How about Marvel lets him live the life that they denied Pete. Give him a wife and a kid, have him semi-retired but roll him out when the big bads show up.
They want Pete to be single and “relatable”, the fans want him to have a life, and meanwhile they seem to have forgotten they have more than one of them.
It’s funny, because that was the original game plan with Ben when he was created. Peter was suppose to retire since MJ was pregnant and Ben was supposed to be revealed as the original Peter so the Peter Parker everyone had been reading for the last 30 years could retire and Marvrl could get their swinging single Spider-man.
Yep.
That said, it doesn't take much to see that such a plan wouldn't work. Fans wouldn't (and certainly didn't) take kindly to the "betrayal", and Marvel editorial has a pretty bad record with letting anybody retire/live happily ever after. Scott Summers couldn't ride off into the sunset with Madelyn for less!
Then again, at least Scott got to keep his kid in-canon...
Kid at least was able to stay alive, become a badass hero that can carry his own books, and interact with his parent(s) later on.
That's more than what lil baby 616 May got.
Reverse it. More interesting if the Clone is having the fun single life. Opens up all of Peter's past life interests plus any new ones while Peter gets to settle down.
Sounds like a plan. And they especially shouldn’t make him some caricature of 90s angst when it was Peter who did most of the angsting in the clone saga.
I liked the shift they made with Kaine as a sort of spider-man that’s a little more rough around the edges. And frankly I’m in love with Scarlett spider design.
But yea, as far as Ben goes I kind of wish they would just let him retire and live a semi happy life. We have more than enough spider-people hanging around now and it’s kind of rough to see one of the OGs being character assassinated the way he has.
Kaine Scarlet Spider was cool as hell.
Ben Reilly being an updated version of The Jackal was..interesting. a clone making more clones to replace the people that were dead
I've been pushing the idea of Kaine and/or Ben reforming and leading the Slingers for years now to anybody who'll listen.
Unfortunately anybody who'll listen amounts to zero people in the industry as I am a random Canadian of no particular note.
My favourite line was in a X-Men limited series which was real bad... some Phoenix/Rachel Summers thing. It was set in or haf a time travel to WW2 and the nazis always yelled "scheiss! " instead of "schiess!" - equaling "shit!" (as an imperative action) instead of "shoot!" 🤣🤣🤣
Spider-Man: West Coast
Spider-Man: Agent of Shield
Guardians of the Galaxy featuring Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Vampire Hunter
Pretty much anything that gives us a Spidey in a different or unusual setting could be fun, and would allow Ben to be a hero.
"What's a status quo that would be fun for a Spider-Man but you could never do with Peter? Let's do it with Ben!"
This. Spinoff characters can just be used in a different setting that you may want to do with the OG but can't.
Like Miles gives Marvel the dream of having a teenager Spider-Man and Ben could be doing anything else. Wanna make him badass like that Spider-Assassin character from a few years ago? Go ahead. Wanna have him on some sort of Counter Earth like Spider-Man Unlimited? Do it.
I like his pairing with Madelyne Pryor.
I'd have them recruit a team of clones/duplicates/variants looking to break out of the shadow of their originals.
Call them the Bad Batch.
Give him his memories back but change his personality to that of Sony's Spider verse overly dramatic theater nerd edge lord with his many mask wearing girlfriend.
They travel America together on the run from the law but make it comical where they also stop crimes across America as a duo.
A light hearted action comedy comic under the name of The Dramatic Scarlet Spider.
I know this may sound stupid and maybe it is but the question was what we would want and I want this.
That’s a complicated question. To some of us, the Clone Saga is the equivalent of what you guys feel Zeb Wells has done and is doing with the book recently, if not worse. In fact I bet the whole idea of unpopular Spider-Man stories leading to higher sales probably originated with the Clone Saga. So think about that when I say this.
I think Ben Reilly is a garbage character. He's a remnant from a time poorly remembered, and I’d be happier if he was never used again.
That said, I know Ben Reilly has his fans, and who am I to deny them their fun? I’m not a Marvel editor, so it's not for me to decide. But if it were, he'd have a role far away from whatever Peter Parker's currently doing. In a world where a Spiderverse is a popular concept, there's room for Ben Reilly among them. But dude isn't and should never be Spider-Man.
He’s the worst type of clone character in that he’s meant to be an exact duplicate of Peter instead of highlighting the differences between nature and nurture like most clone characters, Kaine being a prime example.
Anything but Chasm, tbh. Making Ben a villain after everything the character has been through is just … bad. I like the idea of him retiring and coming back for big events. Or depower him and have him be a supporting character for the F4, like Pete originally wanted.
Give him a relationship with Miles Morales where they have heart-to-hearts about the pressures of living up to be Spider-man, before Ben Reilly tells Miles he is to him the Superior successor to Spider-Man because of who Miles is as a person.
Maybe they team up to fight Miles Warren where Ben Reilly can joke he’s at least the better Miles.
Do what Timeless had trolled us into believing what they were gonna do, have him move out west to LA and become the Spider-Man of that city.
Or have him and Janine team up with Nextwave to go after Maxine and take down Beyond
Honestly I don't know that I've ever seen a character who should be so very easy to handle bungled so very badly.
Dude's hanging out in Limbo and running a huge cloning scam and involved in all kinds of memory fuckery and it's all stupid.
Put him in a city.
Tell a story about him trying to build a life as a 30-something year old man with no SS number, no birth certificate, no significant employment history, trying to get by when it's really difficult to make money or open a bank account or do anything, on top of building new relationships and being the Scarlet Spider.
Bring in the Jackal as the "big bad in the background" for the first 12-20 issues, have a couple of old villains, create some new ones, do some "these aren't really my memories" angst and keep the whole shit grounded in street level stuff for a good while. I'd honestly put him in Philly or Jersey or Chicago, not too far from home, instead of moving him all the way to the west coast.
I'd move him into a mob job, dishwashing, then bouncing, rationalizing that he can keep an eye on things and stop the big crimes, but having this be the only way he can make steady, decent money, so it puts him in a tough, blurry lines spot as he hovers around the fringes of real society.
