The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Spider-Man: Octo-Girl

What's It About? 

After a battle with Spider-Man, the evil genius scientist Doctor Octopus falls into a coma. When he wakes up, his consciousness is in the body of Otoha Okutamiya, a regular kid in Tokyo! Thus begins the strange new life of Spider-Man's biggest rival…as a schoolgirl!

Spider-Man: Octo-Girl has a story by Hideyuki Furuhashi and art by Betten Court, with an English translation by Caleb Cook, and an English adaptation by Molly Tanzer. This volume was lettered by Brandon Bovia, designed by Paul Padurariu, and edited by Joel Enos. Published by Viz Media (October 8, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

So a thing to know going into Spider-Man: Octo-Girl is that it is not based on a generalized, evergreen version of the Spider-Man mythos as these kinds of manga adaptations often are. Hideyuki Furuhashi was turned into the character of Doctor Octopus specifically through the 2013 Superior Spider-Man storyline, with this manga directly following through on concepts and characterizations for Otto Octavius from that plot and its latter-day fallout. Make no mistake, Octo-Girl is dense with built-in comic continuity, and if you're unfamiliar with this era of spiders and octopi, you might find yourself doing some wiki-diving in between chapters.

But you know, I'm something of a Superior Spider-Man fan myself, meaning Octo-Girl was pretty well made for me. All the clone shenanigans and body-hopping that set up this storyline might seem weird at first pass, but it's no weirder than anything else that happened to Doc Ock in the comics. The setup of Doc possessing Otoha's body is arranged in an effective way that sidesteps what could be some inherent creep factor, and the two immediately have a pretty snappy rapport going. It's helped by the decision to bring Otoha's schoolmates into the deal pretty early on, cutting down on navigating secret identity issues as well as fueling some earnestly surprising character arcs that subvert some seemingly stock bullying issues early on. A big part of the arc here is Otto learning how seemingly "lesser" people living smaller lives than his all still have their own stories going and intertwining issues they must deal with. It's a good reason for using the conflicted, layered take on the character seen in Superior Spider-Man, and I was right at home here as an enjoyer of that story.

Not that Furuhashi and Betten Court's take on Otto doesn't have its own energy. This is the pair behind My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and they play off each other just as well as Otto and Otoha do. Court's art is that of someone experienced in drawing dynamic superhero action, whether working with established Marvel designs or the new characters created for this series (and there are some neat surprises about who turns up). I genuinely appreciate some of the more out-there decisions like how Otto cuts Otoha's hair or the look of her odd classmate Deirogi. Some are stalling in places, or the issue of plots like Deirogi's being a bit long-winded. And some of the denser comic-continuity stuff that's coming through by the end of this first volume is going to lose a few people. But as a dedicated Superior Spider-Man enjoyer, I genuinely enjoyed this team's following up on that version of the old ornery octopus.

The last few decades of Spider-Man movies have brought us several notable versions of Doc Ock, but none of them have been quite like Spider-Man: Octo-Girl. East meets West in this quick-paced, quirky story starring Spider-Man's least sane opponent. Borrowing tropes from cape comics and shonen manga, it's an oddball action story with a dose of deranged humor. Several intriguing original characters allow this story to stand alone, but the addition of a main antagonist from Deadpool: Samurai made me feel like I was showing up to this story without having done my homework first.

Spider-Man has almost defeated Doc Ock for real this time, but he never expected the mad scientist to have a special machine that restores his brain to a backup body. Only, there's been a slight problem, and the doctor wakes up in the body of a Japanese schoolgirl, Otoha Okutamiya, instead. (Can you hear the audio pun?) Though Doc Ock rarely cares about anyone aside from himself, he's suddenly compelled to deal with Otoha's problem now that they're sharing the same body. Otoha's classmates never expected her to gain a mechanical octopus jetpack! Soon, the pair have bigger problems when Sakura Spider catapults straight from Deadpool: Samurai into their reality. Now Doc Ock and Otoha have to learn to share one body or face the brunt of her Spidey shenanigans! It's a successful attempt at turning the hero/villain dynamic on its head. Usually the deranged Doc Ock would not be endearing, but Otoha, who refuses to let him boss her around, certainly is. The rest of the manga follows suit by making the stories of antisocial weirdos like Otoha's classmates equally sympathetic.

Spider-Man and Doc Ock have been around for decades and I've heard their stories dozens of times already. However, this story, with its quirky-cute character designs and constant banter, combined with the international origins of its content, felt fresh. I want to add that while the idea of a villain inhabiting a schoolgirl's body might set off your creep alarm, there's not a whiff of sexual content in this story. It's an all-ages Spider-Man story, even if it's weirder than most.

Okay. You got me, Marvel.

Recent years have shown that Spider-Man's strength lies in how universal his story is; the basic building blocks of his story can be dressed up and redesigned again and again into an endless web of Spiders. But what about his villains? Well, a little creativity goes a long way...

There's a surprising amount of back-end canon involved here; folks who read Dan Slott's run on Amazing Spider-Man will recognize certain details like Doctor Otto “Octopus” Octavius' mind-transferring (indeed, Doc Ock inhabited Peter Parker's body as the “Superior Spider-Man” for two years), or Sakura Spider from the Deadpool: Samurai manga. Don't ask me if this takes place in the 616 universe—provided, the story is too good to care.

Octo-Girl shines in granting its cast depth and reach, as needed. The girls bullying poor Otoha have lives, and Octavius' verbose grandiosity is a veneer to a heart far more sensitive than he gives himself credit for. I think they give too much away with regards to Taka (gee, she has a hawk-like hairdo and Otoha dreams of her flying and her name means “hawk”--I wonder if she'll become The Vulture), but I think I walked away loving everyone in this story? This cast is phenomenal, it's making me want to check out My Hero Academia: Vigilante now.

Octo-Girl manages to zero in on the high-flying action that makes Spider-Man so fun while fleshing out Otto Octavius, one of the dorkiest but most beloved of Spidey's foes. For as much as the story touches on some actual Marvel canon, it's only in service of fleshing out a story and having fun with a set of toys (“Superior Octopus”, please tell me more!). The biggest obstacle is whether or not you can take Doctor Octopus seriously enough to want to see him fleshed out as he shares a body with a meek middle schooler. It'd be a shame if you passed up on this story because of that. Spidey fans, definitely don't miss out on this one. Everyone else, this one comes strongly recommended.