So just as the title asks, what are your thoughts on the recent Peter David Ben Reiley book? Did you enjoy the writing? What about the art? No spoilers, please!
So just as the title asks, what are your thoughts on the recent Peter David Ben Reiley book? Did you enjoy the writing? What about the art? No spoilers, please!
The book is pretty tight for the first arc when God Bagley is on it, then the plot kinda goes off the rails and starts meandering too hard, the old PAD problem of jamming stuff in from his old work strikes again, the art starts rotating between artists with totally different styles (although in a vaccuum everything looked good), a lot of the conflicts will get very suddenly resolved, and issues will just be pretty empty and fly by. Not really recommended.
The ending is goddamn gold, though.
I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate
It features Ben teaming up with Kaine and the Slingers.
'Nuff said.
-Pav, who was glad to have it...
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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Ben Reilly was all over the place, ending ignored in spidergeddon, too much emphasis on the supernatural in a book that started as a character study. Only recommend the stuff with Kaine and some of the slingers stuff.
IMO, it was a hot mess but given its source material (the abomination that was Clone Conspiracy Ben) that is to be expected.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."
As someone who grew up started reading Spider-Man around the mid-nineties clone saga, I was hoping for some more bonds of relevance from that period, than just Ben and Kaine. Jessica? Desiree? Janine? The Daily Grind Gang? Or his original arch-nemesis, Carolyn Trainer Doctor Octopus?
Last edited by Celgress; 05-12-2019 at 09:18 PM.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."
This book was a complete mess, and I don’t think PAD is really to blame.
To me, it looks like PAD was told he is being given a beloved character to rejuvenate as he sees fit with superstar artist Mark Bagley... As long as the main reference point for the character was the Clone Conspiracy.
But then he got hit by a revolving door of artists, was told he to tie into other books, insert certain themes, use certain characters, and, finally, that everything he had written would be completely ignored as someone else had already written the last story arc for him.
It would explain why the final issue feels like such a massive F**K YOU, which I never felt was aimed at the reader or Ben’s fans (although some took it that way).
I think the first arc, maybe a bit more, was what PAD had planned and everything afterwards was him scrambling to course adjust under constantly shifting editorial whims. He dealt with the same stuff, to a degree, on SM 2099. It was a decent effort, PAD’s talent was evident as always, his craft is still something to be admired, but even if I’m not 100% with my take on this, he was dealt a bad hand with that ending.
Now, that first arc wasn’t what I wanted, anyway. Not PAD’s fault necessarily, as I’m pretty sure this would have been decided by editorial, but I wanted to see Ben back in New York, revisiting old friends, landmarks, enemies. I wanted to see Ben interact with MJ, Norman Osborn, Carolyn Trainer. I wanted to see Ben gravitate towards Peter, his “brother”, for better or worse. Imagine a truly heroic Kaine determined to keep Ben from peter, paralleling his original role, but with the hero and villain roles reversed.
Most importantly, both Ben and Kaine’s solo series’ failed to explore what I see as the basis of their characters; how would Peter react under different circumstances? Both series spent so much time trying to build Ben and Kaine as their own characters away from Peter, that they keep forgetting that they ARE Peter. To my mind, that is the entire appeal of these characters, and clone stories in general. Peter Parker doesn’t kill, so how does he (Ben) deal with the fact that he has killed? Does he now see himself as the villain? Does he still believe in his work at New U? Does he try to rebuild?
It’s fine to gloss over these things in The Clone Conspiracy, as it is from Peter’s perspective, not Ben’s. I’d probably be the only guy buying it, but I would have loved the first 12 or so issues to be the entire Clone Conspiracy again from Ben’s perspective. Building New U, developing relationships with the “resurrected”, realising Peter isn’t going to see him as the hero he believes himself to be.
On a lighter note, can we all at least all agree that there shouldn’t be mouth holes on “Spider-man” costumes? As if Spidercide weren't warning enough.
"Has Sariel summoned you here, Azrael? Have you come to witness the miracle of your brethren arriving on Earth?"
"I WILL MIX THE ASHES OF YOUR BONES WITH SALT AND USE THEM TO ENSURE THE EARTH THE TEMPLARS TILLED NEVER BEARS FRUIT AGAIN!"
"*sigh* I hoped it was for the miracle."
Dan Watters' Azrael was incredible, a constant delight and perhaps too good for this world (but not the Forth). For the love of St. Dumas, DC, give us more!!!
To clarify, David only took the job because Ben came back interstin-- I mean, unhinged.
I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate
Started out strong (even though Ben was basically acting and looking like Deadpool. Heck, even Lady Death was hanging out with him!) but completely fell apart around that event tie-in with Dr. Strange and the other mystic characters.
"The White Queen welcomes you, TO DIE!"
I would have loved to see that story.
Damn right. It's why I'd prefer, if Scarlet Spider ever gets another try, that J.M. DeMatteis return (with Chris Yost tagging along) to script it.
Hmm, there was a slight difference. Mistress Death was attracted to Wade/Deadpool because of how much he wanted to die and how they kept getting pulled apart by his healing factor, whereas with Ben, she was fascinated by how many times he'd died and been reanimated and the negative cumulative effects on his soul. That said, I did like their dynamic.
The spider is always on the hunt.
I liked it for a bit, but I definitely fell off with its tie-in to Damnation. Only bought it for Kaine.
Continuity, even in a "shared" comics universe is often insignificant if not largely detrimental to the quality of a comic.
Immortal X-Men - Once & Future- X-Cellent - X-Men: Red
Nobody cares about what you don't like, they barely care about what you do like.
meh.
i kept trying to like it, since i was a massive reilly fan as a kid. but that's not necessarily the fault of the creative team...you can't recapture those feels again. even the issues i thought were good, didn't really motivate me to keep reading.
troo fan or death