Oh, the Clone Saga. I lived it in real time. It wasn't pleasant. That said, Ben Reilly and Kaine eventually became two of my favorite characters, so I guess I can't complain too much.
But, OMFG, it was such a fucking mess. If you're interested, I highly recommend the "Life of Reilly" blog that I've linked in my blog roll. It's an essential reading companion for "The Clone Saga," as it frequently confirms that, no, you're not crazy, the editors really didn't have any idea what they were doing at various points.
As I mentioned in my last post, I read these two mini-series due to "Free Comic Book Day: Spider-Man/Venom (2021)" #1 bringing back Janine Godbe. I admit that they were surprisingly more enjoyable than I thought that they would be. After seeing how much Ben and Janine loved each other - and what they endured - I'm thrilled that Marvel decided to reunited them.
At this point, I couldn't be more excited about Ben returning to the main title, particularly given that it seems like we're getting the Ben that I know and love and not the post-"Clone Conspiracy" one. For now, onto the past!
Spider-Man: The Lost Years #0-#3: As a Ben Reilly fan, I'm surprised that I hadn't read this mini-series sooner, though I was so scarred from "The Clone Saga" that I understand my hesitation. But, it's a shame that I didn't, because it's pretty great.
Rather than trying to cover all of Ben's "lost years," DeMatteis focuses on one specific era, namely Ben's time in Salt Lake City. By the time he arrives there, Ben's been all over the world, using Steward Trainer's recommendations to get teaching-assistant gigs under false identities. He stays in each position for a month or so until he has enough money to hit the road again. Ben alludes to the fact that he starts to lose his shit when he stays in one place too long, remembering what he had when he lived a more grounded life as Peter Parker. Kaine also arrives in Salt Lake City as we're in the era where Kaine is pursuing Ben relentlessly.
But, two things happen in Salt Lake City that draw Ben into something approaching a normal life. First, he meets Janine while she's waitressing at a diner and finds himself instantly drawn to her. Second, on his way to his first date with Janine, his Spider-Sense leads him to save the life of a woman and her son after a bomb blows up their house. It turns out they're the family of Detective Jacob Raven, who put local mob-boss Vincent Tannen behind bars. Ben's intervention pulls him into Tannen's war against Raven, forcing him to use his powers on several occasions to save Raven and his family.
It isn't until issue #2 - where Scheele really plays up Janine's red hair - that I realized Janine is essentially Mary Jane, explaining why Ben feels such a connection to her. Of course, since Ben can't be happy, Janine ends things in that issue, for reasons at which DeMatteis only hints. ("Secrets!") Since Kaine really can't be happy, he's dating Raven's partner, Louise Kennedy, who approached him at a bar after she was impressed when he took out a prostitute's abusive pimp.
While having sex with Louise, Kaine's cellular degeneration suddenly accelerates, and he flees in horror. Looking for an outlet for his rage, Kaine hunts down Ben, who himself is venting his rage over Janine ending their relationship on some of Tannen's thugs. It's important to note that we're in the era where Kaine "knows" that Ben is "really" (though not) Peter. Instead of killing Ben as they fight, Kaine decides to torment him, furious at "Peter" for the life that he gets to live and that he (Kaine) is denied.
Kaine's cellular degeneration flares again, and he flees. However, he watches through the warehouse's skylight as Tannen's twin brother Paul orders Kennedy, who's working for Vince, to kill Ben. [Vince has called Paul into town to kill Raven's son so that Raven knows that it was him - Vince (though really Paul) - who did it.] An appalled Kaine saves Ben, reminding us that Kaine can never quite embrace his darkness as much as he wants. In another example of that, he's later crushed when Louise tells him that the darkness always wins.
Eventually, Janine admits to Ben that she murdered her father who molested her every day of her life, and Ben admits that he's a clone of Spider-Man. Knowing that they love each other despite their secrets, they prepare to leave town. Needless to say, Kaine isn't thrilled.
It all comes to a head outside Salt Lake City as Kaine attacks Ben and Janine as they flee. In issue #1, Janine was wary about Raven, given her fear that he might ID her, and she's proven correct. Following a hunch, he discovers that she's really Elizabeth Tyne. Louise accompanies Raven to take in Janine, but she's startled when she recognizes Ben as the man whom she almost killed. Before she can kill Ben, Kaine kills her, as dramatic an underscoring of his tragedy as possible. In order to punish Ben for his happy ending with Janine, Kaine leaves the scene before Raven arrives. As such, Raven thinks that Ben and Janine killed Kennedy. Ben knocks Raven unconscious, noting as he does that he would've killed him if they had really killed Louise. He and Janine then ride into the sunset.
Honestly, this mini-series is so strong that I'm really surprised that they didn't turn it into a regular series. I re-read the "Life of Reilly" blog posts about it, and it turns out they planned to do so, but the decision to reinstate Peter got in the way. Of course it did.
Spider-Man: Redemption #1-#4: After how great "Spider-Man: The Lost Years" was, I'm sad to say that this series didn't quite hit those heights.
We start issue #1 with Ben as Spider-Man after "Spectacular Spider-Man" #226 established that he, and not "Peter," was the "real" Peter Parker. (Of course, Marvel later ret-conned that ret-con, but I promised myself that I wouldn't dwell too much on my "Clone Saga" era rage here.)
Oddly, the issue makes no mention of this change in Ben's understanding of his identity since "Spider-Man: The Lost Years;" I only realized where we were in the story through context clues. I acknowledge that I'm reading this series 25+ years after its publication, so I probably wouldn't have needed an editor's note to flag that change for me at the time. But, given how each issue of this series gives us panel upon panel of Kaine walking us through every details his cellular-degeneration disease, I was surprised that this "resolution" didn't merit a mention.
That said, I was glad to see DeMatteis spend some time walking us through Ben mourning everything that he lost as a result of Jackal forcing him to believe that he wasn't the real Peter, including a chance to mourn Harry Osborn. It sets up how lonely Ben is at this stage despite the fact that he's allegedly "won" back his life. It helps us understand his desperation when Janine appears in his apartment alive and later his willingness to leave behind his life in New York.
My biggest problem with the first two issues, though, is that we don't understand why Ben thought Janine was dead in the first place. She arrives in New York after Kaine, posing as Ben, sent her a letter (and Ben's apartment keys) in which "Ben" asks her to return to him in New York. In issue #1 she seems surprised that Ben thought that she was dead, even though she clearly knew that he did after some incident in Santa Cruz. (Re-reading that sentences made my head hurt.) After we eventually find out what happened in Santa Cruz in issue #3, her confusion in this issue makes even less sense. I don't think DMatteis even explains how Janine thought that "Ben" (i.e., Kaine) eventually found her.
At any rate, issue #1 ends with Kaine attacking Ben and seemingly killing Janine, which sets Ben on a rampage against the cops investigating the disturbance that Ben and Kaine's fight caused. Eventually, Ben realizes that it was a trick; Ben found Janine's "body" in a room full of mannequins and, in his grief, confused the mannequin that Kaine dressed as Janine with Janine herself. The only reason that I'll give this ridiculousness a pass is that we know Kaine is intentionally fucking with Ben. As Ben realizes that he's grief-spooning a mannequin, he discovers a message from Kaine to meet him "at the womb," so Ben heads to Jackal's laboratory, where Kaine is holding the non-mannequin Janine.
Issue #2 devolves into both Ben and Kaine engaging in bad psychoanalysis as they struggle with the fact that they're both surprised that their instincts are to help each other. Kaine is surprised at the guilt that he feels for torturing Ben, and, at some point, you start to wonder why he just doesn't stop. For example, Kaine injects Ben with some sort of formula that makes Ben feel the pain that he feels every day and then takes him to Aunt May's house to torment him further. But, once there, the room's mementos of Aunt May and Uncle Ben make Kaine realize how much Jackal took from Ben when he sent him on the road. Instead of deciding that their shared pain bonds them, though, Kaine knocks Ben unconscious, delivers him the antidote, and leaves him and Janine in Ben's apartment. (You have to wonder why this antidote doesn't work on Kaine if it worked on Ben...)
But, Ben and Janine's happy reunion is interrupted when the cops arrive to arrest Janine, possibly because they recognized her at the start of the issue, which seems a stretch. ("Hey, that mannequin looks like an escaped murderer from Salt Lake City...") Issue #3 starts with a disguised Ben kidnapping Janine from the police van returning her to jail from her arraignment. Ben threatens to kill Janine in front of the cops and other convicts to make it look like Janine was kidnapped, not rescued. With Janine's presumed death, Ben figures that they can now easily go on the run.
Before they leave New York, they go to a diner (which seems a profoundly bad idea for two people on the run) to make plans. There, Janine confesses that Kaine came to her in Santa Cruz while Ben was at work and made her fake her own death in exchange for promising that he'd leave Ben alone. She's ecstatic when Ben forgives her, but Kaine arrives and, in his ensuing fight with Ben, the diner explodes.
It turns out Kaine planted a bomb in the diner. After saving the innocent customers, Kaine returns to the diner to die with Ben and Janine. But, they both beg him to save the other one, and their love for each other finally (finally!) moves Kaine. He rescues them and asks them to live a happy life together...and to kill him. Ben refuses, telling him that he has to hold him for the cops to arrest him.
The cops arrive (you know, given the explosion), and one of the cops recognizes Kaine from the "Parker trial," where Ben/Peter was tried for Louise's murder in "Spider-Man: The Lost Years" #3. I had to do some Googling because I forgot the details, but Kaine appears at the trial in "Spectacular Spider-Man" #226 and tells the court that his hatred of Peter led him to have his fingerprints altered to implicate him in murders.
Furious at Ben for not killing him, Kaine grabs a cop in the hope of committing suicide-by-cop. But, Ben refuses to let Kaine die and saves him. Inspired by Ben insisting that the truth will set Kaine free, both Janine and Kaine decide to surrender so that they can be charged with their crimes.
Final Thoughts: I'm honestly stunned that we haven't seen Janine since "Spider-Man: Resurrection" #4. On some level, it makes sense since Ben dies in "Spider-Man" #75, which Marvel published the same day as "Spider-Man: Resurrection" #4. As such, Ben wasn't there to free or visit her. But, I don't recall Ben ever mentioning Janine in "Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider." I guess that it isn't too much of a surprise, given that he was insane during that period of time. But, reading these issues, I'm really thrilled that they've now been reunited because they're a great couple. I can't wait to see where we go from here.
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