Ben Reilly
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Ben Reilly (also the Scarlet Spider and the second Spider-Man) is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe. He is a clone of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), and is prominent in the Clone Saga. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #149 (October 1975).
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[edit] Publication history
Ben Reilly had his own line of Scarlet Spider series alongside the Spider-Man line in the mid-1990s.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Creation
Ben Reilly is the Jackal's second wholly successful clone—the first is the clone of Gwen Stacy, and the first Spider-Man clone, Kaine, is flawed. Through arcane science, the clone was imprinted with Peter Parker's memories and actually believed himself the original. After Parker was captured by the Jackal, both Parker and Spider-Man found themselves in Spider-Man costumes at Shea Stadium, and fought briefly before teaming up in an attempt to save the Gwen clone and Ned Leeds. In the process, the clone appeared to be killed and Spider-Man, fearful of the the consequences, dropped the "body" in a smokestack.[1]
[edit] Spider-Man: The Lost Years
However, the clone survived and escaped from the smokestack. Naming himself "Ben Reilly" after "his" aunt and uncle (and foster parents) Aunt May and Uncle Ben (Reilly being May's maiden name), and taking some old clothes Parker had intended to donate to charity, he left New York, deeply depressed. The limited series Spider-Man: The Lost Years tells what happened to Ben Reilly in the next several years.
Stricken with influenza, Ben met Seward Trainer, a scientist secretly blackmailed by agents of the Green Goblin into keeping track of him. Trainer helped Reilly in two ways. First, Trainer helped the sick and depressed clone to get back on his feet. Second, when Reilly returned to his life of wandering, Trainer supplied references to allow Reilly to obtain jobs; the references were never effective enough for a long-term life, but they allowed Reilly to make some kind of life for himself during his travels. Reilly came to see Trainer as a father figure, and he trusted Trainer completely. During this time, Reilly was hunted by a failed clone of Peter Parker named Kaine (after the biblical Cain). Kaine believed Reilly to be the real Peter Parker and hates his "brother" for it (while admiring the "clone" Parker living Parker's life).
Three years after his creation, Reilly got a job in Salt Lake City as a research and teaching assistant, thanks largely to Trainer's references. There, he met a woman who called herself Janine Godbe. Janine initially resisted involvement with Reilly then revealed that she was really a child abuse victim named Elizabeth Tyne who had killed her abusive father, changed her name (she regarded 'Elizabeth' as being a victim, and wanted to escape that) and ran away to escape her crime. Expecting to be rejected, Tyne was shocked when Reilly instead trusted her enough to reveal his spider-powers and the fact that he was a clone to her. Expecting rejection, Reilly was relieved when she accepted him for who he was, even teasingly calling him 'Spider-Man'.
While in Salt Lake City, Ben Reilly (and later Kaine) became involved in fighting against the Tannen criminal gang, wearing a makeshift costume of green, mummy-like bandages. When Janine's identity was revealed, the two were forced to flee. After Kaine, who possessed the same fingerprints as Reilly and Parker, killed corrupt policewoman Louise Kennedy (a woman he had come to love before the truth about her was revealed to Kaine), the police believed Reilly was the culprit and Detective Raven pursued them both, despite Reilly having saved him and his son from mobsters. Reilly and Tyne were on the run together for a year until Kaine forced her to leave Reilly, dropping a dead clone of her off a bridge to make Reilly think she had died. Meanwhile, Kaine continued killing, attempting to frame Reilly for the murders.
[edit] Return to New York
Two years later, Reilly discovered that May Parker was dying from a stroke, so he returned to New York. There, Reilly encountered Parker, who has become bitter and angry following several consecutive tragedies. While they initially come to blows, they quickly begin working together. Soon after, Reilly dons a makeshift costume, and is dubbed the "Scarlet Spider" by the press - a name that took him some time to hear without wincing. As the Scarlet Spider, Reilly decided to take down Venom. Although a clone of Spider-Man, Ben was able to use his spider-sense to anticipate the attacks of Venom. Venom did sense that Ben was not the Spider-Man responsible for their creation, but vowed to kill Reilly anyway. Reilly defeated Venom by using his impact webbing to break the physical bond between the symbiote and Eddie Brock.
For a brief time, the Scarlet Spider was a member of the New Warriors, though none of the members of the team really fully accepted this. When Peter Parker was arrested for Kaine's murders, Ben switched places with him so Peter could remain free and uncover the truth, allowing him to use the Scarlet Spider costume for a brief time. Ben is finally forced to drop the Scarlet Spider identity when, after getting involved in a technological gang war between the second Doctor Octopus and Alistair Smythe, a hologramatic evil version of the Scarlet Spider was created and ruined his reputation in a vicious rampage.
