Ben Reilly swings into Brooklyn – and Miles isn’t about that at all. All this and a root monster too! This issue is guaranteed to absolutely NO old people flirting and making innuendos. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get into it!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Beyond Chapter 7
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Carlos Gomez
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Arthur Adams and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Asst. Editor: Lindsey Cohick and Kaeden McGahey
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: December 15, 2021
Remedial ASM 101
Were you looking for Peter Parker? You came to the wrong place. Ben Reilly is the new Spider-Man and Peter is in the hospital getting fixed up by Doctor Octopus. Ben works for Beyond Corporation because they helped him out. But all is not going well.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Some monster named Rhizome (which means ‘mass of roots’ by the way) is destroying buildings in Brooklyn. To show that they care about the little people, Beyond is sending Ben out to stop it. He is to also stop Miles from using the Spider-Man name while he is there. Miles doesn’t take kindly to a false Spider-Man representing Beyond in his neighborhood, but they put aside their differences and take out Rhizome. Ben is reprimanded for not enforcing the brand name and Marcus is fired? put on leave? for Ben’s failure.
What Passed and Failed
PASS – The Cover – At the risk of everyone comparing me to BD, I like this cover and Miles is pretty much saying what we all are thinking. It’s backed up in the issue too, so that’s a bonus (I can’t use Grant’s Misleading Covers tag on this!). It’s also nice to see that Miles recognizes that this is not Peter he is facing, despite them sounding the same. It’s a nod to his recent Clone Saga (which actually had a relevant editor’s text box, presumably by Nick Lowe since it has his initials, but my guess is it is really Cohick trying to make her boss look good since we zilch editor boxes until she arrived on the scene), which I read on MU and enjoyed. Never thought I would say that about a clone saga.
FAIL – No Peter Parker – I know we are focusing on Ben Reilly as Spider-Man and Peter doesn’t need to be referenced, but in the last .BEY issue, Peter woke up. That’s big news, but it is not even alluded to here. I would have expected maybe Ben thinking that he wanted to go check in on him now that he’s up, but we didn’t even get that.
FAIL – Right fight, wrong time – The people here just had their homes destroyed. They are hurting. Some are injured. Some no longer have a home. The fight here is ill-timed for the “heroes”. While Miles should know better, I get that he’s a bit spooked about impostors. Ben, on the other hand, is a grown adult representing a company. He should know better than to engage here. How hard would it be for him to draw Miles away from everyone or, I don’t know, be the better man and responsible adult?
FAIL – Venom Blast – I love the venom blast. It helps to separate Miles from Peter and since they have made it to where it drains him, it is no longer an over-powered deus ex machina. Now, I am a little behind in my Miles reading, but to my knowledge, he cannot shoot his blast. It is a touch thing. The closest he can get to shooting it is by touching an object and sending it through that, like conducting electricity. In this issue, he is blasting all over the place, and clearly not just sending it through his webbing. If I am wrong about how this power works, please let me know. I checked with the biggest Miles authority I know, and he told me it was a touch thing. I also checked online and did not see where he could shoot it. However, the writer here is Saladin Ahmed, so either he recently changed the power set or the artist just didn’t know. I might be wrong. I was wrong once in college and could be again, so I am keeping an open mind.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), ZZZZAAAT gets an 8.5. I want to hate it because it shouldn’t even be there, but that is some high quality lettering going on and color shading and how can you not like four Zs in a row?
Analysis
The Assessor – This was a good story back in Miles #8, I think. Miles gets trapped and they keep putting him through tests to gather as much information about him as possible until he dies. It really did a number on him. Later, Iron Man decides to take this guy down and gets his butt handed to him. It’s a bit intriguing that the Assessor might be tied into Beyond. I cannot tell in the last panel, but it seems that Director Danger is holding a container of roots. Maybe she just collected it from the scene to put to her own use or maybe she is working with the Assessor if he is indeed the creator of it.
Beyond – We keep getting teased that Beyond is not out for the good of mankind, but it’s sort of being marketed as Roxxon type of bad, but we know that Beyond has to be more than just another Roxxon. I am trying to figure out what their end game it, but so far, I’m not seeing any clues. Has anyone else noticed something I am missing?
