Get ready, Web Whangers! It’s Wall Crawlin’ Time! That’s right, it’s another issue of The Amazing Rek-Rap and I’ve got a front row seat for you, so come on in – tickets are free, pay at the door, grab a seat, and sit on the floor because we’ve got some Dark Web reviewing to get to!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: 🙁
Writer: Zeb Wells
Penciller: Ed McGuiness
Inker: Cliff Rathburn and Erick Arciniega
Colorist: Marco Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artists: John Romita, Jr, Scott Hanna, and Romulo Farjardo Jr
Asst. Editor: Kaeden McGahey
Editor: Albert Banaszak (I don’t blame Nick Lowe for not wanting his name on this)
I’m not going to lie to you guys, I thought that was a giant lobster coming after Spidey on the cover and after I read the issue I was confused as to why that was on the cover.
Remedial ASM 101
Ben wants his memories back, so he teamed up with the Queen Goblin to unleash Limbo on New York and kidnap Peter Parker and put him in Limbo and force him to eat an apple.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Queen Goblin is treated nice and decides to be good (much like the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus Is Coming to Town) and calls off the attack. Ben is rather pissed that she is reneging on their deal, but can’t do anything about it. Spidey and Rek-Rap team up to help get JJJ and Robbie to the portal between New York and Limbo before it closes. Hallows Eve decides to go Frankenstein on Queen Goblin (literally) and steals the magic scepter that makes one the leader of Limbo. She gives it to Ben who becomes King Chasm and he closes the portal, trapping Peter, JJJ, Robbie, and our hapless hero Rek-Rap in Limbo forever (or until next issue).
What Passed and Failed
FAIL – Chasm – more on that later
PASS – Ed McGuiness – His art is much like Ryan Ottley and I would be quite happy to have him continue to grace our spider-pages more often.
PASS – Rek-Rap – he steals the show here and is by far the best thing to come out of Dark Web.
When I read Rek-Rap and Spidey together, I could easily relate it to any given moment when Chi-Town and I are together (with me being the cool Rek-Rap, of course). Alas, even Rek-Rap couldn’t save this issue and it was a bit irritating that Spider-Man just seemed to be outclass by this silly character.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB),I’m giving Rek-Rap a 10 for making all his own onomatopoeias.
Analysis
Character Undevelopment – This is supposed to be a story about Ben Reilly and Peter Parker more than anything else. Don’t just trust me on this, Spider-Man flat out points it out in the book.
But we do not get a Ben and Peter story. Peter is out-classed by Rek-Rap and out-powered by King Chasm. He is fairly useless as anything but a straight man to Rek-Rap. In fact, this whole arc seems like we don’t really know what to do about Peter. Why is he playing out his role in Limbo? Is it because JJJ and Robbie are in danger? That makes little sense because the longer he is playing Ben’s game, innocent people are getting attacked and killed by demonic TVs, microwaves, mailboxes, and pretty much anything else. Peter has finally decided to make a move to get JJJ and Robbie out, but how long has he been down here? It has to be at least a few days of this nonsense.
What is worse is Ben Reilly’s character. I’m willing to overlook the fact that I pretty much hate the concept of Chasm. Even with that, Ben comes off as weak and powerless. He is resting all his hopes on getting Peter to eat that apple, but he’s not really trying hard. He sits around the tree hoping that one of these days Peter will just have enough of it and give in. When Maddie decides she is done after getting what she wants, Ben is angry (and rightfully so), but he does nothing. There is not one last mad dash to hurt JJJ or Robbie to force Peter’s hand or even a desperate fight between him and Petey. He just takes it like a chump and mopes about it. It is Hallows Eve that shows backbone here. She is the reason he gets to be King Chasm.
Boy does he look stupid. By the way, did you notice that with his promotion, he got two more legs on his logo? Did I go research 12-legged spiders after seeing this? You know I did. You can read about the sea spider that is all legs and sometimes has 12 of them here.
King Chasm is stronger than Spider-Man and now rules Limbo, so I guess I am supposed to be worried here that my hero will lose, but… meh. I’m betting that Ben finds out that being King of Limbo is much like Jafar being a genie. There are going to be lots of restrictions which will end his hopes. I think it is rather plausible that we are going to leave this arc with Ben stuck in Limbo as its ruler.
Hallows Eve’s actions here are a disappointment. She and Rek-Rap are the two hardest working characters in this issue and when she dons the Frankenstein mask to defeat Maddie and steal the scepter, she shows some real umph.
I would have much rather her decide to keep the scepter and become the Queen of Limbo herself to help out her snuggy-wuugums, but instead, she just hands it to him. He has done nothing to deserve it. I think I like Hallows Eve as a character. We don’t get enough of her for me not to like, and I think that is probably for the best.
Final Grade
This whole arc is annoying me and even the great Rek-Rap can’t save it. That said, this is the best issue so far.
D+
But Wait! There’s More!
Guys, you know me, nothing makes me happier than to have a fellow Crawlspacer get a letter published in the ASM letter pages, and it makes me doubly happy for it to be repeat letters. Way to go Bruce!
What’s Next?
Well, there is light at the end of this tunnel in that I am done reviewing Dark Web! Whoo Hoo! You can get the rest of the issues from my good buddies Chi-Town and Ryan “Pain Bot” Read.
‘Nuff Said!
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The real Ben died in “Revelations”, and stayed dead (don’t care what Clone Conspiracy said). All these other Bens should be treated as tragic Frankenstein monsters. That means Ben’s character hasn’t been ruined, because these ain’t him. That’s my preference, anyway.
Being an X-Men fan too, and being a fan of Madelyne Pryor, I started off quite enjoying this arc. But now, it has become a bit of a mess.
I feel like, this shouldn’t be a true crossover. It could’ve been two story threads, one running through X-Men and one through Spider-Man, linked but readable independently.
Instead, it’s all over the place, and Spidey has the least interesting stuff to do.
Ben is useless as a villain, and Hallow’s Eve is much more interesting as Madelyne’s sidekick, going up against the X-Men.
And I feel like there are so many missed opportunities. All the interesting stuff with Norman Osborn is happening over in Gold Goblin instead. And one of the few interesting Spider-Man characters to come out of the original Inferno, the demonic Hobgoblin – now going by Demogoblin/Demagoblin, hasn’t made a single appearance. We’re even getting a few clues dropped about Mary Jane in Mary Jane and Black Cat.
There is a good idea here. Two wronged clones, who feel like their lives have been stolen. Madelyne gets redeemed, while Ben damns himself. But this arc needed to be streamlined. I’ve enjoyed bits of it, especially the set up, but I’m enjoying it less and less with each issue.
Hmm. In the words of Goldie Wilson, Chi-Town “Drof-La” Spidey. Like the sound of that.
@Dark “Tob-Ron” Mark
I personally hope he becomes one of the recurring Spider-Verse characters like Ghost Spider and Miles. It’d be a shame if they completely forget about him after this stupid event.
Nah, not really. I’ve been using this name for almost 9 years now, so I think I’ll keep using it.
@dark mark
How about dropping him in Portland, married with a red head, working in a lab as a scientist. Call it sensational Spidey instead of spectacular. Bring back the second rate villains with an upgrade (lady ock, she electro, she scorpion, hydro man etc) and boom! You got yourself a surefire hit on your hand.
Why marvel won’t do it is beyond me. We have fifteen different Avengers title, we got Peter and miles running around both as Spiderman. I see no reason why Ben has to be destroyed that way.
@PeterParkerFan
Yeah, the Rek-Rap stuff was entertaining, but not enough to save this train wreck. When this is resolved, I want to know that Rek-Rap is still running around in Limbo and then we pretty much never see him again. That way he will stay a bright spot in Spidey Lore and pop up every now and then as a video game skin or Funko Pop or in some filler back-up story in an overpriced annual five years from now.
Have your thought of changing your screen name to ParkerManFan yet?
Okay, Spider-Man’s limbo adventures with Rek-Rap was actually kind of fun. I’ll give Wells that much at least.
Everything else, especially the stuff with Ben/Jannie/X-Men was lame as heck. I’m tired of evil Ben.
@Michael and @Evan
Michael – It’s as good an explanation as anything else for this awful take on Ben. Chasm is, to me, a waste of a good opportunity. We don’t need him as a Spider-Man villain. People love him as a character (well, not me, but there are those out there), so why not after erasing his memories, let him explore what it means to be just Ben. Put him somewhere stupid, like Chicago, and let him be a hero there or something. Gove him the Spectacular Spider-Man as a title and let him try out things that Marvel may be unwilling to fully commit to allowing their flagship character be.
Evan – I’m done with spreadsheets and charts! DONE!
