Spider-Man: Ben Reilly Omnibus, Vol. 1

Spider-Man: Ben Reilly Omnibus

by Tom DeFalco, Todd Dezago, Evan Skolnick

There's a new wall-crawler in town! Meet Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider, who recently learned he's not a clone of Peter Parker after all -- he's the original! And when Pete decides to hang up his web-shooters, Ben retakes the job...as Spider-Man! There's no shortage of foes to fight -- including the new Doctor Octopus, Venom, Mysterio, Tombstone, Sandman, Kaine, Carnage and more! But while Ben wears the revamped red-and-blues as Spider-Man, what does that ol' Parker luck have in store for Peter and Mary Jane? WEB OF SCARLET SPIDER #1-4, AMAZING SCARLET SPIDER #1-2, SCARLET SPIDER (1995) #1-2, SPECTACULAR SCARLET SPIDER #1-2, SCARLET SPIDER UNLIMITED #1, GREEN GOBLIN #3, SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN (1996) #0-3 and WIZARD MINI-COMIC, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #407-410 and ANNUAL '96, SPIDER-MAN (1990) #64-67, NEW WARRIORS (1990) #67, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #230-233, SPIDER-MAN/ FAMILY PLOT #1-2, SPIDER-MAN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1995, THE FINAL ADVENTURE #1-4, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED (1993) #11, SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP #2-3 and material from ALONG CAME A SPIDER #1-4. Written by TOM DeFALCO, TODD DeZAGO, EVAN SKOLNICK, HOWARD MACKIE, GLENN HERDLING, DAN JURGENS, FABIAN NICIEZA, TOM LYLE, GEORGE PEREZ, ROGER STERN, LARRY HAMA & MORE Penciled by PARIS KAROUNOS, TOM MORGAN, MARK BAGLEY, GIL KANE, JOHN ROMITA JR., SAL BUSCEMA, TOD SMITH, SCOTT McDANIEL, DAN JURGENS, RON FRENZ, STEVE LIGHTLE, PAT  ZIRCHER, JOE BENNETT, DARICK ROBERTSON, DAVE HOOVER, TOM GRINDBERG, BOB McLEOD, JOE ST. PIERRE & MORE Cover by TOD SMITH

Genres: Spider Man, Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

1304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2019

About the author

Tom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well-known for his association with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man.

Reviews

[Joakim Ax · Rating 3 out of 5]

First revisit for me readign these stories, and the pasing for me is much smoother and had me finnishing th ebook after three days. the new life for Ben Reilly is building up slowly to have it crashing down in the future for sure, but I do see how MARVEL thought for a while that they might stick with him as the main character.

[Anthony Rizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure why there are no reviews here, to be honest! Think what you will of the Clone Saga (I know all about how editorial stretched it out wayyyy longer than it was supposed to be), so feelings aside on that, given the status quo where this picked up I really enjoyed it. Ben Reilly gets his own character set that intersects of course with Peter (and that creates some fun or intense moments, too), and the plot threads were enjoyable. I do wish that Dan Jurgens had stayed on Sensational for longer than those first 6 issues (0-3 are collected in this book), sigh. I'm looking forward to Volume 2!

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thankfully this omnibus was better, because I didn't realize how much the second clone saga omnibus soured me on this whole deal, effectively killing any motivation I had to keep reading it. This starts out slow but once Ben really picks up the Spider-Man mantle it gets to be pretty fun, but I also once again understand how drawn out this event felt to people as even though I'm liking it I'm also ready for it to be over. Only one more omnibus left!

[Sorin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a refreshing run to read after the slog that was the Clone Saga. Ben Reilly gets a nice focus with his own cast of characters brewing and it's rewarding to see him take the mantle of Spider-man and really progress into his own character.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some really good stories here and (probably moreso) a lot of clunkers.

The stuff with cyberspace is painfully 90’s and extremely corny. The ‘Great Game’ or whatever is genuinely obnoxious and was given so, so much more page count than it ever should have. The Venom issues included here are absolutely awful and I wish I hadn’t had to read them.

There are, however, the aforementioned good stories. Moments where we get to see Ben live as a regular person with the Daily Grind are fun and bring a bit of simpler lightheartedness to the stories that Spider-Man had really been missing up to this point for a while. The Final Adventure miniseries is all-around great, Peter’s and Mary Jane’s reintroduction into the plot is very welcome, the Spider-Carnage bit is a chunk of dumb fun, and the 1996 annual that closes out this (far, far too long) collection is one of the better issues included.

Overall, this omnibus really doesn’t get any better at any point than some shlocky 90’s fun, and much of it is probably better off skipped. But with so much content included and some genuinely cool stuff, it all ends up being a rather average collection.