#THIS PAGE IS KILLING ME (that's doc talking to his clone btw)

[sunhaloscarab]

(via drmcninja)

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Life Story #4 Thoughts Part 2: Broken Ben, bits and bobs

Let’s move back to Ben Reilly.

Nitpick: why is he wearing glasses?

His spider powers mitigate the need for glasses.

Peter doesn’t wear glasses. Is staring at photos in a dark room really going to diminish your super enhanced eyesight so much more than lab work, reading business documents and getting punched in the face by bad guys?

A more serious problem though is Ben’s characterization.

Putting aside the photographer thing Ben goes absolutely nuts when he finds out he’s the real Peter Parker. Peter meanwhile is more calm.

The context here is seriously different to the 1990s Clone Saga but does that add up with the differences in how it plays out?

In the 1990s Clone Saga, Peter had recently lost Aunt May, recently recovered from a mental breakdown but ever since had been put under extreme pressures and mental anguish, the reveal he was a fake also hit him hard because it meant potential genetic ailments for his unborn child and the possibility his wife would reject him as a freak. He flipped out...hard.

Here, the clones haven’t been established to regard themselves as lesser than the real people. Peter initially regards them as such yes, thus you’d imagine that would extend to Ben. But Gwen more or less seems to sort of see herself as real even if she isn’t Gwen Stacy.

Peter also lacks the mental fragility or issues his 1990s counterpart had.

Ben in the 1990s Clone Saga though was comparatively mentally healthier and he also flipped out but less so than Peter. When he first realizes he was a clone back in the 1970s though Ben nearly contemplated suicide.

So within the context of these changes I don’t think Ben and Peter’s change in reactions is out of character.

However it doesn’t really reflect well on Ben as a character that the scene where he talks the most so far and is defined the most as a character has him flying out of control, trying to beat Doc Ock to death and irrationally blaming him for stealing his life when Otto had nothing to do with it.

It also doesn’t help that within the span of four pages he goes from out of control irrational violence to saying ‘oh no how could I commit murder I’m Peter Parker’ (whilst being held back from continuing to beat Otto) to then diving out of a broken window (without web-shooters) screaming Otto is a murderer.

It doesn’t leave you with a positive impression of the character at all, it makes him look unstable and not a great choice to adopt the mantle of Spider-Man.

I also wondered briefly if Peter catching Ben by the foot after he fell/committed suicide maybe (?) had killed him like it killed Gwen. I guess when you have spider powers physics don’t apply to you.

Oh one more thing related to Ben Reilly, and it’s about the fact that he’s revealed as the real Peter Parker.

It’s just a teeny tiny thing you know, really more of a nitpick hardly worth menti- WHY WOULD ANYONE BELIEVE THAT!

Look at the logistics of this for a moment.

Warren switched out Gwen for Helen, probably before her wedding. As the ‘father of the bride’ and her boss he’d have had private access to her so a switch makes sense.

When the fuck could he have possibly done this with Peter?

Nowhere in this comic was anyone implied to be able to bypass the spider sense at all. So how the Hell was an old man like Warren supposed to switch Peter and his clone without Peter or Ben realizing; back when Peter was in the prime of his powers btw?

Wouldn’t there be gaps in their memories????

I know, I know, I know Warren never did do this. But Ben and Otto BELIEVE he did.

Why?

Is Ben not simply coming off as insane in this story but supposed to actually be nuts because you could figure out that this is obviously not true with ease. In the canon Clone Sagas it made sense because Peter and Ben both remembered being knocked out then woke up repeating one another’s dialogue.

What’s worse is that Ben flips out over the word of Doctor Octopus!

In the Clone Saga Peter and Ben perform the tests themselves repeatedly and that’s how they come to the conclusion Peter is the clone.

Here Ben Reilly goes nuts because the elderly delusional nut job super villain claims he just read some data that confirms Ben as the Real McCoy.

Why would you believe that immediately???????????????????????

Okay sure, later on Peter and Ben do double check things and confirm the results but nevertheless Ben flips out big time on the trustworthy word of Doc Ock!

Now let’s talk now about Ben’s wife Helen Parker and/or Reil-

...Wait a minute...

*searches every page of LF #4*

...She...she’s not....she’s not in the issue...she’s not even mentioned!

What in the actual fuck Zdarsky!

You introduce the clone of Gwen Stacy in a remix of the 1970s Clone Saga, then when you come to remix the 1990s Clone Saga where she was prominently featured...you ignore her?

Worse you don’t even mention her!?

Peter doesn’t even ask  after her, his ex-wife????????

She gets mentioned on the recap page but we know nothing of where she is.

Last we checked she was posing as Ben’s wife and/or relative. What the Hell happened you can’t ignore that, she’s conspicuous via her absence!

Sigh...let’s talk about the Osborns.

They were handled better. Arguably they were the best/least shitty aspects of this comic (sans the standard stratospheric artwork).

Harry dies saving Peter, remixing Spec #200. Okay that’s not too bad even though the context is totally different.

Then Norman dies of a heart attack after trying to spite Peter one last time and after learning Harry is dead.

Now one nice touch in the issue is a bait and switch where you think Peter is having Ben followed but really it’s Norman Osborn. Didn’t see that coming so well done there.

Norman is also mostly in character because he’s spiteful and hateful till the end, but displays a genuine albeit twisted love for his son.

His role in trying to trick Peter into thinking he’s the clone is rather at odds with canon though and far less dramatic. In canon Norman always planned to trick Peter this way but put the plan in motion in response to Harry’s death as revenge. Here it’s just a pathetic last ditch attempt to spite Peter.

Now granted maybe that was the point. For the plan to totally backfire on Norman and showcase him as the sad pathetic old man he is. If that’s so then okay, well done I guess as a remixing of canon, along with the fact that you kill off Norman in the era he actually came back to life in canon.

His characterization gets wonky in some places though.

He says ‘He drove me to it. He’s always in my head.’

It’s not clear who Norman is talking about. The long shot is Peter which would make sense. It might be the Goblin because some interpretations paint the Goblin as another personality, but that’s against canon and this series never implied that. the dialogue though seems to more directly imply he means Harry which...huh? Doesn’t add up at all that one.

We also have a lingering problem from issue #2, re-emphasised in this issue.

Apparently Norman served out his sentence (really, he didn’t get life for his crimes, okay) and is sour Peter in issue #2 screwed up his escape plan.

Re-read my thoughts on issue #2 for more details on why this is a problem but in a nutshell:

a)      If Norman has access to his money, resources and knowledge of Peter’s identity then he had multiple ways to plan an escape. In the very well known Marvel Knights: Spider-Man Norman kidnaps May and blackmails Peter into freeing him from prison, a plan he mapped out very soon after discovering Peter’s identity. There is no reason given in LF why he wouldn’t do something like this

b)      His escape plan in issue #2 made absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever.

 A final potential problem with Norman in this issue is that if everyone knows who he is and he’s desperate to get back at Peter somehow, even maybe letting Doc Ock kill them...why doesn’t he just reveal his identity to the public!

In canon Norman kept that secret because HE wanted to kill Spidey alone and/or because exposing Spidey meant exposing himself too.

In this context though he’s already exposed and he isn’t going to be destroying Spidey directly at all. So why not just reveal his identity to the world?

P.S. According to Norman Harry owns stock in Parker Industries but didn’t he give all his money to MJ?