But the idea is intriguing…
@Franken-Evan: Extra credit for paying attention. Yes, I have said that many times before. The real Ben died in Revelations and when Slott brought him back in clone conspiracy it went all downhill from there. I suppose you could blame Slott for this character annihilation. I would have loved to see Kaine in Beyond than Ben. Kaine would have seen right past Beyond and made the story event more interesting.
@Michael — Isn’t this also the Ben that was cloned 27 times? I think Marvel used that as a justification for Ben’s stupidity in the past, as well. But hatred does indeed make one stupid — which is why it can be so frightening, I think. Unfortunately, I don’t think that fright comes across in this story. It’s mainly just confusing and inconsistent and silly. If there were no history of Ben, maybe it would be different, but as has been said elsewhere (Chi-Town, were you the one who said this?), Ben died at the end of Revelations, and all else seems like a different character. But at some point, this “new” character will have existed longer than the original Ben, if that term even makes any sense. For clone fans, that’s the real tragedy, I think.
@Mark — I completely forgot about the glowing light guy! Maybe this means I’ll completely forget about Limbo, too.
I’m not sure about jumping the shark, but I do know that at this point I think I’m tired of “mystery box” storytelling, unless it’s written in such a way as to clearly indicate that there was a plan from the beginning, like clues and details scattered here and there — but I honestly cannot recall the last time I read a story like that that wasn’t a literal mystery novel. It’s validating to me that others are also eager for this story to end. Until Nick Spencer’s run, I honestly started to question whether my distaste for the state of the stories was due to my growing older (I was nineteen when the Crawlspace debuted — Too bad I didn’t discover it then!), but clearly that can’t completely explain it. Maybe standards are different, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the editing, or editorial mandate, like you said, or politics, or money.
I’m going to cast my vote for a Rek-Rap / Stegron team-up, and you can fight George over who gets to review it. Hey, I bet if you write Marvel about how much you hate this arc, yet bury it in praise for Rek-Rap, they’ll publish it.
I’m still torn on whether I’m inclined to refer to Rek-Rap as Rek-Raph or Rek-It-Rap.
I suspect I’m the only one interested in this, and I apologize in advance for the suggestion, but you could create a spreadsheet containing all previous OotIs and their scores, as well as issue numbers, dates, and writers. Okay, maybe that’s not a good idea after all.
For what it’s worth, in the preview for Dark Web Finale, Peter says that Ben’s hatred for him is making Ben stupid, which seems to be an attempt to explain the problems with Ben’s reasoning in this story.
@Stenurus and @Franken-Evan
Sthenurus – This is your jump the shark moment? Wow! I feel we are so far beyond sharks and have moved on to jumping sperm whales and giant squids at this point. 🙂 I am going to remain the ever hopeful optimist and go out on a limb and say the upcoming mystery resolution will be the best thing in Spidey books since the original Hobgoblin story! The way I figure it, if it pans out, look how prophetic I’ll be! If it is a dud, no one will remember my failed prophecy as we will all dump our memories of this crapfest.
Franken-Evan – Thanks for the kind words! It’s hard to get excited to write these, so I am glad someone is getting something out of them! I sure hope you are wrong about Limbo. I want to leave this far behind us when this arc is over. I would rather find out that the glowing light guy from way back when was Lightmaster or some stupidity like that rather than go back to Limbo or have anything else to do with mutants. Man, I hate mutants!
Eve-Cliff! Ha! That’s awesome!
“Is that poor writing?” Maybe. I would also chalk it up to poor editing. A good editor would be able to direct Wells in a way that we balanced the comedic relief so that it doesn’t overshadow the stakes. I hate everything in this arc except Rek-Rap and it is not because his appearance makes the story better, but because the story is so bad, I just block it out and enjoy the Rek-Rap show. I’ll embrace the irony of it. I need something to get me through the muck of the rest of the story. I’ll also take Rek-Rap over Gog anyday, and I know that will cross the line of many of our esteemed podcasters. I want us to leave this arc with King Chasm stuck in Limbo and Rek-Rap promising to continue the good fight. I don’t need to see it, just the thought of Ben’s eternal punishment being constantly having to deal with Rek-Rap is enough to make me smile and dismiss this as a mere sidetrack.
Great Scott! I didn’t notice the toes, Heavy!
And I noticed you showing off that you read the article! Makes me happy!
