Scarlet Spider #1, Marvel Comics
Personal disclaimer: I maintain no rights to the illustrated material, written or intellectual property and have no desire for any commercial benefit from its use. This is a personally run blog with only the intention of reviewing the book for like minded fans/individuals of Marvel Comics.
Now that the formality's are out of the way, lets talk about Scarlet Spider the character and his new entrance into the Marvel universe. Scarlet Spider has always been a favourite character of mine. Growing up, reading Amazing Spider-Man in the late 80's and 90's, the fact that Peter Parker had clones was just something we got used too and these clones had to have persona's and characters which gave them a purpose.
While I'm a bit hazy on the details of who Ben Reilly and Kaine were, Scarlet Spider #1 gives us all the details we need both in the book's narrative itself and in the Scarlet Spider character notes in the back of the book. Scarlet Spider was a bad ass back in the day, he had an all red suite with no webbing and a cheap gym sweat shirt that had the arms torn off with a spider logo painted on. He was Spider-Man on a budget and with an edge (Kaine at the very least). The book introduces us to Kaine and tells us everything we need to know about who he is and where he came from. This may be too much information for long term readers of the Amazing Spider-Man series, but its great for people like me who recently started reading comics again and haven't read all the Amazing Spider-Man back issues. Kaine has all Peter's powers but doesn't feel he should live by Peter's ideals, he is much more free to punish criminals than Peter who struggles with his use of force and curtails it only to disable and apprehend the bad guys.
This darker side, isn't quite to the Eddie Brock Venom days where he webs around town killing purse snatchers and muggers with expository dialogue of him justifying himself. Kaine, knows his past (explained in the book and too immense for me to get into) and also knows that his actions carry consequences. A cross that may be too much for him to bear. Kaine is a very human character, who learns the consequences of great power the hard way, after the damage has been done.
This should be a very promising series, other things I liked about the book are as follows. I loved the art work (especially the cover art). I really enjoy the struggle with the suite, that even though its a different type of spider suite, its still too "Spider-Man" for Kaine to throw it on and start webbing around Houston (the town he gets his start in). I loved the inner dialogue with the character coming to terms with his identity. I also love the new costume, it has certainly seemed to have changed from the 90's version. This suite based on the cover looks like an all scarlet suit e with some darker enhancements around the shoulders (or are those shadows?). Either way the book looks great and I'm looking forward to reading it.
