Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly)

Ben Reilly
Artwork for the cover of Web of Scarlet Spider 1 (November 1995 Marvel Comics). Art by Steven Butler.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	As Peter Parker's Clone: The Amazing Spider-Man #149 (October 1975) As Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #51 (October 1994) As Scarlet Spider: Web of Spider-Man #118 (November 1994) As Spider-Man: Sensational Spider-Man #0 (January 1996) As the Jackal: The Clone Conspiracy #3 (December 2016)
Created by	Gerry Conway based upon Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)
In-story information
Alter ego	Benjamin "Ben" Reilly
Team affiliations	New Warriors New U Technologies
Notable aliases	Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man, Spider-Carnage, Peter Parker, Henry Jones, Jackal II, The Man in Red
Abilities	Expert swordsman Master hand-to-hand combatant Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability and reflexes Genius-level intellect High pain tolerance Precognitive Spider-Sense Ability to cling to most surfaces Utilizes wrist-worn web-shooters to fire various projectiles include a strong air-expanding adhesive substance in variety of forms of artificial webbings (web-lines and impact webbing), sedative stingers, and mini-dot tracers

Benjamin "Ben" Reilly, also known as Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man, Spider-Carnage and Jackal, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a clone and ally of the original Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and is prominent in the 1994 - 96 "Clone Saga" storyline, which led to his murder by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn).

Created by writer Gerry Conway, the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #149 (October 1975). During the "Clone Saga" storyline, he came to wear a makeshift costume similar to Spider-Man's consisting of a blue sleeveless hoodie sweatshirt adorned with black motifs of a spider on its front and back, over a red spandex bodysuit and mask, with utility belts and wrist-worn sizable web-shooters that was designed by artist Tom Lyle, before donning a variation of Spider-Man's costume designed by artist Mark Bagley as his successor for some time before his death.

In 2017's "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" story arc, the character was resurrected and reimagined as an antihero. In the 2017 series Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, he reclaims his Scarlet Spider identity.

Ben Reilly was first featured as Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man #149. The issue was later revisited in What If #30. Asked why he created the character, writer Gerry Conway explained:

One of the things I was trying to do at that time was take ideas to their logical, yet absurd conclusion, reductio ad absurdum. The idea was that if we have Gwen Stacy brought back as a clone, how can I up the stakes when I get rid of her? When I write her out of the book, what can I do to make that really effective and to punctuate it, to bring it to the next level? And I thought, if we can clone Gwen, we can certainly clone Peter. I was also at that time enamored with titles that played off of old, melodramatic Stan Lee titles of the past. ... I came up with the title, "If I Kill Me, Will I Die?" It was basically a parody of an old overdramatic Stan Lee title, but I also thought it was a good title in general. So that's really what the impetus was - to raise the stakes, give us a good finish to the Gwen Stacy saga, and to allow me to have a little fun with the storytelling conventions of the time.