[edit] Spider-Man
He later became the replacement Spider-Man for a time at the original's request, when Parker retired to raise his unborn child. This is at a time when both men have been misled by Seward Trainer (who was still working under orders from Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin) into believing that Ben was the original and Peter was the clone. Osborn hoped that this would make his nemesis give up with the revelation that his life was a lie. Reilly starts working at a restaurant called the Daily Grind and spends a year in the role, battling villains new and old, and briefly being possessed by the Carnage symbiote.
During this time, Ben became involved with Jessica Carradine, the daughter of the burglar who killed Peter's Uncle Ben. She quickly discovered that he was Spider-Man, a significant problem, given that she believed that Uncle Ben had been the one with the gun in the robbery (the gun having accidentally shot Ben during the struggle when the burglar tried to disarm him) and Spider-Man had subsequently lied to the police and, later on, killed her father to prevent the 'truth' about the incident coming out. Jessica nearly mailed a photo of Ben in his Spider-Man costume without the mask to the Daily Bugle, but after seeing Ben save a number of people trapped in a burning building, she realizes that Spider-Man is a good man and gives him the photo before departing New York.
It soon became clear a conspiracy was at work - the skeleton of a Spider-Man clone was found in the same smokestack he once occupied, Seward Trainer disappeared, and Ben has his bank account frozen and his apartment's possessions stolen before finally the Grind was burnt down and Ben was framed for arson. In the six-part Blood Brothers storyline, it is revealed the Hobgoblin was behind many of these events, on the orders of the mysterious Gaunt and the company Multiplex. It was later revealed the true mastermind behind all this was the original Green Goblin.
Janine Godbe and Kaine return to Ben's life but it was not destined to be a happy ending; Kaine has deliberately brought her back in order to traumatize Ben by taking her away, tipping off the police to her crimes and whereabouts and forcing the two lovers to go on the run (Ben appeared to be ready to abandon New York, saying that his life as Peter Parker was over and the people he loved back then are irrelevant). Although Kaine was convinced by his 'brother' to give himself up to the police after saving Ben and Janine from a burning diner (despite the fact that Kaine caused the fire himself), Janine also decided to stop running. Following Kaine's example, she was prepared to accept Ben's previous advice that she should entrust herself to the law and hope that the truth about her father's murder would be enough to keep her alive.
Ultimately, Reilly died saving the original Spider-Man from the Green Goblin in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75 (December 1996), intercepting the Goblin Glider as it flew towards Peter. The glider struck his spine shortly before Ben fell to the ground, crashing into a taxi below him, leaving him in poor condition. As he lay dying, Ben tells Peter that, clone or not, Peter is now Spider-Man and would have to carry on for Ben, and for Peter to tell his unborn child of her "Uncle Ben." After dying, Reilly's body decomposes rapidly, revealing Trainer's deceptions and proving once and for all that Ben had actually been the clone. This sacrifice, coupled with the concurrent stillbirth of his child, leads Parker to reclaim the Spider-Man identity, his last words to Ben's remains being "Rest easy... brother". This 'end' to Reilly's story has always been ambiguous as clones created by the Jackal do not normally disintegrate on death, and still sparks debate between some members of the comic fan community today.
[edit] Civil War
Peter Parker uses the psedonym Ben Reilly as well as a holographic disguise device given to him by Beast in order to continue teaching at Midtown High School despite the trouble that arose following his public unmasking.[2]
[edit] Alternate continuities
[edit] MC2
In the alternate future known as MC2, Ben Reilly's 'niece', May Parker aka Spider-Girl, wears Ben's version of the Spider-Man costume and webshooters, having been raised on tales of her heroic 'Uncle Ben'.
Ben Reilly had a son by Elizabeth Tyne, named Reilly Tyne, who became the superhero known as Darkdevil after Kaine tried to save his 'nephew' from cellular degeneration. Hints about Darkdevil's true identity in early issues of Spider-Girl led many fans, as evidenced by the book's letter page, to theorize that Darkdevil was in fact Ben Reilly himself. Later in the series, Kaine reformed.
Felicity Hardy, the daughter of Felicia Hardy (Black Cat), assumes the Scarlet Spider identity in an attempt to become partners with Spider-Girl. May's father Peter Parker is angry at what he sees as an inappropriate use of the identity.
[edit] Ultimate Ben Reilly
In the Ultimate Universe, Ben Reilly appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man as a African American lab assistant at Empire State University, working with Curt Conners. As such, he is not a clone or connected to Peter Parker in this continuity. He was involved in the creation of Ultimate Carnage by combining DNA from Curt Connors with that of Spider-Man, blended with ingredients from "The Suit" (better known as Venom), making Ultimate Carnage something of a clone of Spider-Man. Incidentally, he refers to Carnage (before its escape) as "Little Ben". At the end of the arc, he stole a second Spider-Man blood sample from the lab.
