Scarlet Spider

Ben Reilly was the most genetically stable of the many clones of Spider-Man created by Professor Miles Warren, the Jackal. Warren created clones of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy from tissue samples he had obtained from a class experiment. After many failed attempts, most notably Kaine, Warren succeeded in creating a clone that did not suffer cellular degeneration.

The Jackal pitted this clone against Spider-Man in a deathtrap involving a bomb and Ned Leeds. The Jackal on scene, a clone of Warren, repented and saved Ned, dying as a result. With both Spider-Man and Spider-Man's clone unconscious, the real Jackal emerged, found who he thought was the real Spider-Man, and injected him with a drug to simulate death. The other Spider-Man awoke and dropped the "dead" body in a smokestack, where the Jackal implanted it with clone memories. However, his assistant, Seward Trainer, himself coerced by the Green Goblin, had deceived the Jackal. The Spider-Man the Jackal recovered was the clone after all.

The clone spent five years wandering the country. During this time he met Janine Godbe, the love of his life. Janine, as a child, had been horribly abused by her father. She could bear it no longer, and she killed her father. She then met Ben Reilly. Their love was short-lived, as Janine apparently died.

Reviving and returning home, the clone discovered the other Peter already there. Now believing himself the imposter, the clone named himself after "Uncle" Ben and "Aunt" May Parker (née Reilly) and spent the next five years wandering, eventually developing new weapons for his occasional confrontations with Kaine and other criminals. He also met and was befriended by Seward Trainer. Ben anonymously called to check up on Aunt May occasionally, but did not return to New York until he heard that she had been hospitalized.

Upon his return to New York, Ben saved a young girl's life as well as stopped a burglar at a small corner shop. He learned that Venom was back, and decided that he could not stand by without doing something. He adopted a new all red costume with a blue sleeveless hooded sweatshirt and was dubbed the Scarlet Spider. His return later triggered the release from stasis of the Jackal, who raised the possibility that Peter, not Ben, was the clone. When Seward Trainer, following up his earlier deception of the Jackal, announced that Ben was indeed the original Spider-Man, Ben assured Peter he had no intention of taking back his life. Together, Peter and Ben stopped the Jackal’s plan to unleash the Carrion virus on the world.

Originally distrustful of each other, the two Spider-Men developed an uneasy alliance that slowly grew to strong friendship. They introduced each other as cousins and considered themselves brothers. As Peter considered the impending responsibility of fatherhood, he relinquished the title of Spider-Man to Ben. But Ben created his own life, bleaching his hair and working at a coffee shop. As Spider-Man, Ben slightly modified the classic costume. For a period of time, Ben was taken over by the Carnage symbiote and became Spider-Carnage, however the symbiote eventually returned to Cletus Kassady.

The degenerating clone known as Kaine always hated Ben Reilly, believing that Ben was the original. After a series of brutal battles, Kaine gave up and surrendered to the police after being saved by Reilly. During these battles, Janine returned after having faked her own death. During these same battles, Janine apparently died again, when in reality, she had been kidnapped by Kaine. After being rescued by Ben, she stopped running and gave herself up to the police.

Believing to the end that he was the real Spider-Man, Ben was killed by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn), sacrificing his life to save Peter from the impaling spike of the Goblin's glider. Ben's body degenerated into dust immediately after his death, proving that he was the clone after all, and not Peter Parker. However, this death is not consistent with clone degeneration, nor Ben's status as the one perfect clone.

Punisher

Born in New York to parents of Italian ancestry, Francis Castiglione is a former U.S. Marine Captain. Before Frank joined the Marines, he was studying to become a Catholic priest but changed his mind because he was unable to forgive those who did evil. Also prior to his enlistment, he married his wife Maria who was already pregnant with their first child. During his time in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), Castle graduated from Basic Training, then went on to Infantry School. Immediately following that, he went through the USMC's Reconnaissance, Force Reconnaissance, and Sniper Schools. Attaining dockets, Castle was permitted to go through U.S. Army Airborne School, and U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team training, becoming qualified as a Navy Seal (Sea, Air and Land). He served in the Vietnam War in a special forces unit as a point man. For heroism in the line of duty, he was decorated with numerous medals, including the Purple Heart.

