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Spider-Man has barely managed to survive the events of Sinister War so far, but a couple of classic enemies have just given him the help he needs.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Sinister War #3, available now from Marvel.
Peter Parker is in the middle of one of the toughest fights of his life in the Sinister War event. Kindred had already put him through the wringer before unleashing the better part of SPider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. So far, all that Spider-Man has really managed to do is survive, albeit just barely, largely due to the infighting of the various villainous teams vying to make the killing blow for themselves.
But in Sinister War #3, it looks like things are turning around just enough to put some distance between Peter and his pursuers, all thanks to some inside assistance from Doctor Octopus and Boomerang.
Spider-Man has been able to stay just a couple of steps ahead of the five teams of supervillains all out for his blood. The Sinister Six have closed in, leaving the hero nowhere to run and far too outnumbered to fight things out on his own. One more desperate attempt to escape only lands the hero in the clutches of Doctor Octopus. When the rest of the Sinister Six catches up with them, Doctor Octopus hesitates while proclaiming that he will be the one to take the hero’s life. Of course, when the Savage Six show up to claim Peter for themselves, he is once again given an opportunity to run for his life, and from the looks of things, that is exactly what Otto was hoping for.
Doctor Octopus’ own complicated history with Spider-Man no doubt plays a large part in Otto’s decision to give the hero a fighting chance. For almost 60years, Otto Octavius has tormented Spider-Man — though he has also gotten an intimate look inside Peter’s life along the way. After swapping bodies with Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus came face-to-face with all of the moments in Peter’s life that made him who he was, causing Otto to make his own heroic turn. The years since then have seen Doc Ock’s own death and resurrection, something which cost him most of the memories from his stints as a do-gooder, but not all of them. Otto’s hesitance may not be overtly heroic, but he isn’t the only villain to lend Spidey a hand in Sinister War #3 by Nick Spencer, Ed Brisson, Mark Bagley, Carlos Gomez, Ze Carlos, Andrew Hennessy, Andy Owens, John Dell, Brian Reber, Andrew Crossley and VC’s Joe Caramagna.
No sooner has Spidey slipped away from the Sinister and Savage Six than he has been found by more of his would-be killers. Tarantula and Speed Demon, like so many others in this fight, turn on one another rather than letting someone else claim the bloody prize, and it’s the distraction Boomerang needs to give his old friend one more chance to get away.
Boomerang has long been playing both sides of Spider-Man’s life both as a villain and as his alter ego, Fred Myers. To manipulate Spider-Man into helping acquire the Lifeline Tablet, Fred wormed his way into Peter Parker’s life as his new roommate, building a friendship before betraying Spider-Man every way around. Now Boomerang has been given another opportunity to do something good by letting the Spider slip away. While his fellow supervillains are preoccupied, Boomerang tells Spider-Man to run and sets off one of his own Bomberangs to draw further attention away from the wall-crawler. These two aren’t anything close to friends anymore, but that doesn’t mean Boomerang can’t try to make up for his part in recent events.
Even though the odds are still overwhelmingly against him, these brief moments of relief have been no small surprise for Peter Parker. Otto Octavius didn’t exactly let Spider-Man slip away unscathed, but letting him do so at all is a testament to how deeply Doc Ock has been impacted by their relationship, despite his inability to recall any of it. Much the same can be said about Boomerang, although his decision to yet again change course is less shocking than Otto’s. Boomerang and Doc Ock almost certainly won’t be making any long-term changes in their supervillain lifestyles right now, but they’ve just proven that their better selves still exist.
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