4. New Relationships
Peter Parker was a creature of habit. Over the fifty-year course of 'Amazing Spider-Man' he continually surrounded himself with a select group of close friends and confidantes. Naturally there were occasional changes to this group - the death of characters such as Gwen Stacy had obvious, significant impacts on the amount of time Peter was able to spend with them - but for the most part his surrounding relationships remained fairly standard. Now that Otto Octavius is in control of Peter's
and Spider-Man's life, there have been and will continue to be serious changes to these relationships as well as the introduction of new and intriguing ones. In the first eleven issues of 'Superior Spider-Man' Otto has managed to distance himself from a few of Peter's closest friends, as well as completely alienate his most famous ally; Mary Jane Watson. In her place Otto has a radically different companion. A new love interest in the form of Anna Maria Marconi - a highly intelligent chemistry and physics tutor who is helping Otto achieve the doctorate degree that Peter never completed. Though uncomfortable at first, their relationship is quickly becoming romantic and it is incredibly interesting to see Otto try to deal with Marconi's advances. The non-romantic relationships in Peter's life are also being drastically shaken up under Otto's control. Remember how much of a menace J. Jonah Jameson thought Spider-Man was? Well now, thanks to Otto's ruthless dealings with his city's criminals, the two are actually on the same team. This change in the status quo has even seen JJJ rely very heavily on Spider-Man in dealing with crime in his city. Though it's obviously helpful to have the mayor on his side, this relationship is also causing problems for the web slinger and undoubtedly lead to some intriguing issues down the line, as will all of these altered relationships!