The biggest problem with this book – I’ve said it before, but I think it bears repeating. This is a good story. It is being well written by a team that is in line with the overall story and each other’s contributions. The pace is moving rapidly. So why is it that many Spider-Man fans are not reading it? The answer is obvious, of course. We want Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man! (A little cover allusion for you old-timers.) If this had been in Amazing for about five issues or less – no problem (well, some would still gripe, but the large majority of us would be fine). If this story line were in ASM, but we had Peter Parker over in Spectacular – then probably no problem. They could easily have had Peter take virtual courses while he travelled with MJ while Ben held down the fort in New York. This will always be the case when you have an established character. It is not just the hero that we want to see. In fact, more often than not it is the character under the mask that we are paying the big bucks to read. That’s why Iron Man fans weren’t too happy when RiRi took over. That’s why fans get upset whenever this sort of thing happens. This story is good and they did it and the fans a disservice by the way they are presenting it. Just give me Peter Parker. Thankfully, it looks like we will get him next issue. On top of all that, we had the quite unsettling manner in which Kindred was wrapped up, which unfortunately for the Beyond Board, bleeds a bit over onto them.
Better Title Homework
I’m thinking instead of Beyond Chapter 7, they could have gone with Miles to go before I sleep, and Miles to go before I sleep, but that might just be the English teacher nerd in me. What do you have for me?
Final Grade
This continues to be a fun ride (and that’s important to me), though there are a few irritating bits about it. The writing team flow well together and each issue feels like it is its own story, yet still advances the overall big story. I like that a lot. I like feeling that I paid my money and got a story for it, rather than just another bit of the rising action. Well done on that front. I think I made my grievances clear earlier (a bit of an early Festivus, you might say).
B-
What’s Next?
Something horribly wrong is happening at the McCarthy Medical Center. Mary Jane Watson is trying to nurse the bedridden Peter to health, but when Peter’s roommate disappears, MJ has to step up. Can MJ and a nonmobile Peter get to the bottom of this hospital mystery?
Not going to lie – this looks like the issue we’ve been waiting patiently for!
Chi-Town has you next, I think. Actually, at this point, I have no idea. He is in charge of the schedule and he keeps texting it to me in braille and binary code and so maybe I’ll see you next issue, maybe I won’t. It’ll be a surprise! At this point, I don’t care because I finished up research papers this week!
‘Nuff Said!
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I imagine BD coming to the site to check things over, seeing all these numbers in the recent comments section and thinking, “What the…?” before seeing where they are coming from and just shaking his head and mumbling, “Alford…”
@Evan – 01001000 01100001 00100001 00100000 01001000 01100001 00100001 00100000 01001000 01100001 00100001
@Chi-Town and Aqu@ — I just translated your messages. I thought you guys were just being funny, so I guess I was late to the game. Let me try:
01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01110010 01100001 01111010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01100010 01100001 01101110 01100001 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101110 01110100 01110011 00100001
@ac — I honestly thought of that, but I was a little scared of being a bit too punny, if you can believe it! I’ll know next time not to hold back. Haha!
@Aqu@ – ” you can clearly see that Mark express himself correctly with spaces and punctuation, while Chi-Town wrote everything without spaces and even a typo, exactly as when they write in english! I love it!”
Ha! Ha! Aqu@, you win the comment of the review award!
I’m getting the hand of this binary thing. I might write the entire next review in it….
@Sthenurus – Ohh! Osborn’s sins in a jar…. That’s intriguing! That’s much better than the roots thing!
Whoops, sorry, the website slipped away a comment once again.
@Sthenurus
Ah, you’re right, but I’d love to see it done in 616 continuity once and for all, since it disturbs me a little thinking Peter Parker will be thirty-something (or forty at most) when I’ll die of old age.
LOL
01010111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00101100 00100000 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110000 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100001 01100110 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101110
By the way, I think it’s time to mention the @ in my nickname is just a stylish a.
@Aqu@ they did let him grow old and pass the mantle… It was the MC2 universe. And it was glorious
01000001 01110001 01110101 00111010 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00101110 00100000 00100000 01000001 01110100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101010 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01110101 01101110 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110010 01110101 01110011 01101000 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101110 01100111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01110100 00101110 00100000 00100000 01010011 01100101 01100101 01101101 01110011 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01001101 01100001 01110010 01101011 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110110 01101001 01100101 01110111 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101110 00101110
Yes, I found a text to binary translator. That one is for Aqu.
@Sthenurus
Now, that‘s an interesting take! At least it would explain why Kafka would act evil (assuming that’s what will happen).
As for who is under the mask, I honestly would be ok if they had had the gut to let Peter grow old and pass on the mantle to someone else. Actually, sometimes I just wish they did.
@Marc I’m not a fan of miles per say. While I do enjoy the character he just isn’t MY spiderman.
Funny story: at my LCS, I met a kid (ok a teenager he is like 16) who is also a webhead… But he NEVER carred -or read- about Peter Parker! He started reading at the tail end of ultimate and could relate to miles more than he could to a grown up Peter. So to him Miles IS spiderman… Just like to me Ben is Spiderman. I’ll ask him next time I see him if that venom blast power is normal for miles!
