Anybody who wants the "old" Ben Reilly back should read Scarlet Spider #7

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

No spoilers, just read it.

[DebkoX]

OPs name checks out.

[theoneandonly]

I liked the way the whole mess was fixed but I would have preferred death to visit Ben more because he tried to abolish death through his science and showing how death is necessary for life to flourish and his trying to overcome it will imbalance the universe and to show him the grave consequences she designs the test to show him the high cost of restoring life needs a balance like killing Kaine allowed her to restore cassandras daughters life the same way she restored the collector at the expense of the grandmaster thus giving meaning to kaines death but here it seemed just a magical handwaving of all consequences with her visiting him to only warn him of the more you die frequently the more you become evil rule instead of the scenario of trying to convince him that to live forever as clones is violating natures law so she intervened here and gave him a glimpse behind the curtain and restored a single life in exchange of another and convinced him to lay of his experiments as it may imperil the natural order I was expecting. Otherwise what is it to death that a single being becomes evil or not no matter how many times he dies?

[Vworp Vworp]

Read it. Still not feeling it.

As a I said a while back, the problem the book has had up until now hasn't simply just been about NotBen's lack of a moral compass. It's been that NotBen hasn't felt like Ben even beyond that. This character hasn't felt like a sometimes eeeevil Ben. He's just felt like some generic douchey bloke wearing Ben's suit and face. As such, this sudden potential road to redemption still doesn't feel like the return of a recognisable Ben, but simply a means to make the hero of a book maybe a smidgen more hero-like.

As someone who fits the description of those that the OP addressed in the title of this thread, for me this is still too little, too late.

[Huntsman Spider]

I liked the way the whole mess was fixed but I would have preferred death to visit Ben more because he tried to abolish death through his science and showing how death is necessary for life to flourish and his trying to overcome it will imbalance the universe and to show him the grave consequences she designs the test to show him the high cost of restoring life needs a balance like killing Kaine allowed her to restore cassandras daughters life the same way she restored the collector at the expense of the grandmaster thus giving meaning to kaines death but here it seemed just a magical handwaving of all consequences with her visiting him to only warn him of the more you die frequently the more you become evil rule instead of the scenario of trying to convince him that to live forever as clones is violating natures law so she intervened here and gave him a glimpse behind the curtain and restored a single life in exchange of another and convinced him to lay of his experiments as it may imperil the natural order I was expecting. Otherwise what is it to death that a single being becomes evil or not no matter how many times he dies?

I would attribute that to Spider-Verse and its antecedents and spinoffs establishing that Spider-Men (and Women) play a very important part in the course of life and death itself and thus their own deaths --- or worse, their corruption --- cause a very negative metaphysical backlash that even Death herself can feel. That's my personal theory and I'm sticking to it.

[Aioros22]

Read it. Still not feeling it.

As a I said a while back, the problem the book has had up until now hasn't simply just been about NotBen's lack of a moral compass. It's been that NotBen hasn't felt like Ben even beyond that. This character hasn't felt like a sometimes eeeevil Ben. He's just felt like some generic douchey bloke wearing Ben's suit and face. As such, this sudden potential road to redemption still doesn't feel like the return of a recognisable Ben, but simply a means to make the hero of a book maybe a smidgen more hero

As someone who fits the description of those that the OP addressed in the title of this thread, for me this is still too little, too late.

So, apart from not Reading the book at all, what would you suggest? Something more organic in two arcs time? Ben feeling remorse after CC instead of walking into Vegas still feeling a bit devilish?

Mind you, it`s picking up but I don`t think the first arc was strong but given what they left PAD to do, I think he found a good way to clean it up a bit. Personally, I rather he showed up still feeling a bit Anubis Head instead of the writers just trying to clean state out of the gate with the first issue. But sure enough, this was always the goal, plain to see.

[Vworp Vworp]

So, apart from not Reading the book at all, what would you suggest? Something more organic in two arcs time? Ben feeling remorse after CC instead of walking into Vegas still feeling a bit devilish?

Mind you, it`s picking up but I don`t think the first arc was strong but given what they left PAD to do, I think he found a good way to clean it up a bit. Personally, I rather he showed up still feeling a bit Anubis Head instead of the writers just trying to clean state out of the gate with the first issue. But sure enough, this was always the goal, plain to see.

Any kind of real inner conflict in those early issues might have helped (beyond a couple of hallucinations in #1). Or some connection/memories of the character we knew. Instead it's just been douchey NotBen for five issues before the last two issues have seen him suddenly being all about actively stopping villains - an act that felt slightly out of character for the person that David had established in the first 5 issues.

Likewise, the character's remorse at the deaths of Kaine and Abigail also feels so out of the blue. PD initially said that he envisioned this Ben as a character who's moral compass might turn on a whim... but the impression that gave was that it would be a lot more fluid - rather than NotBen being largely unpleasant for 5 issues... and then he's suddenly getting his anti-hero on. It's weird, cos in an another early interview about the book, PD suggested this change was coming. But if it has always been the plan, you have to wonder why there were so few seeds planted from the book's outset.

[classicgmer]

I'll have to wait a couple weeks to get my issue to see what everyone is talking about as I get this series through a subscription but I suspect my reaction will be bittersweet.

I'm guessing Ben is trending more towards the heroic side of things like he showed signs of the prior issue which I suppose is good because it's more familiar to me than morally ambigous/ douchebag Ben but it's also bitter for me because this "journey" Marvel decided to have him embark on to me isn't/wasn't the most compelling for me to begin with so I'll probably give a halfhearted "yay" when I eventually read the issue.

[Celgress]

Might work, we'll see. Considering how those in charge of Marvel have treated the character since his "resurrection", I'm skeptical of this latest development.

[JGC]

Sadly, dropped the book at issue 5. Once Bagley left.

[boots]

Any kind of real inner conflict in those early issues might have helped (beyond a couple of hallucinations in #1). Or some connection/memories of the character we knew. Instead it's just been douchey NotBen for five issues before the last two issues have seen him suddenly being all about actively stopping villains - an act that felt slightly out of character for the person that David had established in the first 5 issues.

Likewise, the character's remorse at the deaths of Kaine and Abigail also feels so out of the blue. PD initially said that he envisioned this Ben as a character who's moral compass might turn on a whim... but the impression that gave was that it would be a lot more fluid - rather than NotBen being largely unpleasant for 5 issues... and then he's suddenly getting his anti-hero on. It's weird, cos in an another early interview about the book, PD suggested this change was coming. But if it has always been the plan, you have to wonder why there were so few seeds planted from the book's outset.

are you buying the book?