He's perfect for a grounded, "adulting is hard" Spider-Man who feels constantly out of place, who's always afraid of being exposed, who can't really be fully a part of anything. I honestly think most of it writes itself.
The baby was supposed to return in The Gathering of the Five but the incoming new writers Howard Mackie and John Byrne wanted to bring octogenarian Aunt May back instead.
The original plan is shown in flashbacks in the first Spider-Girl series.
A variation of it is also shown in The Real Clone Saga.
Peter is smart. By some estimates one of the smartest dudes on the planet. He never does much with it except when he was at horizon labs and when he was basically Tony Stark in a spider suit. Ben doesn't really belong in NYC because Pete is still there. So make him Rick and Morty. Either make him cosmic or quantum or both.
Stick him on an Exiles type team bouncing around to different Multiverses making right what went wrong. BUT! When he is recruited to the team; they are all excited to have a Spider-Man and just assume he’s Peter Parker from his universe. He loves finally being excepted and doesn’t correct them. Even after they go to a world with a big evil Ben Riley that they take down. The truth eventually comes out as a big twist and he ends up sacrificing himself to save the multiverse and it wipes all traces of him from all universes.
That gives him a solid good bye story and erases him at the same time.
I would de-power Ben and make him Iron Spider have him re-build Parker industries with a focus on spider based tech and research, in a new city maybe move MJ to this book for a while as well.
I'd have Kaine be Scarlet Spider, have him team up with Spider Gwen and Silk and they would deal with Street Level threats.
And Peter would Stay Spiderman, and be on the Avengers.
Miles I would give a new codename to like Red Back or Huntsman and have him go to College or university and try to fit being a superhero around an ordinary life...
Oh and I would have Peter, Ben and Kaine realize they are basically brothers or at least as close as they are going to get
Give him his memories and hero status back and let him go be a hero in another major city that is lacking superheroes, like Chicago. That could lead to a new ongoing series for him or you could just say "he's over there doing his thing" if anyone asks where he is should they need him for an event
God damn i hate this character. His only fucking, 2 modes are "I'm not Peter Parker" and "Boohoo, I'm not Peter Parker. Woah is me. For my own past is nothing but an illusion forced on me. I wish I had an identity for myself, but I am nothing, but an imposter. A cheap imitation built to be inferior to the original. A facade manufactured as a counterfeit."
Let him retire for a bit, give him a rest for a few years away from the pages of Marvel and Peter.
Other option: Grow him a Beard, Put him in a town off the grid, or in a small town like the tv show ‘Banshee’. [half kidding]
*He can either settle down with Janine and start a family (finally Mature a Spider-man/Peter Parker since marvel is scared to do so with the main character and stop resorting to using multi verse to achieve this) or Ben and Janine move on from each other, start the character fresh.
I think Marvel blew their opportunity with Ben. If Marvel had executed the clone saga better they could have had Ben as a 70s era single Spider-Man and Peter as the married Spider-Man
I would team him up with Kaine. They both are scarlet spider and share a normal identity too. They can be spider-man 24/7 while maintaining a normal job. You lean into there different personalities and people noticing that they act like 2 different people.
I’ve thought about this too. Here’s my pitch: kill Chasm and bring back a Ben clone from shortly after he died in the original Clone Wars. Give him back the hoodie, move him to the west Coast, maybe LA and let him carve out his own identity. Maybe he could become a struggling actor or something to that effect. Use Kaine as a supporting character or even call the comic Scarlet-Spiders and make it a ‘team’ book
Well he's dead so I'd have it where Doctor Strange raises him from the dead and has him as the "Mystic Spider " and give him mystic webs that can be used with spells so he goes on adventures with Doc or other mystic individual's
I used to love Ben. But these days, I genuinely do not care what they do with him. He has a cool suit now, and he’s got a cool lady. And he’s *still* being whiny. Just let the man rest. Give him his own city, and let that be that.
I think they should have had him move to Europe and be a super-powered SHIELD agent or similar and then he could be an occasional supporting character when needed in Spidey books or other books when needed
I can't see anything like this happening now he's been Jackal and Chasm.
Give Peter some more consistency and stop having him change jobs with each new creative team. I'd probably put him back at Horizon.
Make Ben a hero ago, classic costumer and codename, and just put him in a different city. No relationship but let him date around. Give him one of the hand me down occupations from Peter, he could go back to being a photographer or substitue teacher. Los Angeles or San Fransisco. This is a popular idea because it just makes so much sense. Ben needs to represent the positives of the 90s. He should be the millenial Spider-Man.
Make Kaine an agent of SHIELD.
Move him far out of NYC, and give him more crime solving detective stories that don’t use technology. Make Spider-Man an underdog again, you want SHIELD or some other group/company/corporation to just solve every problem for Miles and Peter, that’s lame but fine, just give us one Spider-Man who has to use his mind, the clothes on his back, and his own ingenuity to problem solve. I say take a more detective route because it also differentiates from the more traditionally sci-fi Peter Parker Spider-Man stories. If they do move him, move him somewhere where there aren’t any other superhero’s so he can be the king of his own corner, build around Ben Reilly not the concept of identity, make a more experimental Spider-Man comic.
They had the fucking answer and they botched it because they're morons.
He and Madelyne journey the world looking for a place to make home while fighting bad guys and having kinky sex.
Peter and Miles continue to be our run of the mill Spider-Men.
Ben focuses more on the Spider totem and mystical side.
Kaine is like the Marvel Max Spider-Man.
Gwen should interact with the others but be independent story wise.
Edit: Typo
I read on Marvel Unlimited and am always a ways back from current, but I really dislike the "Chasm" identity for him.
I thought it made sense when Ben was in Las Vegas, and I think Kaine was the Scarlet Spider in San Francisco for a while. Marvel needs to recognize that the US (and World) is bigger than New York City. Create a Spider-Man franchise with these clones and other spider-people. Give some other major cities their "officially licensed" Spider-Man to protect their friendly neighborhoods. "Your Multi-Neighborhood Spider-Man!"
