So, I was laying on my couch the other day just thinking aloud “What would happen if someone merged The Lizard with Morbius?”. Yeah, no, I didn’t do that. WHY ON EARTH WOULD I THINK THAT?! There are so many other things to think about, more important than “Twilight Lizzy”. Welp, here we are! So Ben left the door open for that thing to come crawling out and then remembered he left the oven on that HE crawled out of and fled. So now Peter and The Daughters of the Dragon are left to take care of this thing. Why is the door labeled “Z”? Where did Ben go? Did Janine order the Big Mac or the Fillet of Fish? Questions that we (kinda) need answers too, so let’s dive in! Right here, on the Spider-Man Crawlspace!
(Beyond Trust) Patrick Gleason, Zeb Wells, Saladin Ahmed, Cody Ziglar, & Kelly Thompson
(Writer) Jed McKay
(Artist) Fran Galán, Sarah Pichelli, & ZE Carlos.
(Colorist) Brian Reber
(Letterer) VC’s Joe Caramagna
(Editor) Nick Lowe
(EIC) C.B. Cebulski
Date Released 3/9/2022
Issue Number #92 LGY #893
Price Tag: $3.99
Highlighted Color: Clone Flour Jokes/Puns
Story: Peter teams up with The Daughters of the Dragon and discovers that Beyond mixed a Lizard/Morbius cocktail. They find Morbius snoozing away and wake him to join the fight. Ben is back at Beyond HQ destroying everything and doesn’t feel bad about doing it. Janine comes in to assist Ben in defeating … “evil flying talking killer sandwiches” (I swear I am not making that up). Maxine Danger is unhappy in her failure to be all business and instructs Marcus to keep Ben away from her. Daughters of the Dragon and “Doctor Mike” instruct Peter to find and help Ben while they deal with Vamp-Lizard. Janine and Ben share a kiss and then head their separate ways to find and bring down Maxine Danger.
THE BREAKDOWN YOU NEED
Ben Falling: I think me slapping “You Are Not Spider-Man” word balloon on my feature image is starting to rub off on Ben. My absolute favorite part is when he admits that Janine is his only anchor, the only part of Ben that is his and not Peter’s. Remember, Ben is a clone of Peter and shares his memories. From when Peter was in middle school all the way to the Death of Gwen Stacy. He shares that with Peter, but the memories of being with Janine are all his. Ironic that the original and the Xerox copy, who clearly have a different take on what it means to be Spider-Man, both favor redheads, but I digress. Ben does admit on WHY he opened “Door Z”. He needed Vamp-Lizzy to distract Peter, Misty, and Colleen so he can do what he needs to do at Beyond HQ. I don’t know about you folks, but that’s a classic super villain cliché when they want to escape from the heroes. Yes, I know. Ben is “not all there” and that actually is a good thing. To have something that is Bens and not shared with Peter, gives a character purpose and definition. Ben is and should always be The Scarlet Spider. It truly fits his personality and decisions when it comes to how he uses his powers. The definition of scarlet is something that is a vibrant red color, or is being immoral or sinful. I’m surprised Dark Mark didn’t know about that. If you look at Ben’s past history on what he has done, it’s not hard to understand WHY he’s the Scarlet Spider. I know I get a lot of “Ben Hater” vibes, but I’m actually curious to see what development Ben and Janine take after this is all over. Not invested mind you, but curious. Ben is acknowledging he’s not Spider-Man, he’s different and he just want what is rightfully his and run away with Janine to start a new life. I believe this is the approach that Kaine took and went off to live his own life, so it’s good that Ben is trying to establish that now.
Daughters of The Dragon: Misty and Colleen are a good team and entertaining to read. However, this IS a Spider-Man book. I honestly think Thompson loves them, but MacKay makes sure he follows her plot points and gives the characters a voice to be read. Fun, entertaining, badass, and basically have there own agenda with Beyond. Wouldn’t be surprised if these two hook up with the The Slingers come the conclusion of this series. Or even better, Michael Morbius just because Colleen is having a lot of fun with “Dr. Mike”.
Danger’s in Danger: Have you ever seen The Big Short, The Founder, Wolf on Wall Street? There’s always some business savvy tycoon that is basically getting away with some evil scheme that make the other people of the story who expose them, sick. That’s kind of who Maxine Danger is. Now that everything is falling apart around her, all she needs to do is escape without Ben killing her. Despite all the destruction that falls on Beyond’s head, she doesn’t seem too worried on where she’s going after this failure…if she survives from Ben. I’m not die-hard Ben Reilly fan, but I may think that Maxine moves up over Miles Warren on Ben’s greatest enemy list. Even Marcus has given up on her and with good reason. It’ll be interesting to see where she goes from here, but honestly if this is the last we see of her…good riddance.
Nitpicks:
- The cover. Ben didn’t stay around to fight…he opened the door and left.
- I’m not a fan of Morbius little wings in the back. Reminds me of the animated movie Pete’s Dragon. Didn’t work for Eliot in that flick and why he was redesigned in the live version. Michael is the Living Vampire, those little wings just make him look silly.
- Does Colleen have enough car insurance to keep pulling stunts like this?
Grade: Giving this one a C. It’s a “meh” issue and even though I sing praises on Jed MacKay’s writing, he’s just following a plot point from Kelly Thompson, who I am not a fan of. During the Lizard fights/investigation Peter was barely there and the spotlight shined on the Morbuis, Colleen, and Misty. The art didn’t take me out of the issue, but in some panels Janine looked too goth and Misty looked a Claymation character. Not a fan of ONE issue with THREE artists. Supersized issue? Sure, I get it. Not a regular one though.
I’ll see you for the CONCLUSION of the Beyond Story, but next week be sure to click on Alford’s Notes on…
Me talking to Mark after he gets that book from the LCS
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A bit late, but here I come:
@Chi-Town
I think the car was property of and insured by Beyond, that’s why she keeps doing that.
I bet the panels where Janine looked too goth were drawn by Pichelli. I noted the same for when she draws Danger. It must be another of her quirk, like the mole on the face.
@Michael
You’re right to think of her abusive dad when Ben refers to bad people in her life, but I don’t think he meant he was afraid of being abusive on her, just of being a bad person in general, someone not good enough for her.
@Jack Brooks
I don’t know much of the comic version of the character, but usually the MCU version is not exactly the same.
@Mark
Princess Bride? I don’t think I did. But neither did I notice the Boom-Doom allusion (assuming they did it on purpose).
I’m still annoyed that the writers don’t remember the fact that Peter knows Connors and Lizards are separated. I mean, it’s not like it happened years ago! Unless they were reunited off-panel, but that would be bad writing.
And yeah, probably Ben will come out of this as a semi-new character. All the power, none of the responsibilities. Such a fresh idea! Or better: a damaged Ben without his moral compass, almost soulless! Really innovative!!!
The Daughters of the Dragon have never interested me. However, I could see them as a potential Disney+ series. Also, since when has Monica Rambeau been such a grouch? This comes off as a character revamp. She wasn’t a grouch in WandaVision.
I liked this issue. To me it shows that Ben -and by extension Peter- are good person to the core. Even without the power and responsibilities bit, they inherently know right from wrong. So even if they are misguided, they will always have some sort of moral compass.
I believe you guys are right. Ben will end up being his own character once this is over. Probably with only the memories of his 5 years on the road and of being scarlet Spider/ spiderman during the clone saga.
Hey there Steve.
JR plans to return, I think, by 900, or maybe whenever the clone/BEY stuff is over. He will be back on the Reviews shows.
I won’t be back to reviewing ASM.
Back when we reviewed the last Spencer issue and the first of the new clone/BEY stuff, I explained that I’m done with ASM. Marvel *does not* respect its readers.
For me, from my point of view, I cannot and will not continue as an ASM reader. It started to feel like a pattern of abuse from Marvel editorial towards Spider-Man fans and I’m done with it. I am no longer willing to pay for the privilege of having Marvel looking down with contempt on Spider-Man fans.
However, I will continue to appear on the podcast – mostly during News segments or popping up on Spider-History from time to time – and, as always, Spider-Jeopardy each November. So I am not leaving the podcast, just the Review shows since I am done with ASM monthly.
Onwards & Upwards! 🙂
Not that Beyond is almost over, do we have a date for JR and George’s return to the review podcast? I’m more interested in that than the current story.
@Chi-Town, Mark- I was thinking of the lines at the end when Ben says:
“I’m not a bad person. I can’t be. For her. Because she’s had enough bad people in her life. So it’s time to get my memories back and be who I should be.”
Who are the bad people in Janine’s life? Well, there’s Kaine. But mostly, there’s her father. Maybe that’s just how I interpreted it. But the major bad person in Janine’s life was her father.
I liked this one a little better. I’ll go C+.
While you may be right, Michael, the vibe I got was along with Chi-Town’s here. Ben just wants his memories back because he wants to be the man Janine loves. He doesn’t feel he can without those defining core memories that he has lost.
I think we could see a character development for Ben here that could take him in a new direction. As Peter’s clone, he’s always going to be just that. I’m hoping he never gets Peter’s memories back. That way, he can go off and be his own man and live his own life with Janine. They can go to another state and he can have his own title as a darker and grittier Spider-Man (or maybe even take on a new name, but probably won’t since sales would be linked to his Spider-Man past).
Chi-Town, of course I am aware of the color scarlet’s symbolic meanings. That’s why we have it in the title _The Scarlet Letter_. But as Freud once said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Scarlet Spider was nothing more than sorry ’90s writing. Here endeth the lesson.
Did anyone else pick up on the _Princess Bride_ allusion? And how about the nice BOOM BOOM BOOM to replace the DOOM DOOM DOOM of Mcfarlane’s early run?
Well I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to taking on the next lesson. Daughters of the Dragon, Photon, and Vampire Lizard. Great. Who came up with the issue distribution again? Geez….
THE EATER HAS BECOME THE EATEN!
#Michael: You are right. I did not get that at all when I read this issue. I didn’t see any indication of Ben wanting to get his memories back so badly because he’s afraid he’ll abuse Janine. I think he just wanted to know who he was before the memories were wiped. He kept on saying to himself “I’m not a bad guy.”. He believes Beyond took apart of him that made Ben, Ben. His relationship and memories with Janine were the only thing that he knew that were his. I’ll have to reread the issue now to find where you got that subtext now.
Chi-Town, I think the subtext that you’re not getting is that Janine was raped by her father, and Ben wants his memories back so badly because he’s afraid he’ll abuse her if he doesn’t get them back.
@Evan: “Daughters of the Pete’s Dragon” I just went to a dark place once I said that out loud. I’m a giggling 12 year old again, so thanks for that.
Well, I have a chapter title for you, at least: Daughters of the Pete’s Dragon. I guess if the sandwiches can fly, you might as well give the Lizard some wings, too.