Ben Reilly: Spider-Man/Scarlet Spider Appreciation 2023

[Refrax5]

Anyone else betting that Ben will regain his memories just in time to be killed by a freshly sinned Norman Osborn?

I don't see this team admitting that this doesn't work and if people are showing up to buy it just because it's got some character using the name Ben Reilly they have no incentive to change.

I think that's another thing that makes Chasm so frustrating. Chasm isn't Ben. Doesn't act like Ben. Doesn't have Ben's memories. Doesn't have Ben's personality. Even his relationship with Janine is one sided. She can either stick with him and go to jail or ride it out. Chasm freely admits to not recalling their meeting.

To turn a character inside out just to have a basically brand new character in Chasm so he can be the star villain of a joke event is strange.

Honestly, I sincerely doubt that. There's no real indication, story-wise, that's in the cards. I think it's more likely Ben just stays in Limbo (literally and figuratively), gets turned back into Scarlet Spider around ATSV, or they just keep having him show up as a villain from time to time.

[Minerboh]

When I read all these headlines ''Spider-Man's Evil Clone'' reffering to Ben, it's feels so much wrong.

[Coop]

Honestly, I sincerely doubt that. There's no real indication, story-wise, that's in the cards. I think it's more likely Ben just stays in Limbo (literally and figuratively), gets turned back into Scarlet Spider around ATSV, or they just keep having him show up as a villain from time to time.

What makes me think this is they can just get Ben off the board since Lowe claims there is no place for him in Spider-Man comics and continue this "tragedy of Ben Reilly" concept. Someone else here had mentioned they thought Ben would be stuck as he is til Kafka's Queen Goblin situation is fixed. Which likely would flip Norman's evil switch and what mediocre writer and editor can resist killing a major character to show the big bad is back and means business here.

I do think that Ben is destined to be redeemed and then immediately be killed or "vanished mysteriously" at the end of his tenure as Chasm.

I don't think ATSV is gonna signal a big change for Ben either unfortunately. There seem to be so many Spider-People I am beginning to think his appearance won't be that substantial. Still looking forward to it.

[Kurolegacy]

When I read all these headlines ''Spider-Man's Evil Clone'' reffering to Ben, it's feels so much wrong.

Every time that I read something like that it pisses me off because it’s forced and the people writing it know it. Did they refer to Tony as a villain when he got inverted into Superior Iron Man? No, because they knew it wasn’t a natural circumstance and that Tony is a hero. Yet with Ben, when they force him into a role that is akin to a square peg in a round hole, suddenly his entire history as a hero is thrown out so they can call him an evil clone as if that’s all he ever was. Spidercide, Guardian or Jack, sure but not Ben.

[The Black Death]

What makes me think this is they can just get Ben off the board since Lowe claims there is no place for him in Spider-Man comics and continue this "tragedy of Ben Reilly" concept. Someone else here had mentioned they thought Ben would be stuck as he is til Kafka's Queen Goblin situation is fixed. Which likely would flip Norman's evil switch and what mediocre writer and editor can resist killing a major character to show the big bad is back and means business here.

I do think that Ben is destined to be redeemed and then immediately be killed or "vanished mysteriously" at the end of his tenure as Chasm.

I don't think ATSV is gonna signal a big change for Ben either unfortunately. There seem to be so many Spider-People I am beginning to think his appearance won't be that substantial. Still looking forward to it.

I've seen many people repeat almost the same comment saying that Ben would die either in the climax of the Beyond stage as well as with the denouement of the Dark Web and were all wrong in the end, at this point it doesn't make any sense to say that Ben will die after recovering his memories or being redeemed, even more so having other external factors in mind. And even if Ben does die it seems many forget that in comics almost no character stays dead forever, more so in Marvel comics, so it would only be a matter of time before some other writer brings Ben back sooner or later.

You also seem to forget that the first animated Spider-Verse movie to be more exact ITSV did wonders for the main characters, ITSV made Miles Morales character more interesting and made people start accepting Miles more as Spider-Man, made Spider-Gwen's fame increase even more and lastly made forgotten characters like Spider-Man Noir, Penny Parker and Spider-Ham that hardly some people knew about the existence of those characters to be some of the most loved characters by most people. You can get a slight idea of how ATSV can greatly improve Ben's current situation which in itself is already known either in a good or bad way, more so considering that Ben will be one of the main characters in ATSV, to deny all that would be just being a complete pessimist.

[Refrax5]

What makes me think this is they can just get Ben off the board since Lowe claims there is no place for him in Spider-Man comics and continue this "tragedy of Ben Reilly" concept. Someone else here had mentioned they thought Ben would be stuck as he is til Kafka's Queen Goblin situation is fixed. Which likely would flip Norman's evil switch and what mediocre writer and editor can resist killing a major character to show the big bad is back and means business here.

I do think that Ben is destined to be redeemed and then immediately be killed or "vanished mysteriously" at the end of his tenure as Chasm.

I don't think ATSV is gonna signal a big change for Ben either unfortunately. There seem to be so many Spider-People I am beginning to think his appearance won't be that substantial. Still looking forward to it.

He's one of the only characters to get merchandise, is upfront in the trailer and is one of the ones they deliberately advertised at first. I don't expect him to be a major character, but it's obviously more than a cameo.

Them killing him off isn't outside of the realm of possibility, but having it be at the hands of Osborn seems kind of arbitrary and redundant.

[Lukmendes]

Agreed. Of all people showing up declaring that Peter has friends, Norman Osborn doing that against Ben Reilly may be some of the most face palm inducing tone deaf writing I’ve seen in a while, especially when this isn’t even a case where either are in their current state by choice but by external factors. Had Harry not been killed off by Spencer and been the one who showed up it would have actually meant something especially coming from one who is a clone. But coming from Osborn it means nothing and was insulting especially when we all know it’s gonna age like milk.

Honestly, he could call himself an "ally", which, while it would still imply some cloneness and will eventually age like milk once Norman becomes a villain again, it'd be way less bad.

Dark Web Finale will have a second printing

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/prin...ne-minute-war/

Eh, I know crossovers sell, but, really?

Anyone else betting that Ben will regain his memories just in time to be killed by a freshly sinned Norman Osborn?

I don't see this team admitting that this doesn't work and if people are showing up to buy it just because it's got some character using the name Ben Reilly they have no incentive to change.

I think that's another thing that makes Chasm so frustrating. Chasm isn't Ben. Doesn't act like Ben. Doesn't have Ben's memories. Doesn't have Ben's personality. Even his relationship with Janine is one sided. She can either stick with him and go to jail or ride it out. Chasm freely admits to not recalling their meeting.

To turn a character inside out just to have a basically brand new character in Chasm so he can be the star villain of a joke event is strange.

Chasm's concept is so boring that if he wasn't Ben, nobody would care about him.

It tells you something that Spidercide was more interesting than this...

Yeah, he jumped ship to DC, if I recall correctly.

Seriously? What's he doing there?

So, who’s up for the idea of Ben being a permanent supporting cast member of the Spider-Man books? If Peter and Ben were partners, that would solve a lot of issues.

That sounds more like something for a side title than ASM.

He did and cued up a lot of protect all the marriages jokes

Honestly, if he is in a position of power, I'd be less worried about marriages (Although fans should still be worried about 'em), and more about events, 'cause Quesada's reign really started Marvel having way too damn many events...

Must be nice to be in the ivory towers where you piss off the people that keep your job existing and you can just plug your ears and treat them as if their input is only valid if it’s in agreement to you. You’d think he’s a politician.

If he was, I wonder how many Spidey fans wouldn't vote on him out of spite .

He's avoiding all the genuine criticism and goes for the easy targets.

Even the "easy" targets are whatever, all he says is "Piracy is theft kids", and "sorry you didn't like this book".

The second point is particularly worth noting, 'cause he talks like someone not liking it is something that just happens, like say, how some people just don't like horror as a genre, instead of people making actual criticism of the stories being garbage.

It's likely more than a cameo. Spider-Man Noir got resurrected as a result of the first Spider-Verse movie. The relentless negativity on here is exhausting sometimes.

Considering the movie is gonna be a two parter, and Ben got merchandise from this, it'd be surprising if he's just a cameo, specially considering he's among the more popular spiders, if only for his design lol.

At worst, I expect he'll be like Peni/Ham/Noir, not really important to the plot, but will do some things, have a distinct personality, fight a bit, then leave.

