That dude on the cover is Raptor. Raptor is a new villain. But he’s very familiar, as will become clear. He also dies in this arc. He’s completely expendable.
“Dr. Ryder” (Raptor’s human form) shows up at Peter Parker’s work site thinking that Peter is Ben. The clone confusion continues as Dr. Ryder/Raptor hunts Peter throughout the story.
Flashbacks reveal why Raptor is mad at Ben. It seems that Reilly tried be Dr. Ryder’s lab assistant, and it didn’t work out. It seems Ben had reservations about Dr. Ryder experimenting on himself (which led to his becoming Raptor). Yes, their relationship is a close parallel to Peter Parker’s relationship with Dr. Curtis “Lizard” Connors.
Meanwhile, Peter also hunts Reilly and finds Kaine.
Oh God. It’s another clone saga.
It seems that while Raptor is hunting Ben and Peter is also hunting Ben, Kaine is hunting Raptor because he believes the formula that turned him into a dinosaur can help him with his cellular degeneration (which hasn’t killed him since the 1990s so, really, how pressing is it?).
When Raptor and Spider-Man finally meet, Screwball arrives and gets in the way. But truly that is unimportant. Pretty much everything about Screwball is unimportant.
Anyway, during the big final fight, Kaine tells Raptor that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. How does he know this? How did Mephisto’s spell not work on him? I don’t know.
The cops come to interrupt the final fight. Peter gets away and so does Kaine–but he takes the web-bound Raptor with him, and kills him.
ScreenshotTold you he’d be dead by the end of this story arc.
I mean, nobody is sad about the death of this vaguely defined villain who appears to be part-Stegron and part-Lizard. Plus, the clone characters that return here feel inconsistent with the original clone saga. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing to diverge from a widely reviled storyline, it does beg the question: Why bring them back to begin with? It’s certainly not a service to fans.
I also feel like I should understand why Kaine remembers Peter Parker’s identity as Spider-Man. Did I miss anything obvious here?
English (US) · 