Issue(s): Spectacular Scarlet Spider #1
Cover Date: Nov 11
Title: "Between a rock and a hard-drive!"
Credits:
Todd DeZago - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Jimmy Palmiotti - Inker
Bob Budiansky - Editor

Review/plot:
This is the conclusion of the "Virtual Mortality" crossover. I didn't realize it was the conclusion, because this is how it ended.

Doesn't look like a conclusion, but that's because, as the blurb says, this crossover just rolls right into the next one without stopping. It's crossovers all the way down for Spidey (Scarlet or otherwise) in the mid-90s.

As for what actually happens in this issue, i have no idea. I do know that poor old Steve Ditko's Looter has been upgraded beyond recognition with some high-tech nonsense...

...and he's been teamed up with new villains with names like "Overrider".

He fights Scarlet Spider, and i guess this isn't quite what i had in mind when i said that the one sort-of advantage of bringing the Looter back was that he was a character that had a connection with the pre-cloned Spider-Man.

There's really nothing here that justifies the clone/replace scenario. I mean, it's as readable as any 1990s comic doing some nonsense about virtual reality. Is it taking advantage of the clean slate offered by the jettisoning of Peter Parker's continuity? No. But is it at least a fun comic? Also no.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations:

References:

• Ben Reilly's friend Seward Trainer was put into a coma during the virtual reality fight in Amazing Scarlet Spider #1. Trainer then contacted Reilly from the VR world in Scarlet Spider #1.
  
• Ben Reilly got his life handed back to him in "Maximum Clonage", which ended in Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Omega.

Crossover: Virtual Mortality

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A