WEB OF REFLECTION: BEN REILLY

THE MANY SPIDER-MEN PART II:

WEB OF REFLECTION: BEN REILLY

by Hector Ramirez

Hello Clashers, your friendly neighborhood Clasher here. It’s that time of the month where us Clashers become crawlers swingers and slingers, of the wall and web variety that is. It’s time for another 50 year anniversary celebration of the spectacular, sensational, amazing and just recently fantastic, and avenging SPIDERMAN. Now last month  I took you all into the future for a look at how Miguel O’Hara did things as the wall crawler. Well this week we take a look at Ben Reilly and his reign as the web slinger. So follow me through New York as we take a look how Peter’s clone filled in for him.

            Dr. Miles “The Jackal” Warren became obsessed with Peter Parker and his girlfriend Gwen Stacy and decides to clone them….repeatedly. After finally perfecting a Peter clone he convinced him that Peter was in fact the clone. A huge fight ensues which ends with Peter throwing the clone into a smoke stack, leaving him for dead. The clone, who actually survived, climbs out and instead of trying to interfere with Peter decides to start a life of his own. After spending several years traveling the world under the assumed name Ben Reilly (Ben in memory of his late uncle and Reilly Aunt May’s maiden name) keeping tabs on Peter through Aunt May claiming to be a long lost cousin, decided to return to New York. Dying his hair so that people wouldn’t recognize him as Peter, Ben takes on odd jobs around the city and wall crawling as the Scarlet Spider. Eventually Ben and Peter meet and team up keeping up the charade of Ben being a distant cousin. The two became close, (makes sense they’re basically the same person) so when Peter decides he wants to call it quits, Ben, reluctantly at first, takes on the mantle. (Not like many other people could.)

             To feel like his own man, Ben designed a new costume, which was a revamp (and in my opinion an improvement) on the classic red and blue costume. At this time Ben and Peter have been misled to believe that Ben was the real Peter under the orders of Norman Osborn. Because of the different costume the Daily Bugle ran a story claiming New York Had a new Spiderman but later dropped the story when given evidence to the contrary. Only a select few who knew Peter as Spiderman knew the truth. During that time Ben went through quite a bit, like being bonded with the Carnage symbiote for a short time. 


          Ben found a steady job at a restaurant before it was burned down by the Hobgoblin who framed Ben for the arson had his bank account frozen and robbed him of everything. Peter and Mary Jane returned to New York from Portland right before many of New York’s Heroes disappeared during the Onslaught incident. During this time Peter dawned his costume to help keep New York safe under the watchful eye of two Spidermen. Eventually this also came to an end when Norman Osborn finally came out of hiding. Mockingly admitting that it was he who had misled them to break Peter’s spirits and revealing was in fact the clone. A battle between the three ensues ending with Ben being impaled by the goblin glider and disintegratingas ben dies Peter leaves him wit the final words "rest easy ....brother". 


    Ben Reilly brings new characters from his travels into the world of Spiderman, making it that much more interesting. When he wore the webs, there was a fresh twist on Spidey while retaining all that made the title what it was. Well, that's all for now. Until next time friends, keep clashing.

#47 VENOM: CIRCLE OF FOUR

Venom:Circle of Four

by Hector Ramirez

Written by Rick Remender

Art by Stefano Caselli & Walt Simonson

            Hey there Clashers, Hector here coming at you with one "Hell" of a review. This week, we'll  be looking at a story that takes it's four heroes to Hell and back, literally, in this storyline Marvel brings together one of the most ragtag bunch of 3rd generation heroes and really give them their own purpose. So, grab your spf 666 and let us descend shall we.

            Story starts off with Flash "Venom" Thompson having gone AWOL after the government attempted to remove the symbiote from him. Thunderbolt"Red Hulk" Ross is sent after him to bring him in. Meanwhile , Johnny Blaze is training Alejandra, the newest Ghost Rider, who is less than grateful to say the least. At this time, Blackheart has launched a plan to bring Hell to Earth with Sin City itself as the doorway. Once Hell was brought to Earth, he planned on using an army of symbiote clones of X-23 to overtake his father as King of Hell. X-23 was on a mission to make sure her DNA wasn't used for such heinous purposes. Blackheart tricks Alejandra to open the portal and keep it open. Johnny agrees to take her place while she teams up with the other three to stop Blackheart.

            Hell on Earth has been done over and over again in  all forms of media but this was different. Storywise, it was enjoyable, not cliche or slow. Usually, in these kinds of stories, there would be one, shining, divine hero. Instead, we got 4 questionable heroes. It had action even with the hell mumbo jumbo. It was fast paced, exciting and different. The art was great. No complaints there. It really complimented the story. It wasn't too cartoony or artsy, yet not too realistic. Overall, it was a good book but not great. I dont know just didnt exactly blow my mind. I give it a Red Robin (3 out of 5).  Well, that's all for now. Until next time Clashers, keep clashing.