Spider-Man (or a model of him, anyway) is making his solution to TV within the flesh. Amazon just lately revealed the trailer for the live-action “Spider-Noir” series for Prime Video, starring Nicolas Cage. It encompasses a riff on the character Cage voiced within the animated hit “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” albeit with a twist: This is not Peter Parker. Cage is taking part in a personality referred to as Ben Reilly, a reputation that has a substantial amount of significance within the pages of Marvel Comics, along with shouldering an advanced legacy.
Cage’s character in “Spider-Noir” won’t actually be called Spider-Man. Relatively, the present will consult with him as The Spider, which is supposed to honor the present’s noir roots. As for why he is Ben Reilly and never Peter Parker? That is the place issues get attention-grabbing. In an interview with Esquire, the present’s producers defined that they are leaving {that a} thriller for now, because the present itself will clarify it.
“I’ve to be coy in regards to the causes, since you’ll discover out,” mentioned Phil Lord, one of many masterminds behind the “Spider-Verse” motion pictures. “The explanation he is named Ben Reilly is defined. We’ll go away it at that,” added Chris Miller, Lord’s artistic accomplice and collaborator.
There may be a lot to be mentioned and far hypothesis to be accomplished. In the interim although, it is price digging into the historical past of Ben Reilly within the comics: The place he comes from, how his story differs from what we have seen to this point, and what elements of that story is perhaps tailored to serve Cage’s new twist on the character.
It is price mentioning that one may write a big e book on Ben Reilly’s historical past, so this text cannot be completely complete. However we are able to definitely provide context and take a look at what it’d imply for “Spider-Noir.” Let’s dig in.
Ben Reilly is the Scarlet Spider on the planet of Marvel Comics
The character of Ben Reilly technically made his debut within the pages of Marvel Comics in “The Wonderful Spider-Man” #149 in 1975, although he was solely recognized at the moment as a clone of Peter Parker. It wasn’t till 1994 in “Internet of Spider-Man” #114 that he returned. He was recognized by identify later that yr in “Spider-Man” #51 at a time when Spidey was at one thing of a peak, in no small half due to “Spider-Man: The Animated Sequence,” one of the best “Spider-Man” cartoons of all time.
Very mainly, Ben Reilly is a genetic clone of Peter Parker. Reilly was created by Miles Warren, aka the villain generally known as the Jackal, who was teased in “Kraven the Hunter” via an Easter egg however has but to make it to display in live-action. The Jackal was created to trigger Spider-Man anguish however seemingly died throughout their first squabble within the ’70s. Therefore, his lengthy absence from publication.
Reilly survived although and exiled himself for years, returning to New York a lot later. At the moment, he made amends with Peter, even combating alongside him because the Scarlet Spider. In 1994 the problem “Internet of Spider-Man” #118 recognized him as Scarlet Spider for the primary time. This turned the superhero alter ego utilized by Reilly. Andy Samberg voiced a version of Scarlet Spider in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
That is the place issues get difficult. For a time, Reilly and Parker had been tricked by Norman Osborn to imagine Ben was the actual Peter. So, Parker flees New York with Mary Jane Watson whereas Reilly takes up the mantle of Spider-Man. He later has a confrontation with Osborn’s Inexperienced Goblin that ends with him being impaled and dying, in Parker’s arms no much less.
Ben Reilly was on the heart of Marvel’s controversial Clone Saga
Issues get much more wonky when Peter discovers that him being the clone was an elaborate lie. There may be way more to the entire thing but it surely was all chronicled in an notorious ’90s Marvel Comics occasion generally known as the “Clone Saga.” Whereas many Spider-Man fans have come to appreciate Ben Reilly and Scarlet Spider, the story itself is much much less beloved. It is convoluted, messy, and took a very long time for Marvel to really transfer on from.
“The entire arc was supposed to finish in Wonderful Spider-Man #400, and go away ‘Ben Reilly’ because the one and solely ‘authentic Peter Parker’ and forge a brand new starting,” mentioned then-“Spider-Man” editor Mark Bernardo in a weblog sequence entitled “The Life of Reilly” in 2008. “Sarcastically, the entire storyline, which was imagined to simplify Spider-Man’s mythos and in the end deliver him ‘again to fundamentals’ ended up complicating every thing past what anybody imagined!”
Even with out a complete historical past, it is simple to see how this differs wildly from what we all know of “Spider-Noir.” The present, as far as we all know, would not contain clones. It would not function Reilly at odds with Peter Parker. It is a interval piece set within the Thirties. Nicolas Cage based his “Into the Spider-Verse” performance on Humphrey Bogart. That is removed from the Reilly anybody is aware of from the comics.
What profit to the present is it to make use of the Ben Reilly id? Greater than something, it should permit them to have Cage’s character kind his personal id. Showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot might produce other causes extra intently related to the supply materials, however these will not turn out to be obvious till the present airs.
“Spider-Noir” premieres Might 25, 2026, on MGM+, earlier than arriving on Prime Video on Might 27.
