It doesn't actually appear in the comic. Sort of.Yeah, I was more than a little disappointed, too. It's a great image of the two Scarlet Spiders locked in mortal combat, everything 90's being new again. It might feel like Kaine tracking down and trying to kill Ben would seem like reverse character development, given everything they've been through since the days of the Clone Saga it really isn't. Kaine has always had a very loose morality even as a hero as he's become in recent years, and Ben going full on Jackal during The Clone Conspiracy would no doubt make him believe that he'd need to be taken out.
And no, that isn't me giving props to The Clone Conspiracy and thus praising the works of Dan Slott, I'm not that crazy. What I'm saying is that it's a logical path for the characters to follow, particularly since Kaine has no idea that Ben is (or is trying to, rather) reform. So basically, this is a good idea spun out of a bad idea.
Yes, the Clone Conspiracy was a bad idea besides bringing back Ben Reilly.
Much like the Clone Saga was a bad idea besides creating (or re-creating, rather) Ben Reilly and Kaine.
It's almost like Marvel finally decided to close the circle.
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| Oh, what a feeling! When you're dancin' on the ceiling! |
Getting into the actual plot of Issue #4, however, Kaine returns to the warehouse where he left Rita in Issue #2 and finds her gone...and manages to narrowly avoid death my rocket-propelled grenade. The two men sent after him get their asses soundly handed to them, with Kaine "persuading" a promise out of one of them to never bother him again or he will kill them. Just some more of that loose morality in action. Like I've said before about Kaine, this is really an improvement for him considering how willing he's been to kill outright in the past without so much as a warning. He wouldn't actually harm someone like Rita, who's only crime was being manipulated by Ben, but he would harm people who are trying to kill him without giving them a second chance.
Back in Las Vegas, Slate coaxes his way into the holding cells of the local precinct and questions one of the shooters who attacked the casino back in Issue #1. We don't see the full interrogation, but we have firmly established Slate as a nigh-indestructible badass from previous issues, so it likely that the shooter did not have things go well for him after having one hand broken trying to punch him.
An undetermined amount of time later, Kaine arrives in Vegas and strolls into Mercury Rising - which actually has a pretty neat design aesthetic where the building is shaped like an old-fashioned thermometer - where he is mistaken as Ben by both Aunt June and Slate. It kind of brings up a weird thing in the comics, for me at least, where you can "hear" a character's voice. The dialogue written on the page you kind of end up associating a "voice" to, for lack of a better term. With Peter and Ben, it's rather easy to hear the same voice since...well, Ben is a clone of Peter.
With Kaine, it's always been a little different for me despite the fact that it's the same thing - Kaine is a clone of Peter, too. Maybe it's because of the way he was portrayed early on or something like that, but Kaine has always been a separate entity in my mind with his own, distinct voice. So, when characters acknowledge him as Ben - or as "Peter", since that's the alias that Ben is living under - it creates kind of a weird feeling for me. Rationally, I know there's no reason for him to not sound exactly like Ben and thus like Peter, but it's just odd.
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| "OH MY GOD! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR FAAAAAAAACE?!" |
Getting back to the plot, however, Slate ends up chiding "Peter" for being out and about when he should be working on his research and thus takes him to the elevator to put him back in his place. After Kaine learning that Ben has quite the hostile work environment, a phone call from Cassandra brings them to see her and little Abigail. With "Peter" being reminded of the goal, Slate takes him back to his lab...where Ben is hanging around and offers to put on a fresh pot of coffee.
By the way, the only reason this happens at all is to let Kaine see the state that Abigail is in (looking pretty ragged, I might add) and for Cassandra to threaten "Peter".
After a brief page of Slate telling Cassandra about his interrogation and him getting the name of "Thorne" from the man - something that Cassandra does not take well to - Ben tries to convince Kaine that he's really done nothing wrong and was only trying to improve people's lives. Kaine takes this well...
...if by 'well', you mean 'punches Ben in the face'.
The two take a tumble out of a glass window and Ben has to quickly rethinking his strategy. Somehow, in between panels, Kaine has changed into the full red and black Scarlet Spider outfit and demands to know why Ben's not wearing the Jackal costume.
Ben says that he isn't the Jackal anymore - he's the Scarlet Spider. Kaine replies with "No, Ben. I am." and the two go head to head after what I assume was a coloring error in which Kaine's defiant "No, I am." is replied to by Kaine saying "You wanna go? Fine." and then Ben shouting "Let's go!". I assume the second statement was part of Ben's response...it just feels weird if it were Kaine saying that, since it seems like the logic lead-in to Ben's call to action.
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| "And we trust our fate to the Heart of the Caaaaaaards!!!!" |
Action, alas, that shall have to wait until Issue #5, where Ben and Kaine get into the real meat of their fight! Who will survive, and what will be left of him? In the end, there can be only one Scarlet Spider! Place your bets!
Next Saturday! Be there!
Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #4 comes to us from Marvel Comics. Written by Peter David, Pencilled by Mark Bagley, Inked by John Dell & Andrew Hennessy, color artist'd by Jason Keith, and lettered by Joe Carmagna. Awesome work!
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