Quote Originally Posted by HypnoHustler View Post
What would be hand waved? Do you mean just SS#24-25? That I'm okay with. But I wouldn't want the entire 2 year PAD run to be retconned if that's what you mean.

Nothing personal, but I'm generally not a fan of "it was all a dream/ it was all an illusion" stories. I find them to be a cheap cop-out. I don't even like them when they retcons runs I'm not a fan of. For example, PAD basically did that to Bruce Jones 'Incredible Hulk' run when he came back for a few issues in the mid 2000s. I thought the Jones run was convoluted and overwrought, but I still thought it was a terribly lazy "out" for PAD just to have years of stories turn out to be an elaborate illusion by Nightmare.

Anyway... I think Clone Conspiracy #5 pretty much fixed Ben. He's back to "factory settings" as he said. Which means he probably just wants a normal life again, and isn't hunting down people on a 'revenge' list, tempting as that scenario may be.

I'd love to see him go back to 'The Daily Grind', but as others have said it's probably a Starbucks now. ��
I think you mean Spider-Geddon #5, since Clone Conspiracy #5 (or #4 before it) was what damaged Ben as a character in the first place. Him becoming the Jackal as a way to make sense out of what'd been done to him and make his torturous resurrection not be for nothing was a good angle that could've worked, but sending him right into psychotic supervillain territory as soon as Peter told him he was wrong and called him out using the memory of Uncle Ben to punctuate why he was wrong was not a good look by any means. Thankfully, now that Ben's soul is fixed, he can finally move past what was done to him in a more constructive, or at least less destructive, manner and we as fans can start putting it behind us, I would hope.