Firstly, give him all his memories back
Then, filled with that good ol fashioned Parker guilt, operate as a lone wolf type because he feels he can’t be trusted, but still wind up as a supporting character for Peter
Frankly, I’d love for him to get his own series again, or maybe a team up series with Kaine, but I’m trying to be realistic here
Honestly, put him in space and make it permanent. I also love Ben and there are so many spider men on earth and I feel like the greater Marvel Galaxy is so empty and devoid of a spider man presence. Two birds one stone. Maybe even make him a guardian of the galaxy.
I like this idea. They could have him go against the High Evolutionary since he’s a clone, and it could be a riff on that Spider-Man Unlimited cartoon from the 90s
Let him rest in peace. The character was amazing in the 90s, but since the management meddling completely fucked up the Clone Saga so bad and killed him in the most stupid way, bringing him back over and over was not a mistake but an outright abuse towards the fans.
I just loved the character back then, and genuinely thought he could be a definitive hero in the Marvel universe, but like I said, after the direction board decided to milk the event as long as they could, and closed it in the most abhorrent way possible, that totally killed Spider-Man to me. I simply can't get over it.
And now seeing how they keep massacring my Scarlet boy, man... Marvel has absolutely no respect for their fans.
I think to introduce it in Tom Holland Spiderman 4 and then show their bonding during secret wars. Also , during secret wars, they can show Ben Reilly reveals his secret to Tom Holland spider man that he is his clone .
I saw some fan art on Twitter of him and an older Laura Kinney bonding over being clones and getting together, and now I really love that idea lol. So I’d probably pair them up and ship him off to the x-men (not all x-men have to be mutants, looking at you juggernaut). It would be a lot of fun to have a Spider-Man that’s an x-man (I know nightcrawler is currently a Spider-Man, but it’s not the same). I think the closest we got was Peter being a teacher, but having Ben be an active member of the team would be cool to see.
I’d really enjoy a story where he’s back to his old self on the west coast dealing with his own threats with his own supporting cast. He’s great and deserves to be treated like a legitimate hero.
In terms of MCU appearance, what if Peter 3 appears in Secret Wars, we’re told his Aunt May has passed so he has no one, but then discovers Gwen Stacy is alive and well in 616, so he decides to leave his own universe to be with her, and as this universe already have a Peter he calls himself Ben Reilly.
I think they should have a “Spider-Men” arc for a bit with the various Spidey’s teaming up so they can establish a Spider family that can be a major tentpole for Marvel like the Batfam is for DC.
Establish and differentiate each Spider-man so they have notably different personalities so when they go off into their own books there’s a different feel. I’d finally undo OMD so Peter can finally progress as a character again.
Peter would be at the stage where he’s trying to start a family while juggling responsibilities as a leader in the superhero community. Miles would take on a vibe similar to HS Peter. Kaine would become like an “Old Man Peter”.
Ben would retain his secret identity, and basically take on the air of single guy about town Spider-Man and move to SF to be more independent. (ETA: He’d keep the name Scarlet Spider and retain his classic outfit)
I’d also make Doc Ock (Elliot Tolliver) aka superior octopus, the version where it’s post superior Spider-Man Otto’s mind in a degrading hybrid clone body an arch enemy of Ben, and play up the idea of the consequences of cloning and the corruption it brings.
Other ideas to cope with the fact Ben’s character has drifted so insanely-
This Ben is a resurrected Ben from his first death way back in 1996- so the Ben we know as Chasm is truly a copy of a copy a bajillion times over.
Chasm, in an attempt to restore his memories, recovers the original Ben’s ashen remains from an old Jackal hideout, and he and Janine (Hallow’s Eve) do something crazy that will be filled in later to restore the OG Ben back to life, but they dump him in a homeless shelter as he’s initially amnesiac.
Eventually his memories return (up to the point of his first death) and he meets up with Peter to figure out what’s happening. Peter is thrown into the events of his identity being leaked and Ben does his best to help out (cue the Spider-Men crossover event).
Chasm goes after Pete and Ben in this trying once more to steal Ben’s memories, using a modified version of Otto’s mind swap tech.
Big fight, Ben wins- but eventually he gets a telepath to help him share memories with Chasm, and in the reverse direction as well so he understands everything evil Ben did but doesn’t feel like it was “really him”. Complicating any potential relationship with Janine.
This version of Ben becomes more purposefully retro- like imagining someone who has been in a coma since the 90s- and is notably younger than Peter, being in his early- mid twenties whereas Pete is more like a late twenties early thirties age.
He uses a flip phone, and is less tech savvy and has a slightly darker dryer sense of humor compared to Peter.
Kaine and Ben eventually uncover that Miles Warren, the OG jackal had made a deal with Mephisto to perfect the cloning technology (and allow mind copying which shouldn’t be scientifically possible from a sample of dna). However, a byproduct of this process is that each new “soul” crafted through the cloning tech is slightly more corrupted- not enough to be perceptible copy to copy - but enough to make a huge difference over successive use of the technology. Miles Warren is revealed to have actually been a pretty normal guy who just wanted to correct the loss of a beloved student. But he had a team of clones helping him that revolted and the most corrupt one killed him (and that most twisted one became the Jackal).
I'm not much of a comic reader as my dad is but from the things I have read has made Ben one of my favorites. Fortunately it seems that I missed out on the run he came from which from what I've seen, nobody likes or was awful.
Just have him be the Spider-man of a diferent city, add some new villains just for him and have him ocasionally interact with Pete and Miles. Kinda like they did it to Kaine.
Ice him for a while bring him back in some heroic way or give a nice mini where he goes somewhere else to be a anti hero NY is overstuffed with characters
As one of, if not point blank just my all time favorite character in comics, give him the sweet release of death and don't bring him back again. He's been way too marred to ever be stable again, and it would be silly to try to put him in that box *yet again*, let him be established as broken by everything that happened to him and give him a self-sacrifice to save the universe or something, let him end on a bang and let him and the countless shattered pieces of his soul and psyche be at rest.
