Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse promised a lot of Spider-Men and more than delivered, tossing in some Spider-Animals for good measure. There are a lot of Easter eggs in there for long-time Spidey fans, but perhaps none more fun than the Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly.
For casual viewers, this Spider-Man was a fun grimdark parody, obsessed with posing on rooftops and moping over his tortured past. For Spidey veterans, this was a hilarious callback to the disastrous ’90s “Clone Saga” in which Peter Parker has to deal with various clones of himself. It gets very convoluted very quickly, and the entire saga is now a byword for ’90s comic-book excess.
With an animation style inspired by ’90s comics and a great vocal performance by Andy Samberg, he’s a hilarious addition to the team, and all that in just two minutes of screentime:
Director Joaquim Dos Santos has even gone into detail on what they wanted to achieve with Ben Reilly, saying in an interview with Geek Tyrant:
“[He represents] an era in comics. That’s one of the key things with the character is that Ben Reilly was an era when super duper ripped characters were like the (norm); and being in positions that were not physically possible. Muscles on top of the muscles on top of muscles and being in positions that were not physically possible. And we were just like we really wanted to capture that.”
Two minutes was enough time to get the joke across, though we’re hoping he reappears in Beyond the Spider-Verse next year to mope some more. Hell, if they’re teasing the Clone Saga, why not toss in Kaine Parker and Spidercide to make it a real nostalgia trip for ’90s kids who suffered through years of this terrible arc?
We’re hoping to hear more about Beyond the Spider-Verse soon, though right now, Across the Spider-Verse is tearing up the box office and shows no signs of slowing down. Can they up the ante even more in 2024? Our webs are firmly crossed that Miles Morales’ adventure concludes in style.