Spider-Geddon #5 and Ben Reilly (SPOILERS)

[boots]

Boots, sometimes I think we were separated at birth. This is pretty much exactly what I was going to say.
..

or clones? am i the scarlet pav?

[boots]

I don't think Ben's all the way "fixed." He's just fully in his right mind again, but that doesn't mean he won't have to deal with what happened to him or what he did afterwards. The only thing that should have meaningfully changed is that now he's in a spiritually healthier place where he can assess his own actions with clear eyes and make amends with a clear mind and soul.

i take your point, and we can’t base too much on 1 line in 1 panel

[parker stark]

I wish they would do an "Omega Hulk" story, where someone goes around wiping out Spider characters. Leaving only Peter & Miles, plus Gwen & Spider-Woman (Jessica) & Silk!

[Kurolegacy]

I wish they would do an "Omega Hulk" story, where someone goes around wiping out Spider characters. Leaving only Peter & Miles, plus Gwen & Spider-Woman (Jessica) & Silk!

I hate stories like that. Even if people find the characters to be derivatives, that doesn’t mean that those characters don’t have fans and just wiping them out will always be seen to me as lazy writing at it’s finest because it not only limits others from using them but ends up with the sentiment of if you can’t figure out what to do with them then you might as well poison the well.

[Tien Long]

As for me, Ben's redemption seem very quick and easy. He was just recloned and poof, "I'm back to normal." That's it. Honestly, I think that was needed. PAD's run on Scarlet Spider was strange. I've not read the last issue of the series, so I can't comment on it, but the series was odd. Mainly, I found it difficult to get a bead on Ben's personality. But if everything is factory reset, if Ben is back to being the heroic guy who though a clone was able to forge some kind of life for himself, I'm all for it.

Moving forward, hell yeah, I'd like to see a Scarlet Spiders series starring Ben and Kaine. Throw in the Slingers for more of that 90s Spider-Man feel. With that series, Ben and Kaine could go through more of the wringer than Peter. Being the clones, they could get a bit more beat up than Pete. Definitely like the idea of Pete, Ben, and Kaine hanging out and bonding as bros.

[Vegeta]

Seems like the best Spider-Man moments nowadays revolve around undoing the bad decisions made by the previous writers. (Spidey and MJ getting back together, Felicia no longer a villain, and now Ben Reilly.)

[Hypestyle]

So Ben and Kaine are still around now? What is their m.o. going forward?

what kind of genuine personality distinctions are there with Ben and Kaine, other than more or less, Kaine's willing to kill people and Ben, well, was also killing folks as the Jackal, then, regrets it now it's all ok?

this is still problematic on some level, unless you put them on another world entirely. (or the Guardians of the Galaxy, hint) You just end up with "spider-man in [insert city besides NYC]"

[MJM Mystery Writer]

So Ben and Kaine are still around now? What is their m.o. going forward?

what kind of genuine personality distinctions are there with Ben and Kaine, other than more or less, Kaine's willing to kill people and Ben, well, was also killing folks as the Jackal, then, regrets it now it's all ok?

this is still problematic on some level, unless you put them on another world entirely. (or the Guardians of the Galaxy, hint) You just end up with "spider-man in [insert city besides NYC]"

Are you kidding? This has great potential. The original Hawk & Dove series was about 2 BROTHERS who handled justice in different ways. A Scarlet Spiders series could use the Hawk & Dove series as a blueprint as how to make this work.

Read the Maximum Clonage mini-series or the Redemption storyline with Kaine & Ben. In those stories, Ben is a lot like the original Dove character. Since the clone saga of the 90's, Kaine has been reformed to be an anti-hero instead of the villain he used to be, so imagine how their interaction could be now as they fight crime together.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

So Ben and Kaine are still around now? What is their m.o. going forward?

what kind of genuine personality distinctions are there with Ben and Kaine, other than more or less, Kaine's willing to kill people and Ben, well, was also killing folks as the Jackal, then, regrets it now it's all ok?

this is still problematic on some level, unless you put them on another world entirely. (or the Guardians of the Galaxy, hint) You just end up with "spider-man in [insert city besides NYC]"

Ben didn't kill anyone (though he did try a couple of times).

[Huntsman Spider]

Ben didn't kill anyone (though he did try a couple of times).

Unless we count the original Jackal in that burning safehouse in ASM 24 by Dan Slott, though since none of The Clone Conspiracy would've happened without the original Jackal's psychotic machinations, it's probably not that big a loss.

[Spiderfang]

I wish they would do an "Omega Hulk" story, where someone goes around wiping out Spider characters. Leaving only Peter & Miles, plus Gwen & Spider-Woman (Jessica) & Silk!

Lol no thanks, we already have enough "-verse" events with nigh god-tier unstoppable plot-protected villains who have managed to do that to some of the more interesting spiders. What probably be an even bigger challenge, and subjectively more interesting would be an event or on-going series where said spiders were handed over to capable writers who were actually competent enough to use them.

[SuperiorIronman]

I wish they would do an "Omega Hulk" story, where someone goes around wiping out Spider characters. Leaving only Peter & Miles, plus Gwen & Spider-Woman (Jessica) & Silk!

Pro-tip, never do that unless absolutely necessary. You alienate fans with that and just makes whoever is doing it look like a bad writer because they can't figure out what to do with perfectly marketable materials. That also runs risk of burning bridges at the offices, and it can make things harder on future writers who want to use the characters.

The easiest thing is to write them out for a little bit. Killing characters off just to have the people you like still standing is always a terrible idea when it comes to the health of a franchise.

[LK3185]

There's probably too many spider-people running around but at the same time, a good writer can find ways to use certain spiders instead of just killing them off randomly.. it also loses impact if you kill off a bunch of characters in one fell swoop

[HypnoHustler]

I wish they would do an "Omega Hulk" story, where someone goes around wiping out Spider characters. Leaving only Peter & Miles, plus Gwen & Spider-Woman (Jessica) & Silk!

Wait... you want to kill all the cool Spider characters like Ben, Kaine and Miguel, but save Spider-Gwen... and Silk??

Lol no thanks.

Also, they already did that story. It was called Grim Hunt and came out in either 2010 or 2011.

[Spiderfang]

Wait... you want to kill all the cool Spider characters like Ben, Kaine and Miguel, but save Spider-Gwen... and Silk??

Lol no thanks.

Also, they already did that story. It was called Grim Hunt and came out in either 2010 or 2011.

Yea they sound like they're probably plants from Marvel's editorial.