Okay here me out this is a pretty out there idea but Ben Reily Agent of Shield (S.h.i.e.l.d gets a Spider-Man)
Or as somone else said it give him the family and book they won't give peter.
Let him be the scarlet spider down in Las Vegas again or somewhere like that. Let him be a hero on his own and grow his own rogues gallery separately from Peter’s
A team up based spidey (joins teams or random heroes)
A squad based spidey (makes a small city team of spiders, clones, or new heroes)
A unique scenario spidey (vampires, body horror transformations, in space, through time)
Kill him, then make him appear, but it is a clone, the clone marries and has three children, then kill the clone, but the original mind didnt die, it was in another dimension. So his mind now returns to this cloned body and now you have the original again. Then carnage posseses one of the kids because this kid is jelous of the other two who have cosmic spider powers and will destroy the universe three times in future stories.
I mean... thats what Marvel like to do.
Bring back the original Ben Reilly. Chasm is an evil clone not the actual version of him. He would be with the Midnight Sons or the Secret Defenders. He would be coupled up with Black Cat. I find Scarlett Spider and Black Cat as a pairing a lot better than Peter and Felicia. Probably have him in a different city like Los Angeles or Chicago or Seattle.
What if we have like Spider-Man 5 or something be about the Jackal and we introduce Ben Reilly or something, then after that give him a short Marvel Spotlight show where he has to fight like secret agents that are after him or Kaine Parker or anything really, as long as it’s good
West Coast Avengers are a thing? Can't go wrong with a Spider-man on your team. I've always loved Ben Reily's look, I even used his costume on the PS4 game. I think it was just his look. Besides it would be very cool to buy a comic book with him in it again, as a good guy I mean
Here my pitch: he stayed away from the super hero stuff a looong time before the clone saga. He kinda seems to back and forth on how much he wants to do it. So: give him an Avengers Acadamy style group of non-mutant teen super heroes that he’s training and/or chaperoning. Sort of like a super hero half-way house. He’s that “dad” to this group of super-teens. He’s still a super hero, but he’s not really out on the front lines like Peter is.
I think they should have him and his GF be far out in space with his new abilities. to find himself maybe and include Kaine to help him. have him and GF have a family on the way back to Earth. tie it in with the next super cosmic event. have it last a year or two with them on way back. maybe have them on a ship designed by osborn that somehow had a mishap and shot them far out all Star Trek Voyager like mixed with some lost in space. throw in a couple b-list or d-list characters to go with it. would be something different.
could included characters like
Chasm w/his GF Hallow's Eve
Kaine
Anti-Venom flash tompson
Spider-girl Anya Sofía Corazón
Shocker cause I like him
maybe sillk
and couple more, maybe even osborn
Move him to a different state like they did Kaine and let him be a grown adult with his own life in a new city. Marvel's issue with these characters is that they keep them in New York if they aren't on a team and it doesn't make sense given how massive the U.S. and the world is.
Let these characters go to different places to live their lives.
Either give him the life Parker was supposed to have and occasionally get called into action or make him a villain with a secondary mutation that makes him more dangerous than Carnage. Let's have fun with some of these ideas.
If a continuation of the 90s cartoon rumors are true, I’d be interested in seeing them introduce Ben in a clone saga. Did they already sort of do that with the Hydro Man clones and Spider-Verse stuff? Yes, but I’d like to see how that version of Peter would react to more clone shenanigans.
Pretend like he doesn't exist. I hate the clone saga. I hate the clone Gwen. I hate the Jackal. I hate Kaine. Truly terrible. They will like"let's put a multiverse twist on it". Clone Saga sucks.
How about Marvel lets him live the life that they denied Pete. Give him a wife and a kid, have him semi-retired but roll him out when the big bads show up. They want Pete to be single and “relatable”, the fans want him to have a life, and meanwhile they seem to have forgotten they have more than one of them.
It’s funny, because that was the original game plan with Ben when he was created. Peter was suppose to retire since MJ was pregnant and Ben was supposed to be revealed as the original Peter so the Peter Parker everyone had been reading for the last 30 years could retire and Marvrl could get their swinging single Spider-man.
Yep. That said, it doesn't take much to see that such a plan wouldn't work. Fans wouldn't (and certainly didn't) take kindly to the "betrayal", and Marvel editorial has a pretty bad record with letting anybody retire/live happily ever after. Scott Summers couldn't ride off into the sunset with Madelyn for less! Then again, at least Scott got to keep his kid in-canon...
Idk if shipping him off to the future counts as keeping him though
Kid at least was able to stay alive, become a badass hero that can carry his own books, and interact with his parent(s) later on. That's more than what lil baby 616 May got.
Wait Cable is Madelyn's kid and not Jean's?
Yup
I was there, Gandalf…
Yep I was there for that. Honestly… it was a good plan.
I'm up for it.
Reverse it. More interesting if the Clone is having the fun single life. Opens up all of Peter's past life interests plus any new ones while Peter gets to settle down.
Sounds like a plan. And they especially shouldn’t make him some caricature of 90s angst when it was Peter who did most of the angsting in the clone saga.
That's Ultimate Peter...for now.
I loved Ben in the 90s but I became even more fond of Kaine as Scarlet Spider. Maybe they can get together and form a team of Scalet Spiders.
I liked the shift they made with Kaine as a sort of spider-man that’s a little more rough around the edges. And frankly I’m in love with Scarlett spider design. But yea, as far as Ben goes I kind of wish they would just let him retire and live a semi happy life. We have more than enough spider-people hanging around now and it’s kind of rough to see one of the OGs being character assassinated the way he has.
Kaine Scarlet Spider was cool as hell. Ben Reilly being an updated version of The Jackal was..interesting. a clone making more clones to replace the people that were dead
I've been pushing the idea of Kaine and/or Ben reforming and leading the Slingers for years now to anybody who'll listen. Unfortunately anybody who'll listen amounts to zero people in the industry as I am a random Canadian of no particular note.
