Despite its reputation, one storyline involving Ben Reilly’s past was the high point of the Clone Saga, as well as one of Reilly’s best stories.
The title of Spider-Man is about to be reclaimed by a man who briefly held it in one of Marvel’s most controversial periods. Ben Reilly, the clone of Peter Parker, has returned to be the Webslinger again during Peter’s current absence, and his taking up the mantle this time around is likely to be much less scandalous than the infamous Clone Saga. Despite its reputation, one storyline involving Ben Reilly’s past was the inarguable high point of the Clone Saga, as well as one of Reilly’s best stories.
Spider-Man: The Lost Years detailed the journeys of Ben Reilly after reawakening and discovering that he was Peter’s clone. Making his way to the Beehive State, he developed a doomed romance as well as an early rivalry with fellow clone Kaine. Here’s a look at what the current Spider-Man was doing in the years before he became the Scarlet Spider.
Spider-Man: The Lost Years
The story of Spider-Man: The Lost Years takes place years before the Clone Saga, with Ben Reilly awakening from his supposed death and discovering — after seeing Peter with Mary Jane — that he’s the clone of Peter Parker. Distraught and feeling soulless, he leaves New York and ends up in Utah after deciding to live whatever type of life he’s been given. He ends up getting involved with a local woman named Janine and developing a rather happy life for himself, seeing hope to finally become something other than a shadow of Peter Parker.
Unfortunately, trailing Reilly is another clone of Peter Parker, the vengeful Kaine. An imperfect clone who’s already suffering from cellular degeneration, Kaine employs violent means to get what he wants and what he truly wants is to ruin the life of Reilly, the life that he himself could never have. Despite this, Kaine briefly finds love as well, which triggering an even more violent warpath for the anti-hero. This sends both him and Ben Reilly on a trail that inevitably leads them back to New York and Spider-Man.
Why The Lost Years is So Highly Regarded
One of the biggest reasons that Spider-Man: The Lost Years was and still is so heavily praised is that the Clone Saga itself was so poorly received. That’s not to mention how controversial it was to reveal (for the time being) that the Peter Parker fans had followed for the last two decades was a mere clone.
On top of that, The Lost Years itself was very heartfelt, relatable and just plain good. The story of a man questioning his own soul, as well as the mobsters and other everyday crooks faced in the story were much more fitting and appropriate for a Spider-Man tale than a lot of the cosmic plot points that had begun to infect the book with characters like Judas Traveller. The fact that it ended on such a dour note recalled the tragedy inherent in Spider-Man’s character, and it also pulled off the darker tone that the main Spider-Man book had tried to capture in the 1990s era much more successfully.
John Romita, Jr.’s artwork is also perhaps his best ever on Spider-Man, perfectly capturing the somber yet also vibrant and sometimes hopeful scope of the story. Most interesting is that Romita also did the art for Frank Miller’s Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, and much like in that story, the hero in The Lost Years wears a very different sort of black suit. With the series’ writer J.M. DeMatteis returning to pen more stories about Ben Reilly’s early adventures, it only makes sense that this one will also soon be getting more of a spotlight. Hopefully, this will see Marvel rerelease The Lost Years and remind readers of how, though he may not be Peter Parker, Ben Reilly is definitely Spider-Man.
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