Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Andrea Broccardo
Colorist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Dean White; Elena Casagrande & Annalisa Leoni; Martín Cóccolo & Dean White; Salvador Larroca & Edgar Delgado
Designer: Carlos Lao
Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Nick Lowe & CB Cebulski
Recap Art: Mark Bagley
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: August 28, 2024
Three teenagers from New Jersey receive an invitation to an underground rave. But when they break the police tape and descend into the closed Long Island subway station, monsters attack them. As they back away, two costumed people block their retreat. Is this an underground masquerade? Did someone lure the teens to their deaths? Let’s grab our Halloween masks, leap into Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1, and find out!
Story
Ben Reilly and Janine Godbe are putting the past behind them. Their idea of making a fresh start is luring teens into confined spaces and robbing them. Freak and the vermin surprise the two antiheroes-turned-villains. Janine dons a mask of Frankenstein’s monster and battles the sewer denizens, while Ben argues that citizens should pay for protection. Freak and the vermin press Janine hard. So, after taking the teens’ money, Ben defends his girlfriend. But then Druig gets into his mind and wonders what he can make of it.
The Beyond Corporation corrupted Ben’s memories. Society imprisoned Janine for protecting herself against her abusive father. So, Ben and Janine reject society's laws, customs, and morality. They take what they want and live for today. As usual, someone gets in the way of their happiness in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1.
After recent setbacks, Druig hid beneath the surface and usurped another ruler's throne. Like Hammerhead, Druig needs a victory to rebuild his brand. As an Eternal, he craves diversion. Druig decides to make the spider heroes his playthings. Then Ben Reilly walks into his hands. Stripped of his memories, Ben seems an ideal instrument for his amusement. So Druig attaches strings and prepares for his puppet show.
Ben's descent into villainy bothers Kaine. Peter Parker's clones share a dark past. Kaine assumes the moral center of Steve Foxe's story about clones gone wrong, humans playing god, and gods manipulating their creations. Kaine discovers he has his work cut out for him. He watches the police remove vermin and Freak in body bags. Kaine had intended to help Ben embrace heroism again. However, the murders remind Kaine of how he once punished a society that rejected him. Even now, after he has embraced heroism, society has yet to welcome Kaine with open arms.
Art
Andrea Broccardo imbues Hallows Eve and Chasm with attitude and swagger in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1. As Hallows Eve wades into the vermin crush, Chasm’s body language suggests he owns the world. As Chasm kills Freak and the vermin, perhaps they remind him of his demonic captors in Limbo. But then the background breaks into blocks, and unseen hands insert an ornate key into his head. The top of his skull hinges open, and webbing thwips out. When Ben and Janine relax in their new home, they look relieved of the burden of recovering Ben’s memories. Yet their boarded-up residence evokes the fake Church with a hidden Beyond laboratory that Peter, Misty, and Lizard sheltered in during Bloodhunt.
Brian Reber fills the air surrounding Chasm with glowing green light. Hallows Eve projects yellow and orange light as she fights the red Freak and brown vermin. Druig appears as a red mist before taking Human form. Then, red makes way for a flesh-covered face and green fabric. Kaine thwips through the greenish-brown subway in his red and black suit. He finds the teens hanging from glowing green webs. Blue light tinges the stone throne as Druig kicks away his cringing servant. Like him, the man groveling at his feet wears green.
Joe Caramagna thwips black uppercase lettering into white dialogue balloons and Kaine's white thoughts into red narrative boxes. Words embolden for emphasis and swell or change color for volume. Expressive sound effects relate vermin hisses, Freak's rage, and a grate being pulled away so a Spider-Pinocchio can take the stage in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Like Victor Frankenstein, the Jackal sought to improve on nature’s work by creating Kaine and Ben Reilly. Like Frankenstein’s ultimate man, the Jackal’s creations have killed others. Now, as Hallow’s Eve dons the likeness of Frankenstein's feared creation, another person follows in the two creators’ footsteps in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1.
Rating 9.8/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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