Saturday, May 6, 2017

Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #1


Spinning out of the events of the (pretty damn awful) Spider-Man event The Clone Conspiracy which brought Ben Reilly back from the dead, although this time as villain rather than hero, Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #1 begins a new chapter for character who doesn't seem to quite belong anywhere in the current Marvel Universe.

The first issue of the new series picks up with Reilly wearing a stolen cosplay costume and attempting to resume his old moniker the Scarlet Spider in Las Vegas. Haunted by both his good and evil halves, who appear to him as hallucinations, this version of the character lacks any of the heart of the original and returns to a somewhat heroic path only because he has nothing better to do.

Even for a fan of the original Scarlet Spider, this comic is a hard sell. Reilly is even more unlikable than Kaine when he first decided to try his hand at being a hero. The comic also lacks the humor of that version of the Scarlet Spider. Kaine does appear here, searching for his missing clone brother, and we can expect a confrontation between the two before too long (and hopefully a costume upgrade). For fans.

[Marvel, $3.99]

No comments: