While usually portrayed as a supervillain, Doctor Octopus has also been occasionally depicted as a conflicted antihero and ally of Spider-Man. Following Spider-Man's death in the 2012 storyline " Dying Wish ", which saw a dying Octavius swapping bodies with the hero and letting him die in his original body, Octavius was motivated to prove he could be a better Spider-Man. As such, he adopted the Superior Spider-Man alias, introduced in Avenging Spider-Man #15.1 following a cameo in Daredevil vol. 3 #21 (both December 2012). The Superior Spider-Man possesses all of the original Spider-Man's abilities, memories, and equipment, along with additional gadgets created by Octavius, though he often struggles to live up to his predecessor's legacy and seeks to turn his life around after being a villain for years. In 2013, Marvel launched a 45-issue The Superior Spider-Man comic book series focusing on the character's redemption and superhero career. The original Spider-Man has since been resurrected after the death of Otto Octavius. Following Spider-Verse, a copy of his consciousness became a villain, though a second volume of The Superior Spider-Man launched in 2018 saw the duplicate taking on the mantle before returning to the Doctor Octopus mantle as an antihero, having his soul restored and memories of redemption erased by Mephisto, before returning to the role of Superior Spider-Man in 2023 in a new series by Dan Slott.