Bringing Back Ben Reilly

[Draegwolf]

With the sudden increase in Spider-themed characters emerging recently does anyone else think that now is the time to bring back Ben Reilly? I know that the Clone Saga got a lot of flack back in the day but at the same time Ben has always seemed to have been fairly well received even in the light of everything that happened during that time. Even with his body disintegrated it's not like it would be that hard to bring him back considering the events of One More Day, Jackal's cauldron of clones, the Spider-Verse, and any other number of superhero tropes that could be used to circumvent his present status. I feel like there are so many opportunities for him to explore that Marvel could be exploiting.

[Kurolegacy]

Well while 616 Ben's body disintegrated, leaving him dead at the end of the Clone Saga, we never saw a body with the one from Scarlet Spiders leaving the door open for them to be bring him back if they ever wanted to.

[Huntsman Spider]

And we do have Mister Sinister's small army of Ben Reilly clones from Wolverines #5-6, who really should make a comeback appearance at some point as adversaries or uneasy allies-slash-acquaintances of Peter and Kaine.

[Mister Mets]

Posted this elsewhere, but Contest of Champions seems to be a way to bring him back.

It's a book with time travel, so it's plausible that they can pluck him from before he dies (and find some way to replace him to keep him alive if they want to go in that direction.) It gives that title someone with Spider-Man's power set, as well as a loyal fan following, which might result in a small bump in sales without hurting the brand of a title that has the 1990s British Punisher as one of the major characters.

[classicgmer]

As long as Tom Brevoort is at Marvel Ben Reilly is not coming back PERIOD The man has made his position on Ben crystal clear for many years so hoping against hope for a return so long as he's there is just an exercise in futility imho.

[Carloshll726]

I'm all revved up for the future of the original Scarlet Spider! I sent Axel Alonso of Marvel Entertainment a hot idea: Have the Ben Reilly-Scarlet Spider become a member of a new Excalibur team! That's right... "Scarlet Spider: The UK Adventures!!!" This'll be a masterpiece with the right writer and artists on board!... Plus, a new black partner for the Scarlet Spider!

[frizb]

Posted this elsewhere, but Contest of Champions seems to be a way to bring him back.

It's a book with time travel, so it's plausible that they can pluck him from before he dies (and find some way to replace him to keep him alive if they want to go in that direction.) It gives that title someone with Spider-Man's power set, as well as a loyal fan following, which might result in a small bump in sales without hurting the brand of a title that has the 1990s British Punisher as one of the major characters.

Yep! This book could be a great way to bring anyone back. They just just did it with Nighthrasher so who knows.

[John Ossie]

I doubt it but you never know I guess.

[The One and Only]

One thing pointed out by the Life of Reilly website was that when Ben died at the end of the Revelations story-arc, the bloke should've just died. No rapid rotting in to a pool of foul smelling goo, just deteriorated at the normal rate that humans do when they expire. He was one of the Jackal's success stories, alongside the Gwen Stacy clone. Although the prologue to Spider-Island led us to believe that wasn't the case. Unless she was another clone, and the original is still bouncing around happily ever after hopefully. I had thought that the real Ben Reilly after getting beaten with an inch of his life by Norman Osborn that he had the blond bro placed in cryogenic suspension, or locked up somewhere. And having access to Miles Warren's clone tech whipped up another Ben Reilly while his operatives collected Peter Parker from the hospital. While Osborn waited for Pete to wake up, he put original Ben's costume on the clone. Smacked him around some, and with Ben's memories like Ben was injected with Peter's before he regain conscious in Amazing#149 , he basically picked up where Ben left off. Norman probably had ,or has plans for Ben. From something truly machiavelian , to being a punching bag when he's frustrated with life in general. I had thought back with Jonathon Hickman's SECRET WARRIORS series, that it would be an excellent time to bring back Ben when Nick Fury Sr. was putting together his Caterpillar Teams. That he'd locate Ben where Norm had him stashed, and busted him out. Just something that I thought about when mowing the lawn.

