Marvel's animated 1990s series Spider-Man: The Animated Series featured the adventures of the beloved titular character. Though the series wasn't Spider-Man's first animated rodeo, it did provide the springboard for introducing of a number of other Marvel characters over the series' five-season run. Some of the characters introduced included other versions of the webhead, including Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider. The fan-favorite clone of Spider-Man even made an appearance during the climactic Spider Wars in Episodes 12 and 13 of Season 5 which closed off the series; however, fans might be surprised to learn that wasn't actually the character's animated debut.

Observant viewers of the 90s might have noticed Scarlet Spider's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in an episode of Fantastic Four. His appearance is incredibly easy to miss and oddly cloaked in shaded mystery.

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Season 2, Episode 9 of Fantastic Four featured a guest appearance from Bruce Banner/Hulk and Rick Jones, who also appeared in The Incredible Hulk animated series at the same time. While Banner was working with Reed Richards, Human Torch and Rick Jones were on a joyride across New York City when they passed a figure hanging upside down from the ledge of a building, presumably which was the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. However, on closer inspection, the colors and design of the shadowed character revealed him to actually be Scarlet Spider, making this Ben Reilly's animated debut in 1995, three years ahead of his later appearance in the Spider Wars episodes from Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

In the comics, Peter Parker's clone took on the name of Ben Reilly and first wore his Scarlet Spider outfit in 1993's Clone Saga comics. The costume featured an all-red bodysuit, a blue hoodie with ripped sleeves, exterior web-shooters, leather straps and pouches to perfectly fit in with other 90s comic designs. Closer inspection of the shadowed Spider-character cameo in Fantastic Four make it obvious that this is Scarlet Spider, not Spider-Man. There are no web designs on the red portions of the suit, which are typically found on Spider-Man. However, the shadowed figure does seem to be wearing the blue sleeveless hoodie worn by Scarlet Spider, though the actual hood itself doesn't seem to appear on the animated character. The final confirmation that this is actually Scarlet Spider and not Spider-Man comes from a glimpse of the exposed web-shooters around the wrist and the crimson suit of the character which highlights features that the animated Spider-Man does not have on his costume.

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Fantastic Four wasn't shy about adding cameos of other Marvel characters who are seen moving across the city in the background and the series loved to pull from popular heroes from the 90s, giving characters like Darkhawk and the New Warriors their one and only animated appearances. The episode titled "Nightmare in Green" even featured an out-of-costume appearance from the cast of the incredibly popular X-Men: The Animated Series that immediately followed Scarlet Spider's shadowed animated debut.

Given Clone Saga's initial popularity and the success of Scarlet Spider with fans, his appearance in Fantastic Four makes a lot of sense considering the series' use of other popular 90s characters. However, Marvel may have purposefully left the cameo open to interpretation for a number of reasons, which could have included incomplete character designs at the time of animation to reluctance by the studio to feature another Spider-character while Spider-Man's own animated series was just taking off. Following this quick cameo, Scarlet Spider wouldn't appear again until the fifth season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, though that wouldn't be the characters' last animated appearance.

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The next Scarlet Spider appearances were made through characters other than Ben Reilly. Flash Thompson would wear his own version of Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider outfit in the Ultimate Spider-Man. Additionally, the Scarlet Spider outfit was later worn by Kaine Parker who was yet another clone of Peter Parker.

Even with these few animated appearances, Scarlet Spider still hasn't made much of a splash in the cartoons over the years, but the reminder of his forgotten Fantastic Four cameo certainly adds to the character's animated resume.

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