Scarlet Spiders are coming to the Marvel Universe

As in, more than just lovable old Kaine. And it’s all thanks to Spider-Verse.

Announced this year at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel is excited to announce a brand new limited series spinning out of the events of Spider-Verse, SCARLET SPIDERS, written by Mike Costa (Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special, A+X) and artist Paco Diaz (Superior Spider-Man).

This November, Kaine, the Ultimate Universe’s Jessica Drew, and an alternate universe Ben Reilly undertake a quest to stop the evil behind the events of Spider-Verse once and for all — a quest so dangerous that not all of them will make it out alive!

“Obviously I can’t give too much away just yet, but the group in SCARLET SPIDERS plays a very important role in stopping Morlun,” Editor Devin Lewis tells Marvel.com. “Without this group of three and their mission, there’s a decent chance that the Spider-Men from across the multiverse won’t even survive Morlun’s assault.”

In addition to stopping one of the most fearsome spider-villains in recent years, our heroes will have to learn to cope with one another and that even though they are clones of Peter Parker, they still come from different universes and boast distinctly different personalities.

“Kaine really serves as the entry point for readers to this group,” Lewis elaborates. “He’s a mainstay in the Marvel Universe, now, so that gives him a unique perspective on the events of Spider-Verse as they unfold.”

“The Ben Reilly in this story is from a universe where Peter Parker never returned from his time in Oregon during the Clone Saga,” he continues. “When we were having our first conversations on the phone, Mike [Costa] was intent on working out who this guy is. How does he think? What’s his outlook and how is it different from the Peter Parker we all know and love?”

“Ultimate Jessica Drew has already had a pretty rough go of it herself, and one of the things Mike and I discussed and were intent on bringing to the fore was her sense of identity, especially now that she has seen there’s a multiverse rife with Spider-People,” concludes Lewis.

SCARLET SPIDER#1 arrives in local comic book retailers this November and will also include a code for a free digital copy of the very same comic on the Marvel Comics App for iOS and Android devices. 

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I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I actually liked the alternate Pete that Ben Reilly represented. Sure I never would have wanted to see him stay Spidey forever, but he was kind of fun for a little while. Of course, pretty much nobody else felt that way and, as a result, he was turned into clone-mush and the true Pete took back the webs.

That’s ancient history though, because this is an all new Ben Reilly that’ll be seeing action alongside the current Marvel Universe version of the character (Kaine) and the Ultimate Scarlet Spider. As Spider-Verse spinoffs go, this one is pretty freaking cool and pays some serious homage to Spidey’s past in a big way. It’s kind of interesting too that Marvel would go back to a version of a character that was as, um, disliked as this one, but that’s kind of why it’s neat.

Catch up with Ben, Jessica, and Kaine when part 1 of the 3 issue Scarlet Spiders run arrives on the racks sometime soon from Mike Costa and Paco Diaz.