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Devil's Reign: A Marvel Event
Devil's Reign: Superior Four
The Fantastic are no more. Long live…the Superior! Otto Octavius has acquired a taste for the infinite. Now, empowered by Wilson Fisk, Doctor Octopus finds himself faced with a tantalizing, unprecedented opportunity to scour the Multiverse, and amass an army of…himself! A hand-picked army of Doc Ock variants to march on our reality, proving Otto’s supremacy once and for all — and it all begins with his Superior Four!
COLLECTING: Devil's Reign : Superior Four (2022) #1-3, Devil's Reign : Spider-Man #1
COLLECTING: Devil's Reign : Superior Four (2022) #1-3, Devil's Reign : Spider-Man #1
112 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 2022
7 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Zac Thompson
210 books64 followersZac Thompson is a writer born and raised on Prince Edward Island, Canada. He's written titles like Marvelous X-Men, Cable, and X-Men: Black for Marvel Comics. Along with indie books such as Her Infernal Descent, Relay, and The Replacer.
In 2019, Zac became the showrunner of the Age of X-Man universe at Marvel Comics. His critically acclaimed miniseries, Come Into Me, was called the best horror comic of 2018 by HorrorDNA. His debut comic series, The Dregs, was called "lowbrow brilliant" by New York Magazine. His novel, Weaponized, was the winner of the 2016 CryptTV horror fiction contest.
In 2019, Zac became the showrunner of the Age of X-Man universe at Marvel Comics. His critically acclaimed miniseries, Come Into Me, was called the best horror comic of 2018 by HorrorDNA. His debut comic series, The Dregs, was called "lowbrow brilliant" by New York Magazine. His novel, Weaponized, was the winner of the 2016 CryptTV horror fiction contest.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
September 15, 2022
Honestly, the only positive thing I can say about this volume is that all 4 tie-in issues have some utterly stunning art. It’s just too bad all of the stories that accompany that art suck a lot!
Just like with the collected editions of Devil’s Reign: Villains For Hire and Devil’s Reign: X-Men , this trade collects all 3 issues of a tie-in miniseries and an assorted one-shot from the event, with the ones in here being the Superior Four mini and a Spider-Man issue. And just like those other trades, full reviews for both stories can be found down below:
”Superior Four” by Zac Thompson, Davide Tinto, Matt Milla, and Ariana Maher ☆ 1/2
The art was absolutely wonderful, but the story itself was a bunch of pointless and grating multiverse shenanigans. I loved Superior Spider-Man, it’s my single favorite Spider-Man run ever, but this book wastes the concept of having a bunch of superior versions of Otto team up to cleanse the multiverse. There’s also just way too much unnecessary dialogue on each page. Not recommended at all.
”Spider-Man” by Anthony Piper, Zé Carlos, Erick Arciniega, and Joe Caramagna ☆ ☆
Look I get why Ben Reilly was used in this event, but Peter missing out on Devil’s Reign because of some dumbass status quo change in the mainline Spidey books is so fucking dumb I can't even. He played a decent role in Zdarsky’s Daredevil run leading up to this, and it just feels like a pretty massive missed opportunity to have Ben here instead of him. I just can't believe Peter missed out on the big Kingpin-led Marvel event. Horrendous timing to say the least. The art’s great for this one-shot even if the story itself is just forgettable nonsense with The Rose. Not recommended unless you really like Ben Reilly (and I do not).
Just like with the collected editions of Devil’s Reign: Villains For Hire and Devil’s Reign: X-Men , this trade collects all 3 issues of a tie-in miniseries and an assorted one-shot from the event, with the ones in here being the Superior Four mini and a Spider-Man issue. And just like those other trades, full reviews for both stories can be found down below:
”Superior Four” by Zac Thompson, Davide Tinto, Matt Milla, and Ariana Maher ☆ 1/2
The art was absolutely wonderful, but the story itself was a bunch of pointless and grating multiverse shenanigans. I loved Superior Spider-Man, it’s my single favorite Spider-Man run ever, but this book wastes the concept of having a bunch of superior versions of Otto team up to cleanse the multiverse. There’s also just way too much unnecessary dialogue on each page. Not recommended at all.
”Spider-Man” by Anthony Piper, Zé Carlos, Erick Arciniega, and Joe Caramagna ☆ ☆
Look I get why Ben Reilly was used in this event, but Peter missing out on Devil’s Reign because of some dumbass status quo change in the mainline Spidey books is so fucking dumb I can't even. He played a decent role in Zdarsky’s Daredevil run leading up to this, and it just feels like a pretty massive missed opportunity to have Ben here instead of him. I just can't believe Peter missed out on the big Kingpin-led Marvel event. Horrendous timing to say the least. The art’s great for this one-shot even if the story itself is just forgettable nonsense with The Rose. Not recommended unless you really like Ben Reilly (and I do not).
August 20, 2022
One of the neater plot points from Devil's Reign was the idea of the Kingpin bringing in Doc Ock as his technical advisor. That gets explored a little more here as Ock goes on a multiversal trip with three of his counterparts to try and track down the ultimate Octopus.
It goes about as well as you could expect. The issue I had here was there was a lot of bluster for not a lot of actual plot. It's essentially a cat-and-mouse game for four issues, with many, many speeches from Octopus variants that doesn't really go anywhere or even teach Otto a lesson by the end of it, so it comes across as kind of nothing at the end of the day. The design work for all the Ottos from Davide Tinto (of Commanders In Crisis fame) and the characters themselves are quite fun, but the plot doesn't really do them any favours.
Also included is the Devil's Reign: Spider-Man one-shot, because it's thematically appropriate. It's actually Ben Reilly in the suit, since this is set during the Beyond period, and the story sees him face off against The Rose. It manages to be a better story in 20 pages than Superior Four does in 60, but that's a low bar.
Not an essential tie-in, and a pretty weak one at that, and I say that as a fan of both Doc Ock, and Spider-Man. A shame, because the premise could have been something really clever.
It goes about as well as you could expect. The issue I had here was there was a lot of bluster for not a lot of actual plot. It's essentially a cat-and-mouse game for four issues, with many, many speeches from Octopus variants that doesn't really go anywhere or even teach Otto a lesson by the end of it, so it comes across as kind of nothing at the end of the day. The design work for all the Ottos from Davide Tinto (of Commanders In Crisis fame) and the characters themselves are quite fun, but the plot doesn't really do them any favours.
Also included is the Devil's Reign: Spider-Man one-shot, because it's thematically appropriate. It's actually Ben Reilly in the suit, since this is set during the Beyond period, and the story sees him face off against The Rose. It manages to be a better story in 20 pages than Superior Four does in 60, but that's a low bar.
Not an essential tie-in, and a pretty weak one at that, and I say that as a fan of both Doc Ock, and Spider-Man. A shame, because the premise could have been something really clever.
August 29, 2022
Superior Four could’ve been a one shot. Or a no-shot, preferably. This tie-in is just multiverse mashups of Doctor Pus spewing garbage and patting themselves on the back. Nearly unintelligible, absolutely forgettable, and barely relevant to Devil’s Reign overall.
July 30, 2024
This one was pretty disappointing. "Superior Spider-Man" is one of my favorite series of all time but this...not so much. Doc Ock has pulled several multiverse variants of himself out from their worlds: Doc Hulk, Doc Ghost Rider, and Doc Wolverine to be exact.
They set off to kill every other Doc Ock variant for...reasons. That should be fun. It's not and it wears out its welcome quickly. Bummer.
They set off to kill every other Doc Ock variant for...reasons. That should be fun. It's not and it wears out its welcome quickly. Bummer.
March 9, 2023
Unfortunately, this is a waste of the premise - Doctor Octopus creating a team of his own alternate universe counterparts in a bid to prove his superiority. The plot doesn't entirely make sense, and the fun elements don't really compensate. In addition, the backup story (featuring the Ben Reilly Spider-Man versus the Rose) is merely functional. (B-)
August 27, 2023
Zac Thompson doesn’t generally get good reviews from our fellow Goodreaders, and this book came with a heavy weight of bad blood, so I walked in gingerly. Surprised at the heavy use of advanced science lingo, I kinda liked where this started off. Not entirely sure Thompson was fluent in the language, or just cobbling together the kind of garbled dialogue you’d see in a middling episode of Star Trek or Fringe.
And then he drops this hilarious bomb: “Be careful of the native flora. We’re not immunised.” So first of all, flora = plants. Second, immunisation against members of the viral, not plant. Third, plants don’t carry viruses. WTF did you mean Zac?
So we’ve established that Thompson is a dilettante, playing with words he doesn’t understand. Does he understand Otto Octavius? Let’s see: outbursts of anger, unchecked ego, B+ scientific genius (not on Reed’s footing, but hardly a slouch). What’s missing? Seems to be Otto’s particularities in insults - not a “dolt” or “meddling” or “accursed” to be…word balooned?
What throws this book off-balance for mr, is how randomly the variant Ottos behave, their allegiances arbitrary. Not because they’re motivated by narcissistic self-interest, but seems they just cleave to whatever plot gyrations the writer couldn’t let go of to craft a solid three-issue story. Somehow he turned a story with great inventiveness into a train derailment of jumbled I-don’t-really-understand-how-this-ended.
I loved that this started by building on the foundations of two great stories (Superior Spider-man and Immortal Hulk), but sadly that substrate never really pays off.
But I’m giving this a low rating *because* the author blew the landing so badly. I don’t like to discourage big swings from lesser creators, but this reads like a pitch that never had a clue how to wrap it up.
And then he drops this hilarious bomb: “Be careful of the native flora. We’re not immunised.” So first of all, flora = plants. Second, immunisation against members of the viral, not plant. Third, plants don’t carry viruses. WTF did you mean Zac?
So we’ve established that Thompson is a dilettante, playing with words he doesn’t understand. Does he understand Otto Octavius? Let’s see: outbursts of anger, unchecked ego, B+ scientific genius (not on Reed’s footing, but hardly a slouch). What’s missing? Seems to be Otto’s particularities in insults - not a “dolt” or “meddling” or “accursed” to be…word balooned?
What throws this book off-balance for mr, is how randomly the variant Ottos behave, their allegiances arbitrary. Not because they’re motivated by narcissistic self-interest, but seems they just cleave to whatever plot gyrations the writer couldn’t let go of to craft a solid three-issue story. Somehow he turned a story with great inventiveness into a train derailment of jumbled I-don’t-really-understand-how-this-ended.
I loved that this started by building on the foundations of two great stories (Superior Spider-man and Immortal Hulk), but sadly that substrate never really pays off.
But I’m giving this a low rating *because* the author blew the landing so badly. I don’t like to discourage big swings from lesser creators, but this reads like a pitch that never had a clue how to wrap it up.
November 14, 2022
Superior Four. This looked like a great premise in the main Devil's Reign series: Otto gathers together three other versions of himself from the multiverse. Somehow, Thompson manages to do nothing interesting with it. Otto abandons the reign to try and go kill himself across the multiverse for reasons, and then another Otto tries to stop him. A big yawn: not a good use of the Reign nor the Superior premise [2/5].
Spider-Man. Ben is involved in the reign mainly in that he gets beat up a lot. The use of the Rose is the most interesting part of the issue, though I thought he was dead [3/5].
Spider-Man. Ben is involved in the reign mainly in that he gets beat up a lot. The use of the Rose is the most interesting part of the issue, though I thought he was dead [3/5].
September 14, 2022
This was fantastic!
February 1, 2023
2.5 Stars
August 20, 2022
This is like a BAD DREAM version of Exiles, or the 'Counsil of Reeds' done half-assed. This was a pain to get through and really contributed nothing...to anything.
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Doc Ock has control of the Baxter Building, thanks to events happening during the 'Devil's Reign' crossover. This means he has access to the Bridge and its multiversal gateway. He gathers Octavius variants of Ghost Rider, The Hulk, and Wolverine and dubs them the 'Superior Four'. He's still on a mission to prove that he has the greater intellect out of all the multiverse Otto Octavius'.
If you loved most of the Superior Spider-Man story, this is probably something you should avoid. This story follows up on the deal that Otto made with Mephisto. He's NOT as smart as he says he is. In fact, he has TONS of memory gaps and missing time.
