Synopsis
Prelude[]
Ben reuniting with Janine
Ben Reilly was operating as Scarlet Spider before being approached by Marcus Momplaisir of the Beyond Corporation. Marcus was sent as a representative to hire Ben who would become their official superhero mascot, Spider-Man. After a test run with Beyond's tech, support team, and new costume, Ben agreed after finding the supplementation of Spider-Man equipment to be next to none.[1] To ensure Ben's loyalty stay with Beyond, Marcus was given documentation and clout to have Janine Godbe released from prison, much to the couple's joyous reunion.[2]
Beyond's Spider-Man[]
Ben returning to Beyond Tower
Once the Beyond Corporation bought the trademarked Spider-Man identity from defunct Parker Industries patents, they made Ben Reilly their official wall-crawler for privatized super heroism. After Ben tells Peter, still recovering from Kindred's haunting, the pair team-up against the U-Foes which leaves Peter hospitalized.[3] Unable to continue, Peter gives Ben his blessing to be Spider-Man, before slipping into a coma while Ben apprehends the U-Foes.[4] While May seeks another solution,[5][6] Felicia helps Mary Jane watch over Peter.[7][8] Concurrently, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing work as Ben's trainers,[3][4] employed under Superhero Department Head, Maxine Danger,[5] while the duo covertly investigate Beyond for Monica Rambeau.[7][9] After Ben encounters Morbius and Kraven, he slowly questions if Beyond is indeed helping those he saves, and if he truly deserves to be Spider-Man, but resolves to continue.[10][11]
Peter still in the hospital
With Doctor Strange dead, Ben and Felicia resolved many of Strange's remaining affairs per his will, with Felicia giving a partial blessing for Ben to keep going as Spider-Man.[8] Doctor Octopus develops a cure for Peter by May's request from samples of U-Foes X-Ray and Vapor, awaking Peter from a month-long coma. However, Doc Ock also uncovers that Beyond are using Parker Industries assets he developed to make an "inferior" Spider-Man, swearing revenge on the company's "plagiarism".[6] While the Beyond Corporation began legal action against the Brooklyn Spider-Man (Miles Morales) for using the identity,[12] Miles and Ben team-up to defeat the horticultural horror, Rhizome, who Miles deduced was a creation of the Assessor. Though the two peacefully parted, Maxine was disappointed in Ben's failure to enforce the trademark, and also planned to use Rhizome as a form of security measure.[13] After being rescued by a vigilant Mary Jane[14] before a failed return to form, a dream of Uncle Ben resolved Peter to accept the pain and undergo physical therapy.[15]
Beyond's Corruption[]
Ben's mind begins to cave in
When Doc Ock infiltrated the Beyond Midtown branch, he easily overwhelmed Ben before absconding with Beyond's master data drive and later assaulted Beyond Tower seeking vengeance upon Maxine.[16] However, another fight with Ben lead both to another rooftop, where Doc Ock revealed Beyond's files to him and took his leave uninhibited.[17] Hiding the data drive, Ben attempted to reveal the truth of the U-Foes to Dr. Ashley Kafka in session, but an always watching Maxine apprehended Ben for memory editing, and his formative memories were lost. Meanwhile, Janine read the drive files Ben entrusted her, and took Ben's handler, Marcus Momplaisir, hostage to escape Beyond Tower.[18]
Peter retraining to be Spider-Man again
After Felicia enlists Steve Rogers aid in a week-long training regimen to return Peter to his prior capability, Peter realized just how unprepared he truly was and slowly progresses back to form with their steadfast care.[19] However, Felicia's visits drew the attention of Parker Robbins, who took a resting Peter hostage extorting his taken magic Hood consumed by a bag-demon.[20] Claiming Mary Jane as part of her crew, the two investigate the missing hood and achieve their goal narrowly in time, before Felicia tricked Robbins into being consumed by the bag-demon. With the threat abated, their friendship evolved with a chat until morning[21] before Mary Jane returned home to find Janine awaiting her with evidence of Beyond's corruption.[19]
Inspired after Knull's invasion, Hobie Brown planned to advance his Fairgray app to help casualties of Avengers battles, but the Beyond Corp bought his company for thrice the value and fired everyone. From Mindy's investigations, Hobie infiltrated Beyond as the new Hornet to acquire their files and drew the attention of Dusk searching for her friend, Ricochet. With clues from Dusk's minor psychic link and the Beyond files, the pair locate a clandestine facility in King's Crossing. There, newly employed by Beyond, Ricochet protected Operators that accidentally opened an extra-dimensional rift anomaly and were beset by monsters. With an update by Dr. Eliot Swenson, Hornet led Dusk and Ricochet in a coordinated move to end the anomaly, impressing Swenson enough to try to recruit Hornet.[22]
Beyond's new villain: Queen Goblin!
