Kaine

Kaine is a Marvel Comics supervillain. He is one of the first "failed" clones of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), created by Professor Miles Warren, the Jackal. The character first appeared in Web of Spider-Man #119, and was created by Terry Kavanagh and Steven Butler.

Character Biography

Birth of Kaine

Kaine was the Jackal's first temporary success at cloning Peter Parker, but the cloning process was flawed. As a result he was left deformed and mentally unstable, but also more powerful than Spider-Man. Professor Warren discarded Kaine because the clone started showing early signs of the degeneration process, and Kaine experienced a strong feeling of rejection similar to that between a father and son. Kaine left Professor Warren and realized the partial degeneration also caused a slight amplification of the powers he "inherited" from Peter. Not only had his strength, speed, and agility been copied from the original Peter's, but he gained a "precognitive sense" that shows him flashes of the future (an amplified version of Peter's spider-sense). He also possessed a "Mark of Kaine," a corrosive touch that he used to leave eaten away hand prints on his victims' faces. Though never explicitly stated within the story, in interviews afterwards the creators revealed that the Mark of Kaine was meant to be another analog of one of Spider-Man's powers, namely the ability to cling to walls.

The Jackal went on to create a new, better clone; the man who would become Ben Reilly. When the Jackal used Reilly against Peter, the ensuing battle left Reilly and the Jackal for dead. They both managed to survive; the Jackal placed himself into suspended animation in a cloning pod to awaken later; and Reilly left for New York.

Behind the scenes, Norman Osborn managed to have the files on Ben and Peter switched, so the Jackal would think Peter was the clone and Ben was the real deal. Consulting the Jackal's files, Kaine also believed the same, so he followed Ben Reilly through his "exile". For a time, he found love in the arms of police detective Louise Kennedy of Salt Lake City, but when she was discovered to be working for the criminals, coupled with Kaine's increased cellular degeneration pushing him even further towards insanity, Kaine finally lost it. After killing Louise (Although a part of him still loved her), Kaine continued to stalk Ben, making it appear as though Janine Godbe, the woman Ben loved had committed suicide and then framing Ben for murder by committing a number of murders in which Ben would be blamed (Kaine and Ben had the same fingerprints), hoping to give who he thought was the clone (Peter) the life he could never have.

Trial of Peter Parker

Peter was eventually imprisoned for Kaine's crimes (for he, too, had the same fingerprints), but after a period of time Ben took his place in prison believing it was the right thing to do.

Peter wanted Kaine to stand for what he had done, but Kaine initially refused. The two fought and ended up getting dragged into a mock-trial where Spider-Man was on trial, Kaine was his defense attorney, Carnage was the prosecutor, several Ravencroft inmates were the jury and a powerful being known as Judas Traveller was the judge. During the one-sided trial, Kaine tried to physically fight off all those who were against Spider-Man before Traveller returned them to their previous place of battle.

After an incident involving a superpowered villainess named Stunner, a weakened Kaine still refused to confess to his crimes. Spider-Man responded by knocking Kaine out and webbing him up before heading to the courthouse. Kaine reawakened before they arrived and struggled again with Spider-Man in refusing to confess. At this point, Kaine admitted that he'd done everything to protect Peter's life and revealed that he was the first clone of Peter, now partially degenerated. Spider-Man decided that if Kaine wouldn't reveal the truth, then he would reveal his true identity to the entire courtroom and end everything. Kaine pleaded for Peter not to do this and eventually gave into revealing the real truth about the murders and the "Mark of Kaine".

Maximum Clonage

After Peter gave in to the news that he was a clone and Ben was the true Peter Parker, he allied himself with the Jackal. But Kaine refused to let him throw his life away. He confronted the Jackal with the full intent of destroying him, when the Jackal manipulated his mind once more by leading Kaine to believe he would be cured of the degeneration process. Once Jackal revealed he'd once more lied, Kaine left feeling dejected. He went back to Mary Jane for answers, and after a conversation of power and responsibility, Kaine returned to the Jackal's lab in time to assist Ben in a battle against numerous Spider-clones. In the ensuing battle, Spidercide impaled him with a masonry spike, killing him.

The Jackal, curiously, then placed Kaine in a regeneration pod. When the pod was next seen, it was empty.

