What do you think?
Rate this book
Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic
Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic, Book 1
Meet Ben Reilly, clone of Spider-Man! When Peter Parker decides to retire, Ben takes up the job as the new web-slinger in town, the Scarlet Spider! And there's no shortage of foes waiting to fight him - including Dr. Octopus, Venom, Carnage, the new Green Goblin, Kaine, the High Evolutionary, Joystick and the Looter! Plus: The Scarlet Spider joins the New Warriors! Collecting SPIDER-MAN: THE PARKER YEARS, NEW WARRIORS (1990) #65-66, SCARLET SPIDER UNLIMITED #1, WEB OF SCARLET SPIDER #1-2, AMAZING SCARLET SPIDER #1-2, SCARLET SPIDER #1-2, SPECTACULAR SCARLET SPIDER #1-2, GREEN GOBLIN #3. and SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN (1996) #0 and MINI-COMIC.
426 pages, Paperback
First published August 10, 2011
About the author
Tom DeFalco
2,493 books110 followersTom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well-known for his association with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 8, 2016
Now that there is only one Spider powered hero left after the events of Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Epic Vol. 5 the story arc is not nearly convoluted as it has been. However, this volume suffers from two things--one, that Ben Reilly has told Clone Peter he doesn't want to be Spider-Man, so it's essential that Marvel editorial figure out a way to force him to be Spider-Man. Secondly, I had forgotten how new and shiny the Internet was when the Clone saga came out (1995, except it wasn't since ARPANet had been around since the 70s) so of course "the Net" had to be centerpiece of everything including the arcs in this volume. Of course, everything comes off as completely dated now, which probably isn't the fault of the writers, except for the leech-like consistency in which they had to write a "Net" based story line.
No new ground is broken here, and you know at some point the status quo is going to be achieved. Only five more volumes to trudge through...
No new ground is broken here, and you know at some point the status quo is going to be achieved. Only five more volumes to trudge through...
July 14, 2017
Unfortunately when I bought this I thought it was the beginning of the story I was looking for. Instead I needed to start with The Clone Saga books. but I still love the Scarlet Spider and was a bit disappointed to see Anyways it was still fun and a good dose of nostalgia, even though the actual storyline I want to read is kinda ruined for me now (totally my fault, I started on the wrong book). Nevertheless, I'm still going to go back and read those first five clone epic books before moving on to Ben Reilly #2
December 31, 2017
Spider-Man fights virtual reality, the result being even dumber than it sounds while being no where near as fun as it sounds.
February 3, 2022
This one was absolutely unhinged. I wish I could stop learning things about Miles Warren's extracurricular activities but here I am learning about his furry cult. I was originally going to give this two stars but Ben's transformation into Spider-Man was something special. It's a shame that bureaucracy kind of forced the identity onto him though. 😕
September 21, 2025
The only good story in this entire book is the final one—Sensational Spider-Man #0. Absolutely fantastic!
Everything else is awful—the art, the female Doc Ock, the Seward stories, all the 90s VR and cyber bullshit, the dialogue, the pacing, the millions of henchmen-like villains that you’ll forget the name of by the next page, and ESPECIALLY the “cool” green goblin.
Everything else is awful—the art, the female Doc Ock, the Seward stories, all the 90s VR and cyber bullshit, the dialogue, the pacing, the millions of henchmen-like villains that you’ll forget the name of by the next page, and ESPECIALLY the “cool” green goblin.
December 24, 2018
I was only moderately interested in most of the stories in this book. The virtual mortality plot was the main centerpiece and it was a pretty ridiculous story line. However some of the side plots were quite entertaining so I gave it an extra star.
November 29, 2020
This is dreary stuff. This features relaunched Spider-Man titles around the Ben Reilly identity and his alter ego Scarlet Spider, but it features none of the energy that a relaunch ought to contain. There is very little work from top tier art talent, and inconsistent art teams. The stories got me to start dreading seeing Tom DeFalco's name in a credit box. There are a few interesting ideas in here, but they are buried under an avalanche of comics-as-usual mediocrity.
July 9, 2017
Not the greatest opening collection to the Ben Reilly epic. Half the book seems like filler buying time until Dan Jurgens comes on board with Sensational Spider-Man #0. A positive note is that John Romita Jr. comes back to Sipderman comics in this collection. The stories get much better in volume 2
April 13, 2012
Way too convoluted for me to be able to follow. I have no idea what's going on after this very confusing compilation of comics across a few different series.
November 14, 2012
I couldn't even make it past the first 30 pages.
April 17, 2016
Ugh. There are very few saving graces in this book. It's like it was written by amateurs at times. The Green Goblin issue has him call himself a dork at least every other page. It's ridiculous.
