10 Comic Book Characters Who REPLACED Heroes (And Failed)
6. Spider-Man Replaced By Otto Octavius
A near death Doctor Octopus swaps minds with Spider-Man so that Peter Parker will die instead of himself. It turns out Otto Ocatvius is actually sharing Spider-Man's body with part of Peter Parker's contentiousness. So, the villain feels driven by Peter's sense of responsibility. This makes things a bit weird. Despite having questionable moral values, Otto wants to be a better hero then the now dead one -which is why his series is called: The Superior Spider-Man.
Otto does try to do good, but he does good in the way that makes sense to a villain. He publicly murders Massacre, brutally attacks criminals past the point of what is necessary, and blackmails the mayor for using him to murder Smythe. All the while, Otto is pretending to be the real Spider-Man, which causes confusion to all those around him.
Over the course of his crime fighting, Otto falls in love with Anna Maria Marconi. Anna is eventually kidnapped and held hostage. The new Spider-Man realizes that he will not be able to save his lady love. He accepts that he is not the superior Spider-Man and allows Peter Parker to take back his body so that he can save the day in style.