The Return of Kaine

During Reilly's time as Spider-Man, some of the world's strongest fighters were pitted against one another in a fighting competition called the Great Game, a fighting tournament in which wealthy people wagered on the fighters for their amusement.

One of the Game's main sponsors, James Johnsmeyer, found the pod containing the revived Kaine, and decided to initiate him into the competition, sending the Rhino to fight him. After Kaine's refusal and escape, thanks to temporary partner Shannon, Johnsmeyer still attempted to involve Kaine by allowing other Game competitors to attack him (Joystick and Polestar).

Spider-Man interfered in the skirmish and got sidetracked by Joystick and Polestar while Kaine put a near-fatal beating on Rhino and escaped with Shannon. Before they were able to get away, Spider-Man had managed to tag Shannon with a tracer and he pursued them once Polestar and Rhino were taken into custody. He found them moments before the police, but after an incident that threatened to kill the officers, Kaine and Shannon escaped again.

This time, Kaine's destination was Johnsmeyer's headquarters. Spider-Man found them once again after Kaine managed to single-handedly destroy all of Johnsmeyer's rooftop security defenses, but once inside, Johnsmeyer revealed that Shannon--who was still working for Johnsmeyer during the entire ordeal--had been manipulating and deceiving Kaine. Kaine, not wanting to become a puppet of anyone ever again, tried to kill Shannon but was persuaded by Spider-Man not to do so. Kaine left, vowing to take down every sponsor of the Great Game.

Kaine's Redemption

During a later encounter with Ben Reilly, in which Janine Godbe returned to the man she loved, Kaine finally brought himself to let go of his hatred for his brother, even saving Ben's life after nearly leaving him to die in a burning diner. Encouraged by his brother's example (as well as finally acknowledging Ben as his brother rather than his foe), Kaine handed himself over to the law, as Janine (Who was wanted for the murder of her abusive father) did the same.

Several months later, however, he was shown escaping from jail alongside many other super-powered criminals in an issue of Thunderbolts. It has never been outright stated what caused this change of character, although it is most likely that the writer or artist for Thunderbolts simply decided to add Kaine into the jailbreak scene because he didn't realize that Kaine had willingly let himself be arrested.

Later stories subtly implied that Kaine broke out to try and stop Norman Osborn after finding out that Osborn was still alive and had masterminded the Clone Saga, as a few issues of Spider-Man briefly showed Kaine working against Osborn's agents in southern Europe.

The last mention of Kaine was an offhand line from one of Osborn's men saying that Kaine had been "dealt with", although what he meant by that was left ambiguous. Nonetheless, Kaine has not been seen or heard from since.

An Alternate Future

In the alternate-future known as MC2, Kaine allied himself with the Kingpin of Crime, but was betrayed by him during a confrontation with Daredevil. Daredevil sacrificed his own life to save Kaine. Kaine took Daredevil's body to a regeneration chamber, where he was also attempting to assist Reilly Tyne, the son of Ben Reilly, who was degenerating as a result of his imperfectly cloned father's DNA. He attempted to summon the demon Zarathos to aid him in saving the two, but in the end, Zarathos turned on him and attempted to claim the boy's body as his human vessel. The soul of Daredevil fought the demon, and in the end Reilly Tyne was transformed into Darkdevil, with the soul of a hero and the powers of a demon.

Kaine attempted to kill the Kingpin but was stopped by Spider-Girl, the daughter of Peter Parker, and sent to prison. There, he was recruited by Special Agent Arthur Whedon as part of a team of captured supervillains given the opportunity to redeem themselves by working for the government. He appears to be genuinely interested in reformation, and has since been supportive of Spider-Girl and acted as an advisor to her.

If either Spider-Girl or Darkdevil is aware of their semi-genetic relationship to Kaine, it has not been revealed.

Powers and abilities

As a clone of Spider-Man, Kaine has superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and equilibrium all at higher levels than Spider-Man. His precognitive spider-sense is also more developed than that of Spider-Man, where Parker can sense immediate danger, Kaine can actually see short glimpses of the future. He uses his clinging ability primarily to burn a distinctive scarring into surfaces (and people), which he calls the "Mark of Kaine". Due to flaws in his genetic make-up Kaine does not look like an ordinary human, his skin appearing cracked and damaged like weathered stone.

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