Credits: Plotted by Tom DeFalco, scripted by Todd DeZago, breakdowns by Steven Butler, finishes Randy Emberlin and edited Eric Fein.
Cast: Ben ‘Scarlet Spider’ Reilly, Peter ‘Spider-Man’ Parker, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Vance ‘Justice’ Astrovik, Robbie ‘Speedball’ Baldwin, Angelica ‘Firestar’ Jones, Alex Power, Mickey ‘Turbo’ Mushashi and Carlon ‘Hindsight’ LaFroge.
Plot: Ben (as Scarlet Spider) arrives at the Crashpad to find the rest of the New Warriors out, he speaks to Hindsight (the team’s resident ‘man in the chair’) and finds out about the call from Mary Jane. Nearby a battle is raging between the New Warriors and Spider-Man, for the life of Mary Jane, whom Peter has been mind controlled into trying to murder. The Warriors are doing okay, but Peter (as Spider-Man) has more skill and experience and the whole team can do no better than keeping him at bay. He still breaks free and chases after MJ onto the street, where he is tackled by Ben. Everyone is still struggling, by MJ commandeers a cab and drives off, after realising she has a plan.
Peter tries to get past the New Warriors and manages it, slipping into the sewers, The Warriors follow, but Turbo notices that Ben isn’t with them. Ben has worked out where MJ is going and heads in that direction. Peter catches up to MJ, now sitting comfortably in the living room of Aunt May’s Forest Hills home. Surrounded by memories of his loving family and his loving wife, the hold Jackal has over Peter dissolves and the pair of the embrace, this current crisis passed. Ben sees this from a distance, then leaves giving the couple a bit of privacy as he tries to come up with something to tell the Warriors.
Notes: This is a solid conclusion to the story from Spectacular Spider-Man 228:, sort of finishing off the Jackal’s influence in the Clone Saga. A race against time to save MJ creates a tense story that sort of raises on distinct point that I should’ve had thought about before, but was quite glaring here. Scarlet Spider sounds like Spider-Man. Up to 5 years ago, they were the same guy, spoke with the same voice and the same mannerisms. This carried on, as Ben posed as Peter during the trial, so they still look and sound alike. So here’s the thing, when wearing their masks, they’d still kind of sound the same, So the same build, similar colour scheme and almost the exact same voice. Vance Astrovik, Angelica Jones and Robbie Baldwin (Justice, Firestar and Speedball, yes his name is speedball) have worked with Peter several times and when all of them were together no one mentioned it?
Beyond that, the story works pretty well, with MJ using Peter’s lost love ones as a method to free him from the Jackal’s control. Ben sees it happen and wanders off and then we have the fact hat he has to explain where he went to the Warriors a group he’s already not being honest with. It’s one of those issues that crystallises what the Clone Saga could have been, but often wasn’t, but I was glad that this story concluded as well as it did.
Verdict: Writing – 3 out of 5. We’re getting a consistent writing team of DeFalco and DeZago and they’re ok. There’re not great, but do have a handle on the characters and the pacing has improved tremendously, showing that they’re playing to their strengths and the comics benefit from this division of labour.
Art: 4 out of 5 – I am going to miss Butler when he is inevitable removed from the book, his work in Web of Spider-Man has been great and his portrayal of Ben and Peter has been a highlight of this whole run for me. His command of action mixes with his skill at the personal stuff and it’s been really well put together 90’s long underwear comics.
Overall: 7 out of 10 – A satisfying ending to a story and a fun romp. Really enjoying all of this as this stage of the Clone Saga starts coming to an end.
Next Time: More Spider-Clone shenanigans as the mystery of who is after Seward Trainer is revealed .
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