Your Friendly Neighborhood Ben Reilly
Part VI: Ben Reilly finally takes up the Spider-Man mantle
With Peter Parker (who was previously revealed to be a clone) and Mary Jane riding off into the sunset, Ben Reilly has become New York’s only webslinger. To acknowledge this change in status quo, Marvel renamed all of the Spider-Man titles after Scarlet Spider (i.e. Amazing Spider-Man became Amazing Scarlet Spider, Spectacular Spider-Man became Spectacular Scarlet Spider, etc.). This lasted a handful of issues as Ben takes on a few villains before finally shedding the Scarlet Spider identity and adopting the Spider-Man mantle in Sensational Spider-Man #0.
It’s a fun little one-off story from Dan Jurgens and Klaus Janson as Ben brainstorms costume ideas before settling on his new look (including cutting his hair and dying it blonde). Once he has his look nailed down, he goes off to fight a villain named Armada whom we learn is working for Mysterio. The whole comic is meant to both establish Ben as the new Spider-Man and establish Sensational Spider-Man as the new flagship Spider-Man title.
The biggest winner here is the costume itself. It still retains all of the elements that make the original a classic (red and blue color scheme, webbing pattern against the red, spider logo on the chest, etc.) while adding just enough to set it apart (much larger spider logo, different color pattern on the hands, visible web cartridges on the wrists). Part of the appeal for me might be nostalgia since this happened while I was reading the character as a kid, but I genuinely love this costume. I think it’s on par with the classic Spider-Man suit, and it looks great on the page. Mark Bagley is credited with designing the costume, and Dan Jurgens was the first artist to draw it on the page.
The story threads introduced in Sensational Spider-Man #0 are picked up in Amazing Spider-Man #407 by Tom DeFalco and Mark Bagley (all of the Scarlet Spider titles reverted back to their original names except for Web of Scarlet Spider which was canceled altogether and replaced with Sensational Spider-Man) as Ben fights Sandman (at the behest of Silver Sable who wanted to test this new Spider-Man) with Mysterio lurking in the shadows. The important thing to note here is that all of the Spider-Man titles at this point are very solid Spider-Man books with strong creative teams. You had Tom DeFalco and Mark Bagley on Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Jurgens on Sensational Spider-Man, Howard Mackie and John Romita, Jr. on Spider-Man, and Todd DeZago and Sal Buscema on Spectacular Spider-Man. If there’s one complaint I have, it’s the same one I’ve had since the start of the “Clone Saga”: each story arc crosses over through all of the ongoing titles. This is an issue with a lot of Marvel titles throughout the ‘90s. I’d prefer to see each ongoing title operate mostly independent of the others to allow those creative teams to tell their own stories within the shared continuity of that universe (much like how the Spider-Man books worked prior to “Maximum Carnage”). That minor quibble aside, these books hit the ground running. The first storyline involves Ben dealing with a revamped Mysterio (this new one ditched the fish bowl!) called “Media Blizzard” where he’s basically an evil television executive (redundant) trying to get people addicted to his program to boost ratings. It’s a pretty fun little story.
The next arc is called “The Return of Kaine” which is about…the return of Kaine. Remember when Kaine was murdered by Spidercide? Well he got better. The key takeaways from this arc are that Kaine is back, he and Ben team up to fight Rhino at one point, and it ends with Kaine and Ben fighting each other. It’s another fun little story whose real legacy is setting up the Spider-Man: Redemption miniseries from J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck. We’ll be covering that one in a later piece.
After that is a fan favorite arc called “Web of Carnage” where Ben gets bonded to the Carnage symbiote and must try to fight its murderous influence. It’s a fan favorite (this fan included) because it’s a badass character design, and we got to see it drawn by legendary artists Mark Bagley, John Romita, Jr., and Sal Buscema.
The next arc (called “Blood Brothers”) introduces a new cyborg villain called Gaunt who is interested in both Ben Reilly and Peter Parker. It is hinted that Gaunt is someone previously established in Spider-Man’s life. To make matters worse, Hobgoblin enters the fray wearing a new black costume and boosted with new cybernetic enhancements courtesy of Gaunt. I distinctly remember while reading this at the time that the writers wanted fans to think Gaunt was Harry Osborn who had been killed off just three years earlier. There were references to Harry and his family during this arc, but that turned out to be a red herring. Unfortunately, this is also the arc where we learn that the “Clone Saga” hasn’t actually ended and is revving up for the next chapter. Gaunt has been tormenting Ben and Peter from behind the scenes for longer than we had realized, and to make matters more complicated he is revealed to have been just doing the bidding of some other puppeteer lurking in the shadows.
After the conclusion of that arc, we get some stories contained within their respective titles that don’t spread out across all of the Spider-Man books. It’s a nice change of pace. One of the more memorable stories takes place in Spectacular Spider-Man as we’re reintroduced to the original Lizard (Curt Connors) who kills the more animalistic Lizard we had seen throughout the ‘90s. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that the Marvel vs. DC crossover took place around this time. It’s notable if only because it includes a Spider-Man fight with Superboy in Marvel Versus DC #3 wherein the Ben Reilly Spider-Man defeats Superboy.
Next week we’ll dive into the Spider-Man issues that tie into the “Onslaught” event, the Spider-Man: Redemption miniseries, and the end of the first Ben Reilly Spider-Man era. It’s gonna be a doozy.
Side note: as of this writing there have been three issues of Amazing Spider-Man starring Ben Reilly as Spider-Man again that have been released. Amazing Spider-Man #75-76 were by Zeb Wells and Patrick Gleason, and Amazing Spider-Man #77 was by Kelly Thompson and Sara Pichelli. All three have been great, and I highly recommend reading them if you have been enjoying this retrospective series on Ben Reilly.