Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider

Subject Facts

Full Name: Benjamin Reilly
Codename: Scarlet Spider
Age: 29 (appearance, actual age undetermined thanks to being a clone)

Gender: Male

Archetype: Super Hero

Aliases: Spider-Man, Spider-Carnage, The Jackal (II)

Marital Status: Single


Affiliation: New Warriors, Midnight Sons, Spider-Army/Web Warriors

Subject Attributes

Superhuman Abilities:
As an identical clone of Peter Parker, Reilly shares not only his face but also all of the abilities that make him Spider-Man, including:


Superhuman Strength: he has the proportionate strength of a spider allowing him to lift 10 tons.


Superhuman Agility/Speed/Reflexes: He can leap up to 30 feet, move fast enough to dodge gunfire, perform amazing acrobatic maneuvers impossible for even top tier gymnasts to replicate, and has amazing dexterity, balance, and coordination.

Superhuman Durability: he possesses increased vitality and resistance to injury. His healing is accelerated compared to that of a normal human, but is not on par with the likes of Wolverine or Deadpool.

Wall-Crawling: Ben can adhere to nearly any surface with any part of his body allowing him to traverse walls, ceilings, and tall structures such as skyscrapers with ease.


Spider-Sense: a precognitive “danger sense” that warns him of oncoming threats, felt as a tingling at the base of his skull.


Standard Abilities:

Genius Intellect: Ben is incredibly smart understanding many different scientific fields such as mathematics, biology, mechanical engineering, and chemistry and is capable of learning about those subjects he doesn’t in short order. Having been able to study and work as a scientist during his exile he has in some areas, surpassed Peter by a small degree. His time as the Jackal has made him an expert on clones and the cloning process.


Tactical Expert: Like Spider-Man, Ben has a unique fighting style based around his abilities with many acrobatic maneuvers in his repertoire. Unlike Peter his technique is far from refined, partially due to not having been an active superhero for approximately five years, but also because he didn’t have memories of training Peter received post the time he was cloned. This has forced him to be more cunning in battle rather than rely heavily on his physical abilities.


Street Smart: Having traveled America for years he has worked various jobs from short order cook to mechanic and thus has the experience needed to approach difficulties of life in an urban environment, including relating to the average blue-collar worker.

Paraphernalia:

Scarlet Spider Suit: originally a makeshift red costume with a sleeveless, torn blue hoodie with a spider emblem sitting diagonally on the chest, he now wears a duplicate stolen from a cosplayer. It provides no protection and lacks any kind of technological components.


Web-Shooters: wrist-mounted devices enabling him to fire adhesive webbing for various purposes be it swinging, entangling foes, or specialized purposes. Thanks to modifications enabling him to fire different weapons, types of webbing, and allow for wrist motion activation they are larger than Peter’s and worn on the outside of the costume.


Web Fluid Cartridges: adhesive fluid of Spider-Man’s design. He has been known to make specialized variants depending on the situation and resources available to him.

Impact Webbing: Ben’s personally developed web pellets that hits a target with force and rapidly expands the ensnare.


Stingers: fired from the web-shooters these metal darts possess a paralytic agent to stun or disable enemies.


Mini Dot Tracers: similar to Spider-Man’s traditional tracers these miniaturized version fire from the web-shooters and allow him to track a tagged target.


Utility Belt and Ankle Pouches: used to carry additional web cartridges and other things he may need such as a cell phone.


Subject Weaknesses:


Bad Luck-like Peter, Ben suffers from what he has dubbed “The Parker Luck”, but really it is an apparent lack thereof. From encountering villains (many that are out of his league) and falling into life threatening situations on a regular basis to worrying about rent and making it into work on time he can’t catch a break. Any happiness he finds lasts for about a millisecond before his life is shattered apart once more. More accurately if something can go wrong for him as Ben Reilly or as Scarlet Spider, it will.

Ethyl Chloride- Perhaps because of the nature of his powers or maybe just because it is typical Parker Luck, the chemical most often used in spider poison can make Ben very ill and disrupt his powers..


Spider-Sense Negation- Whether it is a type of magic, something merely not registering as a threat, a drug induced disruption, or supernatural methods, Ben is left more vulnerable and unable to detect dangerous attacks and situations.


With Great Power Comes Great Guilt- Ben has Peter’s memories up to the point when he was first cloned, so he too feels the guilt caused by Uncle Ben’s death. His own personal guilt includes his actions as the Jackal, the destruction of a former boss and friend’s coffee shop The Daily Grind, and failures that result in the death or harming of innocent people. A clever enemy may be able to utilize his guilty conscience to their advantage.