Shortly after a tour in Vietnam, Castle, his wife, Maria and their children were in New York's Central Park for an afternoon picnic when they witnessed a Mafia gangland execution; an informant had been hanged from a tree. Seeking to eliminate all witnesses, the Costa crime family murdered them on the spot. However, Castle survived. Even though Frank was able to identify all of the shooters the police were unable to help Castle in his quest for justice; they were tied in too deeply to the powerful Costa family. He decided that the only punishment criminals might receive is that of physical destruction. Shortly thereafter, he emblazoned his body armor with a symbol of a death's head, and exacted his revenge. Since then he has waged a one-man war upon crime, taking the name Punisher.

In his vigilante endeavors, Castle has crossed paths with several costumed crime-fighters, most notably Spider-Man and Daredevil. These encounters have often resulted in his incarceration. While he is known to be significantly inferior to Daredevil in hand-to-hand combat skills, Punisher has been rated as one of the most dangerous criminals alive. When he was incarcerated in New York's Riker's Island Prison, though heavily outnumbered in gang-fights, Punisher has routinely killed armed, homicidal criminals with frightening ease, sustaining no injury. Due to his proficiency in fighting, he is rarely so accosted in prison environments. Adhering to his military philosophies, Punisher is constantly training whenever he is not out on actual maneuvers. He exercises fanatically to maintain his impressive physical conditioning and sticks to a balanced diet whenever possible.

Bullseye

A mercenary of mystery, nothing is really known about the man called Bullseye. Once, he was captured and interrogated in a highly secured U.S. prison, and he related many details about his early life, such as the time his brother set fire to their home in an attempt to kill their father. However, much of this information is suspect, as Bullseye then escaped, taunting his interrogators that much of what he said was false-- especially the fact that it was not his brother who set fire to the house, it was himself. Bullseye proceeded to set fire to the prison, where his father was also held, and he left his father to die once more. (In a previous account of his childhood, he painted a bullseye on the forehead of his abusive father when he was passed out from drinking and shot him.)

Before his mercenary career, it’s been suggested that Bullseye tried his formidable throwing skills to become a Major League baseball player, but he was too selfish and sadistic for that.

According to Bullseye himself, he grew bored and annoyed pitching a no-hitter, so, for the last pitch of the game, he threw the ball at the batter, killing him. Instead, Bullseye found his true calling as a special operative of the United States National Security Agency and, from there, a freelance assassin-- a perfect career for someone who got so much pleasure from killing his enemies. He created his signature modus operandi of using thrown weapons during one of his first outings as a soldier-- a guerilla fighter got the drop on him, and Bullseye’s weapon failed to shoot. He threw the gun instead, killing his assailant with his bayonet.

His early endeavors included time in Africa and Nicaragua, coming into conflict with the Punisher, and working alongside fellow mercenary Deadpool. Bullseye first came to notoriety with a series of extortion attempts and murder in New York City, publicizing his antics by agreeing to an interview with The Daily Bugle. Bullseye fought and defeated Daredevil’s attempt to stop him, although the hero soon tracked him down and prevented Bullseye's extortion schemes. Bullseye was then hired to murder the lawyer Matt Murdock, Daredevil's secret identity, but was defeated by Daredevil. In his own mind, Bullseye believed his formidable reputation was ruined, and he swore vengeance, fighting Daredevil at any opportunity in a personal vendetta that led him to hold a TV studio hostage, to kidnap the Black Widow, or simply by tracking him down. Each time, he was captured and given over to the police by Daredevil. At one point, Bullseye was declared insane due to a brain tumor, and he began hallucinating, seeing random people were actually Daredevil, and tried killing them all. The true Daredevil managed to defeat him, and the tumor was removed.

Later, when following an assignment to kill the Kingpin, Bullseye simply received a better offer from the Kingpin and agreed to work with him, instead. However, after returning from yet another imprisonment by Daredevil, Bullseye was furious that the Kingpin had chosen Elektra as his assassin in the meantime. Bullseye killed her with nothing more than a playing card and her own sai weapon. Earning the enmity of Daredevil, Elektra's lover, Bullseye fought the enraged hero high over the tops of New York City, and Bullseye was allowed to fall to his death by Daredevil. He did not die, however, his spine shattered, paralyzing him. With the help of a Japanese crime lord, Lord Dark Wind, Bullseye's bones were laced with Adamantium in the hopes that Bullseye would freely serve Lord Dark Wind as his head assassin. Instead, Bullseye, now recovered, returned to New York to pursue his mercenary career. Before he could continue in the Kingpin’s employ, he had to first prove himself by fighting his former mercenary friend, Deadpool. The fight was close, but Bullseye was triumphant.

Later, when following an assignment to kill the Kingpin, Bullseye simply received a better offer from the Kingpin and agreed to work with him, instead. However, after returning from yet another imprisonment by Daredevil, Bullseye was furious that the Kingpin had chosen Elektra as his assassin in the meantime. Bullseye killed her with nothing more than a playing card and her own sai weapon. Earning the enmity of Daredevil, Elektra's lover, Bullseye fought the enraged hero high over the tops of New York City, and Bullseye was allowed to fall to his death by Daredevil. He did not die, however, his spine shattered, paralyzing him. With the help of a Japanese crime lord, Lord Dark Wind, Bullseye's bones were laced with Adamantium in the hopes that Bullseye would freely serve Lord Dark Wind as his head assassin. Instead, Bullseye, now recovered, returned to New York to pursue his mercenary career. Before he could continue in the Kingpin’s employ, he had to first prove himself by fighting his former mercenary friend, Deadpool. The fight was close, but Bullseye was triumphant.

At one point, Daredevil left New York for a prolonged period, and Bullseye put on the Daredevil costume himself. He gleefully played the part of a hero while robbing the rich and giving to the poor. However, never a man quite sane, Bullseye began to believe himself to be the true Daredevil, and Matt Murdock adopted the Bullseye’s costume to confront him. Murdock won, and the defeat allowed Bullseye to return to his senses (relatively speaking, of course.)

Bullseye performed several jobs for the Kingpin while also pursuing several other mercenary contacts. One such contract brought him into conflict with the Punisher on behalf of Rosalie Carbone. Hired by Mysterio to kidnap a baby from Saint Maggie’s Church, Bullseye killed Karen Page, further earning the vengeance of Daredevil. When the news of Daredevil’s secret identity leaked to the media, Bullseye hoped to capitalize on the information and kill Daredevil both for his own satisfaction and to help the Kingpin’s struggling criminal empire. He targeted Murdock and his new girlfriend, Millie Donovan, but Daredevil snapped, beating Bullseye to a pulp and carving a bullseye pattern onto his forehead with a rock. Bullseye has a compulsive need to study his targets' histories, abilities, and relationships before engaging them. As a result, he can anticipate his opponent's every move. This compulsion however, often crosses from the professional into the personal, such as Bullseye's obsession with Elektra.

Who Will Win? #4

Venom vs Carnage

Vote now to Decide Who will win!

Nova (Richard Rider)

Randomly chosen to become a member of the Nova Corps until the Annihilation Wave destroyed them all, leaving him imbued with their combined power and guided by the super-intelligent Worldmind computer, Richard Rider wages a one-man battle for justice as Nova.

Chosen at random by the dying Xandarian Rhomann Dey to receive his Nova Corps powers, teenager Richard Rider found himself thrust into the role of superhero, a role he grasped with relish. He battled foes such as Dey's nemesis Zorr, the avian criminal Condor, the amnesiac Powerhouse (actually a Xandarian sent to locate the missing Dey), his uncle's murderer and member of the Maggia, Photon, and the mysterious Sphinx. The latter eventually kidnapped Nova and several others, using Dey's spaceship to transport them all to Xandar.

Learning that Xandar was threatened by the Skrull Empire, Nova and his fellows (bar the Sphinx, who had returned to Earth, and Doctor Sun, who teleported to an unknown location) pledged their aid; the Skrulls were eventually driven off with the help of the Galadorian Spaceknight, Rom. Homesick for Earth, Richard agreed to give up his powers, which were needed to help rebuild war-ravaged Xandar's defenses, and returned home a normal human once more, or so it seemed.

Months later Richard was tracked down by Night Thrasher, who believed Richard's powers were merely dormant and wished to recruit Nova for his prospective hero team. To test the theory, Night Thrasher dropped Richard off a roof; luckily for both of them, Night Thrasher was correct, and the adrenaline rush reawoke Richard's abilities. Alongside several other teenage heroes he founded the New Warriors, and also resumed his solo career. He fought alongside the New Warriors for years, including encounters with Nova's old foe the Sphinx and a brief stint during which the Warriors worked with Cable and X-Force. He was eventually hunted down by Super-Nova, the Xandarian who held the rest of the Nova-Force inside his body and had been driven mad by it. The two of them, aided by the New Warriors and Galactus' Xandarian heralds Firelord and Air-Walker, ended up setting off protocols that led to Xandar's resurrection. The StarCorps was reinstated, and Rider was appointed Centurion Prime and assigned to guard earth's sector of space.

Returning to Earth, Rider was confronted with dual lives as Centurion Prime and a member of the New Warriors. He also encountered another Nova from an alternate timeline named Nova 0:0. Nova 0:0 attacked Rider to prepare him for defending his Earth from the force that had destroyed Nova 0:0's Earth, the Deathstorm. After stopping the Deathstorm and saving Earth, Rider was replaced as Centurion Prime for Earth's sector of space by Garthan Saal, the former Super-Nova, after failing to follow orders at a crucial time. When Saal sacrificed himself to save earth from the Dire Wraith queen Volx, he passed his powers back to Rider. He continued to fight alongside the New Warriors until the team broke up, reformed, and broke up again. He agreed to come back as part of the New Warriors reality TV show, and travelled the U.S. with the team, fighting menaces that'd taken up residence in communities that didn't have resident heroes.

The team fought several criminals who'd escaped the Raft during the massive prison break that led to the reestablishing of the Avengers, before being recalled to Xandar alongside the rest of the Nova Corps to deal with the threat of the Annihilation Wave. Rider was the only StarCorps member to survive the Wave's surprise attack, and has become the bearer of the entire Nova-Force, as well as the Xandarian Worldmind, the living computers that contain the entire record of Xandarian civilization as well as the minds of all its deceased members.

Nova then came into contact with Drax who taught him how to better control the Nova Force and how to kill. Realizing his new leadership abilities, Nova created the United Front, an army opposed to Annihilus. Several beings joined the United Front alongside Nova including Silver Surfer, Ronan, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Moondragon, the Spaceknights, Blastaar, Stardust, Firelord, Red Shift, Super-Skrull, Star-Lord, and others. Alongside these beings Nova was able to squash Annihilus's forces and kill Annihilus.

Nova (Frankie Raye)

Frankie Raye was the stepdaughter of Phineas T. Horton, inventor of the android Human Torch. He became bitter at the announcement of a new Human Torch, Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. Horton brought Frankie with him as he dug into the spare parts and chemicals he had used to build the Human Torch decades earlier. Frankie was exposed to a canister of chemicals which set her on fire, but instead of being harmed she gained powers similar to the Human Torch's. Horton later placed a post-hypnotic suggestion in her mind to keep her afraid of fire, so she wouldn't use her powers.

By chance, Frankie met Johnny Storm and they began a romantic relationship. She finally discovered what her father had done to her and regained her memories. Under Johnny's guidance, she learned how to control her powers and became an unofficial member of the Fantastic Four. Although Frankie wanted to join the team on their adventures, Mister Fantastic often left her behind due to her lack of experience.

When Galactus returned to Earth, desperate for sustenance, Frankie offered herself to him as a herald in order to save Earth, and for the chance to explore space. Galactus granted her a portion of the Power Cosmic and she departed Earth, without a backwards glance.

Now called Nova, Frankie took delight in finding new worlds for Galactus to feed on, caring little for the lives of aliens. That was, until she met the Silver Surfer. The Surfer did his best to teach her to value all life, finally bringing Frankie to a primitive world and asking her if she would feed it to Galactus. She said she would, only to learn that the Surfer had brought her back in time to a young Earth.

Nova grew reluctant to serve Galactus after this, and he grew tired of her. Galactus finally cast her out, taking the vicious executioner Morg as his new herald. Nova then joined with her fellow heralds – the Silver Surfer, Terrax, Firelord and Air-Walker – in opposing Morg. During the battle, Morg slew Nova with a blast of energy through her chest. Later, the Silver Surfer laid her body to its final rest within a sun.

Thunderbolts

After a battle with Onslaught left the world without the majority of the heroes that made it feel safe, Baron Zemo devised a plan like no other in order to rule the world. Zemo gathered Beetle, Fixer, Goliath, Moonstone, and Screaming Mimi, all former members of the Masters of Evil, together to disguise themselves as a new heroic team in order to take advantage of the missing heroes and gain the trust of the authorities and public in general. They were soon joined by starry-eyed young rookie heroine Jolt, who was unaware of her teammate's true identities and hidden agenda. Zemo barely tolerated Jolt, regarding her as little more than a public relations tool, but most of the team quickly grew fond of her and found her idealism infectious. A seeming exception was the amoral Techno, who grew colder than ever after his neck was broken and he returned in robotic form.

Once the Thunderbolts had established themselves as beloved heroes, Zemo abruptly dropped their deception successfully launched a plan to take over the world by enslaving everyone including the returning Avengers and Fantastic Four. However, the plan was thwarted when members of the Thunderbolts decided they preferred the life of a hero than villain and teamed with Iron Man to put an end to Zemo’s plans. In the end, Zemo fled with Techno, and the other Thunderbolts began a new life on the run as outlaw adventurers, trying to prove their heroism to the public while evading capture.

Veteran super hero Hawkeye, who was sympathetic to the Thunderbolts because of his own outlaw past-quit the Avengers and joined the Thunderbolts as their new leader, enhancing the team's reputation, morale and fighting skills. He persuaded ex-Beetle Abe Jenkins, the team's only known wanted killer, to go back to prison for the sake of the group's credibility-though this parting proved difficult for both Jenkin's and his girlfriend Songbird. Hawkeye also championed the joining of the team's repentant one-time foe Charcoal and led the group to victory over the Crimson Cowl's new Masters of Evil, seizing the Masters’ Mount Charteris complex to serve as the new Thunderbolts headquarters. The facility’s reclusive resident caretaker and mutant machinesmith Ogre, a long-inactive agent of defunct subversive group Factor Three, began providing the Thunderbolts with tech support. Hawkeye began a romance with the cynical Moonstone, inspiring her to change for the better. Jenkins soon rejoined the team as MACH-II, having won a secret early release through covert government work. A bored, lonely Techno secretly imprisoned and impersonated Ogre for a time, eventually sacrificing his artificial life to revive Jolt, who had been shot by the mind-controlled assassin  as part of an anti-superhuman conspiracy led by rogue government agent Henry Gyrich, who was himself under the mental influence of Hydra's Baron Strucker. During Gyrich's conspiracy, Atlas and Zemo were seemingly slain by Scourge, Ogre quit the group, and Hawkeye was estranged from his teammates when they learned that he never had government approval for his work with them and could not authorize pardons for them as he once claimed. Hawkeye redeemed himself when he led the team in defeating Gyrich and secured pardons for the Thunderbolts in exchange for going along with the government cover-up of Gyrich's plot, the catch being that Hawkeye had to go to prison for his own technically illegal vigilante work with the Thunderbolts.

Most of the other Thunderbolts were released, though conditions of their pardon forbade them from public use of costumed identities or special powers. As minors, Charcoal and Jolt became wards of the state and were assigned to the Reedeemers, a Thunderbolts-inspired, government-backed super-team whose members included the resurrected Fixer (his human body restored plus memories apparently downloaded from his robotic Techno form), the sonic entity Scream (the sonic soul of Songbird's ex-partner Angar the Screamer) and new incarnations of Beetle (Abe's old enemy Leila Davis), Meteorite (disgraced pilot Valerie Barnhardt) and Smuggler (Atlas' brother Conrad Josten). Captain America mentored the group briefly, but was soon replaced as leader by the new Citizen V, who was secretly possessed by the disembodied consciousness of the slain Zemo. After a power-mad Graviton slaughtered most of the Redeemers, he and his alien P'Tah allies were defeated through the combined efforts of Citizen V, Fixer, Jolt, Moonstone, Songbird, a reborn Atlas (sharing a composite form with his ex-lover Dallas Riordan) and a re-armored Abe Jenkins (now MACH-3). Most of the heroes seemingly died in a climactic implosion, but were actually hurled to the alternate world Counter-Earth, created by Franklin Richards and the Celestial Ashema the Listener. Reunited and uneasily allied with a newly resurrected Zemo (whose disembodied consciousness had been drawn along with them), these Thunderbolts worked to restore peace and prosperity to the disaster-ravaged Counter Earth. Zemo's Thunderbolts soon became the leading heroes of that world.