Marvel Pick Of The Week: Scarlet Spider #1 – Bad Guy Book With Parker Luck!
By Matt Conner
The Scarlet Spider returns with Spider-Man legends Peter David and Mark Bagley. Ben Reilly is alive again, but how bad is he? Really bad.
Pick Of The Week: Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1, by Peter David and Mark Bagley
Cover by Mark Bagley
I love a villain book. Not a grim murder porn. I mean a thoughtful exploration of morality, what separates the folks who resist temptation from the ones who cross lines to get what they want. Cullen Bunn’s Magneto nailed this, and Nick Spencer’s Superior Foes Of Spider-Man and The Fix added humor. This week, classic Spider-Man creators Peter David and Mark Bagley get to take Marvel’s most famous likeable guy, Peter Parker, and make him bad. And they get one of the best villain books in years.
Peter Parker’s formerly heroic clone, Ben Reilly, returned as the surprise villain in the recent Clone Conspiracy crossover. With the world thinking him dead (again), he escaped, and this week, he sets up shop in Fabulous Las Vegas. He’s got enough of Peter Parker in him to seek some good to do, but not enough to keep him from charging a woman a hundred bucks to stop her mugger. Or he seeks a widowed Aunt May but settles for a slot machine addict in a bad marriage. Because along with Parker genes, he’s got Parker luck. Bad, bad Parker luck.
Ben Reilly as a bad guy will be fascinating. Peter David gets to tell all his good Spider-Man quips, but the tone can go just a little darker. And the book can explore how much morality changes when a character copies into a clone, disintegrates, revives, and starts to break down again. How much of our destiny comes from the codes in our cells? What agency do we have? This is compelling work. And having iconic Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley dance these across a page legitimizes this as a superhero comic, not some lugubrious murky essay.
In my dream world, Scarlet Spider returns to New York and leads the losers of Nick Spencer’s Sinister Six. But until then, I’m happy to get to follow his solo work. Vegas is in for an exceptionally wild night.
Words by Peter David, Art by Mark Bagley
Honorable Mentions:
Cover by Will Robson and Tamra Bonvillain
Words by Zac Gorman, Art by Will Robson and Tamra Bonvillain
Hey, Marvel, explain how this book failed for “diversity doesn’t sell” reasons. It was clever, beautifully-drawn, and used a traditional ethnic/gender cast. Sometimes, books just don’t find their audiences.
Cover by Greg Land, Jay Leisten, and Frank Martin
Words by Greg Pak, Art by Greg Land
Umm, this book is too grim, and it plays fast and loose with Warpath’s continuity, but Wolverine and Sabretooth as that bickering couple adds a few points to the win column.
Cover by Brittney L. Williams
Words by Kate Leth, Art by Brittney L. Williams
Patsy Walker, Hellcat, you were too good for this world, what with your cheer and your charm. It crushes me to let you go, and even more to do so without finding out where I can get Tom’s adorable bear pajama set.
Cover by Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson
Words by Jason Aaron, Art by Russell Dauterman
Quentin Quire gets on my nerves, but Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman found a way to make him charming!
Cover by Brian Stelfreeze and Laura Martin
Words by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Art by Wilfredo Torres
Married or not, Storm and Black Panther have the most amazing chemistry.