Folks, all I have to say is go out and buy ten copies of this issue! It is the first appearance of a brand-new supervillain that is sure to be a recurring character near and dear to our hearts! Now, what about the rest of the story? Join Dark Mark and let’s get into the thick of things!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Flame On! (Not really, you guys know what to do in the comments by now)
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Michael Dowling
Colorist: Brian Valenza
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Arthur Adams and Alejandro Sanchez
Asst. Editor: Lindsey Cohick and Kaeden McGahey
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: January 19, 2022
Remedial ASM 101
Beyond Corporation has taken over the rights to the name Spider-Man and has given it to Ben Reilly, which is ok since Peter is stuck in the hospital for weeks. The only problem is that Beyond is not the magnanimous entity that Ben hoped they were.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Ben is getting more and more reckless on the job ever since Doc Ock filled him in a few of Beyond’s secrets. While telling his feelings to his Beyond employed psychologist, Dr. Kafka, Maxine Danger listens in until she feels like she’s heard enough (right about the part where Dr. Kafka reveals they are removing his memories) and takes Ben to get his memories removed. But Ben’s mind begins to break down.
What Passed and Failed
PASS – The Cover – Look, I know rating the cover gets a bad rap on the podcast, but since when have I ever worried about agreeing with the podcast? I love this cover! It looks good and while it might not reflect what is physically happening in the story, it is a symbolic representation of what Ben is going through. And you know I love me some symbolism.
PASS – This Loser – We know less than Jon Snow about Hellbomb, but it appears that his schtick is to wear a costume with highly flammable liquid in glass globes sewn to it. He didn’t think that through to well, did he? And that “GAAAH!” is priceless!
PASS – This guy with a conscience – What a moron.
On a serious note, this shows how well played the humor is in this issue. This is not a time for jokes and everyone trying to be the comedian, but they are able to drop in well-timed jokes like this to keep this issue from getting too heavy. That’s not an easy task.
PASS – The art – I don’t really have the expertise to do it justice, only that I liked it.
FAIL – Comixology – Maybe it is just me, but for the last three issues, I keep getting error messages and have to hit the back button in order to keep reading. Quite frustrating.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), FWOOSH! rates a 5. Nothing special, but I just wanted to see Hellbomb again.
Analysis
Beyond’s Motive – I am digging this story, but I still do not quite understand Beyond’s motive. They’re evil, I get that, and they are not just looking into the hero game, but have spread themselves pretty much everywhere (we got a reference to their snack cake division earlier in the run along with pharmaceuticals). But why? What do they hope to gain? Business power? World domination? Reality bending machinations? That’s the one big piece that still doesn’t quite sit. We know from their past appearances in the Avengers that they are “omni-beings” that can warp reality. Playing with Ben Reilly seems…small for them. My guess is that Maxine is a small fish in the larger corporation and this is her division (think #8 in the Spectre organization).
The Memory Wipe – This issue is really about just this one thing: the memories wiping. Dr. Kafka says that Ben asked them to do this, at least once, but considering that we know they are lying to Dr. Kafka anyway, I don’t think we need to believe that particular piece of information. One of the complaints I’ve heard about Ben is that he is acting irresponsibly and this could certainly be the reason.
When we see that these memory wipes are creating faceless images like the Uncle Ben dream, then we can see that they are what are causing the weird dream that Ben has been having. When we first saw the faceless Ben dream, I thought it was Peter’s, but I think I am going to assume I must have misread that. The other option is that Peter and Ben have some hitherto unrevealed psychic connection, which wouldn’t bother me exactly considering their spider-sense is a type of psychic power already.
What does this mean? It means that this story isn’t a “Superior Spider-Man” redux and this isn’t really a clone story. This is a story about how much of Peter Parker makes Spider-Man. You can’t do this with Peter, because the removal of these memories takes away the very character we know and love, but with his clone… well, that’s a different story. Everything about Peter’s life up to the cloning is just as important to Ben as Peter. Now, we will watch what happens when this all gets stripped. That’s why Ben goes in recklessly to take out Hellbomb. He is losing the part of him that guides his responsible nature.
This will also be a good way to show the strength of Peter. Potentially Ben will be remade in Beyond’s image with his Peter memories taken away and sent to take out Peter, but Peter will win despite being out gunned because Spider-Man is not power, it’s Peter.
This whole arc without Peter is to show how important Peter is. That’s my take, anyway.
Janine – I really like this character. She has her own strength and she will be the force that gets Ben through this much like MJ is for Peter. They are taking their time to let her develop. The scenes she is in are nicely done. There is no need for much talk, but the art shows her dilemma: she’s scared, but she wants to help Ben; she’s distrustful of Beyond, but they helped her; she doesn’t think they have Ben’s best interest at heart, but she trusts Ben. Plus, when she makes her mind up, she can be pretty tough! Also, since she has seen the hard drive and Ben’s memory of it has been wiped, she is going to be key to this whole thing.
Final Grade
Again, I am really enjoying this story. It is well done and I have to hand it to the Beyond Board – there are more hits than misses. Now, the question remains, can they do what the previous story could not and stick the landing?
A-
Those of you sitting this arc out until Peter comes back, I understand, but you are missing a good story.
What’s Next?
Oh, some black leather Mary Jane and Felecia that I’m sure Chi-Town will enjoy, but who cares? I have need for one thing in this arc:
‘NUFF SAID!
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Listen Notes
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@DarkMark – That was probably that guy’s first day on the job. His co-workers were probably slapping their foreheads after he said that, thinking “Has he ever met Maxine Danger before?”
@Hornacek – I like the worker who, upon hearing that Maxine promised not to listen, asks if they should turn off the audio! 🙂
Pro – Ben realizing that Beyond is listening to him and Janine in their home.
Con – Ben not realizing that of course Beyond would listen in during his Kafka sessions. Kafka tells him “Don’t worry, Maxine said she wouldn’t listen in during these sessions” and he believes her and talks about all of his secrets? Idiot!
I don’t know if they (the writers) will have the guts to reset his memories to blank, but I think for sure it would provide an interesting situation with a lot of potential. Afterall, this is not the Ben from the ’90s anymore, as Chi-Town said in his last review.
Aqu@ – HELLBOMB!
Messing with Ben’s memories explains anything that might be off in how we see the character. And since they have been doing it already off panel, we don’t know when and how often they’ll do it, though I expect that this may be the last time since it looks like everything is falling apart. What do you think? Will he wake up a blank slate? Will this be a permanent change for the character? Or at least as permanent as comic stories ever are?
I liked this issue a bit more than the last ones. At least tampering with Ben’s memories does provide some justification for things seeming off.
Also, when Kafka speaks about removing the memories of him being the Jackal from his temporal lobe, I thought “I bet that’s what many readers would want!”
@Mark
You know, I would have probably forgotten everything about this new villain, but now, thanks to you, I’ll remember what’s-his-name forever.
I find that the problem isn’t the repetition by itself, but how they tend to repeat the same concept over and over again in a short span of time, leading to fatigue. [incoming spoilers for No Way Home] Take the idea of a spider-verse and multiple alternative Spider-men: they did it so many times I can’t take it anymore, so much so it took some enjoyment away from the last movie.
@Sthenurus, @Evan, and @ Paul Penna
So, at one point after I posted my comment yesterday, all three of you popped on my email as a notification that someone had posted a comment. All at the same time. I thought, well, that’s a coincidence.
But judging from where Sthenurus appears and Evan’s comment about not having his responses show up, I guess I will need to start going through the comments pending/denied section of our dashboard and start looking for you guys.
Sthenurus – I wondered that same thing – how many times has Ben been wiped? We saw very early on the Uncle Ben with the missing face, so we have to assume it’s been going on since the beginning and with Kafka yelling, “NOT AGAIN!” we know that it’s happening enough that she is concerned. I would assume that with all of their intrusions into his memory, that they would know who Peter is. Also, this ability could be used in a horrific way. I doubt they would take away his memories of Janine since her safety is a way to control him, but they could, or at least threaten to, take away Janine’s memories of him. Speaking of, I wonder if Janine is going to be made into the Goblin Queen.
Evan – Going with title #2 for sure. Glad you haven’t forsaken us, Evan. The retreading of stories is not just limited comics (there are several books out there defining the small number of plots available to all stories, though they differ on the exact number anywhere from 3 – 36), though a medium that cranks it out monthly or more is certainly subject to some retreading. There is a lot of criticism toward that sometimes, but I don’t mind if the story makes it feel like a different take. This has a much different feel than Superior to me. I will concede that both Superior and Beyond are big events and perhaps a bit too close together considering their size and scope. And I was skeptical. I even considered telling BD it was time for me to step out, but then JR and George did it and I didn’t want to pile on. Plus, I shudder to think of what would happen to the Crawlspace if I wasn’t here to balance out Chi-Town’s reviews.
Paul Penna – My wife’s name is Paula, so it is practically impossible for me to type your name without my finger hitting the ‘a’ at the end and then me having to go back and edit. I agree – Ben and Janine lets us do things to ‘Peter’ and ‘MJ’ without actually doing things to Peter and MJ. If they keep him around after this, I hope it is something akin to what they did with Kaine when they had him go to Houston and have his own series and own life. That got cancelled, I guess because it didn’t sell enough, but I think Ben might have enough audience to carry him a little farther than Kaine. I also wish that Peter hadn’t been sidelined as much as he has. I would have liked for maybe a Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man revival during this. They could have had the same stories – weird hospital guy, Mary Jane/Black Cat, Aunt May/Doc Ock plus a few more scenes of Peter and it would have felt more like they were catering to the Peter Parker fan base as well as not diluting the Amazing name so much with all of these .bey and extra issues. But to their credit, I thought they were going to shove Peter into a coma and pretty much leave him there until the end.
@Michael and @Chi-Town
Michael – My understanding is that it is supposed to be the real Kafka somehow. I really ought to read those Avenger issues, I guess.
Chi-Town – Hellbomb’s the new Green Goblin, I tell ya! It certainly seems to me that this is a story about Peter’s character, oddly enough. I guess we will see when it wraps. It’s not often we have the same grade. Planets must be aligned or something. As for the surveillance, I am going to take the approach that while everything is being recorded, not everything is being watched. They may go back to watch if they have suspicion, but the focus was certainly on Ben and Kafka. I did like the “I don’t mind being detained!” and having that ignored. And I’ll defer to you on the spandex vs. leather. I’m wearing a t-shirt and I have no idea what material it is, so I’m certainly not the expert here.
This is the kinda issue I wanted to see. And it shows how Ben can be used as a character. Because with Peter, you have to revert him to his status quo. With Ben, the stakes are higher, because anything can happen.
The one regret I have, is that Peter was side-lined to the degree he was. It would’ve been awesome to see him as a more present member of the supporting cast.
I hope after this run that Ben doesn’t go entirely away, whatever state he’s left in.
My comments have not been appearing lately, so my apologies for my not being able to participate in the comments as I usually do, but I’ve been reading all of the reviews and posts and enjoy all of them.
Right now I’m laughing at Chi-Town’s expounding on the MJ leather situation. At any rate, I’m really enjoying the reviews, even if I prefer my Spider-man in the Peter variety. I just find myself wondering how many times a story will be published that purports to show us why Peter is the one, true Spider-man, and no one else is. I appreciate them and all, but that’s already been done with Superior Spider-man, to name an obvious example, among others. I guess the medium of comics, given that it’s ongoing, lends itself to repeating themes every once and a while, but it seems like this was just done. At any rate, I’m glad that you’re enjoying it, Mark! It’s especially nice since I was sort of skeptical at the start, what with Spencer’s departure and all.
Here are my title suggestions for this chapter:
1. The Advent of Flammable Christmas Tree Man
2. Turn Your Head to the Left and Kafka
3. FWOOSH for your Memories
You and bad villains…I swear.
Great review Mark! I going to have to agree with you on your points and grades. I know, shocker..DON’T GET USED TO IT! We were lead to believe that this Beyond story was all about Ben, but it’s really why Peter is the True Spider-Man. Of course, this is just going off data that we have read, who knows what scheme’s Marvel is going to produce. Not looking forward to April, that’s for sure.
In a panel that showed that surveillance is watching the living quarters of Ben and Janine, no one saw her look at the drive? Or at least put it back in the drawer? Where they too focused on the Kafka/Ben conversation? Not to mention Marcus basically have a good word to Maxine saying he has NO PROBLEM being detained. Maxine’s like “Let him go, whatever..”
I know, I got the next one…or two I should say. ASM 87 and MJ/BC 1. Is it really leather, or black spandex? Leather can be tight, but doesn’t have the ability to show every physical flaw (in my case) or perfection (MJ/Felicia’s case) as spandex can do. Hopefully they’ll be fun reads.
The faceless memories are probably a reference to the faceless CEO the Avengers faced in their previous encounter with Beyond.
So is Kafka a clone body with the real Kafka’s soul inside it or a clone with many of Kafka’s memories, like Ben? Spencer wrote her as the former but Wells seemed to suggest she was the latter this issue.
Great review mark!
I agree with you. Beyond is about what makes Peter the hero he is. They are kind of retreading superior, but are doing it better imo (at least Ben doesn’t talk like a freaking supervillain).
It also explain some of the plot holes to me. Kind of understandable for Ben to be bested by the like of Morbius, Kraven or Ock since he isn’t at 100%. Also god knows how many mindwipe he went through…