MANGA REVIEW | "Spider-Man: Octo-Girl" - Volume Three [FINALE]
Well…that certainly was anti-climactic. The thought of Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court working on a Marvel series should’ve been a smart move. Thanks to their work in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, the duo showed that they could adapt other creators’ series very well. And their latest work — Spider-Man: Octo-Girl — seemed to be following the same path. So what exactly happened with its third and final volume that makes this take on the classic heroes and villains of Marvels so incomplete?
Perhaps there’s a hint of what occurred in the final words of Furuhashi and Court. The writer talks about having a “brutal year”, whilst the artist speaks of things being “really rough, the entire time”. Was it burnout? Did Marvel try to get too involved with their creative process? Whatever the case may be, it affected not just the ending of Spider-Man: Octo-Girl, but also the overall quality of the series.
Volume Three builds up to this very big fight between Doctor Octopus and Superior Spider. The fact that Doc Ock is still trapped in Otoha’s body makes it all the more intense, as the foes face off in a battle filled with chaos and debris. On top of that, Otoha’s friend Taka is also fighting on the side of Superior Spider. With all of this madness occurring, Otoha aims to find a way to save her friend while taking down Superior Spider. But how?
We see through flashbacks how Taka blames herself for the death of her father. While she tried her best to redeem herself, the fact that she winds up playing into the hands of the villain makes the situation slightly concerning. Maybe her fragile confidence was taken advantage of by Superior Spider, or there’s the chance that Superior Spider’s desire to do good (but winding up doing the exact opposite!) won Taka over, resulting in her following Superior Spider blindly. Whatever the case, it takes a whole lot of convincing from Otoha to help snap her back to the side of good.
And once that finally happens, it leads to a big battle with Across Company, which is harboring its own weapon. Just as the weapon is fully revealed, the series…ends? Just when it throws in one final twist, Spider-Man: Octo-Girl simply calls it a day. The fight isn’t resolved, Doctor Octopus is still attached to Otoha, and there’s no sign of helping any of the displaced Marvel Heroes get back to their respective universes. Everything is all up in the air, with no sign of a true ending to be found.
It’s a shame that Spider-Man: Octo-Girl had to end abruptly. There was so much potential this series had, and it feels like this conclusion has almost made it a waste of time reading. Yes, Court’s action sequences are drawn beautifully, and I love the banter between Doc Ock and Otoha. However, with no true conclusion, this series seems to find itself somewhere in limbo, in-between two different Marvel universes with no way out.
There are a lot of great ideas in Spider-Man: Octo-Girl. It’s just a damn shame that we’ll probably never see them come to their full fruition. Maybe Furuhashi and Court felt too much stress dealing with Marvel, in comparison to dealing with the Jump Comics people with My Hero Academia. In any case, this series will go down as one of those interesting cases, where a solid idea is left unfinished. Hopefully, Furuhashi and Court will be given another chance to adapt a Marvel work, or — even better — they can create their own superhero series from scratch. For now though, Spider-Man: Octo-Girl is a tiny blemish on their record.
VOL. 3 RATING:
FINAL GRADE [series]:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
