Roman

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

I was hoovering the old house today and there was a great big house spider in one of the rooms and it just kept circling the skirting boards as I hoovered and I kept my eye on it the whole time (because I am deathly scared of spiders) and I thought ‘wow, this really isn’t going to come up in my Scarlet Spider posts at all, what a waste of an anecdote’.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

The Scarlet Spider

T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R
T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R

^{"There has to be a Spider-Man out there. I'm just not sure it should be me."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ Benjamin 'Peter' Reilly _________________________________________________________ 25 | Single _________________________________________________________ Manhattan | American N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S _________________________________________________________ [+] - A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPERHUMAN PHYSICALITY Enhanced twice over, once by his mutated genetics and again by the Reach's experiments at his creation, Ben is stronger, faster, more durable, more agile, with faster reflexes and more stamina than any non-metahuman individual could ever imagine, and rivalling or even surpassing many other powered beings as well. This additionally extends to his body's injury response, able to heal and regenerate far quicker than humanly possible, recovering from wounds in a matter of minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks. ◼ WALL-CRAWLING Thanks to the genetic changes brought on by the spider's toxin, Ben is able to cling to any surface - regardless of orientation - and crawl or climb along or up without risk of losing purchase or falling. Ceilings, walls, metal, plaster - it doesn't seem to matter how it's laid out or what it's made of; Ben can adhere and navigate as easily as putting one foot in front of the other. ◼ SPIDER-SENSE Ben possesses a psuedo-precognitive alert ability, dubbed 'Spider-Sense', that warns him of any incoming danger and allows his reflexes to enable him to dodge, evade, or counter any blow, projectile, or even more esoteric forms of danger or harm that may attempt to befoul him. Working in a full 360-degree span around him, the strength of the alert response is also proportional relative to the severity of the danger; the most extreme responses can react intensely enough to cause physical pain. While it does not trigger while unconscious, it remains while Ben is sleeping, or when stunned or otherwise paralyzed but still conscious. To a certain extent, Ben can also wilfully exert his spider-sense and tune into his surroundings, through walls, floors, ceilings, or around corners, and 'probe' for potential threats and individuals, although this is hazier and not as fine-detail as the reflexive alert response, and required significant mental concentration to achieve and maintain. ◼ WEBBING Part of the Reach's improvements to Ben's cloned biology, the experiment that lead to his creation also introduced natural, organic web-spinners to his body, able to secrete upon demand a natural and proportional reproduction of spider-silk. With adhesive qualities and tensile strength rivalling steel wire, this silk enables Ben to swing - his main method of transportation - as well as quickly zip-line to other points, and can additionally be used as an entrapment, weaving, or sculpting substance to suit many, many requirements. - N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S _________________________________________________________ [+] - S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GIFTED INTELLECT Peter had a natural talent and aptitude for the sciences, marked as one of the single most well-graded students in the history of his high school and flagged for an Oscorp internship and research role before his abduction; Ben has inherited this great mind, gifted with one of the keenest intellects on the planet, though slightly atrophied from the half-decade abduction, experimentation, and clone-growth process. ◼ MASTER ACROBAT Mostly provided by the combination of his physical enhancements, Ben is the premier acrobat and gymnast on the face of the Earth, able to twist, turn, balance, swing, and stunt beyond limits thought possible. - T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PHOTOGRAPHY With am inherited passion, a keen eye, and the ability to get places and angles others can't, Ben is inadvertently quite the dab hand at photography, capturing images that dazzle and amaze; something he's used to his advantage in a world growing ever-more-obsessed with the activities of particular notable individuals... -

