Joseph Wade was an FBI agent who was put in a virtual reality machine by the new Doctor Octopus, a woman by the name of Carolyn Trainer. She had taken Doc Ock’s mechanical arms and alias after he had died. Just in case you’re wondering, he was later brought back to life by the secretive group known as The Hand, and she returned his things to him. But we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about Joe Wade in the V.R. machine!
The machine generated a “hard-light hologram” (meaning solid) version of the Scarlet Spider, and Joe’s mind was fully in control of the new body, as if it was really his body. For some reason, Joe was compelled to do villainous things while in control of the silver spider, and Doctor Octopus kept him trapped there, and plugged into the V.R. machine.
When the real Scarlet Spider attacked Doctor Octopus’ lair, he unknowingly damaged the machinery that made the hard-light body, and the V.R. interface. The machine then proceeded to actually turn Joe Wade’s real body into a cybernetic version of the silvery Scarlet Spider projection it had been creating previously.
As the Cyber Scarlet Spider, Joe Wade had razor sharp claws, could shoot webbing from his wrists, climb walls, and had super human strength, durability, speed, and all the usual jazz. He could also shoot lasers out of his eyes, so that’s a little different from the norm as far as Spider-Man copies go.
He was eventually stopped by Ben Reilly (as Spider-Man) and the New Warriors and taken into custody to remove the cybernetic alterations to his body.
Positively Jim 