“Is this your first 10 since “BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB” (The hands-down best part of the Slott run)? I think other onomatopoeia have come close, but I don’t recall any 10s.” Yes it is! That is how much I love Rek-Rap. I was pretty sure I would never see another 10 in my reviewer career, but here it is. Although, I guess we need to put an asterisk beside it as it was not the onomatopoeia that earned the 10, but the onomatopoeia maker that did. So, the quest continues.
A note to all commenters – THANK YOU! This arc is absolute tripe and the only thing that makes reviewing it any fun at all is you guys. Well, you guys and making fun of Chi-Town. Without those things, I’d be out of here.
@Michael, @Adam Tomlinson, and @Chi-Town
Michael – Yeah, Maddie just abandoning him makes no sense to me either. She knows exactly what he is going through and knows that he is not just going to let it go (though it does seem like he was until Hallows Eve created a new path for him). If Jean has this power, I would think she would at least offer to do it for Peter and Ben and I don’t see Peter turning that down. Your suggestion of needing two more issues to complete this is about as best an explanation as there is, I guess. Thanks for the Limbo time answer. I also like your idea that Maddie let Hallows Eve take the scepter on purpose, but it doesn’t bother me that Robbie is not paying attention to Rek-Rap being Parker backwards because he isn’t seeing it written out, he’s only hearing it, so it would take someone who is thinking hard to piece that together with little context. Plus he is currently just trying to survive, However, I am of the belief that Robbie knows and I love the fact that he is always written as one who probably knows, but we’ve never gotten the definitive on it. I hope it stays that way. I don’t know enough about Limbo or the X-Men, so I will defer to you on Ben’s status as King Chasm for any foreseeable future outside of Dark Web.
Adam – Boy, you picked a doozie to jump back in on! Well, stick it out. The next arc is the one that is supposed to answer the six month mystery, so that may be worth it (hey, I’m an eternal optimist!). Your rock band lyrics are gold! “I’m not a massive clone guy, so I don’t mind Ben’s heel turn in principle, but it’s execution is lacking.” 100% hit the nail on the head. Hallows Eve is pretty interesting and visually appealing. They haven’t explored many masks so far, so I think there is definite room for some cool story-telling there. What I find most interesting is Janine turned herself into this to help Ben because she loves him, but if he gets Peter’s memories back, they will not longer be a compatible couple, so that could also be interesting.
Chi-Town – ” I read that and went ‘Yep, that’s me and Mark'” We agree? Well, now I take it back.
Nah, I love being cast as Rek-Rap! Maybe I’ll ditch the Dark Mark moniker and start going by Tob-Ron.
Ah, I forgot the Central Park castle. How could I forget that… I sure hate that I won’t be reviewing that X-Men / Spider-Man team-up. Oh well…
“You are such a liar” That hurts, Chi-Town. I’ve never lied in my life.
@Mark — Well, that was certainly…interesting. Once again your review is far more entertaining than the issue itself.
I know this arc is sort of a distraction from the six-months mystery, but given that the passage of time is different in Limbo, as Michael says below, I wonder if Mary Jane’s absence and her seeming to be reminded that she’s been gone for six months (in Mary Jane & Black Cat, I think) could indicate that maybe she went to Limbo? Given that this seems to be mainly an X-Men event, the writers might have had to change some things to accommodate it, but would they go that far? As Doc Brown says, “On the other hand, it could be an amazing coincidence.”
Here’s hoping that Hallows Eve turns into more literary characters in forthcoming issues. I’d love to see her turn into Bartleby the Eve-ner (“Help you, Ben? No, I’d prefer not”) or Eve-cliff (“Ben, I’m completely miserable because of you, but now that you’re king of Limbo, I hope you come back and haunt me forever.”)
Given all the comedy in this issue, it’s difficult to feel the weight of the stakes here. Is that poor writing? As an example, I know in Enter the Spider-verse, the line from Spider-Ham in which he states that his uncle Ben died and that he was “delicious” was removed so as not to alter the tone and trivialize a meaningful moment, so maybe that should have been the approach here, as well. If that’s true, then the fact that Rek-it-Rap is the most redeeming feature of this issue for you, Mark, is ironic, in a way. Honestly, I think the writers lost whatever seriousness they were going for with the appearance of King Chasm.
Speaking of whom, not only did Ben grow extra legs, but his toes are now visible through his boots like Venom. His having a weak heart is consistent with the twelve-legged arctic sea spiders, so maybe he will start breathing oxygen through his legs, too.
Is this your first 10 since “BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB” (The hands-down best part of the Slott run)? I think other onomatopoeia have come close, but I don’t recall any 10s.
And I thats the moment that really jumped the shark for me.
As many have pointed out, why not use jean and do to Ben what she did for Maddie? This made no sense in universe before but now it doesn’t make sense in story.
I think this run will end up in the depth of the Spidey legacy, along with chapter one or one more day. There is nothing of value after 18 issue and I very highly doubt that the mystery resolution will be any good after reading this dumpster fire.
Hopefully we get a new renumbering with a better writer sooner rather than later.
@Michael: I am on the same mind as that. Why didn’t Ben just ask “Cool, do you think she can do the same for me?” To me the character of Ben Reilly is no longer at the point of character assassination, we are PAST that. We are in character annihilation territory for Ben Reilly now, I almost feel bad for all Reilly fans out there. To support a character THIS EVIL? I am all for rooting for a bad guy that has already established himself AS a villain, but Ben didn’t start off that way and any kind of excuses to justify hi means right now, is just rotten baloney sitting in a dumpster.
@Mark: I thought the same thing when I saw the conversation between Rek-Rap and Spidey. It’s like Well’s has been paying attention to both of us and channeled our relationship into this story. I read that and went “Yep, that’s me and Mark..”
I really wish Janine kept the scepter to herself instead of pretending to be the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull and giving the scepter to her “champion”. Yet I get why she did it. She’s valuing loyalty above all else. Plus I don’t think Peter, JJJ, and Robbie are still stuck in Limbo. Ben made a castle in Central Park, so I think they are back in NY and now it’s time to team up with the X-Men.
” and it makes me doubly happy for it to be repeat letters” ……. You are such a liar…
I have been taking a break from Amazing. I decided to jump back in with this issue. On the plus side it was generally easy to do so. I understood what what happening, but oh boy is this odd.
It feels like Peter’s trapped in an episode of the Real Ghostbusters while Ben’s auditioning for the lead in an early 2000’s rock band.
“This relationship has gone bad…like my heart. This tree is dead…like my soul. I’m stuck in limbo…like my character development”.
I’m not a massive clone guy, so I don’t mind Ben’s heel turn in principle, but it’s execution is lacking.
Like others have said, I don’t understand why Peter and Ben are fighting. Ten seconds with Jean Grey can resolve this problem. I don’t understand what Ben wants, does he think he can restore his memories and then go get a teacher job or something? What’s the plan after he gets his memories back.
I like the character design of All Hallow’s Eve and the powers are interesting…I might actually try that mini series that’s coming up.
One thing made no sense to me. Maddie explains how Jean downloaded her memories into her and restored her sense of responsibility to Ben and Janine. She then tells Ben and Janine she’s not going to help them try to kill Peter any more and Ben sulks off moping and Janine steals the scepter. Why? Why don’t they just ask if Jean could do the same thing with Ben and Peter? There’s a way for the last two villains to get what they want without anyone being hurt but Wells suddenly remembered the crossover has two more issues, so Ben and Janine have to act like idiots.
Re: how long Peter, Robbie and JJJ have been in Limbo- it’s been a plot point that time passes faster in Limbo than on Earth. It was mentioned as recently as New Mutants 28, a few months ago. So it’s possible they’ve only been in Limbo a couple of hours or even less. (It would have been nice if this had actually been mentioned in Dark Web, though.)
Eve defeating Maddie by pushing her off a balcony made no sense. Maddie can fly!
In a competently written story, I would think that Maddie wanted Eve to steal the scepter and hand it to Ben because it was part of the X-Men’s plan. Especially since Maddie showed up unhurt later in the story. But this is a story where Robbie can’t figure out that Rek-Rap is Parker spelled backwards, so I don’t know what to think.
I don’t think the Ben is going to end up King of Limbo at the end of the arc. Dark Web:X-Men 2 said if you think Illyana’s decision to hand over Limbo to Maddie was a mistake, how things end up for Limbo at the end of the story might change your mind. Plus, the solicits for Black Cat and Mary Jane 4 describe Limbo as the “domain of Madelyne Pryor”.
We saw in Amazing 14, how when Ben and Maddie were around each other, their demons killed each other. I have to wonder if at the end Maddie enters Ben’s mind, and the Goblin Queen and Chasm kill each other, leaving a “purified” Maddie and Ben, or something like that.