Ben Reilly: Spider-Man/Scarlet Spider Appreciation 2023

[Huntsman Spider]

Why do I picture a symbiote when I think about that? That would be a cool addition to Spider comics.

Oh, yeah.

Random question, but I like your avatar. Do you actually have that Spider-Man/Backlash crossover? It’s one of the only (THE only?) Ben Reilly appearances I’ve never read.

I have it! It's really good. Sorry...I don't get to talk about Backlash/Spider-Man very much. It's such a great comic.

I also have it. Got both parts at a New York Comic-Con I went to more than a decade ago.

[Spiderfang]

Ok speaking of Ben, I understand he got a new book recently as Spider-Man?? I need deets, and is it finished & collected in trade form yet? Because I kind of collect all things Ben.

[Jman27]

Ok speaking of Ben, I understand he got a new book recently as Spider-Man?? I need deets, and is it finished & collected in trade form yet? Because I kind of collect all things Ben.

Spiderman beyond or the flashback series by J.M. DeMatteis

[Huntsman Spider]

Ok speaking of Ben, I understand he got a new book recently as Spider-Man?? I need deets, and is it finished & collected in trade form yet? Because I kind of collect all things Ben.

Spiderman beyond

And Ben Reilly: Spider-Man, by J.M. DeMatteis, flashing back to when he was the sole web-slinger of New York City.

[Spiderfang]

So Beyond and Ben Reilly: Spider-Man are the two newest Ben series that I need to collect? They're probably not in trade form yet right? Are there others that I'm going to need? I'm caught up on Ben stuff from 70's Original Clone Saga to the 2017 Scarlet Spider series, oh and the Spidergeddon.

[Refrax5]

So Beyond and Ben Reilly: Spider-Man are the two newest Ben series that I need to collect? They're probably not in trade form yet right? Are there others that I'm going to need? I'm caught up on Ben stuff from 70's Original Clone Saga to the 2017 Scarlet Spider series, oh and the Spidergeddon.

Spider-Man Beyond is in 4 volumes and is all out in trade. Ben Reilly: Spider-Man by Dematteis is also out in trade.

He also appeared after Spider-Geddon in Christopher Cantwell's Iron Man run.

[HypnoHustler]

I love this guy’s channel

https://youtube.com/shorts/Gn2Nwt5fVkc?feature=share

[HypnoHustler]

Has any character in comics had as big a turnaround in fandom’s esteem as Ben? Towards the end of the Clone Saga and just afterwards, Ben-heads were definitely in the minority (I should know… that’s around when I first got on the internet). Most Spidey fans seemed to blame him for the Clone Saga and derided him as ‘fake’ and a ‘pretender to the throne.’ Nowadays, Ben gets lots of love. Click any YouTube video of him and you’ll see people complaining about Chasm. The only people who seem indifferent or dislike him are usually fans who started reading after the Clone Saga was already over. Ben also seems to inspire greater devotion in his fans than even Miles or Venom. It’s just cool, and probably means that sooner or later a writer will return him to his proper status quo as a hero (hopefully sooner).

[DreamingofShadows]

Really? I thought Ben, at worst, had a mixed reception among peeps. Even some Clone Saga detractors as distant as in the mid to late 2000s', would turn around and say "Yeah, the Clone Saga might be one of the worst Spidey stories of all time, but Ben Reilly was a cool character and even the only good part of it"

[HypnoHustler]

Really? I thought Ben, at worst, had a mixed reception among peeps. Even some Clone Saga detractors as distant as in the mid to late 2000s', would turn around and say "Yeah, the Clone Saga might be one of the worst Spidey stories of all time, but Ben Reilly was a cool character and even the only good part of it"

Maybe. I know WIZARD mag was on like a personal crusade against him and many creators and fans at the time (especially 96 to about 99) were dissing him. I do think his popularity has grown exponentially over the decades. Just my own observation, but I’d hope even the Clone Saga haters would see the good in ole’ Ben (and Kaine).

[Matt Rat]

Ben and Scrappy Doo share some unsettling parralels.

