written by Zeb Wells
penciled by Michael Dowling, Kyle Hotz, Terry Dodson and Ryan Stegman
inked by Dowling, Hotz, Rachel Dodson,Tim Townsend and JP Mayer
colored by Richard Isanove, Dan Brown, Rachel Dodson and Matt Hollingsworth
Ever since the Spider-Man clone, first created in the 1970s by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, came onto the scene, he's proven to be a bit of a challenge to several generations of Marvel creators. Initially a one-off character meant to tell one story, after which he was unceremoniously killed off, Ben was then resurrected in the mid 1990s as a means to replace Peter Parker as "the one, true Spider-Man." When that didn't work out, Marvel killed Ben off again, despite having spent something like three years setting him up as a new lead character. There was just one problem; this time, fans actually cared because Marvel had spent all this time developing the character. I should know; I was one of those fans. And thus, it finally came to pass that in 2016, Dan Slott and Jim Cheung brought the character back in the miniseries "The Clone Conspiracy," which featured Ben as a villain, twisted by his horrible experiences with death over and over again. Ben survived that, and in the six years that followed Marvel didn't quite seem to know what to do with him, taking him from villain back to hero and now...back to villain again.
Following the yearlong "Beyond" saga, which saw Ben take over the Spider-Man mantle yet again, albeit under the auspices of the evil Beyond Corporation, Ben has been robbed of nearly all of his memories by Beyond, an experience that has left him resentful and filled with murderous rage against the person he believes to be responsible for the loss of his memories: Peter Parker. This time, however, he has an ally in his misguided quest, someone who was also cloned from a major Marvel character and discarded when the story called for it: Madelyne Pryor, aka the Goblin Queen, who was cloned from none other than the X-Men's Jean Grey. "Dark Web" is the story of the two of them literally unleashing Hell on New York to get their revenge.
This prologue to the main event is a bit of a jam issue, with four artists illustrating the story in which Ben Reilly, his girlfriend Janine Godbe and their new ally the Goblin Queen move the pieces of their grand plan into place. The Goblin Queen bestows superpowers on Janine and a supervillain name to boot, and things look all set for the Dark Web to ensnare its intended prey.
I'm generally not a fan of "jam" issues, even though I think all of the artists here did a good job. I guess I'm tepid about this multi-part crossover, in part because I don't really feel like buying all of the issues involved, but also because this feels like an unimaginative way to deal with Ben Reilly, who was only just a supervillain not too long ago. That Marvel teamed him up with another misunderstood clone deserves some points for creativity in recycling discarded characters, but as far as I'm concerned "Dark Web" is not off to the strongest starts.
6/10
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