Scarlet Spider 21, Ultimate Spider-Man 26

Scarlet Spider 21
Yost and Burnham (w) and Barberi, Baldeon, Pallot, and Olazaba (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Kaine has returned home from his trips to Westchester and New York City only to find himself afflicted with the degenerative disease he had thought gone long before. It's driving him a bit mad and he's snapping under the pressure. Meanwhile, each of his friends is hunted down and attacked (hunted down, that's a clue). While Kaine webs around the city, looking for some sort of relief, he's attacked by Ben Reilly, the original Scarlet Spider and the first successful Spider-Man clone (a. Kaine was the first clone but had the degenerative problem at first so Ben was the first one to be a complete success and b. that guy has a bunch of clones, geez). Kaine isn't prepared for the fight and finds himself quickly on the losing side. He escapes to gather his mind. He's convinced the attacker isn't really Ben Reilly, who he thought dead, but has no way to prove it. Reilly catches up with him (hunts him, almost) and rips off the mask to reveal that it is indeed Ben Reilly. Kaine puts up a good fight but his powers are degenerating and he eventually gives up again. This time, though, Reilly reveals that, psych, he's not actually Reilly and Kaine is just seeing things because of the heavy hallucinogenic dart he was hit with back at the airport and his attacker is actually Kraven the Hunter (Kraven's daughter has been attacking Kaine's friends one by one).

I wasn't sold on how fast Kaine decided he was losing his powers because I felt like there would be more skepticism to how fast the disease returned, with no warning, and how quickly it affected him. However, I think now that it works out pretty well as it leads to a bit of a breakdown on Kaine's part, which all works together to show how tightly strung Kaine is and how he's only barely managing to hold things together. In that respect, I think this plot works pretty well and it's a solid build for the arc and the character. Kaine has developed a decent little life for himself and if you remove Prey and the incident that caused it, he's been really very successful at turning his life around. But you can't remove those incidents and you can't remove his recent shake-up with Spider-Man and Jackal so he's understandably on a bit of a precipice here. It's certainly not going to help that he's up against the Kravinoffs, the family who killed him during Grim Hunt (guys, he came back, no big deal). Should be an interesting arc.

Ultimate Spider-Man 26
Bendis (w) and D. Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Miles is back on the scene as Spider-Man and he and Jessica Drew team-up to find Bombshell after her fight with Cloak and Dagger. The story is interspersed with Bombshell's origin story and the goings-on at Roxxon as a result. Bombshell's mother had been in prison for armed robbery when Roxxon got her out in order to use her as a test subject in their attempts to create a new super soldier. She consents and they begin testing. It doesn't result in a super soldier like Cap was but does grant her the power to create explosions with her hands. Immediately after the first successful test, a scientist reveals that she's pregnant and Bombshell's mother breaks out of the facility. Seemingly she went on to live her life and give birth to her child without Roxxon nearby, though it seems they've been keeping tabs because Bombshell's name appears on a list of Roxxon test subjects, a list that Cloak and Dagger got a hold of in the hopes they could take down Roxxon. Meanwhile, Roxxon has hired a bounty hunter of sorts, codename Taskmaster, to track and bring back Bombshell and Cloak and Dagger. The issue ends after Bombshell's told her story to the Spiders and Taskmaster manages to knock all three unconscious.

There's plenty going on here and there's a lot to like about this issue. I do think there's still a bit of that back-and-forth dialogue that gets in the way of the good stuff but it feels a little more at home in this issue, as there's less fighting and fewer characters, meaning that it doesn't feel as excessive as it does when five or six people are doing it in one scene. Still, apart from that, the story is interesting enough and there are nice touches here and there to help build character. There's a joke that gets played out twice (which is the perfect amount, it will get annoying if it comes around again later) as Spider-Man misses Bombshell with his web and has to frustratedly explain to doubters that he's out of practice. There's also a scene between Cloak and Dagger which is good in explaining their motives a bit more and expressing their concerns with their own plan, though it does get a little weakened by its cutesy back-and-forth. Still, overall a good issue with some really good art and a solid plot to build on.