Warning: contains spoilers for Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #3!
As the latest Spider-Man story arc draws to a close, Peter Parker does battle with his clone Ben Reilly – but a third clone emerges once again after a 20-year hiatus from comics. The Spider-Man: Beyond story sees Reilly take the mantle of Spider-Man away from Peter Parker while the latter recovers in a hospital bed after enduring a painful and almost fatal radiation-based attack. But Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #3 shows that Reilly’s story isn’t over, thanks to the third clone.
Spider-Man’s Clone Saga began in the event-heavy 1990s, otherwise known as the Dark Age of Comics. This was the era in which Batman’s back was broken, Green Lantern turned evil, and even Superman died – and all three events resulted in high sales for DC Comics. Seeking to capitalize on the event trend while upstaging their Distinguished Competition, Marvel brought back Spider-Man’s clone from a one-off story in the 70s in the form of Ben Reilly. Through nigh-incomprehensible twists and turns, the meandering narrative concluded with Ben sacrificing himself and Peter Parker remaining as the one true Spider-Man (though Ben would eventually make a full recovery from death in 2017’s Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy).
In Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #3, an angst-ridden Reilly ruminates while recovering from a surprise supervillain attack courtesy of the Scorpion. To his amazement, the Scorpion in safely in prison, along with the illusion master Mysterio (the only other villain who could conjure the image of a Scorpion from nothing). Reilly is confused until he becomes the victim of another attack at the bar where he works. The assailant morphs, changing their shape from a coworker to Kraven the Hunter, to Uncle Ben to Gwen Stacy, before finally revealing itself to be the third clone from the Clone Saga: Spidercide.
Like Ben Reilly, Spidercide also believed himself to be the true Peter Parker, and he was also created by Miles Warren, the Jackal. Unlike Reilly, Spidercide has the ability to shapeshift in a manner similar to Mystique (albeit in a much more grotesque way). It was later revealed that the Jackal had engineered Spidercide to kill the real Peter Parker all along, hence his name. Spidercide would later betray Warren to Scrier and was killed after falling off a building – but his body was put into stasis anyway on the hopes that he could one day be revived.
Spidercide was just one element in a laundry list of plot devices that went nowhere during the Clone Saga. The character could have been done without and the entire saga could have been about the rivalry between Peter and Ben. Nevertheless, Spider-Man’s forgotten clone is back – and like Ben, he also believes Peter “stole” his life.