T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... ________________________________________________________________________________________ Peter Parker, 15, a young and exceedingly clever high-school student in Queens, is invited to an exclusive guided tour through the Oscorp research centre in Manhattan, attending a program created for the best and brightest, intended to afford New York's most intelligent youth a window into the foremost scientific hub in New York State, and a lifeline opportunity to join their ranks upon completion of their studies. Unbeknownst to either Oscorp or Peter himself, a spider - subject to genetic research and experimentation within the bowels of the site's laboratory, aided by early technological exchange with the Reach - escaped its enclosure. It found Peter, using its final gasps of life to deliver a single bite, and introduce a toxin to Peter's body that would prove to be the fateful pivot upon which his entire life would spin. Struck down by a debilitating illness, Peter spent weeks wracked with agonizing pains, migraines, nausea, fading in and out of consciousness as his very genetic makeup was rewritten, pulled apart and knitted back together. When he finally recovered, he found himself in possession of strange, unexplained powers; stronger, faster, tougher; quicker reflexes, and and ability to cling to any surface regardless of orientation; most peculiar of all, an almost pre-cognitive warning of incoming danger or harm, allowing him to twist and react to evade or counter. Giddy from what these new powers meant for him, Peter was reckless; he bounded into the city, engaging in nothing more than simple play around the urban landscape of Manhattan, a new sandbox opening up before him. Visions of a reinvented life swam before him: the Amazing Spider-Man! Stronger than you, faster than you! Witness his incredible wall-crawling! Laud his inability to be hit! See how he swings from web of his own creation! Watch how robbers and bullies cower at his feet, and the ladies swoon beneath him! Spectacular, Sensational, Superior...! And then Uncle Ben was murdered. And then Aunt May had a stroke. And then Peter Parker was abducted as the Reach War erupted. Five long years took their toll on a teenager. Kept in a half-conscious state of suspended animation, Peter's DNA was harvested again and again for hideous experiments into neogenics, the Reach sure that this mutated boy's cells held the key to turning the tide of the war and conquering Earth. All manner of tests and trials were held; reproducing the original spider, creating biologic serums out of Peter's genetic makeup, direct transfusion, even cross-gene grafting. Frustrated by failure at every turn, the Reach rounded on a new avenue; direct genetic cloning. The logic held up: Peter, by some unknown quantity or quality, had accepted and melded with the original spider's toxin, an against-the-odds alchemy that improved him beyond the scope of Human, rather than destroy him at the cellular level like so many other subjects since. Reproduce that, and the Reach had an army that could seamlessly hide within Humanity's ranks, under their direct control, and ready to destroy their enemy from within. The science was agreed on; the experiment approved. The cloning began. The plan never saw itself realized; five years into the crisis, the Superman appeared, and the Reach were driven from Earth entirely. In the carnage, Peter awoke from his suspension, five years older and his memories murky and muddled since the abduction. He broke containment easily, assisting and rescuing others as he escaped the research station amidst a distracted and routed Reach - including, to his distress, a solitary, perfectly identical copy, withered half-lame from incomplete growth, and equally confused. Together, they returned to Earth, and watched the sky clear of their tormentors, fleeing on their heels faced with the might of Earth's new defender. And then the bomb went off. Only in the wake of fresh calamity was the truth revealed; this wilted, languishing Peter was no half-finished clone, no incomplete experiment. This was the original Peter Parker, the abductee, drained and harvested and picked at for the Reach's heinous purposes; the Peter who had escaped, who had broken containment and rescued the others, was the singular successful, stable reproduction in their myriad cloning attempts. The original begged the clone to understand - he was stronger, faster, tougher, a Spider-Man Improved, a terrible reckoning created by the Reach but never utilized. He had to be better; he had to be greater. He had to take to heart the lessons the Reach had not, the lessons Peter had learned so dreadfully, the lessons the Superman demonstrated so nobly. With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility. Peter was buried with his Uncle and Aunt. Ben Reilly attended from a distance, and then disappeared into New York City. He spent five years travelling, discovering the Earth that only existed in memories that weren't even truly his; five years discovering himself, and what he stood for. Five years watching the consequences of the meta-bomb, of the Reach's incursion against the planet. Five years watching men like Maxwell Lord wash over society and stain everything they touched. After five years, Ben returned to New York City, ready to face whatever the teeming masses had to offer. In his first week, he stopped a mugging, then a burglary; and it had been so easy. So natural. A piece of biology embedded even further than his abilities; even five years post-mortem, Ben was reminded where he came from. And Peter had been proven right: there had to be a Spider-Man. Ben couldn't ignore it. Whether they wanted it or not, the people needed a protector. But it would have to be on his terms. P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) ________________________________________________________________________________________ I love Spider-Man but honestly, Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider have always been cooler. The identity struggle, the suit, even the alias are all just a bit more interesting and have a bit more edge on the age-old tale of Peter Parker. My main issue with ever writing a Spider-Man story is also what do you write that hasn't been written already, with what's one half of the two most successful comic book properties on the planet? I don't have anything for Peter and re-doing a classic origin would put me to sleep; but Ben? Ben's cool. Ben's trying to fill a hole Peter never had the chance to drill in the first place. Ben's trying to figure out who he is, if he's not Peter. With Peter dead, maybe he is Peter, just by default. But does he want to be Peter? Does he want to be Spider-Man? I don't know, but we can sure find out.

---

@Roman

This has been revised slightly - a couple paragraphs added to the end of the bio - to account for the missing five years from Superman's emergence and the Reach's retreat until the start of the IC. Apologies. Ready for re-review.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

Healthy competition never hurt anybody.

Spider-Man?

T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R
T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R

^{"There has to be a Spider-Man out there. I'm just not sure it should be me."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ Benjamin 'Peter' Reilly _________________________________________________________ 20 | Single _________________________________________________________ Manhattan | American N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S _________________________________________________________ [+] - A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPERHUMAN PHYSICALITY Enhanced twice over, once by his mutated genetics and again by the Reach's experiments at his creation, Ben is stronger, faster, more durable, more agile, with faster reflexes and more stamina than any non-metahuman individual could ever imagine, and rivalling or even surpassing many other powered beings as well. This additionally extends to his body's injury response, able to heal and regenerate far quicker than humanly possible, recovering from wounds in a matter of minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks. ◼ WALL-CRAWLING Thanks to the genetic changes brought on by the spider's toxin, Ben is able to cling to any surface - regardless of orientation - and crawl or climb along or up without risk of losing purchase or falling. Ceilings, walls, metal, plaster - it doesn't seem to matter how it's laid out or what it's made of; Ben can adhere and navigate as easily as putting one foot in front of the other. ◼ SPIDER-SENSE Ben possesses a psuedo-precognitive alert ability, dubbed 'Spider-Sense', that warns him of any incoming danger and allows his reflexes to enable him to dodge, evade, or counter any blow, projectile, or even more esoteric forms of danger or harm that may attempt to befoul him. Working in a full 360-degree span around him, the strength of the alert response is also proportional relative to the severity of the danger; the most extreme responses can react intensely enough to cause physical pain. While it does not trigger while unconscious, it remains while Ben is sleeping, or when stunned or otherwise paralyzed but still conscious. To a certain extent, Ben can also wilfully exert his spider-sense and tune into his surroundings, through walls, floors, ceilings, or around corners, and 'probe' for potential threats and individuals, although this is hazier and not as fine-detail as the reflexive alert response, and required significant mental concentration to achieve and maintain. ◼ WEBBING Part of the Reach's improvements to Ben's cloned biology, the experiment that lead to his creation also introduced natural, organic web-spinners to his body, able to secrete upon demand a natural and proportional reproduction of spider-silk. With adhesive qualities and tensile strength rivalling steel wire, this silk enables Ben to swing - his main method of transportation - as well as quickly zip-line to other points, and can additionally be used as an entrapment, weaving, or sculpting substance to suit many, many requirements. - N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S _________________________________________________________ [+] - S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GIFTED INTELLECT Peter had a natural talent and aptitude for the sciences, marked as one of the single most well-graded students in the history of his high school and flagged for an Oscorp internship and research role before his abduction; Ben has inherited this great mind, gifted with one of the keenest intellects on the planet, though slightly atrophied from the half-decade abduction, experimentation, and clone-growth process. ◼ MASTER ACROBAT Mostly provided by the combination of his physical enhancements, Ben is the premier acrobat and gymnast on the face of the Earth, able to twist, turn, balance, swing, and stunt beyond limits thought possible. - T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PHOTOGRAPHY With am inherited passion, a keen eye, and the ability to get places and angles others can't, Ben is inadvertently quite the dab hand at photography, capturing images that dazzle and amaze; something he's used to his advantage in a world growing ever-more-obsessed with the activities of particular notable individuals... -

T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... ________________________________________________________________________________________ Peter Parker, 15, a young and exceedingly clever high-school student in Queens, is invited to an exclusive guided tour through the Oscorp research centre in Manhattan, attending a program created for the best and brightest, intended to afford New York's most intelligent youth a window into the foremost scientific hub in New York State, and a lifeline opportunity to join their ranks upon completion of their studies. Unbeknownst to either Oscorp or Peter himself, a spider - subject to genetic research and experimentation within the bowels of the site's laboratory, aided by early technological exchange with the Reach - escaped its enclosure. It found Peter, using its final gasps of life to deliver a single bite, and introduce a toxin to Peter's body that would prove to be the fateful pivot upon which his entire life would spin. Struck down by a debilitating illness, Peter spent weeks wracked with agonizing pains, migraines, nausea, fading in and out of consciousness as his very genetic makeup was rewritten, pulled apart and knitted back together. When he finally recovered, he found himself in possession of strange, unexplained powers; stronger, faster, tougher; quicker reflexes, and and ability to cling to any surface regardless of orientation; most peculiar of all, an almost pre-cognitive warning of incoming danger or harm, allowing him to twist and react to evade or counter. Giddy from what these new powers meant for him, Peter was reckless; he bounded into the city, engaging in nothing more than simple play around the urban landscape of Manhattan, a new sandbox opening up before him. Visions of a reinvented life swam before him: the Amazing Spider-Man! Stronger than you, faster than you! Witness his incredible wall-crawling! Laud his inability to be hit! See how he swings from web of his own creation! See how robbers and bullies cower before him, and the ladies swoon beneath him! Spectacular, Sensational, Superior...! And then Uncle Ben was murdered. And then Aunt May had a stroke. And then Peter Parker was abducted as the Reach War erupted. Five long years took their toll on a teenager. Kept in a half-conscious state of suspended animation, Peter's DNA was harvested again and again for hideous experiments into neogenics, the Reach sure that this mutated boy's cells held the key to turning the tide of the war and conquering Earth. All manner of tests and trials were held; reproducing the original spider, creating biologic serums out of Peter's genetic makeup, direct transfusion, even cross-gene grafting. Frustrated by failure at every turn, the Reach rounded on a new avenue; direct genetic cloning. The logic held up: Peter, by some unknown quantity or quality, had accepted and melded with the original spider's toxin, an against-the-odds alchemy that improved him beyond the scope of Human, rather than destroy him at the cellular level like so many other subjects since. Reproduce that, and the Reach had an army that could seamlessly hide within Humanity's ranks, under their direct control, and ready to destroy their enemy from within. The science was agreed on; the experiment approved. The cloning began. The plan never saw itself realized; five years into the crisis, the Superman appeared, and the Reach were driven from Earth entirely. In the carnage, Peter awoke from his suspension, five years older and his memories murky and muddled since the abduction. He broke containment easily, assisting and rescuing others as he escaped the research station amidst a distracted and routed Reach - including, to his distress, a solitary, perfectly identical copy, withered half-lame from incomplete growth, and equally confused. Together, they returned to Earth, and watched the sky clear of their tormentors, fleeing on their heels faced with the might of Earth's new defender. And then the bomb went off. Only in the wake of fresh calamity was the truth revealed; this wilted, languishing Peter was no half-finished clone, no incomplete experiment. This was the original Peter Parker, the abductee, drained and harvested and picked at for the Reach's heinous purposes; the Peter who had escaped, who had broken containment and rescued the others, was the singular successful, stable reproduction in their myriad cloning attempts. The original begged the clone to understand - he was stronger, faster, tougher, a Spider-Man Improved, a terrible reckoning created by the Reach but never utilized. He had to be better; he had to be greater. He had to take to heart the lessons the Reach had not, the lessons Peter had learned so dreadfully, the lessons the Superman demonstrated so nobly. With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility. And there had to be a Spider-Man. Peter Parker couldn't die for nothing. Peter Parker was buried with his Uncle and Aunt. Ben Reilly attended from a distance, and then disappeared into New York City. Peter was right. There had to be a Spider-Man. But how could Ben ever measure up? P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) ________________________________________________________________________________________ I love Spider-Man but honestly, Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider have always been cooler. The identity struggle, the suit, even the alias are all just a bit more interesting and have a bit more edge on the age-old tale of Peter Parker. My main issue with ever writing a Spider-Man story is also what do you write that hasn't been written already, with what's one half of the two most successful comic book properties on the planet? I don't have anything for Peter and re-doing a classic origin would put me to sleep; but Ben? Ben's cool. Ben's trying to fill a hole Peter never had the chance to drill in the first place. Ben's trying to figure out who he is, if he's not Peter. With Peter dead, maybe he is Peter, just by default. But does he want to be Peter? Does he want to be Spider-Man? I don't know, but we can sure find out.

---

@Roman

Doc has raised a timeline query to me separately which made me realise I haven’t accounted for the 5 years jump to current IC since Superman appeared. I’ll need to revisit today; please consider this on hold temporarily.

