actual book and posted it on 4chan. Now, I am pretty confident this is real, since I saw on Dan Slott’s Facebook page today that he wrote a post saying that ASM 700 had leaked and everyone should be careful if they don’t want it ruined for them. Plus, the leak isn’t just a plot description; there are actual pictures there, and the images are clearly Humberto Ramos’s penciling.

So let’s discuss this under the assumption that it’s real, shall we? Of course, any exercise like this must remain in the realm of speculation, even with all the evidence presented above. And granted, we have only a little bit of context for this. But let’s just look at what we have.

I don’t need to tell you again that there are spoilers below, do I?

So here’s the basic summary: Doc Ock, in Peter’s body, gets into a fight with Peter trapped in Ock’s body. Doc Ock prepared for a brain transfer and is wearing special armor to protect himself. So Peter realizes he won’t be able to switch bodies. So he transfers his memories to Doc Ock, and we learn that all this time Doc Ock just wanted to be the hero. Peter asks Doc Ock to do what is right and Doc Ock agrees. Peter passes on the mantle of Spider-Man to Doc Ock, and Doc Ock declares himself “The Superior Spider-Man.”

Are we really expected to believe that Doc Ock can be a hero now? He just fucking murdered Spider-Man, stole his every thought, and is now going to, presumably, fuck his wife. How in the hell are we as readers supposed to buy Doctor Octopus being a hero, and how is anyone in the Marvel Universe going to buy it either? Unless of course no one ever knows that Superior is actually a Doc Ock body-snatch, which would make everyone in the Avengers etc very oblivious, and that would also make Doctor Octopus a rapist if he ever did do anything with Mary Jane. Where is the heroism here again? How are we supposed to support a character that just murdered the actual hero, and stole his body and his every waking thought? This is, truly, a complete and utter annihilation and defeat of the hero. There is no victory, glory, or even respect given to Peter Parker in his final moments here. He is utterly obliterated, and his life is stolen from him. Recently I discussed the limited series Daredevil: End of Days, and how beautifully told and textually rich Brian Michael Bendis crafted this “death of Daredevil” story. That is how you tell a death of a hero story. This? This is insulting. This is sickening. Yes, we may not have the full scope and context of the story yet, only pieces, but even just going off what we have, if we’re to believe that all of this will make sense and we’ll all be able to support Superior, Slott must have one hell of a context to place this in for us to support a new “hero” who only become a “hero” after he straight-up murders Spider-Man and steals his life.

I hope that nobody falls for this or feels obligated to buy Superior Spider-Man. I’ll be buying ASM 700 so I can give it a fair shake and a full review. But if everything I surmised here from the spoiler remains the same, you can bet your ass I will not be following Superior. I will not read a comic about a “hero” like this. If this is what Dan Slott thinks people will enjoy and believe in, he clearly does not understand comic books or heroes. Dan Slott is definitely NOT a true believer.