Dying Wish

Lore & Background

In The Amazing Spider-Man #600 (July 2009), Doctor Octopus is revealed to be dying from the injuries he has sustained from a career of fighting superheroes, particularly Spider-Man. This sets in motion a series of plans first aimed at saving his life (in the 2010 storyline "Origin of the Species") and later at wiping out over seven billion people so that he will be remembered for his infamy (in the 2012 storyline "Ends of the Earth"). Octopus is foiled in his attempts and following "Ends of the Earth", he is incarcerated in the Raft and left awaiting death in a life-support machine.

Starting in The Amazing Spider-Man #698 (November 2012), Octopus remains incarcerated in the Raft. Roused from an inactive state, he struggles to utter the words "Peter Parker". Responding to Ock's calls for Spider-Man's alter ego, Spider-Man goes to the ailing villain's bedside. "Spider-Man" reveals that at an unspecified point, the pair swapped consciousnesses: Octavius has transferred himself into Parker's body and vice versa using a special remote controlled Octobot. Octopus intends to live Parker's life and let the hero die in his own deteriorating body.

Reader's Guide

The storyline concluded the over fifty-year run of The Amazing Spider-Man and saw the death of Peter Parker, and his replacement as Spider-Man by Doctor Octopus in his own 2013 monthly ongoing series The Superior Spider-Man. Other character progressions included Mary Jane Watson becoming romantically involved with Octopus believing him to be Peter Parker, the reconciliation of J. Jonah Jameson and his long-estranged father, J. Jonah Jameson Sr., and the introduction of a "soul molecule" concept to the villain Hydro Man, a singular molecule that contains his consciousness.

Additionally, a tie-in issue, The Amazing Spider-Man #699.1, saw that Parker's escape from the Raft enabled the escape of Michael Morbius. This led directly into the launch of the second volume of the self-titled monthly series Morbius: The Living Vampire in January 2013. Octavius remains active as Spider-Man for most of the run of the new The Superior Spider-Man comic, until he sacrifices himself to restore Peter's consciousness in order to defeat Norman Osborn's latest scheme.

However, a month or so prior to his death, Octavius had created a digital back-up of his consciousness, with this Octavius—lacking any memory of the events that led to the original's decision to sacrifice himself for Peter—returning to villainy in a new body based on Peter's. During the 2014 "Spider-Verse" storyline, it was revealed that Octavius's scheme to download himself into Spider-Man failed in Earth-94, a world where Spider-Man was still Ben Reilly.

In the Spider-Man: Life Story continuity, Octavius took over Miles Morales' body instead of Peter's (who was in his 70s by the time Miles became Spider-Man). During a mission where they head into space to activate a "Doomsday Pulse" to wipe out all of Doctor Doom's technology on the planet, Peter deduces that Octavius is in Miles' body from his interactions with a Venom-possessed Kraven and his scientific knowledge.

Did You Know?

• The controversial ending of The Amazing Spider-Man #700 was leaked on December 14, 2012, twelve days before the issue's December 26 release date and four days before retailers were to receive the issue.
• Issue #700 was listed as the 4th best selling comic of 2012.
• When writing #698, Slott struggled with writing the dialogue for Doctor Octopus in Peter Parker's body, wanting to convey a subtle difference "weird enough that you kind of go, 'Man, they're not getting Peter's voice right this issue'" without giving away the reveal.
• In the epilogue, Otto destroys his own automated defense systems and a pre-recorded message of himself as Doctor Octopus taunting the intruder, abandoning his identity as Doc Ock.