Roman's Scrapbin

The Answer
Blindside
Extremist
Screwball
MYSTERIOOOOOO

Could borrow Daredevil villains:
Jester
Typhoid Mary

DC Villains too:
Ragdoll
Man-Bat

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

Honestly with the Punisher concept using a Venom (or 'Ven'Ahm') entirely disconnected from the Spider-Man saga (and since Silk doesn't need Peter and my sheet kills him off, there never will be a Symbiote Saga), I don't really count Doc's sheet when discussing Spider-People. If Doc was more directly tied to Spider-Man with his Symbiote spin I'd already have been more wary about submitting my own sheet in the first place.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

While using Ben, and specifically a cloned Ben, certainly opens up the possibility of further clones (and this hasn't escaped me for potential narrative spools down the line), we run the risk of not distinguishing the characters enough for comfort within the same game, and with Silk already accepted, overloading the game with Spider-People regardless.

But far be it from me to stifle your flair. Ben isn't accepted and I can't act like the arbiter of Spider-Man even if he is.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

The Scarlet Spider

T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R
T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R

^{"There has to be a Spider-Man out there. I'm just not sure it should be me."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ Benjamin 'Peter' Reilly _________________________________________________________ 25 | Single _________________________________________________________ Manhattan | American N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S _________________________________________________________ [+] - A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPERHUMAN PHYSICALITY Enhanced twice over, once by his mutated genetics and again by the Reach's experiments at his creation, Ben is stronger, faster, more durable, more agile, with faster reflexes and more stamina than any non-metahuman individual could ever imagine, and rivalling or even surpassing many other powered beings as well. This additionally extends to his body's injury response, able to heal and regenerate far quicker than humanly possible, recovering from wounds in a matter of minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks. ◼ WALL-CRAWLING Thanks to the genetic changes brought on by the spider's toxin, Ben is able to cling to any surface - regardless of orientation - and crawl or climb along or up without risk of losing purchase or falling. Ceilings, walls, metal, plaster - it doesn't seem to matter how it's laid out or what it's made of; Ben can adhere and navigate as easily as putting one foot in front of the other. ◼ SPIDER-SENSE Ben possesses a psuedo-precognitive alert ability, dubbed 'Spider-Sense', that warns him of any incoming danger and allows his reflexes to enable him to dodge, evade, or counter any blow, projectile, or even more esoteric forms of danger or harm that may attempt to befoul him. Working in a full 360-degree span around him, the strength of the alert response is also proportional relative to the severity of the danger; the most extreme responses can react intensely enough to cause physical pain. While it does not trigger while unconscious, it remains while Ben is sleeping, or when stunned or otherwise paralyzed but still conscious. To a certain extent, Ben can also wilfully exert his spider-sense and tune into his surroundings, through walls, floors, ceilings, or around corners, and 'probe' for potential threats and individuals, although this is hazier and not as fine-detail as the reflexive alert response, and required significant mental concentration to achieve and maintain. ◼ WEBBING Part of the Reach's improvements to Ben's cloned biology, the experiment that lead to his creation also introduced natural, organic web-spinners to his body, able to secrete upon demand a natural and proportional reproduction of spider-silk. With adhesive qualities and tensile strength rivalling steel wire, this silk enables Ben to swing - his main method of transportation - as well as quickly zip-line to other points, and can additionally be used as an entrapment, weaving, or sculpting substance to suit many, many requirements. - N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S _________________________________________________________ [+] - S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GIFTED INTELLECT Peter had a natural talent and aptitude for the sciences, marked as one of the single most well-graded students in the history of his high school and flagged for an Oscorp internship and research role before his abduction; Ben has inherited this great mind, gifted with one of the keenest intellects on the planet, though slightly atrophied from the half-decade abduction, experimentation, and clone-growth process. ◼ MASTER ACROBAT Mostly provided by the combination of his physical enhancements, Ben is the premier acrobat and gymnast on the face of the Earth, able to twist, turn, balance, swing, and stunt beyond limits thought possible. - T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PHOTOGRAPHY With am inherited passion, a keen eye, and the ability to get places and angles others can't, Ben is inadvertently quite the dab hand at photography, capturing images that dazzle and amaze; something he's used to his advantage in a world growing ever-more-obsessed with the activities of particular notable individuals... -

T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... ________________________________________________________________________________________ Peter Parker, 15, a young and exceedingly clever high-school student in Queens, is invited to an exclusive guided tour through the Oscorp research centre in Manhattan, attending a program created for the best and brightest, intended to afford New York's most intelligent youth a window into the foremost scientific hub in New York State, and a lifeline opportunity to join their ranks upon completion of their studies. Unbeknownst to either Oscorp or Peter himself, a spider - subject to genetic research and experimentation within the bowels of the site's laboratory, aided by early technological exchange with the Reach - escaped its enclosure. It found Peter, using its final gasps of life to deliver a single bite, and introduce a toxin to Peter's body that would prove to be the fateful pivot upon which his entire life would spin. Struck down by a debilitating illness, Peter spent weeks wracked with agonizing pains, migraines, nausea, fading in and out of consciousness as his very genetic makeup was rewritten, pulled apart and knitted back together. When he finally recovered, he found himself in possession of strange, unexplained powers; stronger, faster, tougher; quicker reflexes, and and ability to cling to any surface regardless of orientation; most peculiar of all, an almost pre-cognitive warning of incoming danger or harm, allowing him to twist and react to evade or counter. Giddy from what these new powers meant for him, Peter was reckless; he bounded into the city, engaging in nothing more than simple play around the urban landscape of Manhattan, a new sandbox opening up before him. Visions of a reinvented life swam before him: the Amazing Spider-Man! Stronger than you, faster than you! Witness his incredible wall-crawling! Laud his inability to be hit! See how he swings from web of his own creation! Watch how robbers and bullies cower at his feet, and the ladies swoon beneath him! Spectacular, Sensational, Superior...! And then Uncle Ben was murdered. And then Aunt May had a stroke. And then Peter Parker was abducted as the Reach War erupted. Five long years took their toll on a teenager. Kept in a half-conscious state of suspended animation, Peter's DNA was harvested again and again for hideous experiments into neogenics, the Reach sure that this mutated boy's cells held the key to turning the tide of the war and conquering Earth. All manner of tests and trials were held; reproducing the original spider, creating biologic serums out of Peter's genetic makeup, direct transfusion, even cross-gene grafting. Frustrated by failure at every turn, the Reach rounded on a new avenue; direct genetic cloning. The logic held up: Peter, by some unknown quantity or quality, had accepted and melded with the original spider's toxin, an against-the-odds alchemy that improved him beyond the scope of Human, rather than destroy him at the cellular level like so many other subjects since. Reproduce that, and the Reach had an army that could seamlessly hide within Humanity's ranks, under their direct control, and ready to destroy their enemy from within. The science was agreed on; the experiment approved. The cloning began. The plan never saw itself realized; five years into the crisis, the Superman appeared, and the Reach were driven from Earth entirely. In the carnage, Peter awoke from his suspension, five years older and his memories murky and muddled since the abduction. He broke containment easily, assisting and rescuing others as he escaped the research station amidst a distracted and routed Reach - including, to his distress, a solitary, perfectly identical copy, withered half-lame from incomplete growth, and equally confused. Together, they returned to Earth, and watched the sky clear of their tormentors, fleeing on their heels faced with the might of Earth's new defender. And then the bomb went off. Only in the wake of fresh calamity was the truth revealed; this wilted, languishing Peter was no half-finished clone, no incomplete experiment. This was the original Peter Parker, the abductee, drained and harvested and picked at for the Reach's heinous purposes; the Peter who had escaped, who had broken containment and rescued the others, was the singular successful, stable reproduction in their myriad cloning attempts. The original begged the clone to understand - he was stronger, faster, tougher, a Spider-Man Improved, a terrible reckoning created by the Reach but never utilized. He had to be better; he had to be greater. He had to take to heart the lessons the Reach had not, the lessons Peter had learned so dreadfully, the lessons the Superman demonstrated so nobly. With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility. Peter was buried with his Uncle and Aunt. Ben Reilly attended from a distance, and then disappeared into New York City. He spent five years travelling, discovering the Earth that only existed in memories that weren't even truly his; five years discovering himself, and what he stood for. Five years watching the consequences of the meta-bomb, of the Reach's incursion against the planet. Five years watching men like Maxwell Lord wash over society and stain everything they touched. After five years, Ben returned to New York City, ready to face whatever the teeming masses had to offer. In his first week, he stopped a mugging, then a burglary; and it had been so easy. So natural. A piece of biology embedded even further than his abilities; even five years post-mortem, Ben was reminded where he came from. And Peter had been proven right: there had to be a Spider-Man. Ben couldn't ignore it. Whether they wanted it or not, the people needed a protector. But it would have to be on his terms. P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) ________________________________________________________________________________________ I love Spider-Man but honestly, Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider have always been cooler. The identity struggle, the suit, even the alias are all just a bit more interesting and have a bit more edge on the age-old tale of Peter Parker. My main issue with ever writing a Spider-Man story is also what do you write that hasn't been written already, with what's one half of the two most successful comic book properties on the planet? I don't have anything for Peter and re-doing a classic origin would put me to sleep; but Ben? Ben's cool. Ben's trying to fill a hole Peter never had the chance to drill in the first place. Ben's trying to figure out who he is, if he's not Peter. With Peter dead, maybe he is Peter, just by default. But does he want to be Peter? Does he want to be Spider-Man? I don't know, but we can sure find out.

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Agents of H.E.L.P. - Per Angusta Ad Augusta

D R . S O L O M O N ' S A L L Y ' W I N T E R S
D R . S O L O M O N ' S A L L Y ' W I N T E R S

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^{_{"This is the shape and the point of the tooth: nothing has ever lived that will not die."}}

