Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #3 COVER by Declan Shalvey, 2022

Ben Reilly has been a very important part of the Spider-Verse since he first appeared on the scene in Amazing Spider-Man #149 (1975) as a clone of Peter Parker, brought to life by the sinister Jackal (Miles Warren). The clone apparently died in that issue, but that was not the end, not by a long shot.

As it turned out, he was off on his own adventures until reappearing in the Spidey titles for the great 1994-1996 "Clone Saga." There were so many interesting and mind-blowing developments during that saga -- most notably when, in Spectacular Spider-Man #226, after an exhaustive series of lab tests, it was revealed that Peter was in fact the clone, meaning that in ASM #149, Peter was the one who had seemingly perished and the CLONE had continued on as Spider-Man.

Being the gullible person I am, I actually believed that revelation, and man did it rock my world. But of course that was later debunked, though Ben Reilly did enjoy a brief period of time as Spider-Man. And Peter -- thinking he was the clone -- enjoyed a relatively normal life for a while.

Ben eventually Ben disintegrated to dust, and that was that.

But NO! During the whole "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy," it was revealed that Ben had been brought back to life (only to die) over and over and OVER again by the unscrupulous Jackal (Miles Warren). This horrible experience warped Ben's mind until he killed Miles and became the Jackal himself, bringing back to life a bunch of dead people from Peter Parker's past.

That whole plan was thwarted, and Ben escaped to Vegas to spend some time as the Scarlet Spider there. I did read those issues, and they were really fun, but I'm not sure how it all ended. And then they started this series called "Ben Reilly: Spider-Man," and now apparently he is a character called Chasm. I am so behind on my reading!

But I found this awesome cover on Cadencecomicart.com, and I love Declan Shalvey as an artist, so I bought it knowing that eventually I would catch up on my reading and know what the heck Ben is doing now.

I just love this image of Ben Spidey, and also how Declan drew the "Ben Reilly Spider-Man" title right on the board.

Thanks for looking!