Comics Could BND Be The Opportunity Ben Reilly Needs?

[MaxCarnage]

So obviously we know now that not everything happened as we saw it thanks to Mephisto messing with the timeline. Pete and MJ are no longer married, Pete has his mechanical webshooters again...Harry is alive...

So this begs the question: what exactly happened during this new timeline's clone saga? Had Pete killed Green Goblin after he killed Gwen? Had Norman Osborn gone off to Europe to heal and build his criminal empire? Did he manipulate events so as to create a clone Peter Parker and confuse our hero?

If the events didn't transpire as we saw it originally, is it possible that Ben Reilly is still alive out there? Perhaps he never even came back to New York, and he and Pete have never even met.

Just a random thought that occurred to me at work today.

 

[Joker]

They actually just mentioned Ben/Spider-Carnage in Mighty Avengers. I was shocked.

 

[wolvie2020]

They actually just mentioned Ben/Spider-Carnage in Mighty Avengers. I was shocked.

Really? Missed that.

Well, I read that Bendis was against the whole 'undoing of the marriage,' in an interview with him and Joe Q. Maybe this was his little 'jab?' Don't forget, MA is late due to Cho, so technically the story took place before OMD. In NA, the whole 'Venom virus,' story had Spidey in his black costume as well as the whole team knowing who Peter is. So yeah, the comment is pretty much null and void.

Marvel, (and JQ in particular,) have a lot of disdain for the entire CS. JQ tries not to have it mentioned in the comics at all, (especially as it had Pete and MJ married and pregnant.)

Basically, I don't think any Ben fans should get excited. He's pretty much been retconned out of existence IMO.

Personally, I'm all for it. Not anything against Ben, it's just that whole thing got WAY out of control and is much better left alone IMO

 

[Joker]

Really? Missed that.

Yeah, on the big splash pages of Iron Man looking up information on the symbiots, he has a bunch of pictures and names of previous wearers, and one of them is Ben Reily.

 

[moraldeficiency]

They actually just mentioned Ben/Spider-Carnage in Mighty Avengers. I was shocked.

I'm shocked people read MA at all.

 

[November Rain]

Well if Harry was alive, the acts of the clone saga wouldn't come into place but I'm not sure if bringing him back would be the best thing to do.

 

[Red_Knight]

As much as I like Ben (I actually dropped mainstream Spidey for good after he was killed off), I honestly don't think he'll be seen again, especially now that BND has essentially achieved what he supposed to do. Bringing him in at this point would just complicate matters further without adding anything much, I'm afraid.

Nonetheless, I don't think the Clone Saga was undone. I'm sure Marvel will keep ignoring it, but I'd be surprised to hear it's been retconned. That would render roughly 2 years' (?) worth of stories invalid and, more importantly, raise a lot of questions regarding the return of Norman Osborn. I really can't see Marvel re-writing the canon anymore than neccessary. Maybe in the new continuity, Norman returned to avenge his son's failure and defeat. Makes sense, too, and requires not much change. But I guess we'll find out eventually.

 

[Joker]

Well, they already rendered 30 years worth of stories invalid with BND, what's another 2?

 

[Blader5489]

Well, they already rendered 30 years worth of stories invalid with BND, what's another 2?

2007 - 1987 = 30?

Maybe you should check your math again.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

2007 - 1987 = 30?

Maybe you should check your math again.

Granted his math sucks, but does that mean just rendering 20 years meaningless is okay? Isn't that what got the clone-saga in trouble?