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P R O F I L E I N F O R M A T I O N P R O F I L E I N F O R M A T I O N ________________________________________________________________________________________ NAME: | Dr. Solomon Isaac Winters _______________________________________________________________________ STATUS: | Active _______________________________________________________________________ INDEX DATE: | TBD _______________________________________________________________________ DATE OF BIRTH: | 1952/10/18 _______________________________________________________________________ ALIAS(ES): | The Occultist _______________________________________________________________________ RESIDENCE: | Damascus, Virginia _______________________________________________________________________ CITIZENSHIP: | American, Canadian _______________________________________________________________________ CLEARANCE LEVEL: | Special Agent B A C K G R O U N D B A C K G R O U N D ________________________________________________________________________________________ Born in a Virgina mining and logging town on the edge of Appalachia in the 1950's, Solomon Winters grew very accustomed to injury, death, and the campfire tales told about the forested mountains their town was nestled against. He was a morbid child, accustomed with the macabre through familiarity, but otherwise developed well as a young boy, growing tall and thin and with a sharp mind, used to his own company as an only child. He spent 15 years living a steady, normal childhood and early adolescence; stability that would be sorely missed for the rest of his life. In 1967, on Solomon's 15th birthday, the Dark Eclipse hit the planet, and Damascus suffered poorly. The outages from the CME that hit Earth caused severe malfunctions and shockwaves, causing a cave-in deep in the mines and trapping two shifts of miners deep underground, Solomon's father, Thomas, among them. Though a rescue effort was mounted, emergency services were stretched thin, and the resource simply wasn't available. Many men of the town lost their lives in the Dark Eclipse; Thomas Winter was one of them, counted among the miners who never saw the surface again. A few months after the tragedy, Solomon began hearing voices, claiming to speak to the ghosts of the trapped miners, and in particular his father. While initially mistaken by his mother, Louise, for difficulties processing grief and trauma in the wake of the Dark Eclipse, soon Solomon's tales and assertions were not limited to the calamity that had claimed his father's life, and he began repeating town secrets too old and too buried to have any earthly way of knowing. His mother took him to multiple doctors, and all came back with a singular diagnosis: schizophrenia. Prescribed a cocktail of anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers, Louise had saved her son from incarceration in an attempt to keep her remaining family close, but instead only introduced Solomon to a different kind of prison. The medication dulled his interface with the world; he became socially withdrawn, emotionally numb, mind clouded and engaging in long periods of mutism. All the while, the voices continued; Solomon simply didn't talk about them anymore. In the summer of 1970, Solomon neared eighteen after a medicated 2 years, and the Winters household was approaching a criticality. The insurance payout from Thomas' death had paid off a sizeable chunk of the mortgage, but what had been left was trickling away on further bills. Solomon was unable to work; a mute shut-in with a propensity for the morbid and macabre, his diagnosis and medication scaring away any employer who may have been willing to look past his developmental difficulties. Despite medication, he had grown - slowly, steadily - worse in his condition, often holding entire conversations with thin air; more worryingly to Louise, he'd also begun to dechiper her own thoughts and memories through physical contact, repeating back - seemingly involuntarily - the feelings and musings she held as her own. Solomon frightened her; fear he felt directly through those same repetitions, and found confusing. He frightened himself. The medication did nothing. Wasn't she his mother? A week after his eighteenth birthday, doctors and nurses arrived to Damascus to escort Solomon back to Petersburg, where he would be interred and treated at Virginia Central State Hospital. Medicated, sedated, and often confined to his room for days on end, Solomon plummeted to rock bottom and stayed there. In 1971, alongside many other patients at the institution, Solomon was chemically sterilized. Determined to retain some semblance of self, Solomon spent the few conscious hours he had, whenever possible, reading - attempting to educate himself and stay abreast of the world outside the white walls of his confinement, ignoring the continued voices and the waves of information from every touch. Solomon began, ever-so-slowly, to suspect - or finally give credence to long-held suspicions - that he was not schizophrenic. That he was something else entirely. It would take seven more years of commitment before he would have an opportunity to test these theories. R E C R U I T M E N T R E C R U I T M E N T ________________________________________________________________________________________ In 1978, the fledgling Bureau of Hyperhuman Enforcement, Logistics, and Protection received an unusual, incoherent, but urgent plea from Solomon Winters in a letter he'd managed to send out, and by some miracle, they followed it to its source. H.E.L.P. arrived at Virginia Central State Hospital to an incredulous and hostile staff, but whether through providence or persuasion or sheer medical apathy on the part of the state of Virgina, they left with Solomon Winters remanded into their custody. What followed were hard but monumental years for Solomon. Still suffering psychologically from his abilities and the years of stunted development after the fateful disaster of the Dark Eclipse, he now had H.E.L.P's assistance in weaning himself off the medication he'd spent a decade growing physically dependent on. He sobered up, and with the aid of the Bureau's research, began to educate himself on the nature and function of his abilities. The time he had spent reading while committed now gave way to a voracious appetite for knowledge, and with H.E.L.P's guidance he secured his G.E.D., and then dived headlong into further education, becoming a specialist in the occult and paranormal as he strived to understand the implications and ramifications of his powers. He plunged into Death & Culture academics alongside his extra-curricular studies, and soon possessed a Bachelor's degree - majoring in Death & Culture Studies, minoring in Mythology & Occult Sciences - and after that, went on to secure a Masters, and then a Doctorate. The freshly-honoured Doctor Solomon Winters was now H.E.L.P's - and most of the continent's - foremost expert on occultism, death practices, and paranormal culture, with an additional insight afforded to no one else. He was inducted into the ranks of the Bureau after a short vetting process, granted Special Agent status immediately in recognition of his expertise, and more subtly, his unique status even among other Hyperhumans, which did not escape the Bureau's attention. His continued research was permitted, even encouraged - as long as Solomon would keep himself available for H.E.L.P's own research. C A R E E R W I T H T H E B U R E A U C A R E E R W I T H T H E B U R E A U ________________________________________________________________________________________ Solomon has worked within or alongside H.E.L.P. for over twenty years now, and for such a long career, his rank within the Bureau - Special Agent - doesn't reflect the sheer breadth of his experience, service, and expertise. What is does represent is the reaction his comrades, superiors, and the Bureau at large invariably have to him. Solomon remains an odd, vaguely-absent, stilted man; off-putting and anti-social in personality, and unnerving and disquieting in nature; there is also H.E.L.P's long-standing wariness about Solomon, due to his troubled history and the unique and not-yet-well-understood circumstances of his abilities. Coupled with his obsessive study and research into aspects of the supernatural and un-reality that the organization doesn't necessarily consider worth the time-and-resource-investment Solomon continues to commit to it, he ends up passed over for promotions and more senior leadership positions simply for being deemed unsuitable for it. As a result, while Solomon is a well-respected and widely-known agent among most within the organization, he's also an incredibly 'internally-mobile' one; he's been shipped around and transferred between many units, offices, operations and task-forces across the wider H.E.L.P. structure, more than nearly any other individual within the Bureau. He struggles to make friends, and is absolutely incapable of playing the political-and-social networking game to his advantage, spending more time in the company of the morgue than his fellow agents in the field; it is only the sheer tenure of his service, the span of niches filled by his academic expertise, and the unique utility of his powers (and H.E.L.P's continued research into them) that cause him only to be shuffled, instead of disciplined, demoted, or fired entirely.

P H O T O I D E N T I F I C A T I O N P H O T O I D E N T I F I C A T I O N _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ P H Y S I C A L D E S C R I P T I O N P H Y S I C A L D E S C R I P T I O N _________________________________________________________ RACE: | Caucasian _________________________________________________________________ SEX: | Male _________________________________________________________________ HEIGHT: | 6'3" _________________________________________________________________ WEIGHT: | 161lbs _________________________________________________________________ HAIR COLOUR: | Brunette (going grey) _________________________________________________________________ HAIR LENGTH: | Short-cut _________________________________________________________________ EYE COLOUR: | Grey _________________________________________________________________ HANDEDNESS: | Left A B I L I T I E S, L I M I T S, & W E A K N E S S E S A B I L I T I E S, L I M I T S, & W E A K N E S S E S _________________________________________________________ H Y P E R H U M A N A B I L I T Y || NECROMANCY __PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION || Exoteric __SECONDARY CLASSIFICATION || Fundamental __POWER SCALE || 1 __THREAT CLASSIFICATION || Σ Solomon's hyperhuman Einseele, or 'OneSoul', has a unique resonance (even among fellow Hypes) with HZE ions, granting him a peculiar dominion over the lingering Überseeles ('Oversouls') and Unterseeles ('Undersouls') of the deceased, and even partial communication with those of the still-living. This dominion allows Solomon to interact with the dead (and sometimes the living) in a handful of ways: • Through focus, Solomon can conjure up the Überseele of the dead and communicate with the lingering consciousness contained within, able to ask questions, share memories, and with the more recently-deceased, engage in full two-sided conversation; • By making physical contact with deceased bodies, Solomon can funnel his dominion into simple commands to the Unterseele of a being, animating the dead flesh into carrying out his command; • Through a combination of resonance with the Über- and Unterseele in tandem, Solomon can dip into a being's memories and emotions, feeling them for himself. Using the same method, he can also experience the final living moments of a recently-expired corpse. L I M I T A T I O N S & W E A K N E S S E S • While Solomon can connect with the Überseele of a living being to experience their memories and thoughts, he cannot influence them, nor can he command the Unterseele. • Solomon's Unterseele commands require a corpse, and physical contact with said corpse; he cannot animate dead-flesh from distance. • Commanded dead-flesh is still subject to real-world physics, and isn't imparted with any additional durability or strength, so can be fended off accordingly by those capable. • The Überseeles of the more recently-deceased, or those of individuals who were particularly strong-willed in life, can manifest to Solomon independently of his summons, which can distract, frighten, or overwhelm him with voices and thoughts he didn't willingly conjure. • Due to the Einseele inherent to Hyperhumans that unifies and balances the Über- and Unterseele, Solomon's abilities do not work whatsoever on other Hypes.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

Couple q's about the setting to help me hash out a potential history (absolutely no promises, even if I do post a sheet, in fact even less promises if I post a sheet):

- Reach arrived 10 years ago? Hung around for a bit before abductions and experiments were discovered. Then a war was fought for 5 years before Superman emerged and pushed them back; in their retreat they left the Meta-Bomb, transforming thousands across the US.

- 5 years since they left entirely, and no Reach presence on/around Earth since Superman's intervention?

- Mutants have been around decades before the Reach arrived; however, are all meta-humans restricted to the timeline of Reach experimentation and ultimately the Meta-Bomb, or can there have been separate, specifically non-mutant super-powered individuals active prior to and/or without influence from/by The Reach? (Sheets like the FF and Superman would suggest non-mutant powered individuals don't have to be Reach related whatsoever but I want to double-check).

- Public sentiment of powered individuals was trending positively prior to the Reach crisis, but since the Reach War + amidst the Lord administration is now actively nosediving?

- Costumed, alias'd, and active superheroes have only existed since the emergence of Superman and the retreat of the Reach 5 years ago?

- Additionally, can I assume the answers to the above questions also apply to villains and rogue galleries? (this would appear to be the case taking the Batman sheet as an example and Bane appearing only after the emergence of Superman 5 years ago)

- What year is the IC set in?

Roman's Scrapbin

God fucking dammit.

T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R
T H E S C A R L E T S P I D E R

^{"There has to be a Spider-Man out there. I'm just not sure it should be me."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ Benjamin 'Peter' Reilly _________________________________________________________ 25 | Single _________________________________________________________ Manhattan | American N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S _________________________________________________________ [+] - A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPERHUMAN PHYSICALITY Enhanced twice over, once by his mutated genetics and again by the Reach's experiments at his creation, Ben is stronger, faster, more durable, more agile, with faster reflexes and more stamina than any non-metahuman individual could ever imagine, and rivalling or even surpassing many other powered beings as well. This additionally extends to his body's injury response, able to heal and regenerate far quicker than humanly possible, recovering from wounds in a matter of minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks. ◼ WALL-CRAWLING Thanks to the genetic changes brought on by the spider's toxin, Ben is able to cling to any surface - regardless of orientation - and crawl or climb along or up without risk of losing purchase or falling. Ceilings, walls, metal, plaster - it doesn't seem to matter how it's laid out or what it's made of; Ben can adhere and navigate as easily as putting one foot in front of the other. ◼ SPIDER-SENSE Ben possesses a psuedo-precognitive alert ability, dubbed 'Spider-Sense', that warns him of any incoming danger and allows his reflexes to enable him to dodge, evade, or counter any blow, projectile, or even more esoteric forms of danger or harm that may attempt to befoul him. Working in a full 360-degree span around him, the strength of the alert response is also proportional relative to the severity of the danger; the most extreme responses can react intensely enough to cause physical pain. While it does not trigger while unconscious, it remains while Ben is sleeping, or when stunned or otherwise paralyzed but still conscious. To a certain extent, Ben can also wilfully exert his spider-sense and tune into his surroundings, through walls, floors, ceilings, or around corners, and 'probe' for potential threats and individuals, although this is hazier and not as fine-detail as the reflexive alert response, and required significant mental concentration to achieve and maintain. ◼ WEBBING Part of the Reach's improvements to Ben's cloned biology, the experiment that lead to his creation also introduced natural, organic web-spinners to his body, able to secrete upon demand a natural and proportional reproduction of spider-silk. With adhesive qualities and tensile strength rivalling steel wire, this silk enables Ben to swing - his main method of transportation - as well as quickly zip-line to other points, and can additionally be used as an entrapment, weaving, or sculpting substance to suit many, many requirements. - N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S _________________________________________________________ [+] - S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GIFTED INTELLECT Peter had a natural talent and aptitude for the sciences, marked as one of the single most well-graded students in the history of his high school and flagged for an Oscorp internship and research role before his abduction; Ben has inherited this great mind, gifted with one of the keenest intellects on the planet, though slightly atrophied from the half-decade abduction, experimentation, and clone-growth process. ◼ MASTER ACROBAT Mostly provided by the combination of his physical enhancements, Ben is the premier acrobat and gymnast on the face of the Earth, able to twist, turn, balance, swing, and stunt beyond limits thought possible. - T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PHOTOGRAPHY With am inherited passion, a keen eye, and the ability to get places and angles others can't, Ben is inadvertently quite the dab hand at photography, capturing images that dazzle and amaze; something he's used to his advantage in a world growing ever-more-obsessed with the activities of particular notable individuals... -

T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... ________________________________________________________________________________________ Peter Parker, 15, a young and exceedingly clever high-school student in Queens, is invited to an exclusive guided tour through the Oscorp research centre in Manhattan, attending a program created for the best and brightest, intended to afford New York's most intelligent youth a window into the foremost scientific hub in New York State, and a lifeline opportunity to join their ranks upon completion of their studies. Unbeknownst to either Oscorp or Peter himself, a spider - subject to genetic research and experimentation within the bowels of the site's laboratory, aided by early technological exchange with the Reach - escaped its enclosure. It found Peter, using its final gasps of life to deliver a single bite, and introduce a toxin to Peter's body that would prove to be the fateful pivot upon which his entire life would spin. Struck down by a debilitating illness, Peter spent weeks wracked with agonizing pains, migraines, nausea, fading in and out of consciousness as his very genetic makeup was rewritten, pulled apart and knitted back together. When he finally recovered, he found himself in possession of strange, unexplained powers; stronger, faster, tougher; quicker reflexes, and and ability to cling to any surface regardless of orientation; most peculiar of all, an almost pre-cognitive warning of incoming danger or harm, allowing him to twist and react to evade or counter. Giddy from what these new powers meant for him, Peter was reckless; he bounded into the city, engaging in nothing more than simple play around the urban landscape of Manhattan, a new sandbox opening up before him. Visions of a reinvented life swam before him: the Amazing Spider-Man! Stronger than you, faster than you! Witness his incredible wall-crawling! Laud his inability to be hit! See how he swings from web of his own creation! Watch how robbers and bullies cower at his feet, and the ladies swoon beneath him! Spectacular, Sensational, Superior...! And then Uncle Ben was murdered. And then Aunt May had a stroke. And then Peter Parker was abducted as the Reach War erupted. Five long years took their toll on a teenager. Kept in a half-conscious state of suspended animation, Peter's DNA was harvested again and again for hideous experiments into neogenics, the Reach sure that this mutated boy's cells held the key to turning the tide of the war and conquering Earth. All manner of tests and trials were held; reproducing the original spider, creating biologic serums out of Peter's genetic makeup, direct transfusion, even cross-gene grafting. Frustrated by failure at every turn, the Reach rounded on a new avenue; direct genetic cloning. The logic held up: Peter, by some unknown quantity or quality, had accepted and melded with the original spider's toxin, an against-the-odds alchemy that improved him beyond the scope of Human, rather than destroy him at the cellular level like so many other subjects since. Reproduce that, and the Reach had an army that could seamlessly hide within Humanity's ranks, under their direct control, and ready to destroy their enemy from within. The science was agreed on; the experiment approved. The cloning began. The plan never saw itself realized; five years into the crisis, the Superman appeared, and the Reach were driven from Earth entirely. In the carnage, Peter awoke from his suspension, five years older and his memories murky and muddled since the abduction. He broke containment easily, assisting and rescuing others as he escaped the research station amidst a distracted and routed Reach - including, to his distress, a solitary, perfectly identical copy, withered half-lame from incomplete growth, and equally confused. Together, they returned to Earth, and watched the sky clear of their tormentors, fleeing on their heels faced with the might of Earth's new defender. And then the bomb went off. Only in the wake of fresh calamity was the truth revealed; this wilted, languishing Peter was no half-finished clone, no incomplete experiment. This was the original Peter Parker, the abductee, drained and harvested and picked at for the Reach's heinous purposes; the Peter who had escaped, who had broken containment and rescued the others, was the singular successful, stable reproduction in their myriad cloning attempts. The original begged the clone to understand - he was stronger, faster, tougher, a Spider-Man Improved, a terrible reckoning created by the Reach but never utilized. He had to be better; he had to be greater. He had to take to heart the lessons the Reach had not, the lessons Peter had learned so dreadfully, the lessons the Superman demonstrated so nobly. With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility. Peter was buried with his Uncle and Aunt. Ben Reilly attended from a distance, and then disappeared into New York City. He spent five years travelling, discovering the Earth that only existed in memories that weren't even truly his; five years discovering himself, and what he stood for. Five years watching the consequences of the meta-bomb, of the Reach's incursion against the planet. Five years watching men like Maxwell Lord wash over society and stain everything they touched. After five years, Ben returned to New York City, ready to face whatever the teeming masses had to offer. In his first week, he stopped a mugging, then a burglary; and it had been so easy. So natural. A piece of biology embedded even further than his abilities; even five years post-mortem, Ben was reminded where he came from. And Peter had been proven right: there had to be a Spider-Man. Ben couldn't ignore it. Whether they wanted it or not, the people needed a protector. But it would have to be on his terms. P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) ________________________________________________________________________________________ I love Spider-Man but honestly, Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider have always been cooler. The identity struggle, the suit, even the alias are all just a bit more interesting and have a bit more edge on the age-old tale of Peter Parker. My main issue with ever writing a Spider-Man story is also what do you write that hasn't been written already, with what's one half of the two most successful comic book properties on the planet? I don't have anything for Peter and re-doing a classic origin would put me to sleep; but Ben? Ben's cool. Ben's trying to fill a hole Peter never had the chance to drill in the first place. Ben's trying to figure out who he is, if he's not Peter. With Peter dead, maybe he is Peter, just by default. But does he want to be Peter? Does he want to be Spider-Man? I don't know, but we can sure find out.

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