Bonus: Superior Man-Thing Octopus?
Bonus Bonus: Suerior Four? Get it? Because he, once again will 'show the world' he's better...*yawn*
--------------------------
Doc Ock has control of the Baxter Building, thanks to events happening during the 'Devil's Reign' crossover. This means he has access to the Bridge and its multiversal gateway. He gathers Octavius variants of Ghost Rider, The Hulk, and Wolverine and dubs them the 'Superior Four'. He's still on a mission to prove that he has the greater intellect out of all the multiverse Otto Octavius'.
If you loved most of the Superior Spider-Man story, this is probably something you should avoid. This story follows up on the deal that Otto made with Mephisto. He's NOT as smart as he says he is. In fact, he has TONS of memory gaps and missing time.
Bonus: Superior Man-Thing Octopus?
Bonus Bonus: Suerior Four? Get it? Because he, once again will 'show the world' he's better...*yawn*
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December 6, 2023Years back, I had the notion of a story where all the leads were alternate world iterations of the same person. If I hadn't already abandoned it, I certainly would have after reading this incoherent heap of multiversal bollocks. The worst of it is that when every significant role is taken by one or another version of the self-regarding Otto Octavius, it's impossible to tell whether the ubiquitous slightly wrong use of fancy vocabulary is a deliberate decision to show that he's less bright than he thinks, or just inept. At least the Ben Reilly story padding out the volume, while certainly no classic, can offer a plot that makes some sense and the pleasing diss "self-righteous morality boggarts".
June 22, 2022
Story is just ok. Arts not bad. Funny in some parts.
July 23, 2022
This was a tough one to get through. Art was average, and the writing was tedious. I barely understood what was being said half the time, the science talk was basically gibberish. 1.5 Stars.
August 6, 2022
Otto went from being one of the best written characters in comics to during Superior Spidey a one-dimensional shouty villain in this.
January 6, 2023
Due to a deal Otto Octavius made with Fisk during Devil’s Reign, he’s in control of the Baxter Building — The Fantastic Four’s home base. This allows him to explore the multiverse through their inter
-dimensional gateway.
He recruits three alternate versions of himself to form the Superior Four.
With Otto’s plans of multiversal domination, this “tie-in” really doesn’t tie into the event it takes its name from much at all.
While I don’t believe this miniseries is as bad as many other reviewers here say, it is not a necessary read for the event whatsoever.
In fact, I’d only recommend it specifically to fans of Doctor Octopus. This mini does seem like it may be quite influential to his character going forward. Not only that, but this is his “Spiderverse.”
The Spider-Man issue included in this trade paperback is a one-shot more worthy of the Devil’s Reign title, in my opinion. It’s a fun insight into how Ben Reilly’s Spider-Man operates, along with a peek into his relationship with the Beyond Corporation as well for somebody who hasn’t kept up with the happenings and developments of the mainline Spidey run such as myself.
As much as I wish Peter Parker was involved in the larger Devil’s Reign event, I think Ben Reilly makes for a pretty good stand-in.
Long story short: I wouldn’t recommend this miniseries except to the most passionate fans of Otto Octavius, and as for the Spider-Man one-shot, I think it’s worth picking up one way or another if you’re reading Devil’s Reign at large. Non-essential, but good!
-dimensional gateway.
He recruits three alternate versions of himself to form the Superior Four.
With Otto’s plans of multiversal domination, this “tie-in” really doesn’t tie into the event it takes its name from much at all.
While I don’t believe this miniseries is as bad as many other reviewers here say, it is not a necessary read for the event whatsoever.
In fact, I’d only recommend it specifically to fans of Doctor Octopus. This mini does seem like it may be quite influential to his character going forward. Not only that, but this is his “Spiderverse.”
The Spider-Man issue included in this trade paperback is a one-shot more worthy of the Devil’s Reign title, in my opinion. It’s a fun insight into how Ben Reilly’s Spider-Man operates, along with a peek into his relationship with the Beyond Corporation as well for somebody who hasn’t kept up with the happenings and developments of the mainline Spidey run such as myself.
As much as I wish Peter Parker was involved in the larger Devil’s Reign event, I think Ben Reilly makes for a pretty good stand-in.
Long story short: I wouldn’t recommend this miniseries except to the most passionate fans of Otto Octavius, and as for the Spider-Man one-shot, I think it’s worth picking up one way or another if you’re reading Devil’s Reign at large. Non-essential, but good!
February 26, 2023
This just was not good. For one thing, this is almost false advertising as this story really added nothing to Devil's Reign. The concept wasn't bad. Doctor Octopus, who once put his mind in Spiderman's body, searches the multiverse for other versions of himself. He rounds up three versions of himself that turned into Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Wolverine in their respective universes. Then he comes up with a plan to gather all the Doc Ocks from every universe to create an army in order to conquer everything. At least, I think that's what was going on. How did this tie into the Daredevil/Kingpin storyline that Devil's Reign is all about? Well, it really didn't. Doc Ock is in the crossover, and the scene that started all of this is in the Devil's Reign main series. But that's about it. Everything else is just unrelated. This series totally took me out of the Devil's Reign story, so now I'll have to get back into it before I finish the main series.
The Spiderman story wasn't great, but was a lot better and more relevant than the Superior Four story.
This was not a good crossover volume at all.
The Spiderman story wasn't great, but was a lot better and more relevant than the Superior Four story.
This was not a good crossover volume at all.
December 29, 2023
What was this stupidity? Marvel has done a number of good to great muliversal adventures, the Spiderverse being at the top. The Ottoverse is not in that league. This does not even add anything to the Devil's Reign storyline, except that Otto was wasting his time doing.
Doctor Octopus was the Superior (in his mind anyway) Spider-man. Now, with Reed Rchards technology, he decides to bring other versions of himself who had the same idea from across the multiverse. Enter the "Superior" Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider to make up his four. I am not sure what his end goal was or why the others decided to join him, but that is the story.
The final story is of Spider-man (Ben), running from the police and criminals alike, beat up, and in some cases powerless, he will still do what he must to save the people he cares about.
The Spider-man story was the only reason I gave this two stars (though ot was not great, but definitely better that the Superior Four that make up 3/4 of the book). You don't need this book for the Devil's Reign storyline.
Doctor Octopus was the Superior (in his mind anyway) Spider-man. Now, with Reed Rchards technology, he decides to bring other versions of himself who had the same idea from across the multiverse. Enter the "Superior" Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider to make up his four. I am not sure what his end goal was or why the others decided to join him, but that is the story.
The final story is of Spider-man (Ben), running from the police and criminals alike, beat up, and in some cases powerless, he will still do what he must to save the people he cares about.
The Spider-man story was the only reason I gave this two stars (though ot was not great, but definitely better that the Superior Four that make up 3/4 of the book). You don't need this book for the Devil's Reign storyline.
March 20, 2023
What in the hell is this? (sorry) There's really no connection whatsoever between this and the "Devil's Reign" event. The first 3 issues collected here concern Otto Octavius scouring the multiverse for versions of himself to create a parliament or confederacy of Ottos (similar to what Reed Richards was up to in the Ultimates universe). He's got a Hulk version, a Ghost Rider version, and a Wolverine version. They proceed to try to take down the Ultimate version, a Dr. Octopus/Dr. Doom variety that is the ultimate in egotistical pontificating. There's also a Man-Thing version who plays a part. But none of this has any connection to what's happening back in the regular Marvel universe. And then there's a single issue Spider-Man story featuring...Ben Riley? About the only thing these stories have going for them is the artwork, but what a waste of time for the artists involved with this. Absolutely inessential.
October 21, 2022
One of the biggest plot points in "Devil's Reign" is that of the Fantastic Four being shoved from their tower and going on the run, leaving Otto Octavius to move in. With his new access to the multiversal portal, Ock sets out to not only create the Superior Four (Doc Ock versions of Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider join), but also to become the Supreme Octopus. 616 Ock will find out that he is second rate to the current Supreme Octopus, who is a multiversal version of Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Doom. The fight is pretty epic, but stops once an Otto version of Man-Thing comes to 616. I think we'll probably get to see him in the near future.