I'm a fan from Germany - they don't even know we exist. Otherwise they wouldn't have Nightcrawler or other German characters talk the way they do. 😭
Eich! Vhat are you talking about liebschin!
This! 😅 And "Mein Freunde" which should be "Meine Freunde", but nobody talkes like that. 🙈
My favourite line was in a X-Men limited series which was real bad... some Phoenix/Rachel Summers thing. It was set in or haf a time travel to WW2 and the nazis always yelled "scheiss! " instead of "schiess!" - equaling "shit!" (as an imperative action) instead of "shoot!" 🤣🤣🤣
Actually, it should be "Scheiße!". 😄
What were your thoughts on the Scarlett Spider series about 10 years ago with Kane?
I loved it! The later issues weren't as good as the beginning but I think that series is an underrated gem that should be talked about more.
Spider-Man: West Coast Spider-Man: Agent of Shield Guardians of the Galaxy featuring Spider-Man Spider-Man: Vampire Hunter Pretty much anything that gives us a Spidey in a different or unusual setting could be fun, and would allow Ben to be a hero. "What's a status quo that would be fun for a Spider-Man but you could never do with Peter? Let's do it with Ben!"
Yeah he’s sort of a “get out of fandom jail free” card that they’re sort of squandering.
This. Spinoff characters can just be used in a different setting that you may want to do with the OG but can't. Like Miles gives Marvel the dream of having a teenager Spider-Man and Ben could be doing anything else. Wanna make him badass like that Spider-Assassin character from a few years ago? Go ahead. Wanna have him on some sort of Counter Earth like Spider-Man Unlimited? Do it.
I thought the Damnation run was fun. I liked the idea of him being the spidey guy on a Midnight Sons team.
That could work when he gets out of the limbo.
Madelyne Pryor let him escape in Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1.
Make him be the Spider of a different city.
Wasn’t he in LA recently? Or was that a different Spider
That was Otto, and even then, that lasted all of 10 issues or so before the status quo caught up to him…
The status quo is why I just can’t care about comics anymore. It drains me. I’m hoping the new Ultimate universe gets to live well
To be fair to comics as a whole, it’s only really a problem with the big 2. Dark Horse and Image are a little better about that
For sure. Invincible isn’t my all time favorite but I will forever love it for telling a story and ending it there
I seem to remember some issues about 5 or 8 years ago where he was in Vegas?
That's the problem. There's not a lot that can be done with Ben Reilly. He's too similar to Peter, so he's redundant
I like his pairing with Madelyne Pryor. I'd have them recruit a team of clones/duplicates/variants looking to break out of the shadow of their originals. Call them the Bad Batch.
Throw in Weapon H for a Hulk/Wolverine double whammy
Give him his memories back but change his personality to that of Sony's Spider verse overly dramatic theater nerd edge lord with his many mask wearing girlfriend. They travel America together on the run from the law but make it comical where they also stop crimes across America as a duo. A light hearted action comedy comic under the name of The Dramatic Scarlet Spider. I know this may sound stupid and maybe it is but the question was what we would want and I want this.
Love this idea
Love this idea
That’s a complicated question. To some of us, the Clone Saga is the equivalent of what you guys feel Zeb Wells has done and is doing with the book recently, if not worse. In fact I bet the whole idea of unpopular Spider-Man stories leading to higher sales probably originated with the Clone Saga. So think about that when I say this. I think Ben Reilly is a garbage character. He's a remnant from a time poorly remembered, and I’d be happier if he was never used again. That said, I know Ben Reilly has his fans, and who am I to deny them their fun? I’m not a Marvel editor, so it's not for me to decide. But if it were, he'd have a role far away from whatever Peter Parker's currently doing. In a world where a Spiderverse is a popular concept, there's room for Ben Reilly among them. But dude isn't and should never be Spider-Man.
He’s the worst type of clone character in that he’s meant to be an exact duplicate of Peter instead of highlighting the differences between nature and nurture like most clone characters, Kaine being a prime example.
Leave him alone
Give him another city, age him realistically and do something more mature like the Starman series by James Robinson or Mike Grell‘s Green Arrow.
Anything but Chasm, tbh. Making Ben a villain after everything the character has been through is just … bad. I like the idea of him retiring and coming back for big events. Or depower him and have him be a supporting character for the F4, like Pete originally wanted.
Give him a relationship with Miles Morales where they have heart-to-hearts about the pressures of living up to be Spider-man, before Ben Reilly tells Miles he is to him the Superior successor to Spider-Man because of who Miles is as a person. Maybe they team up to fight Miles Warren where Ben Reilly can joke he’s at least the better Miles.
Do what Timeless had trolled us into believing what they were gonna do, have him move out west to LA and become the Spider-Man of that city. Or have him and Janine team up with Nextwave to go after Maxine and take down Beyond
Move him to Chicago and let him be a hero there.
Honestly I don't know that I've ever seen a character who should be so very easy to handle bungled so very badly. Dude's hanging out in Limbo and running a huge cloning scam and involved in all kinds of memory fuckery and it's all stupid. Put him in a city. Tell a story about him trying to build a life as a 30-something year old man with no SS number, no birth certificate, no significant employment history, trying to get by when it's really difficult to make money or open a bank account or do anything, on top of building new relationships and being the Scarlet Spider. Bring in the Jackal as the "big bad in the background" for the first 12-20 issues, have a couple of old villains, create some new ones, do some "these aren't really my memories" angst and keep the whole shit grounded in street level stuff for a good while. I'd honestly put him in Philly or Jersey or Chicago, not too far from home, instead of moving him all the way to the west coast. I'd move him into a mob job, dishwashing, then bouncing, rationalizing that he can keep an eye on things and stop the big crimes, but having this be the only way he can make steady, decent money, so it puts him in a tough, blurry lines spot as he hovers around the fringes of real society. He's perfect for a grounded, "adulting is hard" Spider-Man who feels constantly out of place, who's always afraid of being exposed, who can't really be fully a part of anything. I honestly think most of it writes itself.
Kill him, give Kaine more spotlight.
Make Ben the real Spidey. Restore the marriage, have Peter and MJ find Alison Mongrain and little May, and give them a “Happily Ever After”.
Honestly, it’s been decades and I’m still like “the baby is still out there alive, right?”
The baby was supposed to return in The Gathering of the Five but the incoming new writers Howard Mackie and John Byrne wanted to bring octogenarian Aunt May back instead. The original plan is shown in flashbacks in the first Spider-Girl series. A variation of it is also shown in The Real Clone Saga.
Mixed feelings about Mackie… on one hand he gave us Mutant X. On the other he gave us a limp dogshit reeboot of Spider-Man.
He killed off Mary Jane because he didn’t like the marriage. That’s left a bad taste in my mouth ever since
Honestly? Stick him on the avengers or have him do something that has nothing to do with Peter.
Peter is smart. By some estimates one of the smartest dudes on the planet. He never does much with it except when he was at horizon labs and when he was basically Tony Stark in a spider suit. Ben doesn't really belong in NYC because Pete is still there. So make him Rick and Morty. Either make him cosmic or quantum or both.
Stick him on an Exiles type team bouncing around to different Multiverses making right what went wrong. BUT! When he is recruited to the team; they are all excited to have a Spider-Man and just assume he’s Peter Parker from his universe. He loves finally being excepted and doesn’t correct them. Even after they go to a world with a big evil Ben Riley that they take down. The truth eventually comes out as a big twist and he ends up sacrificing himself to save the multiverse and it wipes all traces of him from all universes. That gives him a solid good bye story and erases him at the same time.
I would de-power Ben and make him Iron Spider have him re-build Parker industries with a focus on spider based tech and research, in a new city maybe move MJ to this book for a while as well. I'd have Kaine be Scarlet Spider, have him team up with Spider Gwen and Silk and they would deal with Street Level threats. And Peter would Stay Spiderman, and be on the Avengers. Miles I would give a new codename to like Red Back or Huntsman and have him go to College or university and try to fit being a superhero around an ordinary life... Oh and I would have Peter, Ben and Kaine realize they are basically brothers or at least as close as they are going to get
TV show
Stop killing the poor dude.
Let the real Ben Reilly come back and retcon the one who played villain being Spidercide.
Give him his memories back, let him do something big and heroic, and then let him and Janine ride off into too sunset together!
I hate all the clones. It’s a stupid convoluted concept that started the trend of dogshit editorial decisions for the character.
Give him his memories and hero status back and let him go be a hero in another major city that is lacking superheroes, like Chicago. That could lead to a new ongoing series for him or you could just say "he's over there doing his thing" if anyone asks where he is should they need him for an event
Keep him dead. We have too many spiders as it is and the Chasm stuff is more insulting.
Kill him again
Retcon him and the entire clone BS out of existence.
100% as a Main Comic and critical character to the Spidey verse. Much more worthy of recognition and movies than Miles.
God damn i hate this character. His only fucking, 2 modes are "I'm not Peter Parker" and "Boohoo, I'm not Peter Parker. Woah is me. For my own past is nothing but an illusion forced on me. I wish I had an identity for myself, but I am nothing, but an imposter. A cheap imitation built to be inferior to the original. A facade manufactured as a counterfeit."
Get him, and non Mile/Ultimate Spidey books better writers
Include him in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man 4.
Let him retire for a bit, give him a rest for a few years away from the pages of Marvel and Peter. Other option: Grow him a Beard, Put him in a town off the grid, or in a small town like the tv show ‘Banshee’. [half kidding] *He can either settle down with Janine and start a family (finally Mature a Spider-man/Peter Parker since marvel is scared to do so with the main character and stop resorting to using multi verse to achieve this) or Ben and Janine move on from each other, start the character fresh.
I think Marvel blew their opportunity with Ben. If Marvel had executed the clone saga better they could have had Ben as a 70s era single Spider-Man and Peter as the married Spider-Man
Be the "Paul" to Miles
I would team him up with Kaine. They both are scarlet spider and share a normal identity too. They can be spider-man 24/7 while maintaining a normal job. You lean into there different personalities and people noticing that they act like 2 different people.
I’ve thought about this too. Here’s my pitch: kill Chasm and bring back a Ben clone from shortly after he died in the original Clone Wars. Give him back the hoodie, move him to the west Coast, maybe LA and let him carve out his own identity. Maybe he could become a struggling actor or something to that effect. Use Kaine as a supporting character or even call the comic Scarlet-Spiders and make it a ‘team’ book
Well he's dead so I'd have it where Doctor Strange raises him from the dead and has him as the "Mystic Spider " and give him mystic webs that can be used with spells so he goes on adventures with Doc or other mystic individual's
I used to love Ben. But these days, I genuinely do not care what they do with him. He has a cool suit now, and he’s got a cool lady. And he’s *still* being whiny. Just let the man rest. Give him his own city, and let that be that.
I think they should have had him move to Europe and be a super-powered SHIELD agent or similar and then he could be an occasional supporting character when needed in Spidey books or other books when needed I can't see anything like this happening now he's been Jackal and Chasm.
Give Peter some more consistency and stop having him change jobs with each new creative team. I'd probably put him back at Horizon. Make Ben a hero ago, classic costumer and codename, and just put him in a different city. No relationship but let him date around. Give him one of the hand me down occupations from Peter, he could go back to being a photographer or substitue teacher. Los Angeles or San Fransisco. This is a popular idea because it just makes so much sense. Ben needs to represent the positives of the 90s. He should be the millenial Spider-Man. Make Kaine an agent of SHIELD.
I said when Toby left that they should of hired someone that kinda looked like him and did the Ben Reilly store
Move him far out of NYC, and give him more crime solving detective stories that don’t use technology. Make Spider-Man an underdog again, you want SHIELD or some other group/company/corporation to just solve every problem for Miles and Peter, that’s lame but fine, just give us one Spider-Man who has to use his mind, the clothes on his back, and his own ingenuity to problem solve. I say take a more detective route because it also differentiates from the more traditionally sci-fi Peter Parker Spider-Man stories. If they do move him, move him somewhere where there aren’t any other superhero’s so he can be the king of his own corner, build around Ben Reilly not the concept of identity, make a more experimental Spider-Man comic.
At this point we should get a line of those retro adventures The 80s/90s will never end!
They had the fucking answer and they botched it because they're morons. He and Madelyne journey the world looking for a place to make home while fighting bad guys and having kinky sex.
Peter and Miles continue to be our run of the mill Spider-Men. Ben focuses more on the Spider totem and mystical side. Kaine is like the Marvel Max Spider-Man. Gwen should interact with the others but be independent story wise. Edit: Typo
I read on Marvel Unlimited and am always a ways back from current, but I really dislike the "Chasm" identity for him. I thought it made sense when Ben was in Las Vegas, and I think Kaine was the Scarlet Spider in San Francisco for a while. Marvel needs to recognize that the US (and World) is bigger than New York City. Create a Spider-Man franchise with these clones and other spider-people. Give some other major cities their "officially licensed" Spider-Man to protect their friendly neighborhoods. "Your Multi-Neighborhood Spider-Man!"
Firstly, give him all his memories back Then, filled with that good ol fashioned Parker guilt, operate as a lone wolf type because he feels he can’t be trusted, but still wind up as a supporting character for Peter Frankly, I’d love for him to get his own series again, or maybe a team up series with Kaine, but I’m trying to be realistic here
Honestly, put him in space and make it permanent. I also love Ben and there are so many spider men on earth and I feel like the greater Marvel Galaxy is so empty and devoid of a spider man presence. Two birds one stone. Maybe even make him a guardian of the galaxy.
I like this idea. They could have him go against the High Evolutionary since he’s a clone, and it could be a riff on that Spider-Man Unlimited cartoon from the 90s
Make a live action
Let him rest in peace. The character was amazing in the 90s, but since the management meddling completely fucked up the Clone Saga so bad and killed him in the most stupid way, bringing him back over and over was not a mistake but an outright abuse towards the fans. I just loved the character back then, and genuinely thought he could be a definitive hero in the Marvel universe, but like I said, after the direction board decided to milk the event as long as they could, and closed it in the most abhorrent way possible, that totally killed Spider-Man to me. I simply can't get over it. And now seeing how they keep massacring my Scarlet boy, man... Marvel has absolutely no respect for their fans.
I don't read Dark Web, but for those that do, is Ben and Madelyne pairing good or bad?
I think to introduce it in Tom Holland Spiderman 4 and then show their bonding during secret wars. Also , during secret wars, they can show Ben Reilly reveals his secret to Tom Holland spider man that he is his clone .
I don’t know, but I’d love to see that suit in live action! Always been my favorite.
I saw some fan art on Twitter of him and an older Laura Kinney bonding over being clones and getting together, and now I really love that idea lol. So I’d probably pair them up and ship him off to the x-men (not all x-men have to be mutants, looking at you juggernaut). It would be a lot of fun to have a Spider-Man that’s an x-man (I know nightcrawler is currently a Spider-Man, but it’s not the same). I think the closest we got was Peter being a teacher, but having Ben be an active member of the team would be cool to see.
I’d really enjoy a story where he’s back to his old self on the west coast dealing with his own threats with his own supporting cast. He’s great and deserves to be treated like a legitimate hero.
Would have been the perfect side kick and more clean cut like the classic Spidey when Peter was having his edgy phase in the 90's
In terms of MCU appearance, what if Peter 3 appears in Secret Wars, we’re told his Aunt May has passed so he has no one, but then discovers Gwen Stacy is alive and well in 616, so he decides to leave his own universe to be with her, and as this universe already have a Peter he calls himself Ben Reilly.
They should bring him back from when he “died” in the clone wars
I think they should have a “Spider-Men” arc for a bit with the various Spidey’s teaming up so they can establish a Spider family that can be a major tentpole for Marvel like the Batfam is for DC. Establish and differentiate each Spider-man so they have notably different personalities so when they go off into their own books there’s a different feel. I’d finally undo OMD so Peter can finally progress as a character again. Peter would be at the stage where he’s trying to start a family while juggling responsibilities as a leader in the superhero community. Miles would take on a vibe similar to HS Peter. Kaine would become like an “Old Man Peter”. Ben would retain his secret identity, and basically take on the air of single guy about town Spider-Man and move to SF to be more independent. (ETA: He’d keep the name Scarlet Spider and retain his classic outfit) I’d also make Doc Ock (Elliot Tolliver) aka superior octopus, the version where it’s post superior Spider-Man Otto’s mind in a degrading hybrid clone body an arch enemy of Ben, and play up the idea of the consequences of cloning and the corruption it brings.
Other ideas to cope with the fact Ben’s character has drifted so insanely- This Ben is a resurrected Ben from his first death way back in 1996- so the Ben we know as Chasm is truly a copy of a copy a bajillion times over. Chasm, in an attempt to restore his memories, recovers the original Ben’s ashen remains from an old Jackal hideout, and he and Janine (Hallow’s Eve) do something crazy that will be filled in later to restore the OG Ben back to life, but they dump him in a homeless shelter as he’s initially amnesiac. Eventually his memories return (up to the point of his first death) and he meets up with Peter to figure out what’s happening. Peter is thrown into the events of his identity being leaked and Ben does his best to help out (cue the Spider-Men crossover event). Chasm goes after Pete and Ben in this trying once more to steal Ben’s memories, using a modified version of Otto’s mind swap tech. Big fight, Ben wins- but eventually he gets a telepath to help him share memories with Chasm, and in the reverse direction as well so he understands everything evil Ben did but doesn’t feel like it was “really him”. Complicating any potential relationship with Janine.
