Credits: Written by Tom DeFalco and Todd DeZago, pencils by Steven Butler, inks by Randy Emberlin and edited by Eric Fein.
Cast: Peter ‘Spider-Man’ Parker, Ben ‘Scarlet Spider’ Reilly, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Felicia ‘Black Cat’ Hardy, Paul and D’spayre
Synopsis: Swinging through the concrete canyons of New York City, the Black Cat is lamenting recent events. She met Ben who was pretending to be Peter, learned who Ben was through MJ and then found that Ben was the real Peter, the Peter who never had a relationship with her, bringing into question how real the person she did love was. In this weaker moment of doubt, she is approached by predominantly X-Men villain D’Spayre.
Elsewhere, at a local cemetery, Peter and Ben are visiting May’s grave, both finally able to be around one another as they both try to work out what they share and what they should do next. They both comment on the fact they’re being followed. They leave the cemetery and when they get to buildings disappear from view and get into costumes. They they follow their pursuer to their office, where we learn that Paul is an employee of the Black Cat and no one knows where she is. Given his history with Felicia, Peter is determined to help and drags a semi-willing Ben along. Elsewhere in subplot land Mary Jane is having some career news as a designer is looking for a model for some high-end maternity wear and is very interested in her.
Somewhere else, D’Spayre is working his power on Black Cat, pushing her anger towards Peter and when the Spiders catch up with her, she attacks Peter and several Black Cat dressed men attack Ben, although he notices immediately that they don’t feel like people when he hits them. Peter out of nowhere breaks down and this leads Ben to realise he’s dealing with D’Spayre. How he knows this, or where he encountered D’Spayre before is not clear, but Ben attacks the demonic creaure determined to remove his influence over Felicia and Peter. Realising you can’t beat D’Spayre phyiscally, he talks the pair down and all three then attack the demon together. There’s hugs and handshakes and everyone gets ready to head home. Just before they do, Ben and Peter have the talk and Ben admits that this is Peter’s life, clone or not and he should live it, he’s better at being Ben and in the last 5 years Peter has been a better Peter and that’s how it should be.
Peter gets home and tells MJ that he and Ben are going to stay as they are, meaning their lives carry on as before this clone mess started. (I’m laughing as I write this) Ben on the other hand is doing his best Bill Bixby as David Banner and is walking away, believing that his leaving is best for Peter, MJ, their baby and ultimately himself..
Notes: There were a few different ways to end the clone saga and to be honest, I think they ended up doing all of them. This was the first that was a cop-out, but it wouldn’t last. Peter being the clone, but Ben remaining Ben allowed the Spider-titles to keep going as they were, allowing Peter to remain in situ, but allowing Ben space to be around and perhaps carry on the job. just in case. If done this way, Ben could be phased out and this whole saga could just be quietly retconned away somewhere. But I digress.
The whole plot of the issue hinges on Felicia’s confusion over whether Peter is the ‘real’ Peter. The reason I struggle to by that is that she never knew any other. MJ who knew Peter before the Jackal and the death of Gwen is more likely to have this struggle, but she doesn’t as this Peter is her Peter, original or not. Since Felicia only knew this Peter, a person who preferred to see as Spider-Man., this feels like the wrong person for this story, despite the hard work put in to fit it together. Then we get D’Spayre, predominantly an X-Men villain, he was an interesting choice for this, but we got a bit more of Ben’s life before his return and that is always a pleasant addition to the ongoing narrative. Ultimately though, it’s about Peter and Ben putting things to rest and getting back to the lives that make sense to them. I know that there are more twists to come, but this felt like it could have worked as an off ramp.
Verdict: Writing 3 out of 5 – Whether or not I buy the story’s central premise, it was well told. Well plotted and paced, it made good use of Peter and Ben working together and both having a little fun with it. All the plots move forward together and I wasn’t at any point bored. Still the odd inclusion of D’Spayre and the Black Cat stuff didn’t help make this look like anything other than filler, it was just nice filler.
Art: 4 out of 5- Still the solid work of Butler and Emberlin who plays to his strengths by having Peter and Ben as masked as often as possible and focusing on the visuals of the other characters, which is where he shines. The Spiders look great as does Felicia and MJ and his D’Spayre has a level of threat to him that you don’t often see.
Overall: 7 out of 10 – This is a solid start to the story that will set up the next status quo, it’s made me hopeful for what comes next.
Next Time: Another Age of Apocalypse series comes to an end.
My Marvel Life 