Webbing Shortage- depending on how much action he sees on an adventure, his webbing may run out. It's not exactly cheap to make and he can only carry so many cartidges on his person. Add to that the fact that his webbing is designed to dissolve in an hour and depending on the severity of the situation, he could find himself without one of his greatest advantages.

Subject History

The first perfect clone of Spider-Man made by the Jackal, Ben was presumed dead, his body thrown down a smoke stack after a battle with Spidey. Having survived and realizing he is a clone, he left New York in Peter’s hands and ceased being a superhero for five years as he traveled the country. Having met and befriended scientist Seward Trainer who became a father figure to him as he increased his scientific knowledge. Unfortunately the deranged failed clone called Kaine took every opportunity to hunt Ben down, ruing his life, and harm people he encountered, often leading to Ben moving on to another city or town.


When he heard Aunt May had a stroke form which she may not have recovered Reilly returned to New York sporting blonde hair, hoping to pay respects without being discovered. It didn’t work. There he clashed with Spider-Man who was suffering from great traumatic events in his life. Agreeing to stick around until Peter was back to normal he ended up donning a makeshift costume to stop Venom, trouncing him in short order and becoming known as The Scarlet Spider. The longer he stayed in New York the more problems he had, including clashing with a female Doctor Octopus who used a Scarlet Spider hologram to ruin his reputation.


With Peter suffering mentally and physically from everything he’d been through in the recent past and having an existential crisis after coming to believing himself to be a clone and Ben the original Peter Parker, Ben took up the mantle of Spider Man with Peter’s permission. With a new costume he worked to protect the city from villains in much the same way Parker had. Unfortunately, it was not to last as someone began systematically dismantling his life as both Reilly and Spider-Man. After discovering Seward Trainer was involved in the scheme, Ben was attacked and beaten severely by the cyborgs of Cell-12 and a cybernetically Hobgoblin. Going to Peter for help the two eventually learned that Norman Osborn was behind attacks on both of their lives. With Peter suiting up once more the pair of Spider-Men clashed with Green Goblin in a massive battle. When Norman’s glider nearly impaled Peter, Ben threw himself in the way, saving Parker but dying in the process. As Ben’s body turned to dust proving he was the clone after all, Peter reclaimed the mantle as the sole Spider-Man. The event made Peter admit that he thought of Ben as a brother and would always honor him.

Little did anyone know Ben would be cloned again and again, dying each time, his soul somehow passing back and forth through the afterlife. The trauma of dying and returning constantly, blackened his soul, corrupting his true nature. Years later he returned calling himself the Jackal and running a multimillion dollar company called New U. Specializing in cloning he justified his actions by claiming he was making the world better by resurrecting people as clones and overcoming death itself. Clashing with Kaine and Peter, he was defeated, but not before many previously dead villains like Jason Macendale as Hobgoblin, were cloned.

On the run from Peter and Kaine alike, still trying to convince himself his intentions were good, he donned a new Scarlet Spider costume and headed to Las Vegas where he promised to cure a powerful woman’s daughter of a terminal illness using New U tech. For a short while he acted as a hero, but demanded payment for his services and frequently used violent, brutal tactics. Stealing a cosplayer’s costume, a replica of his old Scarlet Spider outfit, he continued his odd brand of vigilantism, drawing the attention of Kaine. The two clashed with the latter vowing to kill Ben for all he had done. Their ongoing struggle was interrupted by Mistress Death herself who explained to Reilly the damage done to his soul and that while he had a chance to redeem himself and return to being what he once was, another death would leave his soul shattered.

With his facial scarring healed (the damage returning little by little when he committed an evil act) he worked alongside Kaine, even helping the Midnight Sons when Mephisto invaded Las Vegas. It was during the push by the Inheritors to kill all spider totems that he truly returned to form by sacrificing himself for the others. Last minute intervention by the Superior Spider-Man Otto Octavius brought him back to life and according to Ben he was now back to “factory settings” with his original personality and morals restored. 

Subject Interview

Hot. So hot. Skintight suits are so not made for the Nevada heat. Between the sweat and the chaffing I could beat enemies with the sheer power of blah and grossness, Ben thought.

As he swing around the edge of a casino he considered calling it night and ending his patrol early. Aside from the oppressive heat nothing overly sinister was happening.

I should just head home. Got that interview at the diner tomorrow, some extra sleep couldn’t hurt.