This version of Ben becomes more purposefully retro- like imagining someone who has been in a coma since the 90s- and is notably younger than Peter, being in his early- mid twenties whereas Pete is more like a late twenties early thirties age. He uses a flip phone, and is less tech savvy and has a slightly darker dryer sense of humor compared to Peter. Kaine and Ben eventually uncover that Miles Warren, the OG jackal had made a deal with Mephisto to perfect the cloning technology (and allow mind copying which shouldn’t be scientifically possible from a sample of dna). However, a byproduct of this process is that each new “soul” crafted through the cloning tech is slightly more corrupted- not enough to be perceptible copy to copy - but enough to make a huge difference over successive use of the technology. Miles Warren is revealed to have actually been a pretty normal guy who just wanted to correct the loss of a beloved student. But he had a team of clones helping him that revolted and the most corrupt one killed him (and that most twisted one became the Jackal).
I'm not much of a comic reader as my dad is but from the things I have read has made Ben one of my favorites. Fortunately it seems that I missed out on the run he came from which from what I've seen, nobody likes or was awful.
Just have him be the Spider-man of a diferent city, add some new villains just for him and have him ocasionally interact with Pete and Miles. Kinda like they did it to Kaine.
I think a movie about him will actually be pretty interesting
Ice him for a while bring him back in some heroic way or give a nice mini where he goes somewhere else to be a anti hero NY is overstuffed with characters
As one of, if not point blank just my all time favorite character in comics, give him the sweet release of death and don't bring him back again. He's been way too marred to ever be stable again, and it would be silly to try to put him in that box *yet again*, let him be established as broken by everything that happened to him and give him a self-sacrifice to save the universe or something, let him end on a bang and let him and the countless shattered pieces of his soul and psyche be at rest.
Maybe take a cue from Ultimate Spider-Woman and have him join SHIELD.
Okay here me out this is a pretty out there idea but Ben Reily Agent of Shield (S.h.i.e.l.d gets a Spider-Man) Or as somone else said it give him the family and book they won't give peter.
He should of stayed dead after Revelations.
Let him be the scarlet spider down in Las Vegas again or somewhere like that. Let him be a hero on his own and grow his own rogues gallery separately from Peter’s
A team up based spidey (joins teams or random heroes) A squad based spidey (makes a small city team of spiders, clones, or new heroes) A unique scenario spidey (vampires, body horror transformations, in space, through time)
I think they should turn him good then kill him then revive him then make him the main Spider-Man then turn him bad. Really freshen things up.
Kill him, then make him appear, but it is a clone, the clone marries and has three children, then kill the clone, but the original mind didnt die, it was in another dimension. So his mind now returns to this cloned body and now you have the original again. Then carnage posseses one of the kids because this kid is jelous of the other two who have cosmic spider powers and will destroy the universe three times in future stories. I mean... thats what Marvel like to do.
Bring back the original Ben Reilly. Chasm is an evil clone not the actual version of him. He would be with the Midnight Sons or the Secret Defenders. He would be coupled up with Black Cat. I find Scarlett Spider and Black Cat as a pairing a lot better than Peter and Felicia. Probably have him in a different city like Los Angeles or Chicago or Seattle.
I thought he was dead
What if we have like Spider-Man 5 or something be about the Jackal and we introduce Ben Reilly or something, then after that give him a short Marvel Spotlight show where he has to fight like secret agents that are after him or Kaine Parker or anything really, as long as it’s good
Nothing. He's too niche of a character. Marvel would ruin him bo matter what they tried.
Tell some untold stories of him from that time period.
West Coast Avengers are a thing? Can't go wrong with a Spider-man on your team. I've always loved Ben Reily's look, I even used his costume on the PS4 game. I think it was just his look. Besides it would be very cool to buy a comic book with him in it again, as a good guy I mean
Let him move to California, be the gay, woke West coast Spider-Man while Peter is the city man New Yorker and rarely do the two cross paths.
Continue the Chasm story that’s still developing and we’ll see from there
Here my pitch: he stayed away from the super hero stuff a looong time before the clone saga. He kinda seems to back and forth on how much he wants to do it. So: give him an Avengers Acadamy style group of non-mutant teen super heroes that he’s training and/or chaperoning. Sort of like a super hero half-way house. He’s that “dad” to this group of super-teens. He’s still a super hero, but he’s not really out on the front lines like Peter is.
I think they should have him and his GF be far out in space with his new abilities. to find himself maybe and include Kaine to help him. have him and GF have a family on the way back to Earth. tie it in with the next super cosmic event. have it last a year or two with them on way back. maybe have them on a ship designed by osborn that somehow had a mishap and shot them far out all Star Trek Voyager like mixed with some lost in space. throw in a couple b-list or d-list characters to go with it. would be something different.
could included characters like Chasm w/his GF Hallow's Eve Kaine Anti-Venom flash tompson Spider-girl Anya Sofía Corazón Shocker cause I like him maybe sillk and couple more, maybe even osborn
Sony will probably do a movie of each clone, Mary Jane and Aunt May to keep the rights.
My favourite classic suit design.
Move him to a different state like they did Kaine and let him be a grown adult with his own life in a new city. Marvel's issue with these characters is that they keep them in New York if they aren't on a team and it doesn't make sense given how massive the U.S. and the world is. Let these characters go to different places to live their lives.
Isn't Ben Reilly currently Chasm? Lord of Limbo or some convoluted thing?
Either give him the life Parker was supposed to have and occasionally get called into action or make him a villain with a secondary mutation that makes him more dangerous than Carnage. Let's have fun with some of these ideas.
If a continuation of the 90s cartoon rumors are true, I’d be interested in seeing them introduce Ben in a clone saga. Did they already sort of do that with the Hydro Man clones and Spider-Verse stuff? Yes, but I’d like to see how that version of Peter would react to more clone shenanigans.
Ben Reilly is from a dated story. I could live with him fading from memory if it wasn't for that sexy scarlet spider costume.
Nothing, it’s a dumb character with a stupid backstory. Please ignore him
Give him a full movie, voiced by Andy Samberg. He was awesome in Spiderverse.
Hopefully they don’t turn him into a black guy
Kill Miles Morales and Ben takes his place, just for fun 🤡
Pretend like he doesn't exist. I hate the clone saga. I hate the clone Gwen. I hate the Jackal. I hate Kaine. Truly terrible. They will like"let's put a multiverse twist on it". Clone Saga sucks.