10 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined Spider-Man For Everyone‏

7. Brain Swap With Doc Ock

Dan Slott has not earned himself many friends during his time writing the main Spider-Man title but, then, changing things about a character in the way he has rarely does. Did you not see how vitriolic we got about the guys behind the Clone Saga back there? The most controversial part of Slott's tenure was the Superior Spider-Man arc, where long-time Spidey villain Doctor Octopus found himself dying of a degenerative disease. As one last hurrah, and a last ditch attempt at survival, Ock managed to swap his brain with that of the blasted wall crawler. It was only when he discovered the reasons Peter Parker did what he did that he realised Spidey was actually a hero, and committed himself to not only carry on his good work, but do it better. There were plenty more shocks (and sleaziness) to come after that in the pages of Superior Spider-Man. Spock, as fans dubbed him, initially revelled in his relationship with fiery redhead Mary Jane, although thankfully that got dropped before it got too creepy and non-consent-y. Instead, the new Peter Parker entered into a relationship with "little person" Anna Maria, went from being a maverick scientist to starting his own company, and - as Spider-Man - took on a new, violent streak, and built himself an island base full of henchmen. Whether or not you think the Superior arc was any good or not is beside the point, and we knew that the brain-switch wasn't going to be permanent - we'd learned from Ben Reilly - but all of this has sort of messed things up for Spidey. Nobody trusts him, his relationship with Mary Jane is even more dead in the water than after...well, we'll get to that. J Jonah Jameson is back at the Daily Bugle where he belongs, and the Green Goblin has gone back underground for a while, but there's still the whole Anna Maria situation, and the new responsibility of running a company on Petey's plate. Whether Slott manages to balance all these new challenges - or just resets it all - is yet to be seen. This is a potential ruining of the character in progress; we're optimistic, but we might be the only ones.