10 Insane Comic Endings That Totally Came Out Of Nowhere
8. Ben Reilly Is The Real Spider-Man... Or Is He?
With the release of Spectacular Spider-Man #226 came perhaps the biggest surprise in all of Spider-Man; namely, that Spider-Man wasn't even Spider-Man.
In a move that earned widespread fan backlash, the issue revealed that Peter Parker wasn't, in fact, the true identity of Spider-Man, but rather a clone, and that Ben Reilly - who was until then thought to be Peter's clone - was himself the original version.
While this bold decision was exciting in how huge a change it was, it also irritated a huge number of Spider-Man fans, who would fail to grow attached to the 'replacement' hero in the way they did Parker.
In actuality, it's unclear if Peter was always intentioned to revert to being the 'true' Spider-Man, or if he was reinstated due to outrage from the fans and staff working on the series.
Either way, the status quo would be restored that exact same year, with Parker discovering that Norman Osborn had organised the whole thing in a scheme against him.