Has she been redeemed as many times as "Gohan stops training, becomes strong, then stops training"?
Gohan did that on Boo saga, Resurrection of F, and Super Hero, so that's three times lol.
Anyways, the mentions of this "Rek-rap" make me think he's not an actual character and y'all started a weird internal joke about stupid things Wells would do.
Or maybe that's my denial speaking .
The only thing I appreciate about this is Spider-Man and the X-Men teaming up again. I don't appreciate that it's come at the expense of literally demonizing The Chasm Formerly Known as Ben Reilly, while Madelyne Pryor gets a (however much-deserved) redemption story where she finally reconciles with her genetic template and lets go of the resentment she had toward her. There was no good reason this event couldn't have redeemed them both, as their core issues were rather similar --- clones who felt abandoned and tormented by the world as lesser forms of life and ultimately lashed out because of that, determined to prove they were just as real and legitimate as anyone else despite how they came to exist. Like with Madelyne, this could've and should've been a perfect opportunity to finally rectify decades of erasure and then maltreatment of Ben Reilly as a character, but instead, we got this sick farce from Wells, while Ewing (with Ram V) and Duggan were able to wring genuine pathos out of Venom's and Madelyne's roles here.
The spider is always on the hunt.
"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
The spider is always on the hunt.
You know, the ge fact that this is set up to have Peter confront Ben with a parody of himself after Lowe said that there’s no room for Ben honestly feels like a massive middle finger to Ben and his fans.
Can't we just rewind back to the beginning of Beyond and start over? Like...maybe just flat out reveal that Mr. Beyond is behind all of this (What Peter Did, Ben losing his mind, Paul and the kids, etc) and that's why nothing makes sense?
Last edited by CaptainUniverse; 01-26-2023 at 04:14 PM.
"The Enigma Force is not a tool to be manipulated by mortals. The Enigma Force comes to those it deems worthy. What temerity, what arrogance, makes you think you are worthy? Have you not all made mistakes? Unforgiveable ones?" - Captain Universe
"Call me an Avenging Angel, Baron, come to safeguard Earth...call me CAPTAIN UNIVERSE!" - Ray Coffin
"You're my heart, Mary Jane Watson...you're my jackpot." - Peter Parker
Would the "last months" include the New Mutants one? 'Cause I hear it happened there, but I haven't really checked out those comics.
I have heard that fans were actively shipping this back then lol.I just remembered when Madiie was trying to seduce Nate Gey. Gross.
Like, I know that technically they're not related, since at best he can be described as Cable's counterpart, but isn't Madelyne's son in this one, but, still, weird...
Trying to make Madelyne as a super sad character on redemption is really, really, really iffy.
Like, she wanted to have Jean's memories of when she raised Cable, which's nice and all, but completely ignores that Madelyne herself was very willing to kill Cable back in Inferno.
Plus, it's not like Cable is dead, he's around, and she makes no effort to try to connect with him, she just wants the memories of when he was a baby, which makes it look like she only cares about the idea of baby Cable instead of actually loving him.
Not to mention that after she realizes Jean was willing to help her out all along, she kinda becomes good and remorseful within 10 seconds, and this is the same Madelyne that thought it was fun to see a mail box eating someone.
So yeah, she gets a redemption, but it's the classic half assed one that is "I was sad once, that means everything I did was okay", and I'm sure there's a comment you can make about how a woman is reduced to thinking with her womb here too lol.
And if what y'all are saying is true, it's even worse to make her look like the most redeemable one between her and Ben, she has been a bigger sadist between both for a long time, and in Dark Web itself she's even the one who starts this demon invasion, and dialogue she had with Ben back in that Free Comic Book Day 2022 Spider-Man/Venom indicates she's the one who reached out to him, so it's clear she was the one with the plans to do fucked up shit, and she's the more redeemable one? Give me a break.
Also I will point out once again that this idea that her and Ben have a lot in common is recent, "clones who felt abandoned and tormented" is more of Madelyne's problem than it is Ben's, because Ben was treated fine by people around him, and while Jackal treated him like shit, he does that with everyone, it's Zeb Wells who decided to force this idea that they have a lot in common, when their similarities to each other before Beyond were superficial (Created by some asshole overly obsessed with genetics, and if you want to take a look out of universe, Marvel killed them both because they're clones and therefore disposable, but that doesn't apply in-universe), Ben had a very different life from Madelyne and reacted to bad shit going on very differently, and he never lashed out on the world like she did until Beyond (Even Clone Conspiracy was a very misguided attempt at doing good).
Eh, "I secretly practiced doing makankosappo" is an asspull, and it doesn't even do much for the plot considering most of it makes it clear he hasn't been doing any real training 'cause he has a bug obsession now...
Didn't 616 Madelyne have an interest in Nate anyways? Lol.
"A middle finger to Ben and his fans" is the story of the fans' life.
Could always say it's Beyond Corporation transporting the characters to an alternate reality to do weird shit, they have done that before lol.
"The Enigma Force is not a tool to be manipulated by mortals. The Enigma Force comes to those it deems worthy. What temerity, what arrogance, makes you think you are worthy? Have you not all made mistakes? Unforgiveable ones?" - Captain Universe
"Call me an Avenging Angel, Baron, come to safeguard Earth...call me CAPTAIN UNIVERSE!" - Ray Coffin
"You're my heart, Mary Jane Watson...you're my jackpot." - Peter Parker
The biggest offense of all however is having a Christmas storyline wayyyy after Christmas is concluded!
Discovering/CONFESSING! the nature of evil... one retcon at a time.
Heh!
Fellas, Gals, Non-binary pals, hear me out here. I've a theory to exposit. We've got a story centering Peter Parker, Unhinged Ben Reilly and a striving to be a hero Norman Osborn. Flip the roles a bit, and it starts to look familiar, no?
I've a feeling we're doing a cover song on Ben's original demise. Ben being out the picture makes sense--he's missing from the Hallow's Eve solicit. And it kinda sorta gives her a mission of revenge.
Well? Do y'all think I'm cooking something, or is it just the gas leak next door?