Scarlet Spider
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Scarlet Spider is a fictional character who appeared in the Marvel Comics' series Spider-Man. The identity of the Scarlet Spider has been used by several characters: Ben Reilly, Peter Parker (while Ben posed as him in prison), Joe Wade (a villain), and a group of three Michael Van Patrick (MVP) clones working with the Initiative.
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[edit] Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly)
The first Scarlet Spider is a clone of Spider-Man created by the Jackal. The Jackal creates the clone to fight and defeat the original Spider-Man, but since the clone and Peter both share the same memories, they confuse themselves in the battle. The winner is the original Peter Parker. The clone is left for dead and is dumped into a smoke stack of a factory. He escapes and assumes the alias of Ben Reilly. The name is a combination of his Uncle's first name and his Aunt's maiden name. He wanders around aimlessly for five years. He returns to Spider-Man's home of New York, and finds himself once again wanting to be a hero. He fashions his own costume, and becomes the Scarlet Spider. He fights alongside his "brother" Spider-Man, and proves himself to be such a great hero, that Spider-Man asks him to watch over the city, while he and his wife try to start a family. When his name is smeared by a second, evil Scarlet Spider, he assumes the identity of Spider-Man, until his death at the hands of Norman Osborn. His body disintegrates, proving once and for all that he is the clone.
[edit] Scarlet Spider (Joe Wade)
An undercover FBI agent assigned to investigate the new Doctor Octopus, Carolyn Trainer, Joe Wade is discovered and forced to undertake a virtual reality graft. Carolyn turns him into a hard-light holographic duplicate of the Scarlet Spider, in order to ruin his name. In his Scarlet Spider guise, Joe is actually trapped in a virtual reality chamber, and his thoughts power the hologram. Despite this, Joe is unable to stop himself from committing acts of violence. When the real Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, attacks Doctor Octopus's lair, he damages the machine while Joe is still inside. The damage to the virtual reality chamber causes the grafts to malfunction, and Joe becomes a real mechanized Scarlet Spider with amazing powers. As the new Scarlet Spider, Joe is superhumanly strong and fast, and has claws on his fingertips; he can also fire webbing from his wrists, crawl up walls, and fire laser 'stingers' from his eyes. It takes both Ben Reilly (in the guise of Spider-Man) and the New Warriors to stop the cybernetic Scarlet Spider, and the FBI put him in custody and have him undergo medical treatments to remove the technology.
[edit] Scarlet Spiders (Red Team)
Post-Civil War, the Scarlet Spiders are a group of three unknown people of the Initiative who identify themselves as "Red Team" on the field, first appearing in Avengers: The Initiative #3. All three of them wear an advanced version of the 'Iron Spider' Stark armor which Spider-Man wore pre-Civil War and during the event. During their first appearance, they take down the Shocker, Boomerang, and Hydro-Man. War Machine identifies them as "Scarlet Spiders" when contacting them. He also implies that they will be the successors to the Spider-Man identity once Peter Parker's powers are removed permanently. In Avengers: The Initiative #5, the three Scarlet Spiders are revealed to be part of another group called the Shadow Initiative under the command of Henry Gyrich. In Avengers: The Initiative #7, the Scarlet Spiders were forced to expose themselves to the public during their pursuit of three criminals wearing the Vulturions costumes, as well as dealing with an angered Peter Parker; their appearance in battle against and alongside Parker has raised public doubt over whether Parker is the original and/or only Spider-Man, despite his publicly revealing his dual identity in the early days of Civil War. However, the Scarlet Spiders, as a sign of trust, lied in public, stating that Peter Parker had always been one of them but is not the "real" Spider-Man. Afterwards, the Spiders were revealed to be clones of the deceased MVP, who treat their creator, Baron Von Blitzschlag, like a father. In Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1, it was revealed that the clones learned Spider-Man's moves from Taskmaster. As of Avengers: The Initiative #10, one of the Scarlet Spiders is deceased, beheaded by another MVP clone gone rogue, the self-styled "KIA". There are hints that only one of the three will survive the fight.
[edit] Other versions
In the MC2 alternate future, Felicity Hardy takes the identity of Scarlet Spider to both be a partner to Spider-Girl, and to irritate her mother, Felicia Hardy. While she has no actual powers, she uses her amazing gymnastic talent and martial arts skills, along with an array of spider-themed weaponry, to fight crime, until several near death experiences cause her to give up the identity.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Television
The Scarlet Spider appeared in the final two episodes of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which first aired January 31st, 1998. In the episodes titled "Spider Wars", numerous versions of Spider-Man from different realities teamed up to stop the insane Spider-Carnage, including Ben Reilly as the Scarlet Spider. The Clone Saga was touched on in the episodes, particularly the storyline involving Ben Reilly's supposed status as the true Peter Parker and not the clone. Reilly was also shown dying his hair blonde in a flashback and used his trademark impact webbing in the episodes.
The Scarlet Spider made a very brief cameo in the Fantastic Four episode "Nightmare in Green". The Scarlet Spider's appearance came about when the Fantastic Four creative team wished to have Spider-Man briefly appear in his place in the syndicated animated series but were denied due to rights issues surrounding Spider-Man's Fox Kids series. [1]
[edit] Toys
- An action figure of the Scarlet Spider was released by Toy Biz in the mid-1990s. A second figure, exclusive to Kay-Bee Toys was released in late 2001 as part of the Spider-Man Classics line.
- The Scarlet Spider was one of 12 unique figures in the Wizkids game Heroclix set, Sinister.
- A Scarlet Spider Minimate was released in late 2007 exclusively at select FYE, Suncoast, and Sam Goody stores in a 2-pack including a Hobgoblin figure.[2]
[edit] Video and computer games
- The Scarlet Spider has been an alternate costume used in several Spider-Man and Marvel Universe games beginning with 2000's Spider-Man and recently Marvel Ultimate Alliance featured both the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider and the red-and-gold "Iron Spider" uniform currently worn by the new Scarlet Spiders as alternate costumes for Spider-Man.
