Everybody Hates Clones

Coming out of New York’s Comic con this past week, comic book nerds like me have a lot to be excited about.  However, despite all the major announcements that go along with these events, what has gotten me most excited was a rather low-key announcement,  What’s gotten me most excited is the confirmation that there is going to be a new Scarlet Spider ongoing debuting this January.  See?  Most of you are probably like”You’re ridiculous.”

Quick recap; the Scarlet Spider was the clone of Spider-man, aka Ben Reilly, from the much reviled Clone Saga chapter of Spider-man from the 1990’s that wore a hoodie with ripped sleeves for a costume. Based off that summary alone, you’re probably wondering why on earth I am excited by this at all.   But those were the comics I remember reading back when I was a kid.  My dad used to have bins for all his comics, so I was able to browse through them at my leisure, and I always took a fancy to clone stories, and Ben Reilly as well.

Recently these books have started getting collected in trade paperback form, and reading them now the comics feel very dated.  A lot of the storyline elements are very silly and some are just stupid (lol Spidercide), and there are plenty of story elements that just don’t make sense.  But there were certain elements I still found that worked really well, and one of them was Ben Reilly.  He may have originated out of a bizarre and overly complex storyline, but the character himself is very likeable, sometimes even more so than Peter.

However, Marvel has pretty much confirmed that Ben Reilly is going to stay dead, so this new Scarlet Spider obviously isn’t him.  After a teaser was released of the Scarlet Spider a couple of weeks ago, one writer posted an article on bleedingcool.com saying that he knew the identity of this new Scarlet Spider, with the nominees ranging from very likely to completely ridiculous.  Included in the candidates was Ben Reilly.  Personally though, I felt there were only two likely choices from the list; the aforementioned Mr. Reilly and his disfigured clone brother, Kaine. Okay, yeah, that sounded completely ridiculous.  

But Kaine was one of the other elements I thought really worked in the clone saga.  Kaine was the first clone of Peter Parker created by the Jackal, one that became disfigured due to cloning degeneration.  Unlike Peter and Ben though, Kaine is definitely not on the side of the angels.  The laundry list of his wrongdoings include stalking Ben while he was wandering the road on his exile, trying to frame Ben but accidently framing Peter for murder, and basically just a fair amount of killing.  But still, that was then. 

He came around recently in the grim hunt storyline, seemingly giving his life for Peter’s, and he’s in the current Spider-Island event storyline that the Scarlet Spider series spins out from.  On top of that, he went from being a weird big spider monster called the Tarantula to being completely normal looking after being dropped into the Ant-Venom cure.  Normal looking as in, no scars.  Now it seems that much more likely that this no Scarlet Spider is Kaine, as he now looks the same as Peter and Ben (he even shrunk either a bit or a lot…Kaine used to tower over those guys) and has more or less been helping Peter out lately. 

After being initially bummed, upon thinking I realized this probably has the potential to be more interesting than Ben returning.  The new Scarlet Spider is the guy that stalked the old one for half a decade, so what could persuade Kaine to take on his enemy’s old name?  Not to mention Kaine is a very dark character, and Marvel has said that the new Scarlet Spider is going to be somewhere in between The Amazing Spider-man and Venom, which is a much grimmer book than Spider-man’s.  This is further evident given the writer of the new Scarlet Spider series; Chris Yost, who wrote X-force, an assassination team of X-men, so he definitely knows how to do violent.  I expect this Scarlet Spider to be noticeably more violent than Ben. 

Also, with this set up there are easy ways to keep the character of Ben Reilly alive via flashbacks, maybe some that could somehow be connected to the main story.  I honestly think it’s the best possible solution they could have come up for this book.  This way, the Ben Reilly aspect of the Scarlet Spider gets to live on, and we get to see a familiar character in a very different scenario and from a different perspective.  It allows not just the Scarlet Spider to live on, but two fan favorite (well cult fan favorite) aspects of the clone saga storyline also gets to see the light of day after not being paid attention to for quite a while.  A smart and awesome move by Marvel, and I for one totally cannot wait for January. 

I mean, if I'm right.  Come on Marvel just tell us!

Event Comics....Meh

Sometimes, reading comic books can be an unfulfilling hobby.  This past week saw the release of X-Men: Schism #5. Schism is an X-men event series that will chart the way for future X-men books by launching brand new series, such as Wolverine and the X-men, relaunch old mainstays such as Uncanny X-men, give books like Generation Hope a new creative team, and give series such as Uncanny X-Force and New Mutants new directions.  Furthermore, every book’s line up of characters will be altered in some way, in some cases more drastic than others.  The overall storyline that ties these books together is called “Regenesis.”

When Schism was first announced, it was already revealed how this change to the X-men mythos will go down.  The set up for the series was that it would pit Cyclops aka Scott Summers and Wolverine aka Logan against each other, after having grown as close as they have ever been these past few years.  Traditionally, the relationship between Cyclops and Wolverine is an antagonistic one, with much of their rivalry having to do with their differing methods and Cyclops’ late girlfriend Jean Grey. 

This all changed in 2005, when the House of M mini-series ended with mutants on the brink of extinction.  This forced Cyclops to take a more general type of approach to leading not only the X-men, but the entire species of mutants.  During this time, Logan became Scott’s most trusted ally in fighting for muantkind: If Scott needed someone to disappear forever; all he had to do was call Logan.  If he needed someone to lead a team of secret assassins, call Logan.  If he needed someone to teach a class full of kids….uh, call Logan.  Effectively, Logan became Scott’s most trusted soldier in the survival for their species.

The Schism series finally turned this relatively newfound friendship on it’s head, with Scott and Logan at odds about a variety of events that transpire over the course of the series.  However, what it fundamentally comes down to is that Logan no longer agrees with Scotts view on the future of mutantkind: he feels that Scott’s militaristic approach will cause more young mutants death than it is worth.  He no longer feels that these young mutants should have to risk their lives instead of enjoy their youth.  Naturally, this climaxes in a brutal battle between Cyclops and Wolverine while a giant sentinel looms over them, in traditional comic book fashion, and Wolverine decides to leave the group with anyone that would like to join him.

While this is all good and fine, I felt cheated out by this being how Wolverine and Cyclops part ways.  Instead of building on the foundation that had already been established between the two characters, a seemingly random conflict between Cyclops and Wolverine is constructed and the only other X-men characters that have any major contribution to the storyline are extremely minor ones.  Also, it is never explained why “x” character choices to go with Wolverine or Cyclops, which left me with an odd and unfinished feeling. 

It is just another instance of something getting hyped to the point that when the actual event occurs, it goes out with a whimper.  The battle between the two characters was still enjoyable (I mean, look at how brutal this is), but I’ve been aware of Logan and Scott’s break up for a while, and when it actually happened it was as inorganic as the entire second Matrix film.

Am I still going to read the new “Regenesis” storyline that launches as a result of Schism?  Yes, and I’m actually excited as hell.  The idea of Wolverine leading his own team is one that has not really been explored outside of the Wolverine and the X-men cartoon, so that it will be interesting to see.  It will also be interesting to see how Logan’s group reacts to returning to Westchester and how their relationship with the other teams (especially Scotts) will be.  It just leaves readers with a bittersweet feeling knowing that the end result is the most exciting part of an entire event (whoa déjà vu).