We also get a story featuring Spider-Man, but that one feels really disjointed.
Overall, it was nice to see more from the Superior Four, but I'm not sure we needed a full multiversal adventure.
Good, if you choose to read it.
We also get a story featuring Spider-Man, but that one feels really disjointed.
Overall, it was nice to see more from the Superior Four, but I'm not sure we needed a full multiversal adventure.
Good, if you choose to read it.
June 7, 2023
Doctor Octopus' potential for comedy was realized in Superior Spider-Man when they realized you could portray him as basically Doctor Horrible. A genius supervillain mad scientist who is hopelessly goofy. Unfortunately, by reverting him back to a supervillain much of the humor is lost while he still acts ridiculous. Here, he recruits a bunch of fellow Otto Octavius to try to take over the Multiverse--and it's ridiculous and not in a good way. I liked the ending, though with Spider-Man-Thing.
September 21, 2022
Collects Devil's Reign: Superior Four (2022) issues #1-3 and Devil's Reign: Spider-Man #1
I had high hopes for the three-issue story featuring Doctor Octopus and some multiversal variants of him, but in the end, I felt let down by the story.
I'm happy that the Ben Reilly version of Spider-Man is featured in this collection, but the one issue focused on him was mostly forgettable.
I had high hopes for the three-issue story featuring Doctor Octopus and some multiversal variants of him, but in the end, I felt let down by the story.
I'm happy that the Ben Reilly version of Spider-Man is featured in this collection, but the one issue focused on him was mostly forgettable.
April 5, 2023
Always tough to read a support series for a crossover event about characters you don’t really care about, discover that the art is barely holding you, and then that this is really interested in just showing the character be themselves and not really grow or uncover anything all that meaningful. That’s this - typical throwaway TPB with an audience I can’t quite fathom.
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June 23, 2023Superior Nonsense
What a let down. The main story of Devil's Reign is really good. Doc Oct's story is ridiculous. See him as his many variants at first is cool. As the story continues, it becomes obvious that the author doesn't have a clue on how to make this work. Save your money and stick to the main story. This is just awful filler.
What a let down. The main story of Devil's Reign is really good. Doc Oct's story is ridiculous. See him as his many variants at first is cool. As the story continues, it becomes obvious that the author doesn't have a clue on how to make this work. Save your money and stick to the main story. This is just awful filler.
September 3, 2022
The worlds worst tie in ever my god why was this even a thing
April 2, 2023
Devil’s Reign…what happened In between scenes. Of course that story has nothing to do with the actual event!
September 10, 2023
Some tie-in books find creative ways to connect to the core narrative of the big event. And then you get books like this that go in a completely different direction that remains parallel but not directly related to the big story.
To be fair, I was pretty surprised to see Doctor Octopus working with Wilson Fisk at the beginning of the event when they took over the Baxter Building. And Doc actually manages a weird prominent role in the larger event. But this book doesn't touch on how he got to that point. Instead, it's a multiversal adventure where he continues to look for his other variants in order to either get them to work together or to somehow take their powers or their intellect for his own.
Then the book has a one-issue story focused on our Beyond Spider-Man, but I have such mixed feelings about Reilly being back in this way. And the story itself was very mid.
So that's what this book was - a whole lot of just okay content.
To be fair, I was pretty surprised to see Doctor Octopus working with Wilson Fisk at the beginning of the event when they took over the Baxter Building. And Doc actually manages a weird prominent role in the larger event. But this book doesn't touch on how he got to that point. Instead, it's a multiversal adventure where he continues to look for his other variants in order to either get them to work together or to somehow take their powers or their intellect for his own.
Then the book has a one-issue story focused on our Beyond Spider-Man, but I have such mixed feelings about Reilly being back in this way. And the story itself was very mid.
So that's what this book was - a whole lot of just okay content.
October 12, 2023
I just couldn't get into the least tied-in tie-in for Devil's Reign. Couldn't even be bothered to read the final issue.
April 14, 2025
Out of place for devils reign, but super funny.
May 1, 2025
Best part of devil's reign
May 8, 2025
Such potential to be better
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews