Devil's Reign 2 preview w/ Ben

[Pav]

How much of Devil's Reign #2 focuses on Ben? I assumed he'd only get a page or two at most, so I didn't pick it up. But if the issue gives him substantial panel time, I'll throw down for it.

-Pav, who is thankful in advance for any info...

[Huntsman Spider]

How much of Devil's Reign #2 focuses on Ben? I assumed he'd only get a page or two at most, so I didn't pick it up. But if the issue gives him substantial panel time, I'll throw down for it.

-Pav, who is thankful in advance for any info...

He's got a good number of pages. He takes on Taskmaster and Whiplash to protect the staff of The Daily Bugle, who are being used as hostages to draw out Spider-Man (thinking he's still Peter), and the cramped environs unfortunately work against him. He attempts to turn the tables by playing on Whiplash's ego, but Taskmaster circumvents Ben's gambit, slaps an inhibitor collar on him, then tosses him out the window, where he dislocates his arm trying to use the web-shooters to slow his fall and crash-lands on a car, lying there stunned and helpless as Fisk's Thunderbolt troopers close in on him. Not the best showing for Ben, though considering Taskmaster had upgraded his gear (presumably with help from Fisk), I suppose it was a fine day for Taskmaster to stop "jobbing."

[Sr. Bungle]

I think this was written with Peter in mind with some inner dialogue and the suit patched later

[HypnoHustler]

How much of Devil's Reign #2 focuses on Ben? I assumed he'd only get a page or two at most, so I didn't pick it up. But if the issue gives him substantial panel time, I'll throw down for it.

-Pav, who is thankful in advance for any info...

He’s in about a third of the issue. It’s pretty good. His inner dialogue is in character. If amount of Ben is your metric for whether something is worth buying, he’s in this issue much more than the past two issues of ASM lol

[Spiderfan001]

I think this was written with Peter in mind with some inner dialogue and the suit patched later

You can tell lol
The dialogue is very Zdarsky Peter

I'm glad Ben got his shine but this does not hit nearly as hard as it would w/ Peter because of the connections to Kingpin, Bugle and Most importantly Matt.Really hope they talk more about Peter in the future issues

[Lukmendes]

What’s disappointing is #76 when he took on all the U-Foes single-handedly, he used all these Beyond gadgets to take them down.

And then in all the other stories he never uses a single gadget again? Doesn’t make sense and a totally wasted opportunity to boot…

ASM#75 also had him easily defeating Peter with his gadgets, I guess Ben used up all of his competence in those first two issues... And I guess since Beyond is Ben's own BND, I guess he entered the Slott era where Ben gets his ass kicked lol.

Also, man, this art made me laugh, like, it looks good but, on the preview, I thought Danny was actually Ben, then when the pages shift to Ben, I thought Danny was dressed like Ben for some reason, and reading the issue now, Cap also looks like Danny and Ben... At least Cap has his hair looking slightly different, but damn...

If it helps, Ben has been in prison before, albeit while pretending to be Peter while Peter (as Scarlet Spider and then Spider-Man) tried to figure out who set him up to look like a murderer. (Spoiler for those not in the know: It was Kaine, who was actually trying to frame Ben, but since Kaine and Ben were both clones of Peter, they had identical fingerprints to his, hence Peter being arrested and tried for Kaine's murders. He was acquitted when Kaine confessed, even saying he had surgery to make his prints identical to Peter's --- and then tried to kill Ben on the spot, only to be foiled by Spider-Man/Peter.)

Did Kaine say the surgery bit to explain to the police how he left Peter's fingerprints around? Or was that an in-universe explanation? 'Cause if it's the second one, it's silly to say that when just saying "He's a clone, has the same fingerprints" would work, and if it's the first one... That's really hard to believe, but super-hero world is wacky as shit...

He's got a good number of pages. He takes on Taskmaster and Whiplash to protect the staff of The Daily Bugle, who are being used as hostages to draw out Spider-Man (thinking he's still Peter), and the cramped environs unfortunately work against him. He attempts to turn the tables by playing on Whiplash's ego, but Taskmaster circumvents Ben's gambit, slaps an inhibitor collar on him, then tosses him out the window, where he dislocates his arm trying to use the web-shooters to slow his fall and crash-lands on a car, lying there stunned and helpless as Fisk's Thunderbolt troopers close in on him. Not the best showing for Ben, though considering Taskmaster had upgraded his gear (presumably with help from Fisk), I suppose it was a fine day for Taskmaster to stop "jobbing."

Taskmaster jobbing a jobber ain't that impressive .

Anyways, Ben looks whatever in this, and depressingly enough, as pointed out, he has more screen time here than in the last two ASM issues lol.

Was surprised at seeing Reed and Sue arrested here, wonder if F4's comic is mentioning this.

Also, Otto's choice of interdimensional versions of other characters he picked is, peculiar, Wolverine, Hulk and Ghost Rider, that's 3 out of 4 members of that brief "New Fantastic Four", only Spidey is missing, and while it's possible evil Spider-Man is missing 'cause Darkhold has one now, I really doubt Marvel pays that much attention to itself, and it sounds more likely that Otto himself is filling for the Spider-Man role.

Maybe it's not an intentional reference to that story, but, Zdarsky has good knowledge of comics, and picking those 3 in particular is unlikely to be a coincidence....

[Spiderfan001]

ASM#75 also had him easily defeating Peter with his gadgets, I guess Ben used up all of his competence in those first two issues... And I guess since Beyond is Ben's own BND, I guess he entered the Slott era where Ben gets his ass kicked lol.

Yeah that Peter bit had to be PIS(even if Peter's messed up from 70 issues of Kindred), which I get happens but Ben has been consistently on a much lower tier.

Also I know they probably just changed the costume from Peter to Ben and the monologue but I wished Beyond would take action or atleast protect themselves

And Doc Ock as always making plays

[Lukmendes]

Yeah that Peter bit had to be PIS(even if Peter's messed up from 70 issues of Kindred), which I get happens but Ben has been consistently on a much lower tier.

Those later issues are definitely showing how much of a lower tier he is in then lol.

But yeah, convenient gadget Peter can't break was meh, just say he was still too injured from Sinister War, or at least, Marvel should know that there was at least a vague battle at the end of Spencer's run by the time Beyond was being made lol.

Also I know they probably just changed the costume from Peter to Ben and the monologue but I wished Beyond would take action or atleast protect themselves

If Beyond at least shows up in issue#3 to help out Ben and they're kinda around afterwards, then it'd make this not look as much of an awkward "visual duct tape".

At least, it's not as bad as AI Tony replacing Tony in Secret Empire, that one was pure meme lol.

And Doc Ock as always making plays

Now that I think of it, while the characters Otto gathered may be a reference to New F4, it doesn't make much sense with Otto himself, if the amount of times he made Sinister Six is any hint lol.

I guess you can say Hulk and Ghost Rider are strong enough to count as two each .

But yeah, between this and Otto teaming up with 3 or 4 other Ottos in ASM (I think?), guess he'll be having a multiverse gimmick now, wonder if he'll be the villain in that Spider-Gweniverse story we're getting instead of the expected Jackal, would be kinda funny 'cause, it'd be the second time Otto steals Jackal's story, since Ultimate Clone Saga had him replacing Jackal lol.