Marvel Comics have announced “Ben Reilly: Spider-Man,” a new series by longtime Spider-Man writer J.M. DeMatteis, with art by David Baldeón (“Domino,” “X-Factor”). The comic will complement Ben Reilly’s upcoming return to the mantle of Spidey in “Amazing Spider-Man,” by revisiting the period he first took over from Peter Parker in the 1990s.
The synopsis states that the plot will see Ben investigating a series of murders, and a mysterious figure from his past crawling “his way back into Ben’s life — does the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane hold the key to their identity?”
The book marks DeMatteis’s first project at Marvel since contributing to 2012’s milestone issue “Amazing Spider-Man” #700. He previously penned the classic 1987 story ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt,’ as well as “Spectacular Spider-Man” from 1991 to 1993, and “Amazing Spider-Man” from 1994 to 1995, which ended with Ben taking over as the Wall-Crawler from Peter. His last story with Ben came in the 1996 miniseries “Spider-Man: Redemption.”
DeMatteis commented, “What I’ve always found fascinating about Ben Reilly is that he’s Peter Parker — and yet he’s not. Life has taken Ben on a strange, twisted path and altered him, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse; but, like Peter, he’s a man who’s constantly striving to do the right thing, even if he doesn’t always succeed. Ben is wonderfully, painfully human, immensely relatable — and our new ‘Ben Reilly: Spider-Man’ series allows me to dive even deeper into Ben’s psyche, to explore him in new and, I hope, interesting ways.”
He added, “Having David Baldeón bringing this story to visual life has been the icing on the cake. David’s work is incredibly dynamic. Fluid and powerful. He nails the big moments — we’ve got some major antagonists going up against Ben — but he always holds tight to the characters’ humanity, so that even the smallest, quietest moments shine and have resonance.”
“Ben Reilly: Spider-Man” #1 will be released in January 2022, a few months after Ben’s new tenure as Spider-Man begins in issue #75 of the new “Amazing Spider-Man” series on October 6.