@Aqu@ I tought that these things in the jar that danger is holding was the sins of Norman Osborn. Maybe that how they create that queen goblin? Infusing Kafka with Osborn’s sins (which would be personified as the Green goblin)
Maybe this issue takes place before Peter waking up.
On the fight, I agree with Sthenurus: Ben tried to be an adult and talk. At least in words. Because, at a second and more attentive analysis, the panel clearly shows him throwing the first punch… What the…? Let’s chalk it up to the trite trope of fighting first, team up later.
While you’re right on the Venom Blast, and here it reminds too much of Spider-woman, it’s also true that Miles once displayed the ability to develop some kind of venom blast webbing in the last issues of the previous volume (written by the one who created Miles himself, Bendis) as a sort of evolution of his powers (I personally thought it was a cool way of making him more unique, despite making little sense). Alas, the current writer seems to want to ignore that progression, at least for now.
Yeah, the ending is a bit unclear: at first I thought it was a sample of Rhizome too, but since it was tech it doesn’t sound very logic, so maybe it’s something else.
It would be interesting if the Assessor was created by Beyond.
I agree, overall this arc it’s not that bad, but they did manage it badly. And I think the wrapping of the Kindred arc bleeds more than a bit over. Coupled with this sudden and apparently nonsensical switch between main characters, moreover towards one that tends to higly divide the fans, it’s really a questionable move.
Using binary to communicate seems quite inconvenient.
I also love that not only you two really took the efforts in writing something for real, instead of typing 0s and 1s at random, but you can clearly see that Mark express himself correctly with spaces and punctuation, while Chi-Town wrote everything without spaces and even a typo, exactly as when they write in english! I love it!
@ac – ha!
@Sthenurus – Glad you are loving it! I might have been a bit harsher on this one than I should have been. I did enjoy it for the most part. Are you a fan of Miles? Am I right that the venom blast shouldn’t work like that?
As usual I kinda disagree with you guys. I loved it. I loved that Ben was indeed acting as a grown up and wanted to talk. That he fully admitted that miles was ALSO spider-man.
Also miss danger made a mistake. Right after listing all the great thing beyond did for ben, she asked him if he got what it takes to be a hero. And what it takes to be a hero is to drop all of these things. And Ben KNOWS that. She thinks she is controlling him that way but all she is doing is pushing him closer to the realization that they aren’t who they pretend they are.
Hey Evan, how about I Riley Riley Riley hate clones as a title?
@Chi-Town: 01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101100 00100001
@Adam Tomlinson – Glad you stopped by! It is required by Crawlspace Order #5249 that you must stop by at least twice a month regardless of current reading status. I don’t want to have to report you, so keep commenting! And I don’t blame you. I am liking this run, but if I were not reviewing it, I would not be spending the money when I could use the money I’m spending on Unlimited and read it late there. That next issue does look good!
@Evan – You could have just merged poetry and poultry together and talked about William Carlos Williams’s stupid “Red Wheelbarrow” poem. I hated that in tenth grade and still think it is stupid. I love the last title choice. Awesome! And I’m with you on the ready for events to end to get some normal stories. DONE WITH PAPERS (until next semester, of course…)!!!!!!!
*Correction: “Projectile Venom Blast” Sorry!
@Mark — No Peter at all? I wonder what kind of Birthday/Brand New Day/Superior is Over celebration is in the works for when this is over. (Isn’t it sad that I’m just anticipating the day when this ends rather than trying to enjoy the story? It reminds me of how I really just used to enjoy reading comics between line-wide events, so I could just read some good, classic-type Spider-man stories. A part of me was always sad when big events were announced.)
I really like your alternate title! Incidentally, this morning at the coffee shop, the barista wanted to ask me who the writer of a particular poem was (I didn’t know), but when he opened with “Do you anything about poetry?” I thought he said “Do you know anything about poultry?” It made for an interesting conversation.
As for my own alternate titles, here’s what I have:
1. I Really, Really, Really Hate Clones
2. I Really, Really, Really Hate Miles Warren. Morales is Cool.
3. Pot vs. Kettle
4. I am not Groot
5. Projective Venom Blast? How Crazy is ZZZZAAAT!
Congratulations on finishing your research paper grading!
I’ve not been reading since that Morbius issue, but just stopped by to see how it was going.
Nice review, it got me up to speed.
Your exactly right on why I’m not reading. What I’ve read I liked, and if it was monthly Ben Riley book I’d probably give it a try. But it’s a weekly Amazing Spider-Man book, minus Spider-Man. The financial investment doesn’t equal the entertainment value.
That being said I am tempted to pick up the next issue. The covers looks great and it looks like Peter and MJ are actually in it.
Mark: 011001110111001001100101010000010111010001110010011001010111011001101001011101110110001001110101011001000110010001111001!
Got that? Good to hear!