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Zdarsky does it again. A lot of things come to a head this issue.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Being named Ben Parker is really a curse. Poor Parker family...
On a side note, Claire really should have been named Mayday. This issue really seems to exemplify that point in my mind.
Well in 616...and Spider-Verse and Spider-Geddon happened in 616 continuity so it counts...
spoilers:end of spoilers
Benjy Parker did survive Spider-Verse, and Ben Reilly eventually returned after a fashion. So I don't think it's a cursed name, but yeah Life Story is a concept that invites some amount of tragedy, and having Peter's choices indirectly lead to first his father figure's death and then his own son's, and both being named Ben, is obviously irresistible.
I think Benjy Parker's death here is closer to Ultimate Peter Parker's. He dies quipping against a bad guy who attacked his family at his home, and sacrifices himself for his family. Claire holding Benjy's body is similar to how Death of Spider-Man ends. And of course, there's the awful tragedy in that Claire is the one who causes this. She's the one who convinced Peter to go to New York, keeping him away from his family. If Peter was there, maybe Ben would have survived. Man, poor MJ, seeing her own son die before her.
And of course, Zdarsky just then has to cut to this superhero battle and that just feels so meaningless and disgusting. I mean it's one thing to say superhero in-fighting is pointless and petty, and another to just demonstrate it without stating it. And that ending with Cap reminding Peter about the next generation they have to pass stuff onto. And politically of course it captures the mood of the Dubya era well. Nobody learned anything from Vietnam, old people sent young people to die in Iraq for a pointless war, and of course Zdarsky doing Spider-Man lifting machinery but here it's the ruins of the WTC in a flashback where Peter was near Ground Zero attending Jameson's funeral in New York...it's just the right kind of subversion. Taking Spider-Man's great triumph and undercutting it by placing it against what is the biggest failure in America's military and intelligence institution's history.
On a lighter note, seeing Betty Brant become the new person in charge of the Daily Bugle is wonderful. I think if you go back and read LF#1 where Betty was a secretary and now see this, it becomes poignant
I freaking love this series. It will go down in Spider-Man history as one of the characters' best.
All Zdarsky has to do is stick the landing for the last issue. I mean as this comic's final panels goes through, Zdarsky knows that Peter is just ignorant of what just happened to him and that it's too painful to see his reaction which is why it ends on an all-black panel.
Trying to imagine what Peter would be like in the final issue, which takes place in 2019, 13 years after this issue is a steep challenge indeed.
Aaaaand another extremely good issue. Can't say the outcome surprised me since I expected that to happen the moment I saw the preview, but a really good series nonetheless .
This run is amazing no pun attended. My only negative are the suits most look lame but besides that I really like this idea of aging our superheroes. As it makes them realistic like they have an actual ending and arent immortal. And Anyone named Ben just dies simple as that I wanted Spider-Twins although I shouldn't be surprised considering Peter doesn't have many alternate reality sons that take his mantle to my knowledge anyway. Cant wait for the ending I expect Spider-Woman with Claire and Miles. And hopefully a resolution to the Tony and Cap war thats been going on since issue 1. And due to the success of this maybe we can see other heroes like Tony and Cap
"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy