In issue 149 of The Amazing Spider-man, back in 1975, Peter Parker discovered that he had a twin brother, a clone created by the Jackal named Ben Reilly who died in that same episode. However, twenty years later, in the infamous Clone Saga, readers were amazed to discover that he was still roaming the Marvel Universe and, in fact, adopted the name Scarlet Spider, which follows him to this day. He is a vital character in the character’s ecosystem, right? Well, maybe not for everyone.
Are you really telling me this?
It has been 30 years since the first resurrection of Ben Reilly, and the character has undergone continuous changes in name, powers, aliases, and status quo. So much so that Jonathan Hickman, in his Ultimate Spider-man (the best current comic about the Web-Slinger), has made it clear that he does not intend to add more fuel to his background. Thus, in issue 10, he has made a simple nod indicating to readers that there would be no clones of any kind here.
J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker (yes, Uncle Ben) are writing a news article for their online newspaper, The Paper, about Wilson Fisk. But they don’t want to write it under either of their names so that Kingpin’s power doesn’t fall on them, so they decide to invent a name. Exactly, Ben Reilly. And you have no idea how much of a relief it is to know that there will be no clones in this origin adventure. It’s about time.