It was revealed that after Ben took the blood sample, he managed to create the five Spider-Man clones while under the employ of the CIA. However, Carnage attacked the lab and the four clones escaped. One of the clones is an amalgam of Ben Reilly and Kaine of the 616 Universe. He has Kaine's insane personality and facial scars, and wears a tattered version of Ben Reilly's costume.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Television
- Scarlet Spider made his first animated appearance on the Fantastic Four (1994 TV series) episode "Nightmare In Green," in which Dr. Doom fools Hulk into believing that the Fantastic Four are his enemies. While Hulk's friend Rick Jones is hanging out with Human Torch, the shadowed figure of the Scarlet Spider can be seen hanging underneath a building ledge.
- Ben Reilly's alternate universe counterpart also appeared in the final season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. In the storyline "Spider Wars", numerous versions of Spider-Man from different realities teamed up, including Ben Reilly as the Scarlet Spider. As he explains his origins, he and Spider-Carnage, the main villain of this series finale, realize they are related - Reilly is his clone or maybe Spider-Carnage is his clone. None of them are sure because the Miles Warren in their reality had robbed them of their past. Apparently, it hints that maybe Reilly is the real person and Spider-Carnage is the clone. [1] [2]
[edit] Movies
One of the Larger 1990s Marvel Action Figures of Ben Reilly in his Spider-Man Costume appeared in the Christmas morning scene in the movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
[edit] Video games
- He appeared in the 2000 Spider-Man video game as an alternate costume for Spider-Man.
- The Scarlet Spider is an alternate costume for Spider-Man in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] References
- ^ Conway, Gerry (w), Andru, Ross (p), Esposito, Mike (i). "Even if I live, I die!" The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #149 October, 1975 Marvel Comics.
- ^ Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #14
[edit] Scarlet Spider titles
- Amazing Scarlet Spider #1-2 (Marvel Comics, November 1995 - December 1995)
- Scarlet Spider #1-2 (Marvel Comics, November 1995 - December 1995)
- Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1 (November 1995)
- Spectacular Scarlet Spider #1-2 (Marvel Comics, November 1995 - December 1995)
- Web of Scarlet Spider #1-2 (Marvel Comics, November 1995 - December 1995)
While Web of Scarlet Spider #3-4 (Marvel Comics, January 1996 - February 1996) exist, they starred a different Scarlet Spider, although Ben Reilly appeared (as Spider-Man) in issue #4.
[edit] Spider-Man titles with Ben Reilly as Spider-Man
- Amazing Spider-Man #407-418 (Marvel Comics, January 1996 - December 1996)
- Spider-Man #64-75 (Marvel Comics, January 1996 - November 1996)
- Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1-3, #0 (Marvel Comics, August 1995 - October 1995, January 1996)
- Spider-Man: Redemption #1-4 (Marvel Comics, September 1996 - December 1996)
- Spider-Man Holiday Special 1995 (Marvel Comics, December 1995)
- Spider-Man & The Punisher: Family Plot (Marvel Comics) February 1996 - 2 issue limited series.
- Spider-Man Team-Up #2-5 (Marvel Comics, January 1996 - December 1996)
- Spider-Man Unlimited #11-14 (January 1996 - December 1996)
- Sensational Spider-Man #0-11 (Marvel Comics, January 1996 - December 1996)
- Spectacular Spider-Man #230-240 (Marvel Comics, January 1996 - November 1996)
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Conway, Gerry (w), Andru, Ross (p), Esposito, Mike (i). "Even if I live, I die!" The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #149 October, 1975 Marvel Comics.
- ^ Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #14
[edit] External links
- [3] - The largest Online Petition For Ben's Return
- Project Reilly Petition Form Download - Free Reilly Comic Books as Prizes.
- The Spider-Verse - A place that welcomes all fans of Ben!
- MDP: Ben Reilly - Marvel Database Project
- Life of Reilly - A very detailed 35-part exploration of the Clone Saga
- The Clone Saga Timeline
- Ben's Profile at Spiderfan.org
- Brief Bio at Insania 1998
- Brief bio at SamRuby.com
- The Official Fans of Reilly Thread - Long Running Ben Reilly Fan Thread at the Superherohype
[edit] External links
Categories: Marvel Comics superheroes | 1975 introductions | Fictional Americans in Marvel Comics | Fictional clones | Fictional characters from New York City | Marvel Comics supporting characters | Spin-off comic book superheroes | Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength | Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
