Kaine was murdering people up to BND, and suddenly he helped in a very contrived way in Grim Hunt and all is forgotten.
Kaine was murdering people up to BND, and suddenly he helped in a very contrived way in Grim Hunt and all is forgotten.
Anyways, while I understand where everyone is coming from with Kaine´s redemption being contrived, I personally loved Christopher Yost´s Scarlet Spider and all the development he did with Kaine and am sad that he´s gone. Same with Aracley. I do agree though that the Kaine-ifcation of Ben Reilly is unnecessary and overall has been taken too far, even though I´m personally fine with giving Ben more of an edge than Peter.
Kaine's lasted i believe 27 or 28 issues and i admittedly don't follow Spider Gwen so i'm not certain exactly how long it lasted but i'm willing to guess it was somwehere in the range of 24-30 issues.
We can sit here and quibble about the exact number of issues these runs are lasting but the point is give or take a couple issues they're roughly all lasting about two years.
I am absolutely all for more Kaine. Even though I wasn't such a fan of his Scarlet Spider run and I think how he was turned from villain to Hero was a bit weak I love the character and think he does deserve redemption. Or at least the chance to spend his life seeking it. I also love his embracing of the Scarlet Spider mantle where for Ben it was something he was saddled with and never wanted and never liked.
The characters are so different and unique from one another as evidenced by the Lost Years, one of my all time favorites. There is plenty of meat on the storytelling bone for both Ben and Kaine. The relationship between the characters has never been fully explored even in the Lost Years and Redemption. It certainly wasn't given a fair shake in the previous Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider book.
There's so much that can be done with Kaine and Ben individually and together and also with Peter. We've not had a real story about Peter having to confront and take responsibility for the fact that there are copies of himself running around that were made explicitly to mess with him. We've also not been shown a proper Ben and Kaine coming to terms with one another post villain turns for both of them.
There are no bad characters just bad writers.
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I think ideally Ben is either a side character in a ongoing or the main character in a mini series.
I think Ben and Kaine have a lot to offer as characters, and I can readily admit that I don't think Marvel has always handled them properly.
To my mind, Kaine's modern stories have succeeded with fans more so than Ben's because the writers haven't "added" anything to Kaine: he's simply been the messed-up clone, given a second chance at being a man and a hero. Whereas Ben, for whatever reason, isn't seen as "enough." To me, being "the perfect clone of Spider-Man" is enough, but Marvel doesn't seem to believe that that's a strong enough hook -- so he's become a mastermind villain, then a crazy hero, and now potentially a man with his memories and personality erased. They keep pitching Ben stories that rely on some "high concept" rather than just letting him be what he is.
Hopefully they'll eventually learn that Ben is just fine as a character and doesn't need anything extra to make him work.
-Pav, who needs to get back to work...
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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Mr. DeMatteis said in an interview that he would like to write a story about Peter, Ben and Kain. It does not bother him if this story takes place in the present, and not in the era of the clone saga. I hope Marvel allows him to write this story, it will be a gift to all Spider Brothers fans. Amazing Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider.
Part of me thinks they're going to end up leaving Ben as an amnesic in an attempt to set him up all over again for a path of self discovery and try to recapture some of the magic that was the lost years. It could be seen as character regression i'm sure but it could also be seen as a back to basics approach for Ben.
Marvel i believe is doing the same type of thing for Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze with the newest volume that just launched and from what i've seen people have been pretty receptive to it so maybe something similar for Ben would be the best path going forward for now.
Well # 1 calling him "Chasm" would be idiotic so i hope that doesn't happen and # 2 i suppose the thinking on Marvel's part would be to again take him on that journey of trying to figure out who he is and trying to carve out his own path like he had to in the lost years.
Like you i'd rather he retain all his memories and personality but Marvel editorial have made it clear they think he's too similar to Peter that way so i doubt they'll allow him to continue on the way most of us would prefer.