What Happened To Everyone Who Became Spider-Man?

6. Ben Reilly

First Appearance As Spider-Man: The Sensational Spider-Man #0

The Clone Saga might be reviled by Spider-Man fans the world over, but to those who grew up in the nineties, Ben Reilly was a star.

Debuting first as the Scarlet Spider, a side character with an instantly recognisable get-up thanks to a blue hoodie, Ben slowly but surely began to take up a greater role in Spidey's stories. The original plan during the Clone Saga was for Ben to replace Peter as Spider-Man, with Pete then set to retire with Mary Jane and his yet-to-be-born child. The crux behind this twist was that Peter would be revealed as the actual clone of Ben Reilly, when Ben had previously been positioned as the clone originally.

The rest is history though; Marvel chickened out, Ben was killed, and so too was Peter and MJ's child. Peter took up the mantle of Spider-Man again, while Ben himself would be resurrected as another Scarlet Spider years later - a role he most recently fulfilled in Las Vegas, of all places.

However, while Reilly's stint as Spidey was brief, it was by no means forgettable. Mark Bagley's redesign of the classic Spider-Man costume was spot-on (it later informed the design for the suit seen in Insomniac's Spider-Man game), and Ben himself got up to some memorable adventures too. If only Marvel had stuck to their guns. Who knows how things could've changed?