The Ben Reilly Saga Concludes
Part VII: The Ben Reilly era as Spider-Man comes to an end…for now
Mainstream superhero comics as an art form have some unique attributes and challenges that make them different from other storytelling mediums. Some popular characters have been written with very few stoppages for over eighty years. When characters have been around that long and developed large fan bases, it can be difficult to make major changes to the status quo and have them stick. There will always be a vocal segment of readers who do not want radical changes to their favorite characters. Some of those fans even become editors years later who can directly impact the direction of a book. Good or bad, this is just the nature of the medium.
Thus it should come as no surprise that Ben Reilly never had a real chance of permanently replacing Peter Parker as Spider-Man. The last few months of 1996 marked the end of Ben Reilly’s time as Spider-Man, but two of the best stories from that era took place simultaneously during that time.
The first such storyline is the Spider-Man: Redemption miniseries from J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck (the same creative team responsible for the legendary “Kraven’s Last Hunt” arc from 1987). The “redemption” referenced in the title applies to the recently resurrected Kaine as he grapples with his own identity and hatred towards his “brother” Ben Reilly. It’s a masterful story that gets at what makes Ben and Kaine who they are, and it lays the groundwork for Kaine’s heroic (anti-heroic?) future in the coming decades. It begins with Kaine once again antagonizing and terrorizing Ben by abducting his girlfriend Janine and faking her death as a means of psychological warfare. As Kaine continues to poke and prod Ben into fighting him, we are treated to Kaine’s inner monologue as much or possibly more so than Ben’s. DeMatteis writes him as filled with self-loathing and suicidal ideation. He wants to destroy Ben out of jealousy, but he wants to destroy himself even more.
Caught in the middle of this fight is poor Janine Godbe. Though Kaine doesn’t kill her, he does set her up to be arrested for the murder of her own father (a murder she did justifiably commit). Ben frees her before she can be sent to jail, but Kaine shows up once again threatening to kill them both. After a short fight, Kaine attempts to commit suicide by cop. Ben saved him; however, and Kaine finally decides to bury the hatchet between the two and turns himself in. Janine does the same as she is tired of running from her past and decides to put herself through the legal system (not a good idea if you ask me). It’s a bittersweet ending to the miniseries, but it once again shows how Ben’s moral compass never waivers as he preserves through tragedy.
The other story that was being told concurrently in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man was a tie-in to the companywide “Onslaught” event spiraling out of the X-Men line of comics (I might have to cover that in full one day as well). The Spider-Man tie-ins start with Amazing Spider-Man #415 by Tom DeFalco and Mark Bagley. All you really need to know at this point is the supervillain Onslaught has essentially taken over Manhattan and is blockading the island using Sentinels (the giant robots that traditionally are used to hunt mutants). In this case, Onslaught has rewired them to target anyone with superhuman abilities. This becomes a problem for Peter Parker and Mary Jane as a Sentinel attacks their taxi registering that Peter has superpowers. Peter does what you would expect and gets Mary Jane out of harm’s way while trying to protect as many civilians as possible. Meanwhile, Ben swings into action as Spider-Man and goes toe-to-toe with a Sentinel himself. Ben comes out on top after a vicious battle that ends with him tearing the Sentinel’s head in two.
The story picks up in Spider-Man #72 by Howard Mackie and John Romita, Jr. It opens with Peter taking photos of the Sentinels patrolling Manhattan before seeing two Sentinels in hot pursuit of Spider-Man. Ben ends up taking on three Sentinels at the same time. He immobilizes one by webbing up its legs, and he takes out another by heaving a car into its face. The third manages to grab Ben, but Peter jumps in to distract it and give Ben enough time to escape. The two flee into the sewer system to catch a short reprieve. Ben gives Peter one of his webshooters and tells him to go be with his family as he waits for the Sentinels to find him. They quickly do so, and Ben begins to do battle with them. Unsurprisingly, Peter shows back up to help (because with great power comes great responsibility), and the two successfully defeat the mechanical monstrosities before running off to the main event book.
These two issues do an excellent job of highlighting what make these two characters special. They’re both utterly selfless and will do whatever it takes to save others regardless of how hopeless the situation appears. Both issues are also filled to the brim with high octane action sequences drawn by two of the best artists in the business.
