Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #3 (March 23): OMG, talk about a deep cut! Spidercide! I mean, he was the worst, but I'm totally game to see where DeMatteis goes with him. I also have to complement DeMatteis on not dragging out Ben's mysterious nemesis for too long. It was clear that it was Díaz from the beginning, and a lot of authors would've burned through a few issues to hold the reveal until the end. Now, I feel like we're going to get some real tension as we see if Ben can handle yet another angry clone brother coming after him.
X Deaths of Wolverine #5 (March 23): Enh. This issue isn't terrible and does what it's supposed to do, namely bring back Moira for her eleventh life as a cyborg. I'm down with that, though, again, I feel like the ten-issue "X Lives and Deaths of Wolverine" saga probably could've been a three-issue mini-series.
The most interesting part of this event, for me, was Beast admitting to Sage that they only succeed - Krakoa only succeeds - because Wolverine is a savage killer willing to get his hands dirty. For all the diplomacy of the Quiet Council, it's Wolverine who preserves mutantkind. It's a rough pill for Beast to swallow, but it's also the closest that I've seen any long-term X-Men come to acknowledging their debt to him, even if it comes with disdain, as it does with Beast here.
Amazing Spider-Man #93 (March 30): Holy fuck balls, you guys.
For the fact that this issue ends the "Beyond" saga, it doesn't really wrap up any loose ends. In fact, it leaves us with more questions than it answers. How future authors answer those questions will determine what "Beyond's" long-term legacy is. It's short-term legacy is a much-needed shot in the arm for the Spider-Man franchise.
First things first, Maxine's escape plan largely drives the story. Ben makes quick work of the Slingers and reaches her office only for her to give him a device that'll allegedly transfer Peter's memories - the ones that Ben is missing - to him. Although Wells never fully addresses whether Maxine is lying or not, her gambit works: Ben leaves her to go after Peter. She then orders a kill team to take out Marcus, telling him that she's given him a respectable death story in recognition of his service. Janine manages to save Marcus (with the "Infantalizer," which turns the kill team into babies), and Ben finds Peter.
Wells excels in scripting this fight, as Ben's rage is so abundantly clear. Peter can't reason with him, failing to convince him that maybe - just maybe - Maxine wasn't really telling the truth about the device that she gave him. Speaking of Maxine, the Beyond Board authorizes the liquidation of the building's lower levels and attempts to assassinate her, only to discover that she's using a holographic decoy. (The Board is outraged that she uses something that the Board reserves the right to use.) I have to say that the only good news to this issue is that the Board somehow didn't promote Maxine.
Peter manages to destroy the device, which breaks Ben. As Maxine's "quantum-shifting polymers in a psycho-reactive medium" begin to rewrite the matter in the lower floors, Ben falls into the goo. Gleason is spectacular here. Peter's face so clearly conveys the anguish that he feels as he watches the goo consume Ben, and Ben's face is angelically resigned to his defeat when he tells Peter: "You have it all, Peter. All the parts I'm missing. I just wanted them back." Marcus manages to save Peter as Beyond HQ becomes several floors shorter.
In the epilogue, Janine traipses through the goo to find Ben; she's started when his arm - full with some sort of psychic-energy tentacle - emerges from the rubble. Weeks later, Mary Jane asks Peter to move into her apartment with her, only for a glowing mysterious figure to appear at the window, saying "A road of blood led to you...come with me." Months later, Ben continues to see his face as that familiar void in the mirror. Janine hears a crash from the other room and enters the bathroom to find him gone. In the most spectacular splash page I've ever seen, Ben appears in a purple costume with a green psychic-energy aura exuding from him, announcing, "There is only a Chasm."
Seriously, people, I got chills.
In terms of the overall "Beyond" saga, I have to say that I'm thrilled. After Nick Spencer's ridiculously prolonged Kindred story, it was awesome to have such a compelling and detailed story presented in just 19 issues.
On one hand, I'm devastated to see Ben end up this way. I've been pulling for him for so long. But, the Beyond Board honestly made a compelling argument that Ben was inevitably going to become Peter's archenemy: he's gone through too much, been broken too many times, had his dreams ruined too frequently. It's Spider-Man, so redemption is clearly on the table for him, when he has people like Janine, Marcus, and Peter all willing to help. But, his appearance in the final page is so terrifying that it's hard to see how someone could redeem him. He just seems too far gone.
As they say, I guess we'll have to tune in next month.
Immortal X-Men #1 (March 30): Meh. This issue is fine, I guess, though Gillen's use of Mr. Sinister as our narrator means that it's way too obtuse. As always, he has schemes.
Two of said schemes are relevant here. First, in 1919, Destiny told him...something, and he expects it to manifest at the Quiet Council meeting where Magneto announces his retirement. That said, he doesn't think that Destiny knows that he knows, so maybe I'm wrong about that? After all, didn't she tell him the "something?" Second, he appears to have cloned Moira, and I'm not sure if we're supposed to believe that he's been willy-nilly resetting the timeline with her?
I like the idea of this series in theory, of Gillen walking us through all the Council members' various schemes. But, this issue shows how hard it is to do that in practice in a way that doesn't seem tedious. It doesn't help that the main players are all incredibly unlikeable. We'll see where we go, I guess.
Also Read: Marauders Annual #1 (January 26); Devil's Reign: X-Men #3 (March 23); Dark Ages #6 (March 30); Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #21 (March 30)
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