June 25, 2024
My '90s Spider-marathon continues with this, the 6th 400+ page monster trade paperback in this run. While they renamed and renumbered the line, it picks up right after the end of Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic Book 5, so I will refer to that book as “the previous volume” for the rest of this review.
Ben Reilly finally assumes his role as Spider-Man at the end of the book. As I've previously stated, I can enjoy these major upheavals because I know that the status quo is restored. I'm not sure how kind I'd be if I were reading these monthly at the time.
These issues are enjoyable for the most part, with mostly solid writing and artwork. Todd Dezago's writing is just awful though, especially his dialogue. It's completely unconvincing and I cringe as I read it. Gil Kane's artwork in Scarlet Spider No. 1 is worlds better than his work in the previous volume, as he uses more of his signature “camera angles”. What's even more interesting is that Tom Palmer does the inking here, just like he did in the issue in the previous volume. In that issue, Palmer's inking was uneven, but here he does his usual solid work. Perhaps he had an off day before. Clem Robbins' hand lettering is atrocious. While I am admittedly old fashioned in my taste pertaining to comic books, lettering is one area where I'm glad that we have fonts done by computers rather than sloppy hand lettering like this. The only old school letterers whose work I miss are Artie Simek (who passed away) and Tom Orzechowski.
Tom Morgan does some solid artwork in Web of Scarlet Spider No. 2 (see pic above for a sample page). He has clear layouts and his action sequences have a sense of “movement”, for lack of a better term. He is a rare exception among artists working on mainstream superhero comic books in this era.
Computers and the Internet were new when these issues were originally published, and Tom DeFalco and company really ran with it in these stories. Cyberspace, virtual reality, chips and other computer references are used in abundance. While I love comics that are timeless in nature, I also really enjoy things that were timely and offer a snapshot of a bygone era like this. Technology is everywhere and in everything, and it was fun to think back to a time when it was all new and frightening. I still fear a Skynet type of takeover but hope that humanity will prevail.
Ben Reilly finally assumes his role as Spider-Man at the end of the book. As I've previously stated, I can enjoy these major upheavals because I know that the status quo is restored. I'm not sure how kind I'd be if I were reading these monthly at the time.
These issues are enjoyable for the most part, with mostly solid writing and artwork. Todd Dezago's writing is just awful though, especially his dialogue. It's completely unconvincing and I cringe as I read it. Gil Kane's artwork in Scarlet Spider No. 1 is worlds better than his work in the previous volume, as he uses more of his signature “camera angles”. What's even more interesting is that Tom Palmer does the inking here, just like he did in the issue in the previous volume. In that issue, Palmer's inking was uneven, but here he does his usual solid work. Perhaps he had an off day before. Clem Robbins' hand lettering is atrocious. While I am admittedly old fashioned in my taste pertaining to comic books, lettering is one area where I'm glad that we have fonts done by computers rather than sloppy hand lettering like this. The only old school letterers whose work I miss are Artie Simek (who passed away) and Tom Orzechowski.
Tom Morgan does some solid artwork in Web of Scarlet Spider No. 2 (see pic above for a sample page). He has clear layouts and his action sequences have a sense of “movement”, for lack of a better term. He is a rare exception among artists working on mainstream superhero comic books in this era.
Computers and the Internet were new when these issues were originally published, and Tom DeFalco and company really ran with it in these stories. Cyberspace, virtual reality, chips and other computer references are used in abundance. While I love comics that are timeless in nature, I also really enjoy things that were timely and offer a snapshot of a bygone era like this. Technology is everywhere and in everything, and it was fun to think back to a time when it was all new and frightening. I still fear a Skynet type of takeover but hope that humanity will prevail.
September 1, 2017
Not bad
I enjoyed some of it. But marvel lost their mind on this seriesb baud premise. Replacing Spidey? It just doesn't jive.
I enjoyed some of it. But marvel lost their mind on this seriesb baud premise. Replacing Spidey? It just doesn't jive.
August 20, 2022
Meh, the virtual reality storyline was probably cutting edge at the time but it didn't age well.
Art's a mish mash of the good the bad and the ugly as usual with so many titles involved.
Art's a mish mash of the good the bad and the ugly as usual with so many titles involved.
March 4, 2017
Sweet! I'm very happy to be on and into the Ben Reilly series but I do have to admit this series starter collection is not the strongest of the bunch. Does have forward momentum and gets better towards the end.
July 4, 2014
Thing is nobody seems to understand neither the Clone Saga or The Ben Reilly saga. Yes, it is convoluted but one must Start reading this long saga since the very beginning so that Way we cannot hear or read the typical "I Don't get it" stuff.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews