Ben Reilly was one of the many clones of Peter Parker created by the Jackal. More famously, he was the first hero to don the identity of Scarlet Spider, but he was far from the last. Other characters have taken the mantle over time, but one Scarlet Spider has almost been completely forgotten to the annals of history. Joe Wade was the evil cybernetic Scarlet Spider that embodied everything about the '90s obsession with virtual reality, and he disappeared almost as fast as that fad did.
Joseph “Joe” Wade first appeared in 1995's Amazing Scarlet Spider #1 by Tom DeFalco, Mike Lackey, Mark Baglet, and Larry Mahlstedt as part of the “Virtual Mortality” event. He was an FBI agent sent undercover to infiltrate Lady Octopus’ villainous gang. Wade was able to easily gain Lady Octopus’s trust and rose to a high rank quickly, but she eventually caught up to his treachery. As punishment, she trapped him in a virtual reality chamber that uploaded his mind into cyberspace, where Wade’s consciousness was used to control a hard-light copy of the real Scarlet Spider.
Lady Octopus forced Wade to use the construct to go on rampage through New York, destroying a bridge and attacking everyone on it. The construct allowed Wade to copy Scarlet Spider’s exactly and even allowed him to materialize a machine gun out of thin air. The real Scarlet Spider managed to defeat the impostor, but Wade managed to tarnish Scarlet Spider’s reputation enough that he became the public’s number one enemy. Scarlet Spider attacked Lady Octopus’s lair and eventually defeated her as well, but his attack damaged the machine that Wade was in, trapping the hard-light construct inside his body.
Wade first debuted as the silver Scarlet Spider in Web of Scarlet Spider #3 by Evan Skolnick, Paris Karounos, Randy Emberlin and Kevin Tinsley during the “Nightmare in Scarlet” event. After Ben Reilly attacked Lady Octopus’s headquarters, Wade wandered the streets until he met a woman named Stephanie. Fearing that he was going to hurt her, he ran away as he transformed into the hard-light construct and attacked the New Warriors' Firestarter. As the two fought, she blasted him with a microwave pulse that changed his body further and gave him the silver Scarlet Spider look that distinguishes him. As this version of Scarlet Spider, he gained claws and was able to shoot laser ‘stingers’ from his eyes. New Warrior Justice, who had come to rescue Firestarter, blasted Wade with another energy beam, which forced Wade to undergo another transformation. This time, he gained a more armored look to his costume with spikes jutting out of his back. He also gained the ability to create sonic blasts. It took the combined force of Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider and all the New Warriors to eventually take him down after he rampaged through the city until Stephanie was able to talk him down, and he was taken into FBI custody.
Joe Wade's Scarlet Spider has not appeared since he was defeated by Ben Reilly and the New Warriors, but his creation encapsulates everything about the world’s obsession with virtual reality in the ’90s. That era was also the first time that personal computers had truly become widespread around the world. This spread led to a fascination with virtual reality, cyberspace, and all things involving the ‘Net. That sam fascination informed everything from Cable and his techno-organic virus to Franklin Richards’s Psi-Lord. Outside of the comic book realm, it also informed us The Matrix franchise and psuedo-VR devices like the Virtual Boy that were truly ahead of their time.
Only time will tell if Joe Wade will ever return as the Scarlet Spider. But given that Ben Reilly is stepping back into the spotlight as the main Spider-Man in the "Spider-Man Beyond" event, he could be bringing back his evil counterpart sooner rather than later.