MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1"

The more astute of my readers (and good luck figuring out, between the three of you, who I'm talking about) might have noticed that I am a fan of Spider-Man. I'm not a fan of pretty much anything that Marvel has done with Spider-Man (in the comics, anyway) since about 2007. Why? Because Spider-Man had his entire status quo altered by a very, very poor deus (or should I say devil) ex machima that should have been laughed out of the writer's room in concept, much less ever make it into print. Joe Quesada insists that his magnum opus One More Day is a story about love and sacrifice, when it is really a story about Peter Parker rejecting his own creed of "with great power comes great responsibility".

So yes, it was basically Secret Empire before Secret Empire ever existed. But One More Day at least had the decency to only be four issues long.

However, as you can tell from the title, my hatred of Joe Quesada and Nick Spencer (who both still have jobs and Nick Spencer is due to take over for Dan Slott in writing Spidey - oh joy!) isn't what we're here to talk about. We can save that for another day. No, we're here to talk about the Scarlet Spider!

...no, not that one, though I could see why you might think that. Kaine did have the last ongoing series under the name and he has been, for a few years now, the only active Scarlet Spider, but no. I'm here to talk about the original Scarlet Spider: Ben Muckfothering Reilly.

And yes, that is his legal name.


Like Kaine, Ben was a clone of Peter Parker made not in the 90s as Kaine was, but in the late 70s for the original Clone Saga. At the end of that story, Peter was determined to be Peter (maybe) and the clone seemingly died, except he didn't and went wandering America for a few decades that got ported into two or so years because of Marvel's sliding timescale.

When Ben returned, well, the Clone Saga that everyone knows in the Nineties happened. Shit went down, both in and out of universe. For all the fake outs and twists and utter nonsense that was created to keep it going well after everyone who originally worked on it had left and any of the readers frankly cared, we know now that the true villain of the story was Marvel editorial. A villain who has still not been vanquished as we still see really, really offensively stupid things get approved to be published to this day.

As bad as the Clone Saga was, it was definitely no Secret Empire.

That's not to say that the Clone Saga was good, because it's definitely not, but it did have some good parts to it. One of those parts was the aforementioned Kaine...and Ben Reilly. Ben Reilly was the only genetically perfect clone of Peter Parker and, for a time, it was believed that he - not Peter - was the original Peter Parker. Of course, that all turned out to be nonsense in the end, with the Clone Saga given a ham-handed explanation that Norman Osborn had somehow returned from the dead and had masterminded the entire Clone Saga from his secret bunker in Europe.

...I'm really getting off-topic, aren't I?

Back to our point, no, Ben is not the original. Peter is. However, seeing as Peter is mostly written as a gigantic tool who has no foresight and cannot learn from his mistakes, I prefer Ben. Why? Simple. He is not a tool, has foresight, and learns from his mistakes. It's like Peter if he were able to look objectively at himself and go "Oh, shit, I don't wanna be like that asshole!" and take steps to avoid being that. That being said, of course, Scarlet Spider #1 isn't necessarily a good jumping on point for people who want to see that version of the character...though having read into later issues, that does come out. For the first issue, though, a little background:

1. Ben was brought back from death as a villain for a big event in the Spidey book because Dan Slott hates Spider-Man and everything to do with him that makes him any good.
2. He cloned a lot of people using the Jackal's cloning technology. I mean a lot. Like, to an even more ridiculous amount than the actual Clone Saga.
3. Everything fell apart and Ben seemingly sacrificed himself for the Greater Good, but didn't, obviously.

Everybody got that? Good. Then we'll begin.

Despite Ben having the original red jumpsuit and hoodie mix on the cover, the first page displays the attempted redesign of the Scarlet Spider suit. Frankly, I didn't mind it, though I know a lot of people were bugged by it. Sure, it's a rip-off of the Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman outfit, but then her outfit is pretty much a palette-swap of Ben's original with it being connected directly to her suit instead of a hoodie, so it's fine. I admit, being able to see the online of his mouth is a little weird, though.

New and different, but not bad.

At first, we're given to think from text boxes that he's monologuing, but soon his monologue gets interjected into by none other than...himself. In his original costume. It seems that Ben's gone a wee bit off the deep end. They bicker a bit over Ben's past failure, but a scream from the alley gets his attention and he swings in to save the day...whereupon he shoots a criminal in the arm and then stiffs the room he rescued for one hundred dollars before giving her the gun.

Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!

Over in San Francisco, it seems that...the Jackal has returned! However, it turns out to be Kaine in disguise, trying to find Ben through his former agents. Anyone who has read any of Kaine's stuff knows that he...really doesn't have the same sweet disposition that Peter often has, much to the surprise of Ben's former agent. I'm not entirely sure how Kaine knows that Ben is alive, but that's really small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

Back in Las Vegas, Ben looks over a Jackal mask and is visited by the Jackal himself...or, rather, an illusion as before. The Jackal insists that Ben go to see "her" before Ben crumbles up the mask and then punches the illusion, seemingly destroying it. Side note, it seems that Ben is suffering from Clone Degeneration much like Kaine is. From what I've heard, apparently this is chalked up to the Jackal cloning him, torturing and killing him, and then re-cloning him several times. Not gonna lie, it looks pretty bad, even more so than Kaine's current state if such a thing is possible.

But deciding to go see "her", Ben heads over to Mercury Rising, a casino on the Stripe owned by one Cassandra Mercury. It seems that Cassandra is a bit of a power player as she blackmails a general at the Pentagon as her introduction scene. I have to admit, for a villain introduction, it's a pretty damn good one. Later issues will reveal that she isn't, though...at least not exactly, but we'll get to those in due course. She even seems like she'd be a good boss to work for as she seems very grateful to her right hand man, Slate, when he comes to check up on her.

Them Gowron eyes, though...

On the casino floor, however, Ben comes across a gambling-addicted woman named June being harassed by her husband. Ben steps in, claiming to be her nephew...and the husband eventually gives up dealing with her out of frustration. It is rather twisted, in a good way, that Ben is gravitating towards people that remind him of his life as Peter. He asks the woman in the alley if her name is Mary Jane or Gwen, he claims to be the nephew of a June instead of a May, and her husband isn't named Ben, but claims to be dead to her, so it's close enough in his mind.

 It's really, really depraved, but it totally makes sense in my mind from where Ben is now. He's a broken man who has literally lost everything in a gambit that blew up in his face. He'd naturally want to go back to some kind of status quo that's familiar...even he's really grasping at straws for it. While I'm not 100% on him being consciously aware of it, I personally think that's what he's doing.

As an aside, I absolutely love June. She gives not one damn, she just wants you to leave her to her slot machine. Pretty much the exact opposite of May Parker in every way, which really only makes it all even funnier in that twisted way.

Michael Chiklis?! What are you doing here?!

But that's enough with philosophical conversation, however, as three armed men in SWAT gear show up to hold up the casino and Ben is once more visited by his Scarlet Spider and Jackal personas. Each encourage him to get involved or let them go about their business, respectively, and he tells them both to take a hike. Once one of them grabs Aunt June's quarters, though, he has no choice but to get involved. After breaking one of their arms, he's saved by Slate...who is apparently very much bulletproof, and makes short work of the other two.
Slate brings Ben to Cassandra Mercury not long after. It seems that Cassandra knows him by voice...the Jackal apparently cured her daughter...by letting the original die and replacing her with a clone. The issue ends with Cassandra pointing a gun in Ben's face, ready to fire...

*record scratch* You're probably wondering how I got here...

Usually with comics, particularly with issues that start a series, it takes a few issues to see a status quo really crystalize. As far as set up goes, this is some good stuff. We have Ben in Las Vegas, fighting between his good and evil impulses, and trying to build some sort of life for himself outside of Peter's shadow. Will he be a hero or will he be a villain? With his mental state and how he seems to flit between heroics, villainy, and just being a dick, it could really go either way from here.

I will say, I really liked Ben being conflicted by the hallucinations of the Scarlet Spider and the Jackal. It was a neat look into his psyche without having to resort to inner monologue upon inner monologue, something that the Clone Saga is still mocked for to this day. Sadly, it seems that that particular potential plot device was dropped after this issue, which we'll see as we go on. Ben will turn some tables, bring back the dead, and Kaine will use some enhanced interrogation! Face front, True Believers! Issue #2 review out next week! Until then, enjoy this panel I found particularly amusing.

"I'm a hallucination, I do what I want!"

Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1 comes to us from Marvel Comics.Written by Peter David, Penciled by Mark Bagley, Inked by John Dell, color artist'd by Jason Keith, and lettered by Joe Caramgna. They all did great!

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