Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, marvel, Marvel Comics, spider-verse

Could Spider-Verse's Karn Be Ben Parker, Via The Mahābhārata?

Published Fri, 02 Jan 2015 14:00:16 -0600

So we ran the theory that the late Benjamin Parker of the 616 Marvel Universe being the Scion of Spider-Verse totally wrong. Well, in for a penny… here's another! An anonymous Bleeding Cool reader sends in a Spider-Verse theory that's taken straight from Indian legend.

I have reason to believe that Karn is a grown up Benjamin Parker from MC2 universe.

First, the name Karn is mostly like based on a tragic figure Karna of the Hindu epic, Mahābhārata. Who, like Karn, was torn between loyalty to his family and his own self image, as he tried his best to become something he was not. Karna, like Karn, had love for his mother but was a foster child, something he was unaware of, until later in life.

Then we have his backstory. In Superior Spider-Man 33, he not only dodges all of the Master Weavers attacks, unlike his siblings (spider sense), jokes to his sibling as a Peter Parker would do and the Master Weaver himself refers to him as the "chosen one" and points out how different he (Karn) is from the others.

Dan Slott obviously has set up Karn to be important for Spider-Verse, and his guilt over his mother's death mirrors Peter's guilt over Uncle Ben's death, as well as Karns obsession to finding someone who truly loves him, a family while having Spider Girl who as of now have no family, it's a perfect match.

Putting Karn in a mask is the perfect way for casual readers to not realized the similarities to between Karn and Peter.

There was one panel in which Karn did not use the spear to remove the life force of the Spider God, the life force was still a red energy beam unlike the usual yellow of the other inheritors, meaning it could be another piece of technology, which shows that he might not have the natural means to suck the life force of others, as his siblings.

This might not prove he's Benjamin Parker but it does heavily support the idea.

So.. what do we think?

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