Just thinking it was tempting fate, a fact he realized the moment he heard a scream echo up from down below. Lately, there had been reports of gangbangers terrorizing and beating the local homeless population as some kind of initiation. It irritated him to think that people would do that kind of thing, especially to those already suffering from misfortune. Instead of going home to his crappy little apartment he went slowly crawled down the building, inching around the corner until he heard what sounded almost like…chanting? Sure enough there were several dark cloaked figures chanting as more voices joined the chorus of screams from the same direction. They almost looked like part of the usual street performers visible on the Vegas strip or as if they were part of one of the shows the casinos regularly put on.

In moments the Scarlet Spider was leaping back into action. The dark clad figures were chanting away, some kind of unintelligible gibberish from what he could hear. Silently landing beside them he went unnoticed until he loudly cleared his throat.

“Yeesh! Guys, c’mon! Whatever happened to the classics? I mean is Cthulhu Fhtagn no longer popular?” he asked.

The men jumped startled by the sudden appearance of the hero, moving into a patch of moonlight where Reilly could see them better. For the most part, they looked like a bunch of kids ranging from high-school to college aged, each wearing a robe straight out of a fantasy book or more likely, a costume shop. In the center of the semi-circle they had been standing in was an elderly homeless man, bruised and bloodied. Placing himself between the victim and the teens Ben found his mouth on autopilot

“Guys, I know D&D is fun, but this is not a game board,” he said as he noticed several knives. “and those are not dice.”

“Who are you?” one snarled, seemingly the leader.

“I am the mighty Spider deity summoned by your supreme geekitude! Tremble mortals!”

“It’s that Spider-Man freak!” one of them snapped.

“Man do I need a PR person. Spidey lives in the Big Apple. My inner showgirl demands that I remain local! I’m not just a handsome crime fighter, but also available for quickie weddings. Only in a chapel though, nothing drive-thru. I’m classy that way.”

“It’s that Scarlet Spider freak!”

Ben chuckled in response. “Twenty points to Gryffindor!”

“Kill him! He’s just some moron in a garish costume!” shouted the leader.

Scarlet Spider meanwhile crossed his arms and fired off web-lines that snared the knife wielding hands of other youths before quickly yanking them into each other, his strength great enough to yank them off their feet and render them unconscious as they collided with each other.

“Wow, fashion advice from Lord Darth Nazgul the Wise. I’ll take that under advisement!” he quipped as he back flipped onto the wall.

As two more of the manchildren rushed him he rebounded of the wall, both feet planting squarely in ones chest, sending him crashing into the building behind him. Before he had even landed he fired off a webline that trapped the other boy’s feet causing him to crash to the ground.


“Somebody didn’t roll well when it came to initiative, ” Scarlet Spider said matter-of-factly. “Where’s a rogue when you need one?”

As the fight kicked into high-gear several other homeless people dragged their friend to safety. They too had been injured, but their fear was blunted as they saw the hero flipping and quipping, dispatching their assailants with ease. After finishing the group with a series of well placed punches, kicks, and acrobatic maneuvers that would make Cirque du Soleil performers dizzy he turned towards the leader, dramatically dropping a larger boy from where he held him off the ground with one arm.


“Alrighty, just you and me now Dungeon Master,” he said dusting off his hands.

“As it should be,” the leader spat angrily, his hipster glasses nearly falling off his face. “I will defeat you and then he shall gift me with the power!”

“Riiight!” Ben replied skeptically. “You sure you want that last screw knocked loose?”

In answer the man rushed him, knife raised high. Ben could have disarmed him and taken him down quickly, but this was his first time back in action in months and he was having too much fun. That was to say nothing of the fact the jerk had hurt an innocent man and probably deserved a little roughing up. Instead, he fired a ball of his impact webbing, the projectile rapidly expanding as it struck the knife hand. With his blade and hand completely enveloped, the man cursed, shaking his hand in an unsuccessful attempt to get the sticky substance off.


“You like to beat people up huh? Mess with folks who can’t fight back? ” Ben asked, anger in his voice.

Stepping forward Reilly began to smack the man about, literally. A few slaps back by Spider Strength and a topped off with a final backhand strike, and the bruised man almost lost consciousness. The Scarlet Spider however made sure he was still with it enough to see that he had webbed him between the two buildings leaving him as helpless as his victims had been.

The threat taken care of he turned towards the homeless men and women. “It’s all good folks! These creeps won’t bother you again. I’ll make sure the cops pick up these clowns. Try and stay cool. As for your friend, I’ll get him to a hospital. Hold tight pal.”

“Thank You Spider-Man,” the man said weakly.


“It’s Scarlet Spider,” Ben said as he launched skyward.

”What’s the difference?”

”Largely the lack of a paycheck and the distance from Coney Island. Oh and the hyphen. That’s an important part.”

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Rift

Other Characters: N/A

How did you find MFT?: Initially joined during the soft launch. Returning.