Learn from the Scarlet Spider — Think Uveitis

Ben Reilly — The Scarlet Spider. Well-intentioned but flawed.

Marvel’s Scarlet Spider is an interesting narrative experiment on the nature of soul. Ben Reilly is a clone of the original Peter Parker who shares the physical traits of the famous webslinger. Through vaguely-described “arcane magic”, he even gets an imprint of Parker’s memories.

However, as he does not share the many responsibilities of his more famous clone, Ben Reilly struggles with true purpose in life. Possessing the same intelligence and inquisitive mind as Peter Parker, his desire to discover and experiment leads him to make some bad choices, which have led him to die and be resurrected more times than is habitual for a Marvel Comics character.

As a result, Ben has flirted the line between heroism and villainy, seemingly resolved to entropy as an antihero. Even when he wants to do the right thing, his virtuous intentions backfire. In a recent storyline (written by Peter David, pencilled by Will Sliney and coloured by Rachelle Rosenberg) during which demons take over Las Vegas, Ben makes an assumption we can all be guilty of when seeing red eyes:

“Is this creature possessed by some sort of satanic entity?”

Ben has been very presumptuous here. In a Las Vegas which is arguably more satanically inclined that usual, he has naturally assumed that anyone with red eyes is a demon.

He hits this man with the force of his radioactively enhanced jab, and wasn’t prepared for what came next…

“But… he has red eyes”. Ben struggles when explaining his actions to Jimmy’s wife and daughter. It dawns on him that he has jumped to conclusions.

Jimmy’s wife explains that he has Uveitis, and has clearly read the patient information leaflet “It’s an inflammation of the middle layer of the eye!” The episode finishes with Ben receiving a well-deserved kick in the shin from Jimmy’s young daughter.

Learn from the Scarlet Spider. Think Uveitis

Whether you are the well-intentioned but haphazard clone of a popular superhero or not, it’s always worth thinking about Uveitis as a cause of red eye. Uveitis literally means inflammation of the uvea — the middle layers of the eye and can have a huge number of causes including trauma, various infections and autoimmune diseases (where the body attacks itself). In many cases, no cause is ever found.

Uveitis can have different patterns — it can come and go with no problems in between, or can flare up many times and cause a lot of discomfort and anxiety for the sufferer. Jimmy may well have had a number of flares before, and his current treatment could be anything from steroid eyedrops to tablets or injections, all with the aim of reducing the inflammation in the eye.

Jimmy lives in the United States of America, where an estimated 300,000 people are affected by Uveitis each year. In many cases, anterior uveitis may be misdiagnosed as a bacterial conjunctivitis, which has a different treatment of antibiotic drops or ointment.

In this panel, Jimmy appears to have acute anterior uveitis — the form which affects the front of the eye, either the iris (iritis) or the ciliary body (iridocyclitis). Together with a red eye, he may well be suffering from symptoms such as blurred vision and light sensitivity (photophobia). The latter can be very hard for Uveitis sufferers to deal with, and even more so considering the fluorescent lighting which adorns the City of Lights. Jimmy is wearing polarized sunglasses to help him manage as he navigates the Vegas strip:

Given that his eyes are so red, Jimmy is likely to have only recently had a flare of his disease, and may have only just started treatment. Both eyes are red rather than just one, which makes it more likely that he has an underlying “systemic disease” disease. In addition, the whole of his eyes are red, which isn’t a typical pattern seen in anterior uveitis where the classic appearance of redness is immediately surrounding the iris:

Classic “Ciliary Flush” image of Iritis with redness surrounding the iris where the cornea and sclera meet, an area called the “limbus”.

However, there are other causes why his eye might be red whilst he is being treated for Uveitis, which might include:

1. Episcleritis/Anterior Scleritis — He may have these conditions as a co-diagnosis (alongside his Uveitis). These diseases reflect inflammation of blood vessels in different layers of the white of the eye, and can be associated with an underlying disease. Jimmy might have Lupus, Inflammatory Bowel Disease or a number of other full-body disease which can be linked to different problems in the eye.
2. Glaucoma — Jimmy may have uveitic glaucoma , raised pressure in the eye caused by inflammation (from uveitis) obstructing and damaging the structures in the eye which allow for outflow of the aqueous humour. the sudden eye pressure rise would cause red However, Jimmy would likely feel very sick and in too much pain to verbally joust with our friendly neighbourhood spider clone.
3. Allergy — If Jimmy has been taking eye drops for his Uveitis, they may contain a preservative which he is allergic to. I hope that his Ophthalmologist switches him to a preservative-free formula.

One can only hope that Ben Reilly, our Scarlet Spider, learns from this lesson and doesn’t make presumptions about peoples’ eyes, even in the context of a satanic takeover of Sin City.