Last month, Marvel announced that Peter Parker’s clone will take centre stage in Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, a new ongoing series from Peter David and Mark Bagley. As excited as many fans were to learn that the beloved character would be getting his own title, the response to the redesigned costume can’t have been the one the publisher hoped for. Overall, people weren’t too pleased, and the bizarre slit in the mask where his mouth is was widely ridiculed, so much so that a later variant cover seemingly removed it.
Now, it’s been revealed that Ben Reilly will get his old suit back by the end of the first arc, and Bagley has even redrawn issue #1’s cover to reflect that. They claim that the decision was made for story related reasons and not the backlash from readers, but honestly, it’s hard to take that seriously.
Sure, a reason will now probably be found for Ben to go back to his old duds, but it’s damn near impossible to believe that was always the plan. After all, why would he ditch his brand new costume for a hoodie he hasn’t worn in years? One way or another, we’ll surely find out when the first issue of Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider goes on sale this April.
Until then, be sure to take a look at how Ben’s story wrapped up in the finale of The Clone Conspiracy if you’re not up to speed yet.
