You were Spider-Man then. You and Peter had agreed on it. But he came back right when you started feeling comfortable.
You know what it means when he comes back.
"You're not the better one, Peter. You're just older."
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Kaine is on a suicide mission, according to Christopher Priest's Spider-Force solicits. The others . . . maybe Marvel's just determined to trash everything related to Spider-Man in the 90s that they thought was a mistake, in which case I wouldn't be surprised if they brought back Black Tarantula just to have him killed off or irreparably ruined, too.
The spider is always on the hunt.
Disliking one story doesn't mean someone has completely lost their touch. Writers should take risks, and sometimes those don't pan out.
What other work of his do you dislike? And what specifically do you dislike about the writing?
You're saying some rather aggressive stuff, but being vague about your objections.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
I hope not! Then how would I ever write a Web of... series in which the Black Tarantula tries to take command of the Web of Life by gathering spider spirits like Doppelganger and The Thousand, thus gaining favor with the Harrah Harrah Spiderdemons -- and Spidey caught in the middle of it all?!?!
-Pav, who loves Bride of Nine Spiders too...
You were Spider-Man then. You and Peter had agreed on it. But he came back right when you started feeling comfortable.
You know what it means when he comes back.
"You're not the better one, Peter. You're just older."
--------------------
Closet full of comics? Consider donating to my school! DM for details
That sounds like a great idea for an epic Spider-Man story, although how would he bring back the Thousand? Last I saw, he was reduced to one spider instead of one thousand and that spider got squished by some random passerby. Hmm, considering Bride of Nine Spiders is a walking hive of spiders herself . . .
The spider is always on the hunt.
You could take every 90s clone saga fan still buying monthly books and it wouldn't make big sales. Spider-Man in a hoodie is not going to get people buying in 2018, the book needed a hook and bringing back Ben as a villain and then spinning him off into his own book were he seeks redemption is one that has a proven track record of working for similar characters. I know you have a very strong dislike for Dan Slott and we can debate the merits of The Clone Conspiracy as a story but the premise for a Ben Reilly book was solid.
To be fair PAD did not fumble the ball so much as he worked an entirely different play to what fans and I suspect even Marvel wanted out a Ben Reilly relaunch. Ben was broken be his experiences portrayed in the Clone Conspiracy (being repeatedly killed and resurrected) but still wanted to do good in his waped own way and seeing it all blow up in his face realized that wasn't the way. This left the wide open for any kind of characterization PAD wanted. What fans assumed we'd get was a damaged Ben trying to redeem himself. What we got was what if Spider-Man was a complete jerk and insane and amoral (charging victims of crime to rescued, working with gangsters, lying about having a cure for a sick child).
What we should have seen was him being more harsher with criminals particularly those endangering lives (since he had a thing about death), less social but over several arcs gain new friendships and relationships which help to soften him so he becomes more like the Ben Reilly of old. Cliched but it works.
What we got was big cosmic story lines about the fate of Ben's soul. I know that fans loved when Death healed his scars and took away his insanity because they thought it was an insta-fix but he still acted like a jerk at times but it also set the template of all these dark cosmic forces playing with Ben. I get that PAD was trying to be meta and show how the character is subject to the whims of the higher powers but what does any of that have to do with Ben Reilly?
It might have been been palletable for longtime readers if he'd mixed in some classic characters. Janine is generally regarded as Ben's #1 interest and as someone who took a dark path herself she could have been a good character to have around. Instead we got a lot of callbacks to PAD's previous work and even bizarrely the Slingers who got a comeback that built on their last story. We didn't even get a proper conflict with Kaine, we should have gotten something which is a surprisingly deep brotherly relationship by 90s comic standards. PAD got that they had something of a twisted familial bond but instead of the relationship they had we got two childish jerks that are frenemys.
Peter David has done some amazing work over the years and has probably earned Marvel giving him a book that will last twenty or so issues to do what he wants. I just wish he didn't do it with a character that has been unfairly treated enough already.
Last edited by Orbus; 10-11-2018 at 06:05 PM.
i'm with you on some of this. i feel like ben as villain/anti hero/path to redemption might have worked...it just never felt earned.
for the character or the audience.
the character just returns after 20 years in a totally different state and it was too hard for audiences to bridge the gap between the iterations. a 1 page explanation in clone conspiracy just did not cut it. Even if we were able to understand his "fall from grace" logically, we couldn't empathise emotionally.
something like what waid did in "irredeemable" would work. a series of flashbacks, showing ben's struggle with his mental illness and to fight the degredation of his character over time...snippets that build into a full picture of what brought ben to the state he's in today.
otherwise it's a big black hole that nobody can fill in.
troo fan or death
i had a flick through in store...it was a really abrupt ending. it felt like it should have a "to be continued" there.
i agree with pav that PAD obviously wanted us to know ben was under the thumb of greater forces than he could control...whoever that cassandra or whatever was on the last page.
it seems...logical...to me that ben will at least be used as a pawn by these dark forces in future. which means he may stick around long enough to free himself from it all.
orrrr....they kill him again.
my only point with hal (who was also killed a few times, and committed bigger atrocities than ben) is that comic book redemption is possible for anyone. as to whether marvel want to? that's a different question
troo fan or death