Ben Reilly’s latest transformation is his most horrifying yet, and it might be setting him up to finally become his very own person for the first time in his entire life.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #93, available now from Marvel.
Ever since making his most recent return as Spider-Man, Ben Reilly has seen his life go from shining new heights to horrifying lows in less time than he could have possibly imagined.
No matter how bad rock bottom seems, though, perhaps his transformation into Chasm is precisely what he needs.
Throughout his time as their Spider-Man mascot, Reilly’s malevolent benefactors at Beyond Corporation have taken away several of his foundational memories. Now that his persona has been effectively wiped clean save for desperation, Ben’s latest tragedy and the fallout of Beyond’s machinations have merged to remake him into something no one anticipated.
After failing to steal away Peter Parker’s memories for himself in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #93 (by Zeb Wells, Patrick Gleason, Bryan Valenza, and VC’s Joe Caramagna), Ben makes the tragic decision not to escape the destruction of Beyond’s underground machinations. The faces and phrases that once defined him are out of reach, so death seems a less daunting reality than a total loss of self.
Despite his surrender to the inevitable, though, Reilly does not die. Instead, the psycho-reactive ooze pooling in Beyond’s wreckage saturates him, remakes him. Over the months that follow, Ben only barely holds himself together with Janine Godbe’s help. However, even her support cannot stave off the emergence of his horrifying new alter-ego, Chasm.
Still, as unsettling as Ben’s transformation into Chasm may be, it also carries with it the promise of a fresh start. This is, essentially, the first genuine opportunity to make a life that is all his own. From his first appearance all the way back in 1975’s Amazing Spider-Man #149 by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, Ben was nothing more than an unnamed clone of the titular hero. His return almost two decades later made him a more significant part of the Spider-Man story, but he couldn’t step out of Peter’s shadow. As the Scarlet Spider and even during his time as the only Spider-Man, it always felt like Ben was playing catch up to the “real” person whose DNA he shares.
His later turn as the new Jackal was something Parker would never do. However, the entire focus of Ben’s efforts in that identity was to roll back the clock, to literally resurrect the past rather than blaze a new trail. Finally, his time as Beyond’s Spider-Man marked yet another attempt at out-Petering Peter with a corporate backer. Chasm may not be the friendliest mantle that Ben has carried, but it could be the most important. That doesn’t mean what’s next will be easy. Losing parts of himself to Beyond Corporation’s hopes of creating their own Winter Soldier-esque agent would be a massive blow to anyone. A reader can feel that in the rage and confusion the issue’s closing narration captures so well.
And yet, the emptiness may well lift the weight of Peter’s influence on Ben. Free from expectations he’ll never fulfill, Ben’s heroic nature may find a decidedly different avenue of expression in Chasm. This new costumed alter ego could play a role similar to the struggling anti-hero that Eddie Brock once filled during Venom’s first heroic turn as Lethal Protector. It would then remain to be seen if he would just be New York City’s newest anti-hero vigilante or Spider-Man’s next worst nightmare too.
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