Marvel Comics 2017
Written by Peter David
Penciled by Mark Bagley
Inked by John Dell
Coloured by Jason Keith & Jay David Ramos
Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna
Confronted by Cassandra Mercury, master blackmailer and casino magnate, for failing to save her daughter from a deadly and incurable disease Ben finds himself in a situation. Cassandra ultimately gave Ben another chance, offering him resources and promising to spare his life if he could find a cure this time….Meanwhile, Kaine Parker, another clone of Peter Parker, caught up with Ben’s old research partner Dr. Rita Clarkson, threatening her in exchange for information about Ben.
Peter is one of the only writers on the face of the planet that can take a kind of lame story idea, a group of characters who may not seem to fit and turn them into one of the most sought after arcs of all time. While I was critical of what is going on here over the last two issues I’m not quite loathe to say he’s won me over already. I mean okay I wasn’t happy Ben was taking back his Scarlet Spider identity from Kaine, but since he’s playing a large role here i’m okay with them both being in costume.
I love Mark’s work and what he’s doing on the interiors here is a huge reason why. I won’t profess to know the reason why both their faces suffer from this degenerative disease thing i’m sure it has something to do with the last clone wars saga I didn’t read but the look of it here on Ben is awesome. The use of page layouts through the utilisation of angles, perspective and backgrounds is spectacular. Then the attention to detail that we see is superbly done. All of it really does so much to keep us involved in what’s going on. I’m not sure what is going on with Ben’s costume but while the original is nice the new one is way better.
I like the way the story is set up here as we see Ben trying to work his way into getting what he wants and seeing Kaine trying to find him. Ben might be the evil version of Peter, or at the very least the one that doesn’t care about societal norms. It’s an interesting take i’ll grant that the whole moral ambiguity of someone with that kind of power. The characterisation here is great and i’m enjoying more than I thought I would but it also helps us really distinguish the boys from the original.
Peter’s managed to make this shape up to already be one of Marvel’s must have series and if he can keep it further from the team-up world as possible the better it’s going to be. Though the New Warriors were Kaine’s group even them or the girl Aracely I don’t think they need to appear in these pages anytime soon. I’d really like to see Peter get these two fully where he wants them and established in whatever way of life he’s got in store before anyone else shows up.
Dag Nabbit Peter and Mark are resurrecting these characters outside of the normal Marvel U and it’s working beautifully!