Well, the issue that we’ve all been waiting for. A huge spider-favourite returns in this issue. No, not Carnage. Somebody who has more fans than even Carnage, if you can believe it. Ladies and gentlemen…BEN REILLY!
Did somebody say TEAM-UP? (With BEN REILLY!)
X-MEN/SPIDER-MAN #3
Clone Sagas
WRITER: Christos Gage
ARTIST: Marco Alberti.
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
PLOT:
The X-Men are currently looking for Mr. Sinister around the globe, but they are always two steps behind of him, until Storm finds some interesting files. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is hunting his arch-foe, (yeah, right) Slyde. He’s caught cold by Iceman (pun very much intended) when the X-Men appear. The heroes find out that Sinister had made some exchanges with the Jackal (cloning entrepreneur) and was after Carnage, seeking the symbiote to perfect his cloning process.
At that precise moment, Sinister breaks Carnage free and after some psychotic babble, Carnage agrees to let Sinister have some symbiote samples. Suddenly, the X-Men and Spider-Man arrive to stop the evil doers. Battle ensues. During the battle, Sinister tries to take control of Ben Reilly, but after seeing the horrors of the clone’s mind, he flees the scene, leaving Carnage to be easily taken care of. Spider-Man worries why his mind affected Sinister so much, but Wolverine responds by telling him that he’s Spider-Man in everyway that counts.
However, Sinister now has what he needs to create the perfect clone…
LIKES:
-The art is lot better this issue.
-Quickly paced issue, but not a quick read.
DISLIKES:
-You couldn’t tell the difference between Ben Reilly and the Peter Parker from the last two issues.
-Carnage…
-Wolverine’s bone claws.
THOUGHTS:
Well, we finally saw the return of Ben Reilly. Was it worth the wait? Not really. He sounds exactly as Peter Parker did in the last two issues. There were some thoughts on the Clone Saga, but nothing new. Wolverine couldn’t tell him apart from Peter due to “smell” but Ben Reilly was Spider-Man where it counted, so it must not be anything serious. Good one, Wolverine. It was good to see Ben Reilly, but more could have been done. Not that I expected much, it is a limited series after all.
This issue’s plot wasn’t the best of the series. I mean, if you want stability for biological experiments, the best thing to do is to get part of a symbiote from a mentally unstable serial killer. It just seems that they wanted to pick a villain that hasn’t been used recently, so Carnage was picked. Hooray for him. The dialogue wasn’t great either. It tried hard to be funny and witty, but there wasn’t much to laugh out loud to. Not much to even snigger at. Disappointing.
One thing that did actually take a step up was the art. It was colourful, it was vibrant. I liked it a lot and the fight scenes impressed. He shows the different time periods well and I’m looking forward to seeing his modern day Spidey (next issue). It’s a shame it couldn’t have boosted this issue a little bit. Not outstanding art, just an improvement.
WORST QUOTE:
Sinister: Kindly die.
How can you say no to that?!
OVERALL:
2.5 out of 5 webheads.
Disappointing return for everyone’s favourite clone.
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I’ve recently been seeking all over for this specific information. Luckily my partner and i discovered it in Yahoo.
yep…double sized with plenty of action, a brilliant pinnacle of a story and drawn by Romita Jr. this is spider-man.
when Spider-Man turned into Peter Parker Spider-Man, was when the comics were at its best!! the aweseom 4some. Amazing/Spectacular/Sensational/Peter Parker.
Then ended the 1ST Volume and it hasnt been very good since.
wait..lemmi re-read it…lol 😛
Well..anyway…they are two divergences of himself and in the end Ben thought he was real, and he sacrificed himself for the “clone”. good story… love #75. 😛
For ironspiderman1983- I think you misread what I wrote… I didn’t say anything about him being dumber (or smarter). I said it would have been nice for them to make him seem a little different (i.e. so you knew it was Ben in the costume). My complaint was with Carnage.
i have not read this series btw but it is part of my pull box so i have it all i just havent read it dont know i only had this pulled for the ben reilly thing because while i never like reilly al that much (despite all i said ealier cuz i do think he was the more competent spider-man) i didnt think he deserved to die especially at the hands of a ressurected goblin. but yeh i think i’ll give this a read sometime this weekend.
Jonny, Ben was a small part of 1/4 of this series – the fact that that had him at all is hugely significant, especially since this was his first appearance since 1996. Not everything, or anything HAD to be referenced. As far as I’m concerned, this was good enough for now. If we’re lucky, this will lead to more Ben Reilly stories where some of that stuff can be explored.
man peter paker 75 was a travesty why bring that up gamer7 that was supposed to wrap up the clone saga and what do we get SEVERE MISPRINTING. as for DPFW i never realy noticed ben wasn’t quite as smart as peter in fact i think i give him credit as to being a more comptetent spider-man than peter was with the modifications of the web shooter so that there was no trigger just a wrist twist to fire webbing and then ben also made impact webbing and the stingers that immobilized the anyone who was hit with them and finally wearing the webshooter cartridges on the outside for easier reloading. also Ben’s view of the world seemed to be a litle more realistic than peter’s due to having been on the road. and ben took out Venom on his 1st try granted ben’s spider-sense actually works against Venom but he managed to match venom and seperate the bond from brock.
yeah this one i didnt like cause wolverine grew his calws in 2 secs and iceman contained carnage too easy. Number 4 really impressed me and after a small amount of personal editing its a great issue. 😛
and yeah its kinda cool how Ben is Peter huh. thats why i love Peter Parker Spider-Man #75. 😛
Scooter, Ben was Peter for the most part but differed in some key areas, he arguably was not quite as smart as Peter and the 4 years on the road gave him a shorter temper then Pete ever had, subtle differences to be sure and I’m sure there’s some other ones that escape my memory but they should be referenced.
This is the only issue of the series I bought (and I bought it because of Ben Reilly) and I was disappointed, but not in Ben Reilly- sure, they could have done a little bit to make him be different than Peter, but that didn’t bother me TOO much. I was REALLY bothered by Carnage! He seemed totally out of character! I haven’t been following the Spider-books too closely since the reboot in the 90s, but I don’t EVER remember Carnage talking in snippets or being fixated with EATING people (sure, he’d want to maim them and all that, but I really can’t recall a time where he wanted to just eat them- that’s more Venom’s schtick).
LOL, good one, Scooter. But I am glad Ben is back.
Um, you guys do realize that Ben pretty much WAS Peter, right?
I feel you’re too kind, this was the only issue of the series I bought and I was sorely disappointed at the lack of Ben present. It may as well of been Pete cept for sinister reading his mind.