Tom Holland gets a Spider-Man makeover as a new fan design utilizes toys to transform the actor from Peter Parker to Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider. Ben Reilly first debuted in the pages of Marvel Comics in 1975, with issue #149 of The Amazing Spider-Man. The character is a clone of Peter Parker created by the villain Jackal. Reilly initially was led to believe he was the real Peter, even fighting the true Spider-Man before discovering the truth. The clone, after seeing Peter with Mary Jane, departed to live a nomadic life, naming himself Ben Reilly after his Uncle Ben’s first name and Aunt May’s maiden name.
Toy photographer and action figure artist lights_cameras_actionfigures shared on Instagram a photo of what Holland could look like as the Scarlet Spider in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Holland’s Spider-Man will face many MCU villains for his next trilogy, and one of them could be the Scarlet Spider, played by the actor himself. Although Ben Reilly isn’t really a villain, the character could act as such at first, like in his comics debut, providing a surprising reveal to MCU audiences. The photographer pictured Holland in the iconic Scarlet Spider costume, blue hoodie included. Holland’s Ben Reilly also dons the character’s blonde hair, which he adopted to distinguish himself from Peter.
How The MCU Could Adapt The Clone Saga
The Clone Saga is a Spider-Man storyline that got told in two different ways before the 2021 Miles Morales event, with its original depiction being the already described plot involving the Jackal, Ben Reilly and also the creation of a Gwen Stacy clone. The second, and more famous, Clone Saga event lasted from 1994 to 1996 and ran through all the four Spider-Man titles ongoing at the time. The story started out promising, but turned controversial following Marvel Comics’ decision to extend the event. It produced a number of clones, including Kaine, the first and the most unstable. Ben Reilly was at one point supposed to be revealed as the true Peter Parker and become the main character of the Spider-Man comics, but many convoluted changes resulted in the story being dropped.
Spider-Man: No Way Home left Holland’s Peter Parker ready to next take on an MCU adaptation of the infamous Clone Saga. Spider-Man: No Way Home introduced Holland’s Peter to both Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s versions of the character. With MCU Peter already interacting with different Spider-Men, a Clone Saga movie would not feel out of place. Holland’s Peter will be alone in Spider-Man 4, with no one remembering him following the last movie’s ending. This would be the perfect time to introduce the Jackal, have him steal Spider-Man’s DNA during a fight and create the Ben Reilly and Kaine clones. As the movie will likely either cut or reduce Zendaya and Jacob Batalon’s screen time, a plot that focuses on Holland playing different versions of Spider-Man could be the best possible way to move forward and show the actor’s range, before reteaming him with other heroes and a supporting cast.
Why Ben Reilly Should Be Sony’s Spider-Man
The Sony Spider-Man Universe needs to have the character that names the franchise be present in a movie at some point, something that has strangely not happened yet. Audiences have petitioned for some time to have The Amazing Spider-Man‘s universe be retroactively changed to take place inside the SSU, with Garfield being that universe’s Spider-Man. However, the best plan of action would actually be to have Holland pull double-duty as the MCU’s Peter Parker and the SSU’s Ben Reilly. Spinning off a Clone Saga adaptation in Spider-Man 4, Reilly could take the same nomadic choice from the comics, leaving the MCU for the SSU to be Sony’s Spider-Man.
Source: lights_cameras_actionfigures/Instagram