Why The Real Spider-Man Wasn't Part Of Marvel And DC's Biggest Crossover

When DC and Marvel had their first major crossover event in the 1990s, Peter Parker had retired from being Spider-Man. So, when the Marvel roster went into battle with their DC counterparts, it was Peter Parker's clone, Ben Reilly, who swung into action.

Back in 1975, Marvel and DC collaborated for the first time with a contentious "Wizard of Oz" project. The following year, we got a real Marvel/DC crossover with "Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man," which marked the very first time characters from both companies met in the pages of a comic book. Since then, there have been multiple crossover events, right up to the recent Marvel/DC crossover that was the result of a cosmic hookup. But the most significant collaboration remains the "DC vs. Marvel Comics"/"Marvel Comics vs. DC" event of the '90s.

The series ran for four months in 1996 and saw each comic book multiverse rendered as deities known as Brothers. After becoming aware of one another, the two entities came into conflict, which essentially saw the heroes of each multiverse clash in a series of fights across four issues. The outcomes for many of these battles were decided by readers, who would vote for who they wanted to win in the most significant clashes. It was a momentous event that saw all the biggest heroes from both companies appear — all except Spider-Man, that is. More specifically, the Spider-Man that did appear in "DC vs. Marvel Comics"/"Marvel Comics vs. DC" wasn't actually Peter Parker, but Ben Reilly.

Written by Ron Marz and Peter David, with art by Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini, the big Marvel/DC crossover event of the 1990s saw each publisher put out two issues of the four-issue run. Over the course of those four issues, we got to see some of the biggest superheroes in history do battle, with Batman facing off against Captain America, Superman clashing with the Hulk, and Spider-Man taking on Superboy. In the latter case, however, fans were somewhat robbed of a true Spider-Man/Superboy showdown, as the web-head in question was Ben Reilly instead of the traditional Peter Parker.

Reilly actually helped kick off the events of the series. In issue #1, he's transported to the DC Universe, where he comes face-to-face with The Joker in a moment reminiscent of Spider-Man and Batman's excellent crossover from 1995. It takes some time before the main fights begin, with various lesser DC and Marvel heroes going toe-to-toe for a couple issues before the big boys face off. Throughout this entire storyline, we never got to see Peter Parker.

At the time, Ben Reilly had become Spider-Man in the main Marvel Comics continuity. Originally introduced as a clone character back in 1975's "The Amazing Spider-Man" #149, Reilly returned in the mid-'90s as The Scarlet Spider. After Peter Parker became convinced that he was the clone and that Reilly was the real Parker, he retired from crime-fighting. Reilly then took on the mantle of Spider-Man in all of the main Spidey comics between January and December 1996. As such, when "DC vs. Marvel Comics"/"Marvel Comics vs. DC" debuted in February 1996, Reilly was the Spider-Man and represented Marvel in the multiversal showdown event.

Ben Reilly didn't hang around too long after the big DC/Marvel crossover event of 1996. The miniseries wrapped up in May of that year, five months before "Spider-Man" #75 debuted. That issue saw Ben Reilly sacrifice himself to save Peter Parker by diving in front of Green Goblin's glider, impaling himself and dying soon after. When his body turns to powder, Peter becomes convinced that he was the real Peter all along and that he should return to the mantle of Spider-Man.

But that wasn't the last we saw of Reilly. He returned multiple times after his sacrifice, first with 2017's "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy." The character has since led his own series, "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider," and has cropped up in all manner of Spidey media, from the legendary '90s shows "X-Men: The Animated Series" and "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" to 2023's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," in which he was voiced by Andy Samberg. Along the way, fans have grown to appreciate and even love Ben Reilly and Scarlet Spider, and now Nicolas Cage will play a version of the character in the upcoming TV series "Spider-Noir."

Meanwhile, the legacy of "DC vs. Marvel Comics"/"Marvel Comics vs. DC" endures. Not only was it the first major crossover event of its kind, it birthed some neat comic book history of its own when issue #3 introduced the Amalgam Universe. This led to some of the most interesting crossover comics ever published, including the time Batman merged with Wolverine to create a clawed crusader.