[Kurolegacy]

One thing pointed out by the Life of Reilly website was that when Ben died at the end of the Revelations story-arc, the bloke should've just died. No rapid rotting in to a pool of foul smelling goo, just deteriorated at the normal rate that humans do when they expire. He was one of the Jackal's success stories, alongside the Gwen Stacy clone. Although the prologue to Spider-Island led us to believe that wasn't the case. Unless she was another clone, and the original is still bouncing around happily ever after hopefully. I had thought that the real Ben Reilly after getting beaten with an inch of his life by Norman Osborn that he had the blond bro placed in cryogenic suspension, or locked up somewhere. And having access to Miles Warren's clone tech whipped up another Ben Reilly while his operatives collected Peter Parker from the hospital. While Osborn waited for Pete to wake up, he put original Ben's costume on the clone. Smacked him around some, and with Ben's memories like Ben was injected with Peter's before he regain conscious in Amazing#149 , he basically picked up where Ben left off. Norman probably had ,or has plans for Ben. From something truly machiavelian , to being a punching bag when he's frustrated with life in general. I had thought back with Jonathon Hickman's SECRET WARRIORS series, that it would be an excellent time to bring back Ben when Nick Fury Sr. was putting together his Caterpillar Teams. That he'd locate Ben where Norm had him stashed, and busted him out. Just something that I thought about when mowing the lawn.

Now here's a bit of fridge brilliance to add to the point of how he shouldn't have degenerated at death. What if a writer thought to used that as a perfect way to bring him back using the aspect from Contest of Champions of plucking someone from time and have that he was plucked from time at the point of death and replaced with a fake making that the original Ben Reilly had never died but was taken and this had always been so. Sure it'd be a retcon, but it'd be a great way to bring him back.

[SuperiorIronman]

Contest of Champions certainly would be the place for him to come back. It wouldn't do anything to any on going plots and if need be he can go right back in the box when the writers are done or stick him somewhere else since he doesn't have to be in a spider identity, wall crawling isn't something strictly limited to spiders after all. At any rate it also didn't even make much sense when he "died" either as the guy was a perfect copy and thus shouldn't have. As in that case why didn't Kaine any of the handful of times he died before Spider island?

If not from Contest of Champions I don't think it would be out of the blue to find Osborn stashed Ben somewhere and either Ben broke free at some point and Osborn simply never bothered or assumed Ben died and thus didn't care. This is kind of weird though that Marvel just never got behind Ben after his death as if the word clone was a dirty word. Not like they have much issue with spider clones these days as we all got some liking to whatever spider flavor is out there be it you want it rich, young, futuristic, pregnant, a team, a girl, and a cheap tie in for a movie cameo, it seems odd that Ben is always left out. As if we can't have something diluting the brand with a copy when its proven there is variation on vanilla.

[Draegwolf]

I've always been kinda iffy about whether Ben was actually dead or not with how Marvel ended the retelling of the Clone Saga, the ending made it seem like he never died and then everything dealing with Raptor's origin was kinda up in the air chronologically speaking. Personally I would love to see him brought back alongside Kaine to co-star in a series called Scarlet Spiders, think it would be fun to see those two running around together and sharing the title of Scarlet Spider in the 616. And even if not, lob Ben in LA or San Fran with Daredevil and have him reconstitute/start up a new branch of Heroes for Hire.

[boots]

aw, as much as i have a soft spot for ben drooly (as zeitgeist would call him) and as much as i believe there are plausible in-continuity ways to bring the original character back, it ain't happening. and that's probably best.

[Hypestyle]

My core problem with clones (Reilly, Kane, etc.) is that up until the time of their "birth"/activation, They haven't truly "earned" any of their relationships, compared to the original. Absolutely none. They might feel similar emotions, have the "same" memories, but they didn't earn any of it. It's not the same thing as a twin, not by a long shot. Twins don't have note-for-note POV recollection of every single thing they've experienced, even if in the same room.

It would be creepy to me for Kaine to try and date any of Peter's exes because he "knew" them previously.

Miles Morales is a better concept to run with since this is an entirely different character, and it isn't dependent on redundant angst generated from "I'm Peter Parker but not really"....

[Zeitgeist]

ben drooly (as zeitgeist would call him)

Yesssssssss