Review by Ian Keogh

The superheroes outlawed in New York during Devil’s Reign included the Fantastic Four. The Richards are jailed and the Thing and the Torch are on the run. It means Otto Octavius has access to their laboratory and he’s one of the few men on the planet with an intellect capable of understanding the science within. He’s used it to summon three versions of himself from alternate realities. In their realities one is Ghost Rider, one is the Hulk and one is Wolverine, but they all have versions of the Octopus arms. However, that’s not enough. His plan is to contact every variant on every Earth to form a council to rule everyone.

Buy into that, and you’ll perhaps consider this a worthwhile three chapters pitting Octopus against Octopus in some surprising variations. If the purpose strikes you as retrograde and lacking any great intellectual bolstering, Superior Four isn’t your cup of tea.

Almost all the joy of Zac Thompson’s plot is visual, seeing how Davide Tinto has redesigned superheroes Doc Ock has become in the alternate universes, and there’s one really creative application of the formula toward the end. However, beyond that Tinto’s pages are efficient without sparkling. Thompson having other people speak with Octavius’ ten dollar vocabulary supplies some funny moments near the start, but too much else follows a predictable path.

There’s a back-up strip starring Spider-Man connecting to his beating in the main series. As a result of that what Anthony Piper and Zé Carlos supply greatly stretches credulity. Even accounting for Spider-Man’s recovery from injury perhaps being accelerated, Piper keeps reinforcing his injuries in the dialogue, yet has him leaping around like usual despite three broken ribs. Throw in a villain monologuing like it’s 1985 and this is further disappointment.

Stick with the main series and leave this well alone.