Some of us grow up loving these things, you go online and read magazines (Wizard hated Scrappy also) and you realize everyone hates him, to the point that big leauge writers when they get their opportunity bring them back only to deconstruct them and make them the villains (James Gunn got his foot in the door by making Scrappy the baddie of the first Scooby Doo movie)

I admit I kind of buckled and started hating Scrappy only because everyone else was, but then I mellowed and I appreciated him again, because I've somewhat associated him with the last time Scooby Doo actually showed any kind of growth past it's generation-spanning stale status quo (And Daphne and Shaggy are totally the franchise's Peter and MJ)

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

Even some Clone Saga detractors as distant as in the mid to late 2000s', would turn around and say "Yeah, the Clone Saga might be one of the worst Spidey stories of all time, but Ben Reilly was a cool character and even the only good part of it"

In my own experience, at a different super hero comic forum, you had maybe one or two odd men out like yours truly with it being open season on the 90s a whole around 2004 when Sins Past just had gotten to the big reveal (it doesn't matter a lick, but Sins Past stench was just so overpowering it literally brought me back to super hero comics after I dropped 'em a little before Spider-hunt in the late '90s. I was morbidly curious to see if this was an outlier or if every other book had gotten that bad).

Now, of course, this is highly contemporary because that was just when JMS' run was its peak and he was viewed as heaven sent to fix Spider-Man and therefore could do no wrong - but people wouldn't even humor The Gift, which is near unanimously the best piece of writing to come out of Clone Saga. They were claiming "The Talk" outdid it in every possible way, and resented the "overly dramatic" tone of the story. Now, granted, Aunt May's characterization went all over the place over the decades, but if you're literally going to close the book on the character, I fail to see what was so egregious about focusing on the deeply emotional ties Peter has to the woman that's literally been the moral compass of his entire life! Also, the melodrama bit kinda falls flat with just how hyperbolic JMS could get to drive home Pete and MJ are meant for each other, but I digress.

So, if people weren't willing to humor even that story, imagine Ben himself. Marvel's casual distancing and lowkey indictment of the story arc didn't help any, either. When BND reintroduced elements like Kaine and then made him Scarlet Spider, that helped a lot on people just shrugging and accepting that it's part of the mythos and that just pretending it doesn't exist doesn't erase it (a lesson rather emphasized by Spencer's run I might add!).

[Refrax5]

Has any character in comics had as big a turnaround in fandom’s esteem as Ben? Towards the end of the Clone Saga and just afterwards, Ben-heads were definitely in the minority (I should know… that’s around when I first got on the internet). Most Spidey fans seemed to blame him for the Clone Saga and derided him as ‘fake’ and a ‘pretender to the throne.’ Nowadays, Ben gets lots of love. Click any YouTube video of him and you’ll see people complaining about Chasm. The only people who seem indifferent or dislike him are usually fans who started reading after the Clone Saga was already over. Ben also seems to inspire greater devotion in his fans than even Miles or Venom. It’s just cool, and probably means that sooner or later a writer will return him to his proper status quo as a hero (hopefully sooner).

My coworker is 23 and a huge Spider-Man fan and he said how he thinks younger people are familiar with Ben largely because of that costume being used so much in video games and toys and how people see it and think it's cool. I think there's some familiarity and interest just because a lit of people see him there, think he looks cool, and want to know more. I think a lot of them don't have the bias of those who lived it and remember the controversy, so they might be more open to him.

[Jman27]

My coworker is 23 and a huge Spider-Man fan and he said how he thinks younger people are familiar with Ben largely because of that costume being used so much in video games and toys and how people see it and think it's cool. I think there's some familiarity and interest just because a lit of people see him there, think he looks cool, and want to know more. I think a lot of them don't have the bias of those who lived it and remember the controversy, so they might be more open to him.

I had a ben toy when I was younger it was his second suit as spiderman but i didnt know he was Ben until much later in my life

[Huntsman Spider]

Has any character in comics had as big a turnaround in fandom’s esteem as Ben? Towards the end of the Clone Saga and just afterwards, Ben-heads were definitely in the minority (I should know… that’s around when I first got on the internet). Most Spidey fans seemed to blame him for the Clone Saga and derided him as ‘fake’ and a ‘pretender to the throne.’ Nowadays, Ben gets lots of love. Click any YouTube video of him and you’ll see people complaining about Chasm. The only people who seem indifferent or dislike him are usually fans who started reading after the Clone Saga was already over. Ben also seems to inspire greater devotion in his fans than even Miles or Venom. It’s just cool, and probably means that sooner or later a writer will return him to his proper status quo as a hero (hopefully sooner).

I think it's a matter that worse --- or at least more controversial --- things happened to Spider-Man (and Marvel as a whole) in the last 25-plus years since the end of the 90s Clone Saga than Ben Reilly's existence, Sins Past and One More Day chief among them.