Following the “Onslaught” tie-in issues, all of the ongoing Spider-Man books shift focus back to clone shenanigans. Specifically the characters of Gaunt and Scrier take center stage. Both have been lurking from the shadows during the “Clone Saga,” and both have had their true identities be the source of mystery. Gaunt is revealed to be Mendel Stromm, previously known as the villainous Robot Master, in Sensational Spider-Man #11 by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo. I don’t know that this reveal had the desired impact on readers, but it does make logical sense that a villain known for a mastery of robotics would be the cyborg villain. For those not familiar with Stromm’s background, he was formerly Norman Osborn’s partner in the early days of OsCorp. This bit of information should give away who Stromm’s current master is in Scrier.
Things continue in Amazing Spider-Man #418 by Tom DeFalco and Steve Skroce. Ben (now aided by Peter) continues his fight with Stromm while Mary Jane is in the hospital giving birth to her and Peter’s child. Ben and Peter defeat Stromm, and Ben begins to question him as Peter runs off to be with Mary Jane. Before he can get any answers, Ben is attacked by an unknown figure (Ben sees his face, but the readers don’t). Whoever this figure is (surely you can guess by now), he manages to knock Ben unconscious. Back at the hospital, Mary Jane is told her baby was stillborn as a nurse with a sinister grin on her face leaves the hospital with a container heading to her car. She drives off to a secluded dock where she delivers the package to none other than Norman Osborn.
So there you have it. Norman Osborn has been the secret villain throughout the “Clone Saga” over the last few years. The implication of this last page is that Osborn either faked the death of Mary Jane and Peter’s baby or had the baby killed and retrieved the remains. Either way, this plot point IS NEVER ADDRESSED AGAIN IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. I’m serious. Norman never reveals anything to Peter about the baby in any future comic. It’s never touched upon again. This issue came out almost twenty-five years ago. I cannot emphasize enough how totally bonkers it is that this has never been resolved. I’m flabbergasted to this day.
Anyway, the “Clone Saga” officially concludes in Spider-Man #75 by Howard Mackie and John Romita, Jr. Norman sets a trap for Peter at the hospital to have him hit with some knockout gas so he could take him to his hideout and have a villainous monologue where he reveals his master plan. Here is where we find out that Norman was behind the “Clone Saga” from the start. He had manipulated the test results that had shown Peter to be the clone and Ben to be the original. The truth was that Ben was always the clone, and Norman was using this to try to ruin Peter’s life. Norman dons his classic Green Goblin costume (and puts Peter in his classic Spider-Man costume), and he and Peter do battle just like the good old days. After one of the most savage fights the two have ever had, Norman tries his old trick of stabbing Peter in the back with his Goblin Glider only for Ben Reilly to show up and jump in the way at the last second. The mortally wounded Ben Reilly then plummets off the building they were fighting on and lands on a parked car on the street below. Peter uses that moment to grab a bag full of Pumpkin Bombs and heave them at Green Goblin, defeating him. Peter then rushes down below to check on Ben who dies in his arms and dissolves into dust, proving that he was the clone all along. A short time later, Peter takes Ben’s remains in an urn atop the Brooklyn Bridge and scatters them to the wind while saying goodbye to his “brother” for the last time. In an epilogue, a badly burned Norman Osborn leaves the scene of his latest defeat.
Thus concludes the “Clone Saga” and the story of Ben Reilly (for now). It’s a poignant ending to this run that began over two years ago (or over two decades ago if you are including the first appearance of the clone). There were certainly plenty of faults and missteps along the way, but Ben Reilly proved his mettle time and again as a truly heroic figure who deserved to be called Spider-Man while being written and drawn by some truly great creators.
Ben would eventually be brought back in The Clone Conspiracy (2016) event comic from Dan Slott and Jim Cheung (albeit as the new incarnation of the villainous Jackal with none of his previously established character traits). From there he’d get a new Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider (2017) ongoing series from Peter David and Mark Bagley (also as a mentally disturbed anti-hero) and appear in the Spider-Geddon (2018) event comic from Christos Gage, Dan Slott, and Jorge Molina where his personality would finally revert back to his ‘90s heroic version.
Now you can read the adventures of Ben Reilly as Spider-Man once more in the current ongoing Amazing Spider-Man title with such creators as Zeb Wells, Kelly Thompson, Saladin Ahmed, Cody Ziglar, Patrick Gleason, and Sara Pichelli weaving brand new stories for the wall-crawler. Then in 2022 there will be a new miniseries from J.M. DeMatteis and David Baldeon as they tell some previously untold stories from Ben’s first stint as Spider-Man in the ‘90s in the appropriately titled Ben Reilly: Spider-Man. There has truly never been a better time to be a fan of Ben Reilly. Hopefully it remains that way.