Honestly, I sincerely doubt that. There's no real indication, story-wise, that's in the cards. I think it's more likely Ben just stays in Limbo (literally and figuratively), gets turned back into Scarlet Spider around ATSV, or they just keep having him show up as a villain from time to time.

I would consider the possibility anyways, Marvel can make really stupid decisions that didn't look like they were planned lol.

Every time that I read something like that it pisses me off because it’s forced and the people writing it know it. Did they refer to Tony as a villain when he got inverted into Superior Iron Man? No, because they knew it wasn’t a natural circumstance and that Tony is a hero. Yet with Ben, when they force him into a role that is akin to a square peg in a round hole, suddenly his entire history as a hero is thrown out so they can call him an evil clone as if that’s all he ever was. Spidercide, Guardian or Jack, sure but not Ben.

It would be ridiculous if they even called Kaine an evil clone, while he more or less started like this, he definitely isn't like that anymore, and Ben's villain phases always need contrived reasons for him to become evil to begin with...

Honestly I don't care that much about Ben, but just being vaguely aware of his character, it's easy to see how much Marvel is disrespecting him, and Chasm by himself isn't even interesting, he's yet another "evil counterpart" for Spidey, but the only "good" thing he has is the design, and even that isn't that good.

Them killing him off isn't outside of the realm of possibility, but having it be at the hands of Osborn seems kind of arbitrary and redundant.

Marvel likes bad callbacks, so I would say it's a possibility anyways lol.

[Coop]

I've seen many people repeat almost the same comment saying that Ben would die either in the climax of the Beyond stage as well as with the denouement of the Dark Web and were all wrong in the end, at this point it doesn't make any sense to say that Ben will die after recovering his memories or being redeemed, even more so having other external factors in mind. And even if Ben does die it seems many forget that in comics almost no character stays dead forever, more so in Marvel comics, so it would only be a matter of time before some other writer brings Ben back sooner or later.

You also seem to forget that the first animated Spider-Verse movie to be more exact ITSV did wonders for the main characters, ITSV made Miles Morales character more interesting and made people start accepting Miles more as Spider-Man, made Spider-Gwen's fame increase even more and lastly made forgotten characters like Spider-Man Noir, Penny Parker and Spider-Ham that hardly some people knew about the existence of those characters to be some of the most loved characters by most people. You can get a slight idea of how ATSV can greatly improve Ben's current situation which in itself is already known either in a good or bad way, more so considering that Ben will be one of the main characters in ATSV, to deny all that would be just being a complete pessimist.

I definitely did think there was a chance Ben could have died at the end of Beyond, it would have been a better fate than starring in Dark Web was.

Let's be fair here, I never said "Ben would die and never be used again". But being dead is the same as being Chasm, there still aren't cool Ben Reilly stories being told, possibly for years. That's what would be frustrating if he died after being fixed. I'm not cheering for it and I don't want to be right. But after reading dark web beyond I think it's realistic not pessimistic to think the current people running the books are interested in telling Ben Reilly stories.

Regarding Across the Spider-Verse. I'm glad Ben is in it. I hope he's got a decent role. But the fact is we don't know anything other than he's got merch. Everything else about his role is pure speculation. He could become Chasm in a post credits scene for all we know. I'm not saying one outcome is more likely than the other, just that there's too many unknowns about his role in movie for me to count on it having an immediate impact on the whole Chasm thing.

I would love for the situation to change, but considering how little Dark Web advanced Ben's story I'm not optimistic.

[HypnoHustler]

They should’ve just let JM DeMatteis take him back on the road after Beyond in an ongoing and do whatever he liked with him (as he’s the only writer still active at Marvel who seems to give a crap about him). Sure, it probably would’ve been cancelled after 25 issues, but at least it would be a fun ride.

(Also, I’ll never forgive Beyond for teasing Peter and Ben’s first team-up in over 25 years, and then giving us that garbage twist with them fighting fart-smelling flowers and chickens in boxer shorts, and Ben almost immediately turning bad and letting the Lizard-Morbius fusion creature loose. Beyond wasn’t great up until that point, but it could’ve been overall solid if they stuck the incredibly easy landing of letting Ben stay good, get his memories back, and hit the road again as Scarlet Spider. The story practically writes itself.)

[Huntsman Spider]

They should’ve just let JM DeMatteis take him back on the road after Beyond in an ongoing and do whatever he liked with him (as he’s the only writer still active at Marvel who seems to give a crap about him). Sure, it probably would’ve been cancelled after 25 issues, but at least it would be a fun ride.

(Also, I’ll never forgive Beyond for teasing Peter and Ben’s first team-up in over 25 years, and then giving us that garbage twist with them fighting fart-smelling flowers and chickens in boxer shorts, and Ben almost immediately turning bad and letting the Lizard-Morbius fusion creature loose. Beyond wasn’t great up until that point, but it could’ve been overall solid if they stuck the incredibly easy landing of letting Ben stay good, get his memories back, and hit the road again as Scarlet Spider. The story practically writes itself.)

Like both Scarlet Spider series were?

[HypnoHustler]

Like both Scarlet Spider series were?

Well, in terms of quality, like the first one I guess (the second one by PAD was mostly crap). But that was all based in Houston. I’d want him to go from city to city, or town to town, like the old ‘Incredible Hulk’ show from the 1980s. Kind of a Ben Reilly anthology series where the only constants are Ben, Janine and maybe occasionally Kaine.

[Huntsman Spider]

Well, in terms of quality, like the first one I guess (the second one by PAD was mostly crap). But that was all based in Houston. I’d want him to go from city to city, or town to town, like the old ‘Incredible Hulk’ show from the 1980s. Kind of a Ben Reilly anthology series where the only constants are Ben, Janine and maybe occasionally Kaine.

Sounds good to me.

[The Black Death]

I definitely did think there was a chance Ben could have died at the end of Beyond, it would have been a better fate than starring in Dark Web was.

Let's be fair here, I never said "Ben would die and never be used again". But being dead is the same as being Chasm, there still aren't cool Ben Reilly stories being told, possibly for years. That's what would be frustrating if he died after being fixed. I'm not cheering for it and I don't want to be right. But after reading dark web beyond I think it's realistic not pessimistic to think the current people running the books are interested in telling Ben Reilly stories.

Regarding Across the Spider-Verse. I'm glad Ben is in it. I hope he's got a decent role. But the fact is we don't know anything other than he's got merch. Everything else about his role is pure speculation. He could become Chasm in a post credits scene for all we know. I'm not saying one outcome is more likely than the other, just that there's too many unknowns about his role in movie for me to count on it having an immediate impact on the whole Chasm thing.

I would love for the situation to change, but considering how little Dark Web advanced Ben's story I'm not optimistic.

It's Understandable, being clear I'm not too happy about all the shit done to Ben either, but killing Ben or saying better off being killed off at this point would solve absolutely nothing, on the contrary I think it would just make things even worse. Also lately we have been being very melodramatic with everything that has happened to Ben when there were other characters that have had it much worse than Ben, I could give quick examples, like Hal Jordan who went through his villain arc as Parallax committing several murders and in the end ended up going back to being a hero, something similar happened with Wally West who was forgotten for over 6 years by DC only to be brought back as a hero for a while only to be ruined by turning into an antagonist in the Flash War event and then murdering several heroes in the Heroes in Crisis event, Wally had his redemption arc consequently is currently main Flash, Daredevil had his own event called Shadowland where was the villain being controlled by a demon after that story Daredevil went back to being a hero and I could go on and on with other examples of heroes being on the side of evil, but you understand the same similarity with those examples with those characters that all those changes were only temporary, Ben Reilly's character being a villain like Chasm is only a temporary thing that in the end he will go back to being a hero anyway.

The fact that Ben has had a lot of merchandising as Scarlet Spider compared to other characters that have appeared in the Across the Spider-Verse trailers, that says a lot about the relevance of Ben's role in the movie. Also probably haven't shown much of Ben in any trailers yet because are saving the best for last, even if Ben becomes Chasm in the movie maybe it will be handled better than what Zeb Wells has been doing with Chasm, having a positive impact on the comics at best, even if it's in some twisted way .

[Spidey-Ben]

I was randomly thinking if he’s in time out for the foreseeable future… how will he dye his hair. I’m pretty sure the psychoactive goo ended up giving him a permanent dye job anyways.

[Sr. Bungle]

I was randomly thinking if he’s in time out for the foreseeable future… how will he dye his hair. I’m pretty sure the psychoactive goo ended up giving him a permanent dye job anyways.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday. Some months have passed have passed and he's still blonde.