With Ben becoming selfish and pragmatic after his formative memories are erased, Maxine reveals to Marcus that Beyond covertly works on supervillain development to sell their superhero solution. Merging Ashley Kafka with the Sins of Norman Osborn,[23] Maxine creates the Queen Goblin to attack Janine and Mary Jane at The DB before they can expose Beyond's corruption. However, Ben's fight with her still destroyed the hard drive, and he takes Janine while knowingly leaving Mary Jane behind.[24] Hearing of Queen Goblin's attack, Felicia webs Peter to test his resolve to free himself before he can fight. Still too weak, Janine arrived shortly after to free him needing Spider-Man again whether he was ready or not. After Black Cat saved Mary Jane, a psychic attack by Queen Goblin almost killed her until Peter's timely rescue, and the trio moved to safety. As Mary Jane stayed with Felicia, both gave Peter his suit and web-shooters feeling he was ready, and Peter became Spider-Man once again.[25]
Attack on Beyond's Supervillain Facility[]
Ben and Peter teaming up
Once Ben updated Janine of Beyond's tampering with his mind, she directed him to the Staten Island Supervillain Division to end Beyond's threat. After a psychic attack left Peter to drown in the East River, he recovered from an inspiring vision of Ben and defeated Queen Goblin. From an intercepted broadcast, Peter went to help Ben[26] While aided by Misty and Colleen, Ben struggled with his slow mental erosion as the heroes reached Door Z. There, Maxine called to persuade Ben to surrender, but he knowingly opened the door swearing vengeance and abandoned his friends to face Creature Z.[27] Returned to Beyond Tower, Ben decimated all resistance and Janine directed him to Maxine, who freed Marcus to talk down Ben. Evading Creature Z, the trio found Morbius cured of his condition and he joined to help fight Creature Z while Peter left to intercept Ben.[28]
As the trio battled Creature Z, the monster was led into a trap to drink Morbius's blood, destabilizing the balance between the Lizard's and Morbius's integrated biologies, causing Creature Z to explode. With Creature Z dead, the trio go their separate ways as Monica Rambeau arrived outside the facility to free Machine Man "Aaron Stack" to destroy the facility and kill Beyond's designed villains. Finished, Maxine called to see the situation and Monica divulged her undermining Maxine's efforts before escaping with "Aaron" using the Heartstar. As Doug Siravanta faced termination for his past unprofessionalism[11] and sabotage as a hostage,[16] the building evacuated during Spider-Man's assault[28] and Doug capitalized on the situation to promote himself. While the Slingers go to intercept Ben, Queen Goblin realized Beyond's forcing Norman Osborn's sins upon her, swearing wrath upon Osborn. In the remnants of the Beyond facility, Morbius located Lizard to ask for partnership, inspired by Creature Z's creation.[29]
Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man
As Ben raided Beyond Tower, he overwhelmed any resistance while Maxine initiated cover-up protocols with Marcus beside her as insurance against Ben. As Peter arrived, Maxine used the opportunity to redirect Ben's ire at his "friend" as the only one who could revive the lost memories, tricking both into battle. Covering her tracks, Maxine had a kill squad take Marcus, but Janine rescued him in time before discovering the scrubbing protocol. While Maxine falls out with the Beyond Board, Peter breaks the device Ben needed to copy the memories, sending him into a mad rage almost killing Peter before the shake of the collapsing building sent Ben over into the goo used to scrub the building, and Marcus portaled Peter to safety.[30]
Aftermath[]
Ben becomes Chasm
In the days after the Beyond Tower collapse, although Peter was healthy enough for discharge by Dr. Burdick, he was disheartened at not saving Ben, while Janine secretly waded through psycho-reactive goo to find a still living Ben, her own mind warping from contact with the substance. As Mary Jane continued Peter's physical recovery in the weeks following his discharge, she invited him to move in to keep watch on his recovery and evolve their relationship again. While Peter agreed, both were stunned by the sudden arrival of unidentified luminous figure, who sought out Peter for an unknown task. Months later, although they were lying low, Janine noticed that Ben had left the apartment they were staying. Ben's mental state had deteriorated further with him thinking: "Ben is gone. And where [he was]...there is only a Chasm."[30]
Issues
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Tie-Ins
Prelude[]
Tie-Ins[]
Trivia
- This is the first time Ben Reilly has been the official Spider-Man since the 1990s, during the Clone Saga.
- While this storyline was ongoing, Ben was the Spider-Man featured in several concurrent stories, namely Death of Doctor Strange and Devil's Reign.
See Also
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Beyond (Spider-Man Storyline)
- 7 mention(s) of Beyond (Spider-Man Storyline)
- 33 article(s) related to Beyond (Spider-Man Storyline)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Free Comic Book Day 2021: Spider-Man/Venom #1
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #74
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #75
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #76
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #77
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #80.BEY
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #78
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #78.BEY
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #79
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #80
- ↑ Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #81
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #82
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #83
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #84
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #85
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #86
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #87
- ↑ Hawkeye: Freefall
- ↑ Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond #1
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #88.BEY
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #50
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #88
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #89
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #90
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #91
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #92
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #92.BEY
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #93