With the events of the last few issues, both Peter and Ben are questioning their origins after the newly "reborn" Jackal played mind games with them, telling both of them first that they were the real Peter Parker, and then saying that neither of them was. Before his lab went up in an explosion and the Jackal made his escape, he hints that the real Peter Parker is somewhere in the lab. Paying no mind to the Jackal's threats, Ben and Peter leave the area.
"Players and Pawns" is the next storyline in the Clone Saga, beginning in Spectacular Spider-Man #222, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz. Kaine is exploring the wreckage of the Jackal's labs, curious to find the truth regarding the clones in Jackal's files. Kaine believes that he has always known the truth of who the real Parker was, but copies the Jackal's files to make sure. Upon doing so, another containment chamber opens to reveal Peter Parker. Before Kaine has time to react to the shocking discovery, the Jackal and his little apprentice confront him. It's revealed that the Jackal knows all about Kaine, perhaps more than anyone else. Before the two can have it out, Scrier appears and the 3rd Parker disappears during the confusion. Scrier goes back into the shadows as quickly as he appears, but not before the Jackal explains how he and Scrier share a history, as well.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I have to say, I really loved Jack, the Jackal's little apprentice. Don't ask me why. I just latched on to him and really got a kick out of him. He was witty, he had a lot of energy and spirit, and he brought a certain lightness to an otherwise very serious story line. I remember being at a Spider-Man writers' conference and just going on about how much I enjoyed Jack's presence in the stories. My exact comment was: "He's a midget Jackal - how can you go wrong with that?!" ]
The rest of the issue focuses on the particulars of the (now) three Parkers. Ben Reilly is watching Flash Thompson, the man who made his life hell in high school, coach a basketball game, seemingly having his life in order. Ben's enjoying the reunion with yet another old friend until the Jackal crashes into the building, looking for a fight. Ben changes into the Scarlet Spider and takes on Jackal.
Peter is informed by Jonah that the police want to talk to him about Ben Reilly, which causes Peter to question what Ben has been up to during the last five years. While walking along the street, Kaine appears and gives Peter the data he stole from the Jackal, proving that Peter is the real deal. While Peter always believed that to be the case, the idea of another mysterious stranger screwing with him rubs him the wrong way. He changes into Spider-Man and goes after Kaine for answers.
Meanwhile, the 3rd Parker, recently released from a cryo tube is heading... somewhere, still dazed from being in the pod and trying to remember who he is and what he should be doing.
The second part of "Players and Pawns" takes place in Web of Spider-Man #123, written by Terry Kavanagh and illustrated by Steven Butler and Randy Emberlin. This issue contains two big fight scenes: Spider-Man vs Kaine and The Scarlet Spider vs The Jackal, with neither of the products of Parker DNA faring too well against their opponents. The Scarlet Spider eventually overpowers the Jackal and has him taken into custody. The Jackal's being sent to Ravencroft, and under his threats to Scarlet we read his thoughts. He wants to go to Ravencroft. Something is there that belongs to him and it's easier to be sent there than to break in. The little Jackal impersonator offers Scarlet Spider information. He gives him a disk that is supposed to contain proof that Ben is the real Peter Parker. When the Jackal sees his assistant do this, he snaps his fingers, causing the impersonator to deteriorate. "Your future," the melting apprentice tells Scarlet Spider. "In your hands now."
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Yeah, as you can probably guess, I was sorry to see Jack go. Again, I just loved the notion of the Jackal palling around with a wacky, miniature version of himself - and remember, this was years before Mini-Me! ]
Spider-Man has his hands full with Kaine. He wants answers and he won't take no for an answer, which leads to a knockdown, drag-out fight. We saw how Kaine handled the Scarlet Spider effortlessly in a previous issue, but was that because Kaine was so powerful or because Ben was out of practice? The way he pummels Spider-Man with a barrage of devastating hits ends that debate. Kaine is one tough cookie.
The interlude of the story shows the other Peter Parker arriving in New York City, still dazed and confused, wanting to rest before he confronts his inevitable-but-unsure destiny. Most importantly, Aunt May comes out of her coma. She's regained consciousness, but isn't responding to any of the doctors. Her thoughts reveal that she needs Peter to see her and soon. The issue ends with the Scarlet Spider atop the smokestack, where the first confrontation between Spider-Man and his clone ended. Ben wonders whether the disk will hold the key to the secrets plaguing him and Peter or offer only more questions. He wonders what Peter would have done, in an homage to Amazing Spider-Man #150, where Peter throws the test results away, believing himself to be the real deal and not needing tests to verify what he feels. Ben throws the disk into the river, claiming he is not Peter Parker, or at least not that Peter Parker. "Ben Reilly no longer needs validation from anybody...but me," he says and swings off into the distance, knowing that truly "life is in the living."
Amazing Spider-Man #400 is a milestone in many ways. The main story in the issue, "The Gift," is written by JM DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley and Larry Mahlstedt. It's one of the most emotional Spider-Man stories ever told, and one of my favorite Spider-Man stories ever. While the Jackal makes a cameo appearance in Ravencroft and the third Peter Parker and Dr. Judas Traveller show up in a few panels, as well, this is really Aunt May's story. After regaining consciousness in the previous issue, May returns home to Peter and Mary Jane. Upon seeing MJ, Aunt May shows her intuition by telling Mary Jane that she's pregnant. Holding both Peter and Mary Jane by the hand, she tells them "there's no greater responsibility in the world than raising a child...shaping a young soul. No greater responsibility."
The Scarlet Spider pays a visit to Peter and they have a heart-to-heart in the yard. Ben recalls memories of climbing the old tree with the help of his/Peter's uncle. He then tells Peter that he's leaving New York. With May feeling better and Peter and MJ expecting, they have their first shot at real happiness and he doesn't want to ruin it. There is also an important revelation after Ben has left the house. He reminisces about a woman named Janine, who seems to have meant a great deal to him.
The most pivotal moment comes a week later atop the Empire State Building. Aunt May, feeling cooped up, wants to get out of the house, so Peter takes her there. As they look out the observatory, May asks Peter how it feels to swing over the city, being so free. A shocked Peter tries to brush it off, but May continues, telling Peter that she'd have to be an idiot to not know, after living under the same roof for so many years. She says that after Ben's death, she couldn't accept the fact that Peter was risking his life every day as Spider-Man. May tells Peter that she's proud of him and that if Ben were still around, he would say the same thing. After the surprising revelation, May collapses. Peter takes her home. After a few poignant words and goodbyes in front of Peter, Mary Jane and Aunt Anna, Aunt May dies.
This wasn't a dream or imaginary story. Aunt May, Peter's lifeline for so long, had passed. It was the most memorable death scene I've read in comics. From her revelation that she knew Peter's secret all along (which made complete sense) to Ben Reilly having to go through this emotional moment completely alone on the roof of the Parker home, it was just a beautifully written segment. As much as you can feel for Peter, at least he had Mary Jane and Anna to fall back on. Although he shares all of Peter's memories and feelings, Ben must deal with his pain alone, because he's just a clone. An imitation. His feelings don't count.
The shock endings we've come to expect continue in even this emotionally charged issue. After May's funeral, Detective Trevane and Lieutenant Raven come to the Parker house and arrest Peter for first-degree murder. Mary Jane tries to figure out what to do next. She wants to call Pete's friend Matt Murdock, but believes Murdock to be dead. As she gets ready to go to the police station, the Scarlet Spider arrives at the house. He removes his mask, introduces himself as Ben Reilly and tells Mary Jane that it's time they met "face to face."
DeMatteis has written one of the single greatest Spider-Man stories of all time, if not the greatest. Shocking revelations, a cliffhanger ending and the death of one of comics' most beloved and well-known characters in a mature and respectful way make this an instant classic.
There's also a very good back up feature, again written by DeMatteis (with a script by Stan Lee) and illustrated by Tom Grummett and Al Milgrom detailing the morning after Spider-Man caught the burglar who killed Uncle Ben.
Another backup story is in this extra-sized #400, but I'll review it in the next installment, since it is a 3-part Ben Reilly story that brings fan favorite John Romita Jr. back to Spider-Man.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I could go on and on about AMAZING #400, but I'll try to focus on what I feel are the most salient points
.
First, after reading the issue, Tom Brevoort and I both figured that Aunt May probably figured out that Peter was Spider-Man as a result of the events of AMAZING #200, published back in 1978. In that story, by Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard, Spider-Man rescued Aunt May and she finally overcame her fear and hatred of the web-slinger. Once she got past that, she was able to put two and two together and finally realize that the heroic young masked man who saved her was her own beloved nephew. But she decided to keep it to herself for a while, until she could fully reconcile herself to that knowledge. I suspect that as far as J.M. DeMatteis was concerned, Aunt May knew all along, from the days of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, but I just couldn't buy that. Not from the way she was written in those old stories. We had access to her thoughts, and there's simply no way she knew - not that early. Also, it would have retroactively made May look pretty manipulative and conniving, to have let Peter go on for all that time thinking she didn't know, to have let him work so hard to protect her from that knowledge. She could have eased so much of his burden by just telling him that she knew, and that she was very proud of him. But I could accept her knowing after ASM #200, and in my mind, that was the case. The good thing was that it was never stated definitively in ASM #400 exactly when May found out, so it was pretty open to interpretation.
Now, on to Aunt May's death. I had mixed emotions about it. As I've said before, I'm not really big on killing off characters, especially ones who were as important to the series as Aunt May had been. I disagreed with the writers that Aunt May had outlived her usefulness, that there was nothing left to do with her, that she should just be killed off already. I felt that was very shortsighted. Sure, these particular writers felt that way about her, but the fact was, they weren't going to be writing the books forever. Therefore, why make such a drastic, permanent change that could hamper the series in the future? If the writers didn't have any more ideas for Aunt May, then why not just send her off to Florida for an extended period of time? She'd be out of sight and out of mind, and if some later Spider-Man writer came in with a great story idea for her, he or she would have the option to bring her back to New York. Would it be as dramatic as her death? No. But it would get her off the stage until she was needed again, if and when that time ever came.
That said, I have to say that I thought the story itself was absolutely magnificent. Probably Marc DeMatteis's best work on Spider-Man. It was a total page-turner, completely engrossing. A gripping tale. I was in my mid-twenties when that comic came out, and I will admit this: I was pretty damned choked up when May finally passed on, with Peter embracing her and speaking that classic line from Peter Pan: "Second star to the right... and straight on till morning." That hasn't happened very often with me while reading a comic book. It's safe to say that no Spider-Man story published since ASM #400 has even come close to matching the quality, the power, the drama, and the heartfelt emotion of this story. A true classic.
Maybe I didn't like the idea of Aunt May dying from a creative standpoint, but it was so beautifully done in the actual story that it totally worked for me. So much so that I felt very strongly that this death should remain permanent, that it should not be undone in some future story. That it should stand as one of the most powerful moments in Spider-Man's history. Alas, we all know what happened later on, and I'll try to get into all of that in a later column.
Okay, now for some behind-the-scenes stuff. Bob Budiansky had been in place as Spider-Man Editor in Chief for a short while by the time ASM #400 was being put together. As a courtesy, Bob placed a call to Stan Lee, to let him know that we were planning to kill off Aunt May and to ask for Stan's blessing. Stan, gentleman that he is, was very gracious about the whole thing, and certainly gave his blessing. He offered his best wishes to Bob and the Spider-gang.
Of course, when May's death was greeted with dismay and contempt by a contingent of very vocal fans, Stan publicly denied any knowledge of or involvement with the story, and said that he would never want to see Aunt May die. We had a good laugh over it in the office, because it was so typical of Stan - he hates to have any fan angry at him. But the absolute truth is that Bob Budiansky did indeed call Stan in advance to let him know and to ask for his blessing. And if Stan had not given his blessing, would we have done the story anyway? Probably. But like I said, Stan is a true gentleman and would not have wanted to put Bob and the writers in that uncomfortable position. So no matter how he may have really felt about it, he was very cooperative.
Now, remember that gimmick cover for ASM #400? It was supposed to be a tombstone, featuring both the familiar ASM logo and a small Spider-Man figure engraved upon the face of the stone. I remember that this was the first gimmick cover that Bob had to oversee as Spider-Man EIC, and he was a little overwhelmed by it. I'm not sure if it was his idea to do this gimmick cover, of if it was an idea that was foisted upon him by our marketing department. I suspect it was the latter, because the marketing guys were obsessed with gimmick covers and used any excuse to do one, as often as possible. Well, the cover looked pretty good at the final stage, everything was readable and the engravings looked good. But when it finally saw print, the cover's engraving was so shallow and so faint that the cover was essentially unreadable. It looked like a dull gray, blank cover of... something. Not a success, to put it mildly. Thank goodness the story inside made up for it, proving the old adage that you can't judge a book by looking at the cover.
Final thought: I was really jazzed that Peter wouldn't get a moment's rest after Aunt May's funeral, that there was not a clean ending to the issue. I thought it was a great way to handle it. I felt that the cliffhanger ending would prevent readers from looking at ASM #400 as a jumping-off point, a good way to stop following the series. I believed Peter's arrest for murder would get the readers very intrigued about what was going to happen next, so that they would stick with us. At that moment in time, it was a really good feeling to be part of the Spider-Man Group. ]
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Part Five-B
This special edition of "Life of Reilly" will focus on the backupstory that ran in Amazing Spider-Man #400, Spider-Man #57 and SpectacularSpider-Man #223. "The Parker Legacy" was written by J.M. DeMatteis andillustrated by John Romita Jr. with inks from John Romita Sr and Al Milgrom.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I recall that early into Bob Budiansky's tenure as Spider-ManEditor-in-Chief, one of his desires was to get John Romita Jr. back on toSpider-Man in some capacity. At that time, I believe, John was the regularpenciler of THE UNCANNY X-MEN, and while he was doing terrific work on thatbook, I think he was kind of longing to do Spider-Man again. And certainly theSpider-Man editors would have been thrilled to have him back. But the reality ofthe situation was that he was one of Bob Harras's X-Men artists, and it wouldnot have been very prudent to try to steal an artist from, arguably, the mostpowerful editor at the company. ]
The story takes place five years ago, immediately after the clone Spider-Mandiscovers that he is not the real Peter Parker. He is slumped over in an alleyin the pouring rain, mourning the loss of a life he has just come to realize wasnot really his own. He picks himself up and walks along the streets of New YorkCity, oblivious to everything going on around him. Since he never was trulyalive, he wonders if it would make a difference if he died.
When a truck nearly runs him over, the clone lashes out, destroying theentire front section of the vehicle. The thing is, he's not mad because he wasalmost run over, he's mad because the driver didn't kill him. He goes back offinto the night skies, hating himself for the memories he has, the programmingthat he is under. He sleeps like a homeless man, underneath debris in an alley,and when he wakes up he sneaks into Parker's apartment, realizing the irony init all. The clone wonders briefly if he should just confront and kill Parker,and reclaim the life which is all he knows, but he is no murderer. Rememberingwhere he/Peter kept his old clothes and emergency money, he takes them all. Healso keeps the costume.
After paying a quick visit to the home of Aunt May and quickly leaving beforehe's discovered, the clone purchases a bus ticket bound towards the West. Hedoesn't really know where he's going, but he does realize he needs to leave NewYork. A friendly guy seated next to him tries to engage the clone inconversation but is told to shut up about his life. The clone immediately sensesa twinge of guilt for being so rude but decides against apologizing to the man.Being decent is what Peter Parker would do, and he's not Peter Parker. He fallsasleep and dreams of fighting his enemies as Spider-Man, until the Jackalappears and tells the villains that they're wasting their time. This Spider-Manis just a fake, a puppet of the Jackal's creation, unworthy of their time. Afailed experiment. He awakens to his fellow passengers screaming as the bus hasblown a tire and skids into the oncoming lane. Spider-Man would do something tosave them all, but the clone wonders if maybe he should just let the end comeonce and for all.
As he comes to the realization that clone or not, he still is a good man, thedriver regains control of the bus. The passengers are sent to a motel, and thestranger (Clifford Gross) that was sitting next to the clone invites the cloneto have a drink with him. After Clifford reveals that his life has gone to hellwith his wife leaving and his business going under, the clone tells him that heshould disappear... that no one would care. Later, as he walks through the motelhalls, his Spider-sense goes off and the clone breaks into one of the roomswhere Clifford is sitting with a gun barrel in his mouth. He is stopped fromkilling himself and asks why the clone stopped him, when he's the one who toldhim that he should disappear because he was worthless.
The clone tells Clifford that he was wrong. Essentially describing his ownsituation, he tells Clifford that losing it all can be a blessing. It's a chanceto build something even better than before. It's the beginning of a new life,not the end of one. Clifford decides to turn back and visit his kids instead ofcontinuing Westward. He asks the clone what he's going to do and the responseis: "Going back is out of the question, but going forward? Now that mayjust have some possibilities." As the bus pulls away, Clifford asks whatthe clone's name is. Ben Reilly. His uncle's first name. His aunt's maiden name.It's told that Ben fell deeper into darkness before seeing the light anddiscovering himself. But even in those dark times, he would never give up thelessons he learned from his aunt and uncle. Clone or no, he would live up towhat they taught him and never "surrender the Parker legacy."
DeMatties told the definitive Aunt May story that same month in AmazingSpider-Man #400 and in this 3 part backup feature, he tells us the origin of"Ben Reilly." Whereas Aunt May's story was the final chapter of a longlife, the Ben Reilly story was more about hope and the optimism for an unknownfuture.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Of all the Spider-Man writers at that time, J.M. DeMatteis was thebest suited to tell this tale. He seemed to really "get" the characterof Ben Reilly, to really understand how he thought and felt and what he wentthrough in those early days. Marc also seemed to be the writer most enthusiasticabout Ben, the one who understood all the story possibilities inherent in thecharacter. He did his usual wonderful job on "The Parker Legacy," andI think that story did a lot to make Ben a character that the Spider-Man fanscould like and respect. ]
The art was absolutely incredible on the book, with 3 great artists known fortheir work on Spider-Man coming together for this important story, but it wasthe story that left an impact.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : John's work had changed considerably from the last time he haddone any major work on Spider-Man - his style had gotten a lot grittier, a lotmore dramatic, but still very recognizable as John Romita Jr. Clearly, John hadgrown considerably as an artist and as a storyteller over the years, and to havehim as the artist of "The Parker Legacy" made it a truly specialevent. And, of course, it was so cool to have JR Senior inking him again. Theydidn't work together nearly enough, in my opinion, and their combined efforts on"The Parker Legacy" were pretty exciting to this longtime Spider-Manreader. Alas, John Senior didn't ink all three chapters, but Al Milgrom turnedin a great inking job, too. Al is one of the best - and, unfortunately, one ofthe most underrated - inkers in the business, and it was always nice to see himget the chance to strut his stuff over high-quality work. That's why I felt sostrongly about hiring Al to ink the pencils of Steve Rude, no slouch himself, onthe INCREDIBLE HULK VS. SUPERMAN one-shot that I edited. Take a look at thatbook, if you haven't already, and you'll see what I mean. ]
Regardless of the ultimate fate of Ben Reilly in the Spider-Man books, thisshort story established him as a real character. He wasn't just a clone or agimmick. His personality was different from Peter's. His experiences weredifferent. The past five years in exile, wandering the country, gave Bencompletely different life lessons: good and bad. During that time on his own, hehad become complete. "The Parker Legacy" was just the first glimpseinto that life.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Of course, this 3-parter served as a precursor to the SPIDER-MAN:THE LOST YEARS limited series, which we'll be getting to in the coming weeks. ]
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Part 6
The two part "Aftershocks" begins in Spider-Man #57, written by Howard Mackie and guest illustrated by John Romita Jr and Joe Rubinstein. This issue has several different stories going on simultaneously, and the effect is a fast-paced page-turner. Aunt May has recently passed away and Peter Parker has been arrested for murder. Upon discovering this, Ben decides against going back into exile and goes to comfort Mary Jane instead. It was a good idea in theory, I suppose. Mary Jane Parker is none to pleased to see Mr. Reilly and greets him with a slap in the face, accusing him of causing more problems than helping. He leaves, but promises to help anyway. Peter is held without bail and Jacob Raven pays him a visit, informing him that he won't get away with killing Raven's former partner.
At the Bugle, Joe Robertson asks Jonah Jameson what they're going to do regarding the Parker story and if the Bugle will help the Parkers at all. Jonah is his usual gruff self and quickly dismisses Joe. We later discover that Jonah is privately footing all of Peter's legal bills. As the third Parker wanders the streets in search of answers, the jailed Peter seeks the same with his wife. He doesn't understand how he could be arrested for a crime he knows he didn't commit. Elsewhere, Jacob Raven is beginning to have doubts himself, while Kaine continues to have visions of Mary Jane's death.
Peter #3 is attacked by a street thug and rediscovers his powers, as he also comes to remember an old saying: "with power comes responsibility." As the Scarlet Spider follows Mary Jane to watch over her from above, he sees that she is confronted by Judas Traveller. Judas wants to understand Spider-Man through the woman who loves him, and although he is anxious to meet Ben again, it's an inconvenient time to do so. With a snap of his fingers, Traveller gets the street to explode, preoccupying the Scarlet Spider, who wonders how Traveller has seemingly gotten even more powerful. He also thinks back to how the villains have gotten a lot more powerful since the days of Mysterio and the Shocker. Traveller causes buildings to collapse, and even more explosions as the Scarlet Spider fights to keep Mary Jane from being abducted. In the end, a battered Scarlet Spider grabs Traveller's wrist before he can leave. Judas knows that Ben will not give up, and releases Mary Jane. He leaves, telling Ben, "Soon, very soon...you, Peter and I will sit down together and get to know all about one another." The Scarlet Spider apologizes to Mary Jane for intruding, but before he can leave she says that she's willing to try and talk to him.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : And so Judas Traveller returns once again. As Ben Reilly points out in this story, Traveller seems even more powerful than before, and how the current crop of super-baddies are a far cry from guys like Mysterio and the Shocker. In my opinion, this wasn't necessarily a good thing. I always preferred a more street-level, realistic Spider-Man, as depicted in the stories by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr. I had been feeling for quite a while - before I even started working at Marvel - that Spider-Man was being pushed in a direction that took him away from his simple roots, and I was hoping that would change in the new regime. For example, I knew how popular characters like Venom and Carnage were , but I didn't really like them from the start, because I felt that they were too "far out" for Spider-Man. With rare exceptions , Spider-Man shouldn't really be dealing with alien life forms or supernatural weirdness or epic "save the entire world" scenarios. I felt that Spider-Man stories, above all else, have to be aboutpeople, and that was getting lost amidst all the stuff that was going on with the character.
The biggest problem with Judas Traveller was that he was just too much of an enigma. What were the scope and nature of his powers? No one seemed to have an answer. What was his primary motivation? The answer from the Spider-Man writers was always, "Well, he's trying to understand the true nature of evil." Uhhhm, okay, but that's a bit... vague, you know? What does Traveller hope to gain from understanding evil? What's his ultimate goal? That always remained shrouded in mystery - even to us!
With the best Spider-Man villains, you understand who they are and what they want. For example, they're master criminals seeking to become the absolute crimelord of New York . Or they're high-tech thieves out for wealth and glory . Or they're power-mad lunatics . Or they're simply career criminals with super-powers . You get the idea. Even Venom has an understandable motivation, as contrived as it is. But with Traveller... there just wasn't anything that you could really put your finger on, and it was difficult to get interested in him, at least from my point of view.
This kind of thing was going on in the X-Men books all the time back then - these new villains would show up with a lot of flash and hype, with a lot of mystery and veiled references surrounding them. And in the end, nothing would come of it. None of them ended up having any real staying power, because they were so half-baked, ill-defined, and poorly developed. As a budding writer at the time, I learned a very important lesson from watching this happen at Marvel: try to know who your characters are before you introduce them. Maybe not every last detail of their lives and histories, but at least know who they are, what they want, their connections to the other characters in the story, their powers and abilities, and their weaknesses. It's kind of like Method acting for writing.
Looking back, I think Traveller may have been an attempt to introduce an X-Men-like villain into the Spider-Man universe, with the thinking that what was working for the X-Men books at that time would also work for Spider-Man. I don't know for sure, but that's my theory.
At any rate, I eventually got to say the last word on Judas Traveller, and correct the situation as I saw fit. More on that when we get to it. ]
Kaine pays a visit to Jacob Raven, telling him that he's arrested the wrong man. When Raven explains that the evidence indicates otherwise, Kaine puts his hand to Raven's face and gives him a non-lethal mark similar to that found on his other victims. He then tells Raven to look in the mirror and think about the "evidence" some more. Meanwhile, at Ravencroft, the Jackal contemplates the latest developments and thinks that "I couldn't have planned it better. Or did I?"
The second part of this story takes place in Spectacular Spider-Man #223, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Busema and Bill Sienkiewicz. It begins with the Jackal being interviewed by Doctor Kafka and making threats about genetically reengineering the entire human race. Ben and Mary Jane are having a quiet moment at the Parker home, but Mary Jane still can't face him without his mask, so he remains in costume the entire time. At the hospital, Detective Trevane talks with Jacob Raven, who removes his bandages and proclaims that he arrested the wrong man. On the streets on NYC, the third Parker sees a newspaper article with Peter Parker's photo along with the article about his arrest, which prompts him to act.
In prison, Peter Parker wonders if Ben Reilly is responsible for the murder for which he's been arrested. He debates breaking out of prison and taking down Reilly, but that would lead to the revelation of all their identities and hell for Mary Jane and their future child. He decides to stay put for now. Back at his home, Mary Jane and Ben are discussing why he is determined to help Peter. Ben tells Mary Jane that he has a degeneration factor, like all clones, and that it's only a matter of time before it catches up to him. He wants to help Peter so that at least one of them can have a happy life. With the revelation comes trust from Mary Jane, and she removes his mask.
Another old storyline comes in as the Jackal looks through Ravencroft's private files, specifically those of Malcom MacBride, a.k.a. the second Carrion. MacBride was a former associate of Professor Miles Warren who became Carrion. The Carrion virus was recently absorbed into Shriek, an enemy of Spider-Man's. The Jackal goes after Shriek because he wants the virus. Describing it as a weapon that makes real organic matter suffer the same effect as clone degeneration, the Jackal says that since he created it years ago, it belongs to him. Afterwards, the Jackal walks out of the institution with no one any wiser.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I believe the Carrion aspect of the story was added because Mark Bernardo and I kept pointing out to everybody that we'd have to address the matter of Carrion, since he was linked to the original clone stories and was later explained away by Gerry Conway following "The Evolutionary War." We'd have to make sense of it all, or they're still be dangling plot threads that didn't jibe with what we were doing. In the end, none of the regular Spider-Man writers got around to clearing it up, so Tom Brevoort and I ended up having to produce a special one-shot to settle the matter of Carrion once and for all. ]
The 3rd Parker passes the infamous warehouse where Spider-Man captured the burglar who killed Uncle Ben and comes to understand who he is. He rushes to the cemetery, to the graves of May and Ben and remembers the life he had. Falling to his knees, hands raised high, he screams, "I am Peter Parker."
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I wasn't thrilled with the Jackal's threats of genetically reengineering the entire human race. I felt it was a bit too "global" for a Spider-Man story. If you go back and read the original clone stories , you see that, when all is said and done, Miles Warren was a pathetic, lovesick, screwball scientist obsessed with the memory of Gwen Stacy, and he was desperate to bring her back to life any way possible. He was also a split personality, and his "Jackal" personality led to him becoming a major crime figure. From a character standpoint, nowhere in any of this does a desire to reengineer the human race really come into play. For that matter, I never really understood why he spent all those intervening years in a pod, genetically reengineering himself into a mutated version of his Jackal persona, but I guess that's more productive than sitting around in your underwear watching Godzilla movies. ]
At the Bugle, Joe Robertson asks Jonah Jameson what they're going to do regarding the Parker story and if the Bugle will help the Parkers at all. Jonah is his usual gruff self and quickly dismisses Joe. We later discover that Jonah is privately footing all of Peter's legal bills. As the third Parker wanders the streets in search of answers, the jailed Peter seeks the same with his wife. He doesn't understand how he could be arrested for a crime he knows he didn't commit. Elsewhere, Jacob Raven is beginning to have doubts himself, while Kaine continues to have visions of Mary Jane's death.
Peter #3 is attacked by a street thug and rediscovers his powers, as he also comes to remember an old saying: "with power comes responsibility." As the Scarlet Spider follows Mary Jane to watch over her from above, he sees that she is confronted by Judas Traveller. Judas wants to understand Spider-Man through the woman who loves him, and although he is anxious to meet Ben again, it's an inconvenient time to do so. With a snap of his fingers, Traveller gets the street to explode, preoccupying the Scarlet Spider, who wonders how Traveller has seemingly gotten even more powerful. He also thinks back to how the villains have gotten a lot more powerful since the days of Mysterio and the Shocker. Traveller causes buildings to collapse, and even more explosions as the Scarlet Spider fights to keep Mary Jane from being abducted. In the end, a battered Scarlet Spider grabs Traveller's wrist before he can leave. Judas knows that Ben will not give up, and releases Mary Jane. He leaves, telling Ben, "Soon, very soon...you, Peter and I will sit down together and get to know all about one another." The Scarlet Spider apologizes to Mary Jane for intruding, but before he can leave she says that she's willing to try and talk to him.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : And so Judas Traveller returns once again. As Ben Reilly points out in this story, Traveller seems even more powerful than before, and how the current crop of super-baddies are a far cry from guys like Mysterio and the Shocker. In my opinion, this wasn't necessarily a good thing. I always preferred a more street-level, realistic Spider-Man, as depicted in the stories by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr. I had been feeling for quite a while - before I even started working at Marvel - that Spider-Man was being pushed in a direction that took him away from his simple roots, and I was hoping that would change in the new regime. For example, I knew how popular characters like Venom and Carnage were , but I didn't really like them from the start, because I felt that they were too "far out" for Spider-Man. With rare exceptions , Spider-Man shouldn't really be dealing with alien life forms or supernatural weirdness or epic "save the entire world" scenarios. I felt that Spider-Man stories, above all else, have to be aboutpeople, and that was getting lost amidst all the stuff that was going on with the character.
The biggest problem with Judas Traveller was that he was just too much of an enigma. What were the scope and nature of his powers? No one seemed to have an answer. What was his primary motivation? The answer from the Spider-Man writers was always, "Well, he's trying to understand the true nature of evil." Uhhhm, okay, but that's a bit... vague, you know? What does Traveller hope to gain from understanding evil? What's his ultimate goal? That always remained shrouded in mystery - even to us!
With the best Spider-Man villains, you understand who they are and what they want. For example, they're master criminals seeking to become the absolute crimelord of New York . Or they're high-tech thieves out for wealth and glory . Or they're power-mad lunatics . Or they're simply career criminals with super-powers . You get the idea. Even Venom has an understandable motivation, as contrived as it is. But with Traveller... there just wasn't anything that you could really put your finger on, and it was difficult to get interested in him, at least from my point of view.
This kind of thing was going on in the X-Men books all the time back then - these new villains would show up with a lot of flash and hype, with a lot of mystery and veiled references surrounding them. And in the end, nothing would come of it. None of them ended up having any real staying power, because they were so half-baked, ill-defined, and poorly developed. As a budding writer at the time, I learned a very important lesson from watching this happen at Marvel: try to know who your characters are before you introduce them. Maybe not every last detail of their lives and histories, but at least know who they are, what they want, their connections to the other characters in the story, their powers and abilities, and their weaknesses. It's kind of like Method acting for writing.
Looking back, I think Traveller may have been an attempt to introduce an X-Men-like villain into the Spider-Man universe, with the thinking that what was working for the X-Men books at that time would also work for Spider-Man. I don't know for sure, but that's my theory.
At any rate, I eventually got to say the last word on Judas Traveller, and correct the situation as I saw fit. More on that when we get to it. ]
Kaine pays a visit to Jacob Raven, telling him that he's arrested the wrong man. When Raven explains that the evidence indicates otherwise, Kaine puts his hand to Raven's face and gives him a non-lethal mark similar to that found on his other victims. He then tells Raven to look in the mirror and think about the "evidence" some more. Meanwhile, at Ravencroft, the Jackal contemplates the latest developments and thinks that "I couldn't have planned it better. Or did I?"
The second part of this story takes place in Spectacular Spider-Man #223, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Busema and Bill Sienkiewicz. It begins with the Jackal being interviewed by Doctor Kafka and making threats about genetically reengineering the entire human race. Ben and Mary Jane are having a quiet moment at the Parker home, but Mary Jane still can't face him without his mask, so he remains in costume the entire time. At the hospital, Detective Trevane talks with Jacob Raven, who removes his bandages and proclaims that he arrested the wrong man. On the streets on NYC, the third Parker sees a newspaper article with Peter Parker's photo along with the article about his arrest, which prompts him to act.
In prison, Peter Parker wonders if Ben Reilly is responsible for the murder for which he's been arrested. He debates breaking out of prison and taking down Reilly, but that would lead to the revelation of all their identities and hell for Mary Jane and their future child. He decides to stay put for now. Back at his home, Mary Jane and Ben are discussing why he is determined to help Peter. Ben tells Mary Jane that he has a degeneration factor, like all clones, and that it's only a matter of time before it catches up to him. He wants to help Peter so that at least one of them can have a happy life. With the revelation comes trust from Mary Jane, and she removes his mask.
Another old storyline comes in as the Jackal looks through Ravencroft's private files, specifically those of Malcom MacBride, a.k.a. the second Carrion. MacBride was a former associate of Professor Miles Warren who became Carrion. The Carrion virus was recently absorbed into Shriek, an enemy of Spider-Man's. The Jackal goes after Shriek because he wants the virus. Describing it as a weapon that makes real organic matter suffer the same effect as clone degeneration, the Jackal says that since he created it years ago, it belongs to him. Afterwards, the Jackal walks out of the institution with no one any wiser.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I believe the Carrion aspect of the story was added because Mark Bernardo and I kept pointing out to everybody that we'd have to address the matter of Carrion, since he was linked to the original clone stories and was later explained away by Gerry Conway following "The Evolutionary War." We'd have to make sense of it all, or they're still be dangling plot threads that didn't jibe with what we were doing. In the end, none of the regular Spider-Man writers got around to clearing it up, so Tom Brevoort and I ended up having to produce a special one-shot to settle the matter of Carrion once and for all. ]
The 3rd Parker passes the infamous warehouse where Spider-Man captured the burglar who killed Uncle Ben and comes to understand who he is. He rushes to the cemetery, to the graves of May and Ben and remembers the life he had. Falling to his knees, hands raised high, he screams, "I am Peter Parker."
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I wasn't thrilled with the Jackal's threats of genetically reengineering the entire human race. I felt it was a bit too "global" for a Spider-Man story. If you go back and read the original clone stories , you see that, when all is said and done, Miles Warren was a pathetic, lovesick, screwball scientist obsessed with the memory of Gwen Stacy, and he was desperate to bring her back to life any way possible. He was also a split personality, and his "Jackal" personality led to him becoming a major crime figure. From a character standpoint, nowhere in any of this does a desire to reengineer the human race really come into play. For that matter, I never really understood why he spent all those intervening years in a pod, genetically reengineering himself into a mutated version of his Jackal persona, but I guess that's more productive than sitting around in your underwear watching Godzilla movies. ]
Part 7
Another epic storyline begins this time around with "The Mark of Kaine," a five-parter that sheds a little more light on Kaine and more specifically, the third Peter Parker that's been running around for the past couple of weeks.
Part 1 begins in Web of Spider-Man #124, written by Terry Kavanagh and illustrated by Steven Butler and Randy Emberlin. The story begins with a press conference announcing a high-powered defense attorney for Peter Parker, while Ben Reilly takes Mary Jane to his friend, Dr. Seward Trainer. They're running tests on the unborn child MJ is carrying to make sure that everything is okay with the baby. Everyone is a little worried that Peter's irradiated blood may have consequences for the fetus and they want to find out for certain that the child will be all right. Kaine observes from afar, as usual, growing concerned that the walls between Reilly and Parker are crumbling. He also sees that Mary Jane will die... with child. Meanwhile, the third Peter Parker wanders around his old home and wonders how long he's been away and how it came to this. At the same time, Joe Robertson and Jonah Jameson are having a dispute over the integrity of the paper. Jonah wants them to bury any stories about Peter's trial.
In prison, a fire breaks out and Peter comes to the rescue of some of the prisoners, using his super powers to get them out of their cells before the smoke can overcome them. He returns, safely to his cell with no one the wiser.
Jacob Raven is confronted by Doctor Octopus's old partner in crime (and former lover), Stunner. She tells him that she's heard Raven has doubts about Peter's guilt and asks him to team up with her to find the real killer, who also killed her beloved Ock.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : As I recall, Stunner was created by Tom DeFalco. She was an interesting character, since she obviously had very strong ties to Doctor Octopus, even though we had never seen her before this. There was clearly a lot of back-story to her, and I was curious to see how Tom D. was going to retroactively work her in to Ock's history. Tom D. definitely had a lot of ideas for Stunner, which he would reveal over time. In fact, an entire storyline would later be done that would be the culmination of all the groundwork laid down for her throughout the clone saga and beyond. ]
As Mary Jane leaves Dr. Trainer's labs, Kaine takes her into the sewers. He warns her that her life is near an end and before he can say anymore, she turns a drain on, forcing the water to topple Kaine. Making her escape to the streets again, MJ comes face to face with...Peter Parker.
Part 2 takes place in Amazing Spider-Man #401, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley and Larry Mahlstedt. Mary Jane doesn't know whether this Peter Parker is her husband or Ben, but he tells her that he's neither; that while he's been locked away for five years an imposter stole his life from him. Kaine appears to warn Mary Jane about this new Parker and he and the 3rd Parker fight it out. Kaine wins again, but his fight takes long enough for Mary Jane to get away.
Moments later, Ben Reilly gets a call from Mary Jane, who informs him about the latest developments. At the same time, Peter is visited in prison by one of Traveller's associates, who warns Peter of the danger his wife is in. He decides to take control and come to Mary Jane's aid, even if it means damaging his own reputation should he be caught escaping. As he stands outside the prison walls, Traveller visits him and offers his help. He has put an illusion of Peter Parker in the cell, to remain until Peter can return from his task. Scrier appears after Peter moves on and questions Judas's fascination with the man. Again, a strong connection is hinted at between the two men.
Back at the Parker home, Mary Jane holds a gun in her hand. With all of the villains who've known Peter's secret, she felt safer about having a weapon for protection. She is surprised to find Spider-Man in the house, as well, but it's the 3rd Parker. Mary Jane warns him to stay away as he comes closer and closer. She fires the gun, missing, but the shock is enough to make her lose control. Before anything else can happen, Kaine appears to take out the 3rd Parker and grab Mary Jane. Kaine contemplates killing Parker, but hears something upstairs so he takes MJ and quickly leaves, heading toward his underground hideaway. It turns out that the noise Kaine heard was the Scarlet Spider coming inside. He wonders what Peter is doing home, but before the other Parker can answer, the Peter who just left prison enters the home.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Okay, at this point, the Spider-Man books were in danger of becoming like that old Marx Brothers movie where everyone was running around dressed like Groucho. Now that the three Peters were in the same place at the same time, there needed to be some sense of resolution to all of this. The clone saga was still very engaging and compelling, but from a story point of view, things really should have been headed for the ultimate conclusion.
As an aside, it should be noted that sales on the Spider-Man books at this time were phenomenal. I feel the need to point at that, despite popular belief, the clone saga significantly boosted sales on the Spider-Man books. At a time when the comics industry was starting to head downward, with sales dropping across the board on every title, the Spider-Man line was bucking the trend, with sales holding steady and even increasing each month. Of course, the downside to it was that everyone on the business side of Marvel was pushing us to keep the clone saga going for as long as possible, to milk it for all it was worth. Looking back, I can understand their position - the clone saga was one of the very few things that was actually working in the comics industry at the time, and there was a great deal of fear that the sales would drop like an anvil once the storyline was over. But of course, unnaturally prolonging what was at its essence a very finite storyline was extremely short-term thinking, and the kind of approach that could hurt the entire franchise. We (the editors and the writers) knew this, but the sales and marketing departments wielded a lot of power and influence at that time, and we had little choice but to follow their lead. Which is why Marvel was doing so many gimmick covers and "Alpha" issues and "Omega" issues and multi-part crossover storylines and... well, you get the idea. ]
Spider-Man #58, written by Howard Mackie and illustrated by Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna, continues "The Mark of Kaine" with part 3. The three Spider-Men try and make sense of all the confusion. Ben makes the comment that the only thing he's sure of is that he isn't Peter Parker. Scarlet Spider confronts the newest Parker and asks what has happened. The man passes out from the trauma incurred by his battle with Kaine. Scarlet then goes to the Peter who was in prison to find out what he's doing, and Peter reveals that he's going to look for his wife. He takes pieces from his old black costume: the gloves, the mask and web-shooters and creates a non-costume costume. He goes off, telling Scarlet to take care of the newest addition and when Ben goes to do so, he finds that the 3rd Parker in the Spider costume has disappeared.
Out on the rooftops of New York, Peter Parker (black suit) waits for a sign from Mary Jane and is accompanied by Ben, who tells him that he'll need his help to battle Kaine. While Mary Jane tries to get answers from Kaine, she pulls out a device from her pocket, a spider-tracer specially designed with a more powerful frequency to be used in emergencies. Peter gets the signal and goes in search of his wife, telling Ben to stay out of it. Meanwhile, Spider-Man (Peter Parker #3), insists that he won't let the two fakes get the better of him.
Peter in black and Scarlet find the source of the signal and head into the sewers. Scarlet tells Peter that he should go in first and deal with the dangerous Kaine while Peter concentrates on rescuing Mary Jane. As they move on, Peter 3 in the Spider-Man suit tells them that he'll find MJ and kill whoever took her and that the two other Spiders should just leave them alone.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : That pretty much killed any speculation that Peter #3 could be the real guy - Peter Parker would never condone killing. So from that moment on, Peter #3 was essentially nothing more than another plot point that needed to be wrapped up. ]
Mary Jane is on the run from Kaine, who appears to want to fulfill his visions of Mary Jane's death himself when the 3 Spider-Men appear. They pounce on Kaine as MJ tries to get away, not sure that any of them are the real Peter Parker. Scarlet leads the assault on Kaine while Peter in black goes after Mary Jane, who has Peter 3 following her. Peter 3 starts to go crazy, insisting that he's the real Parker and needs to kill everyone else. Before Peter in black and MJ can turn around to escape, they find Kaine blocking the other exit.
The ultra-confusing storyline reaches Part 4 in Spectacular Spider-Man #224, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz. The 3rd Parker now stands revealed as nothing more than a genetically engineered killing machine whose purpose was to destroy. As Peter and Mary Jane make their escape, Kaine and Scarlet Spider take on the monster Parker, who now has the ability to recode his DNA and morph his body at will.
Peter and Mary Jane make their way out of the sewers and onto safety, but they both know that Ben Reilly needs help or he'll never survive. Mary Jane gives her blessing, and Peter grabs the black mask and goes back to save his "brother." The attack comes up onto the surface and the assassin Parker is seemingly killed when a propane truck explodes. Kaine survives and moves on, leaving Reilly be. Peter and Ben confront each other outside, where Peter accuses Ben of the murders he's been arrested for. Ben proclaims his innocence but knows that words can only do so much, so he offers to switch places with Peter. He'll go to prison and let Peter return home to his wife. As Ben Reilly sneaks back to prison as Peter Parker, Scrier and Traveller make their observations.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I liked the fact that the third Peter Parker went down absolutely convinced that he was the real one, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Tom DeFalco did a nice job with this issue, injecting Peter #3 with a real sense of tragedy. He wasn't just a run-of-the-mill, morphing, wisecracking bad guy. Incidentally, Peter #3 was referred to as "Freakface" throughout the issue, and I remember that Tom D. was pushing for that to become the character's regular name in the future. It certainly was no worse than the name that was actually used later on - more on that when we get to it. Overall, though, my belief was that once Peter #3 was revealed to be just another clone, he should have been disposed of as quickly and as permanently as possible. He'd already served his purpose as a red herring, and there were already too many variations of Peter Parker running around. We never should have seen him again, in my opinion. ]
The story reached its conclusion in Spider-Man Unlimited #9, written by Tom Lyle and illustrated by Ron Lim, Ron Garney, Tod Smith, Tom Palmer, Tim Tuohy, Al Milgrom, Jimmy Palmiotti and Randy Emberlin. The main focus of this issue concerns some of Spider-Man's greatest enemies: Vulture, Hobgoblin, Mysterio, Lady Scorpia, Beetle, Shocker and Electro, who gather to decide what to do about Kaine. Since the mysterious vigilante has already killed two of Spider-Man's enemies, they feel that any one of them can be next and should strike proactively.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Tom Lyle was promised the opportunity to write when he came over to Marvel to draw Spider-Man. To fulfill that promise, Spider-Man Group Editor Danny Fingeroth gave Lyle the SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED title as a regular writing assignment. For those of you who don't remember, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED was a double-sized comic that was published quarterly, sort of like an annual that's published every three months. I could certainly relate to Tom Lyle's desire to write, and he was very enthusiastic about being a part of the creative process. But to be honest, he really wasn't ready for such a big writing assignment. Certainly not in the middle of the clone saga, during which every chapter needed to be a total winner - and in that regard, even experienced, seasoned writers occasionally stumbled. But Danny felt he had an obligation to Tom L. and wanted to keep his promise, which is certainly very admirable.
When Bob Budiansky became Editor in Chief of the Spider-Man Group, Danny was still in place as Group Editor, and Bob didn't want to upset the apple cart too much at the beginning. Nor did Bob want to undermine Danny's authority as Group Editor. Despite his own doubts about Tom Lyle's writing, Bob chose not to overturn Danny's decision. Again, this was admirable. Creatively, however, this would prove to be not the best move. ]
Peter Parker, in Scarlet Spider guise, is heading home to Mary Jane but gets pre-occupied with the Beetle. During their fight, he loses his web pack, which contains the black costume. The pack is found by the police and reporter Ken Ellis, who recognizes the suit and wonders how the Scarlet Spider came into its possession. Peter finally makes it home and reunites with his wife, while Ben tries to adapt to prison life. A visitor is announced and Ben meets with Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, who Ben doesn't recognize. Felicia realizes that something strange is going on and wonders what happened to Peter. Meanwhile, Jacob Raven and Stunner continue their questioning of the underworld in an effort to find out more about Kaine. Stunner's methods of interrogation are a little harsher than his, but Raven wants Parker exonerated by any means.
Across town, Kaine attacks the Hobgoblin, who is soon rescued by his fellow super-villains. None of them seem to be able to take Kaine on, but Scarlet (Peter) Spider arrives on the scene to makes sure that no one dies during the extraordinary battle. Eventually it ends with everyone getting away relatively unscathed, and Peter reaching a decision that he must help Ben no matter what. He also needs to find Kaine before he can become a threat to him and Mary Jane again. Speaking of Mary Jane, she's received a call from Dr. Trainer, requesting that she visit his lab to go over the tests they took earlier. After meeting with him, something prompts MJ to run away, worried about whatever news she just received.
Later that evening, Scrier appears at the scene of the battle that occurred between Peter, Ben, Kaine and the assassin Parker. He finds a pile of goo with shreds of the Spider costume and takes it, believing that it may be of some use down the line. The story ends with Mary Jane appearing at Felicia Hardy's. Though they aren't the best of friends, MJ needs someone to talk to that she can confide in.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : All the identity switching, multiple versions of costumes... it was reaching fairly ludicrous proportions. As mentioned earlier, this was an ultra-confusing storyline, but there was at least some forward momentum. The trouble with Mary Jane's pregnancy was obviously the most compelling subplot. Bringing in the Black Cat and having her interact with Ben, who was pretending to be Peter, was a nice idea. And we saw more of Scrier's mysterious solo activities. But considering the fact that the story was called "The Mark of Kaine," we really didn't learn all that much about him, did we? Oh, well, it's not like there wouldn't be plenty of other opportunities for that along the way... ]
Part 1 begins in Web of Spider-Man #124, written by Terry Kavanagh and illustrated by Steven Butler and Randy Emberlin. The story begins with a press conference announcing a high-powered defense attorney for Peter Parker, while Ben Reilly takes Mary Jane to his friend, Dr. Seward Trainer. They're running tests on the unborn child MJ is carrying to make sure that everything is okay with the baby. Everyone is a little worried that Peter's irradiated blood may have consequences for the fetus and they want to find out for certain that the child will be all right. Kaine observes from afar, as usual, growing concerned that the walls between Reilly and Parker are crumbling. He also sees that Mary Jane will die... with child. Meanwhile, the third Peter Parker wanders around his old home and wonders how long he's been away and how it came to this. At the same time, Joe Robertson and Jonah Jameson are having a dispute over the integrity of the paper. Jonah wants them to bury any stories about Peter's trial.
In prison, a fire breaks out and Peter comes to the rescue of some of the prisoners, using his super powers to get them out of their cells before the smoke can overcome them. He returns, safely to his cell with no one the wiser.
Jacob Raven is confronted by Doctor Octopus's old partner in crime (and former lover), Stunner. She tells him that she's heard Raven has doubts about Peter's guilt and asks him to team up with her to find the real killer, who also killed her beloved Ock.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : As I recall, Stunner was created by Tom DeFalco. She was an interesting character, since she obviously had very strong ties to Doctor Octopus, even though we had never seen her before this. There was clearly a lot of back-story to her, and I was curious to see how Tom D. was going to retroactively work her in to Ock's history. Tom D. definitely had a lot of ideas for Stunner, which he would reveal over time. In fact, an entire storyline would later be done that would be the culmination of all the groundwork laid down for her throughout the clone saga and beyond. ]
As Mary Jane leaves Dr. Trainer's labs, Kaine takes her into the sewers. He warns her that her life is near an end and before he can say anymore, she turns a drain on, forcing the water to topple Kaine. Making her escape to the streets again, MJ comes face to face with...Peter Parker.
Part 2 takes place in Amazing Spider-Man #401, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley and Larry Mahlstedt. Mary Jane doesn't know whether this Peter Parker is her husband or Ben, but he tells her that he's neither; that while he's been locked away for five years an imposter stole his life from him. Kaine appears to warn Mary Jane about this new Parker and he and the 3rd Parker fight it out. Kaine wins again, but his fight takes long enough for Mary Jane to get away.
Moments later, Ben Reilly gets a call from Mary Jane, who informs him about the latest developments. At the same time, Peter is visited in prison by one of Traveller's associates, who warns Peter of the danger his wife is in. He decides to take control and come to Mary Jane's aid, even if it means damaging his own reputation should he be caught escaping. As he stands outside the prison walls, Traveller visits him and offers his help. He has put an illusion of Peter Parker in the cell, to remain until Peter can return from his task. Scrier appears after Peter moves on and questions Judas's fascination with the man. Again, a strong connection is hinted at between the two men.
Back at the Parker home, Mary Jane holds a gun in her hand. With all of the villains who've known Peter's secret, she felt safer about having a weapon for protection. She is surprised to find Spider-Man in the house, as well, but it's the 3rd Parker. Mary Jane warns him to stay away as he comes closer and closer. She fires the gun, missing, but the shock is enough to make her lose control. Before anything else can happen, Kaine appears to take out the 3rd Parker and grab Mary Jane. Kaine contemplates killing Parker, but hears something upstairs so he takes MJ and quickly leaves, heading toward his underground hideaway. It turns out that the noise Kaine heard was the Scarlet Spider coming inside. He wonders what Peter is doing home, but before the other Parker can answer, the Peter who just left prison enters the home.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Okay, at this point, the Spider-Man books were in danger of becoming like that old Marx Brothers movie where everyone was running around dressed like Groucho. Now that the three Peters were in the same place at the same time, there needed to be some sense of resolution to all of this. The clone saga was still very engaging and compelling, but from a story point of view, things really should have been headed for the ultimate conclusion.
As an aside, it should be noted that sales on the Spider-Man books at this time were phenomenal. I feel the need to point at that, despite popular belief, the clone saga significantly boosted sales on the Spider-Man books. At a time when the comics industry was starting to head downward, with sales dropping across the board on every title, the Spider-Man line was bucking the trend, with sales holding steady and even increasing each month. Of course, the downside to it was that everyone on the business side of Marvel was pushing us to keep the clone saga going for as long as possible, to milk it for all it was worth. Looking back, I can understand their position - the clone saga was one of the very few things that was actually working in the comics industry at the time, and there was a great deal of fear that the sales would drop like an anvil once the storyline was over. But of course, unnaturally prolonging what was at its essence a very finite storyline was extremely short-term thinking, and the kind of approach that could hurt the entire franchise. We (the editors and the writers) knew this, but the sales and marketing departments wielded a lot of power and influence at that time, and we had little choice but to follow their lead. Which is why Marvel was doing so many gimmick covers and "Alpha" issues and "Omega" issues and multi-part crossover storylines and... well, you get the idea. ]
Spider-Man #58, written by Howard Mackie and illustrated by Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna, continues "The Mark of Kaine" with part 3. The three Spider-Men try and make sense of all the confusion. Ben makes the comment that the only thing he's sure of is that he isn't Peter Parker. Scarlet Spider confronts the newest Parker and asks what has happened. The man passes out from the trauma incurred by his battle with Kaine. Scarlet then goes to the Peter who was in prison to find out what he's doing, and Peter reveals that he's going to look for his wife. He takes pieces from his old black costume: the gloves, the mask and web-shooters and creates a non-costume costume. He goes off, telling Scarlet to take care of the newest addition and when Ben goes to do so, he finds that the 3rd Parker in the Spider costume has disappeared.
Out on the rooftops of New York, Peter Parker (black suit) waits for a sign from Mary Jane and is accompanied by Ben, who tells him that he'll need his help to battle Kaine. While Mary Jane tries to get answers from Kaine, she pulls out a device from her pocket, a spider-tracer specially designed with a more powerful frequency to be used in emergencies. Peter gets the signal and goes in search of his wife, telling Ben to stay out of it. Meanwhile, Spider-Man (Peter Parker #3), insists that he won't let the two fakes get the better of him.
Peter in black and Scarlet find the source of the signal and head into the sewers. Scarlet tells Peter that he should go in first and deal with the dangerous Kaine while Peter concentrates on rescuing Mary Jane. As they move on, Peter 3 in the Spider-Man suit tells them that he'll find MJ and kill whoever took her and that the two other Spiders should just leave them alone.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : That pretty much killed any speculation that Peter #3 could be the real guy - Peter Parker would never condone killing. So from that moment on, Peter #3 was essentially nothing more than another plot point that needed to be wrapped up. ]
Mary Jane is on the run from Kaine, who appears to want to fulfill his visions of Mary Jane's death himself when the 3 Spider-Men appear. They pounce on Kaine as MJ tries to get away, not sure that any of them are the real Peter Parker. Scarlet leads the assault on Kaine while Peter in black goes after Mary Jane, who has Peter 3 following her. Peter 3 starts to go crazy, insisting that he's the real Parker and needs to kill everyone else. Before Peter in black and MJ can turn around to escape, they find Kaine blocking the other exit.
The ultra-confusing storyline reaches Part 4 in Spectacular Spider-Man #224, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz. The 3rd Parker now stands revealed as nothing more than a genetically engineered killing machine whose purpose was to destroy. As Peter and Mary Jane make their escape, Kaine and Scarlet Spider take on the monster Parker, who now has the ability to recode his DNA and morph his body at will.
Peter and Mary Jane make their way out of the sewers and onto safety, but they both know that Ben Reilly needs help or he'll never survive. Mary Jane gives her blessing, and Peter grabs the black mask and goes back to save his "brother." The attack comes up onto the surface and the assassin Parker is seemingly killed when a propane truck explodes. Kaine survives and moves on, leaving Reilly be. Peter and Ben confront each other outside, where Peter accuses Ben of the murders he's been arrested for. Ben proclaims his innocence but knows that words can only do so much, so he offers to switch places with Peter. He'll go to prison and let Peter return home to his wife. As Ben Reilly sneaks back to prison as Peter Parker, Scrier and Traveller make their observations.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : I liked the fact that the third Peter Parker went down absolutely convinced that he was the real one, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Tom DeFalco did a nice job with this issue, injecting Peter #3 with a real sense of tragedy. He wasn't just a run-of-the-mill, morphing, wisecracking bad guy. Incidentally, Peter #3 was referred to as "Freakface" throughout the issue, and I remember that Tom D. was pushing for that to become the character's regular name in the future. It certainly was no worse than the name that was actually used later on - more on that when we get to it. Overall, though, my belief was that once Peter #3 was revealed to be just another clone, he should have been disposed of as quickly and as permanently as possible. He'd already served his purpose as a red herring, and there were already too many variations of Peter Parker running around. We never should have seen him again, in my opinion. ]
The story reached its conclusion in Spider-Man Unlimited #9, written by Tom Lyle and illustrated by Ron Lim, Ron Garney, Tod Smith, Tom Palmer, Tim Tuohy, Al Milgrom, Jimmy Palmiotti and Randy Emberlin. The main focus of this issue concerns some of Spider-Man's greatest enemies: Vulture, Hobgoblin, Mysterio, Lady Scorpia, Beetle, Shocker and Electro, who gather to decide what to do about Kaine. Since the mysterious vigilante has already killed two of Spider-Man's enemies, they feel that any one of them can be next and should strike proactively.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Tom Lyle was promised the opportunity to write when he came over to Marvel to draw Spider-Man. To fulfill that promise, Spider-Man Group Editor Danny Fingeroth gave Lyle the SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED title as a regular writing assignment. For those of you who don't remember, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED was a double-sized comic that was published quarterly, sort of like an annual that's published every three months. I could certainly relate to Tom Lyle's desire to write, and he was very enthusiastic about being a part of the creative process. But to be honest, he really wasn't ready for such a big writing assignment. Certainly not in the middle of the clone saga, during which every chapter needed to be a total winner - and in that regard, even experienced, seasoned writers occasionally stumbled. But Danny felt he had an obligation to Tom L. and wanted to keep his promise, which is certainly very admirable.
When Bob Budiansky became Editor in Chief of the Spider-Man Group, Danny was still in place as Group Editor, and Bob didn't want to upset the apple cart too much at the beginning. Nor did Bob want to undermine Danny's authority as Group Editor. Despite his own doubts about Tom Lyle's writing, Bob chose not to overturn Danny's decision. Again, this was admirable. Creatively, however, this would prove to be not the best move. ]
Peter Parker, in Scarlet Spider guise, is heading home to Mary Jane but gets pre-occupied with the Beetle. During their fight, he loses his web pack, which contains the black costume. The pack is found by the police and reporter Ken Ellis, who recognizes the suit and wonders how the Scarlet Spider came into its possession. Peter finally makes it home and reunites with his wife, while Ben tries to adapt to prison life. A visitor is announced and Ben meets with Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, who Ben doesn't recognize. Felicia realizes that something strange is going on and wonders what happened to Peter. Meanwhile, Jacob Raven and Stunner continue their questioning of the underworld in an effort to find out more about Kaine. Stunner's methods of interrogation are a little harsher than his, but Raven wants Parker exonerated by any means.
Across town, Kaine attacks the Hobgoblin, who is soon rescued by his fellow super-villains. None of them seem to be able to take Kaine on, but Scarlet (Peter) Spider arrives on the scene to makes sure that no one dies during the extraordinary battle. Eventually it ends with everyone getting away relatively unscathed, and Peter reaching a decision that he must help Ben no matter what. He also needs to find Kaine before he can become a threat to him and Mary Jane again. Speaking of Mary Jane, she's received a call from Dr. Trainer, requesting that she visit his lab to go over the tests they took earlier. After meeting with him, something prompts MJ to run away, worried about whatever news she just received.
Later that evening, Scrier appears at the scene of the battle that occurred between Peter, Ben, Kaine and the assassin Parker. He finds a pile of goo with shreds of the Spider costume and takes it, believing that it may be of some use down the line. The story ends with Mary Jane appearing at Felicia Hardy's. Though they aren't the best of friends, MJ needs someone to talk to that she can confide in.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : All the identity switching, multiple versions of costumes... it was reaching fairly ludicrous proportions. As mentioned earlier, this was an ultra-confusing storyline, but there was at least some forward momentum. The trouble with Mary Jane's pregnancy was obviously the most compelling subplot. Bringing in the Black Cat and having her interact with Ben, who was pretending to be Peter, was a nice idea. And we saw more of Scrier's mysterious solo activities. But considering the fact that the story was called "The Mark of Kaine," we really didn't learn all that much about him, did we? Oh, well, it's not like there wouldn't be plenty of other opportunities for that along the way... ]
Part 8
For the month of June, the Spider-Man books offer two self-contained stories and a 2-part story featuring Judas Traveller. The first book is Web of Spider-Man #125, written by Terry Kavanagh and illustrated by Steven Butler and Randy Emberlin. The cover also features a special 3-D live-action holodisk to celebrate the big "125" mark.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : The holodisks were yet another in a long line of gimmick covers that were all the rage back then. We had just done a gimmick cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #400 that did not turn out very well, and these holodisks were not much of an improvement. They looked GREAT in the prototype stage, but when we got the final versions, it was clear that you needed to view them under a light that was about as powerful as the sun to really get the full effect of the 3-D live action. Strike two! ]
The Scarlet Spider (aka Peter Parker) is inside the Daily Bugle, searching through the computer for articles about Professor Miles Warren, to see if he can come up with anything that would clear Peter Parker's name for the murder charges. He turns up nothing, until he finds an address listed after Warren's "death." He follows the lead to the suburbs of New Jersey, where he goes to the last known address of Miles Warren. After digging around the house, he is confronted by Gwen Stacy, who thinks he's a burglar. Peter removes his mask, hoping Gwen will recognize him, but she strikes out anyway and Peter is tasered by Miles Warren.
There is a brief interlude, with Mary Jane confessing to Felicia Hardy (the Black Cat) that she worries that the health of her and Peter's unborn child will be adversely affected by Peter's irradiated blood. Back in Jersey, Peter wakes up to find Dr. Warren and Gwen both gone. As they drive towards an unknown destination, we get a glimpse into the past of Dr. Warren through his own thoughts. He was a family man. A husband and father of two, but the family left him due to his being more passionate about work than them. Before they could reconcile, Warren's family was killed. There's also an explanation as to how Dr. Warren and Gwen got together. Peter discovers that Warren knows he and Gwen are only clones, and more information refuting the earlier belief that the Gwen clone wasn't really a clone at all, but merely a woman named Joyce Delaney. It's explained here that a super being named Dreamweaver deluded the clone into thinking she was really another woman, assuming that would be easier to deal with than the knowledge that she was the clone of a dead woman. Peter also finds that Warren was working on a cure for clone degeneration.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : This was an attempt to finally explain away all the stuff established in "The Evolutionary War," but it probably could have been done better. And I REALLY didn't like finding out that the Gwen Stacy clone had set up housekeeping with a clone of Miles Warren in the suburbs - I thought that was just plain silly. Since I had no role in the development of this particular story (Eric Fein was the editor, and I was still Tom Brevoort's assistant), my involvement was limited to that of an observer. I don't think I even knew what was happening in WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #125 until I saw it in print. ]
The Scarlet Spider goes off in search of Dr. Warren and Gwen as a new Green Goblin arrives on the scene. As the car carrying Miles and Gwen crosses the George Washington Bridge (the scene of the real Gwen's death at the hands of the original Green Goblin), it crashes and nearly tumbles into the water below. The new Goblin swoops in and rescues Gwen, although it looks as if he's kidnapping her. The Goblin carries Gwen to the top of the bridge. While Warren shoots at the Goblin, Gwen loses her balance and falls, only to be rescued by the Scarlet Spider. After getting Gwen to safety, the Spider rushes to Dr. Warren to find that he's degenerated and the Goblin has gotten away. Gwen leaves during the confusion, and tries to come to grips with the realization of who she is; not Gwen Stacy, not Joyce Delaney, but a clone.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Returning to the bridge where Gwen died had become an established Spider-Man cliché by that point - and an overused one, at that. To this day, whenever a Spider-Man writer tries for dramatic irony or poignancy, it usually involves Spider-Man being at that bridge. I was guilty of using this cliché myself, in the very first professional Spider-Man story I ever wrote (it was in the 1995 SPIDER-MAN HOLIDAY SPECIAL, which we'll presumably get to in a few weeks). But it's now about six years later and I've seen this scene played again out a number of times since then, so all I can say is: ENOUGH WITH THE BRIDGE ALREADY! MOVE ON!
Incidentally, it's still unclear exactly which bridge was the site of Gwen's death. In the original story, told in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121, it was drawn as the Brooklyn Bridge, but writer Gerry Conway referred to it in the script as the George Washington Bridge. Spider-Man even comments that it's appropriate that Norman Osborn would go to a bridge named after his favorite president, and that Osborn has the same sort of hang-up about dollar bills. In later reprints of the story, the dialogue is changed so that the bridge is identified as the Brooklyn Bridge, and Spider-Man's comment about Norman's love for money is deleted. However, plenty of other stories were still being done in which the bridge was referred to as the GWB, which only added to the confusion. To deal with this, whenever Tom Brevoort and I worked on a story that referred back to the events of AMAZING #121, our approach was to simply not refer to the bridge by a specific name. That's how we had writer Kurt Busiek deal with it in the LEGACY OF EVIL one-shot, and how I dealt with it when I wrote THE OSBORN JOURNAL. ]
The backup story in this issue sheds even more light on the Warren and Stacy clones. It details how the real Miles Warren had a dream that his clones would live on to have lives he could never lead. The Warren and Stacy clones fall in love, and marry, living an idealistic life under the false notion of reality, though Warren is fully aware of the ultimate fate in store for all clones.
The Amazing Spider-Man #402, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley, Larry Mahlstedt, Al Milgrom and Joe Rubenstein, is the first of the 2-part "Crossfire" story. It begins with the Scarlet Spider paying a visit to Jacob Raven to go over the Parker murder trial. Raven tells Scarlet that he wants to prove Peter's innocence and Scarlet tells him that he's going to help in that quest. Peter goes back home, where MJ gives him the test results she's been worrying about, indicating that there could be some deformities with the baby due to Peter's blood. Before he can try to alleviate her fears, Traveller appears, stopping time in its place to transport Peter to another realm.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : For my opinions about Judas Traveller, you can check some of the earlier columns. I really don't have much to add about him here. ]
In this new realm, Traveller claims to have captured Aunt May's soul. He tests Peter's heroism by questioning how far he will go. Sacrificing himself is one thing, but would Peter sacrifice those he loves? Traveller tells Peter that it would be no big deal for him to return May to life, in return for Peter choosing the death of 100 others or 10 or even just one. The decision is his. Peter resists, telling Traveller that he is no god and that none of what Traveller says can be believed. Peter insists that it's all a game being played inside his head and he is in control, not Traveller. Traveller then admits that he is no god, but he's very close. He takes Peter forward in time 24 hours to witness a reality of New York City completely destroyed. The reason for the destruction? Peter himself.
Spider-Man #59, written by Howard Mackie and illustrated by Tom Lyle and Sam DeLarosa, concludes "Crossfire." Traveller and Scarlet Spider (Peter) stand atop the ruins of an old building, one of hundreds in the now-leveled city of New York. As Peter fights to find Mary Jane among the ruins, Traveller tells him that he, MJ and their child will all live, but at the cost of everything and everyone else; a choice he could have prevented. He then brings Peter back to the present, to let him see how things will unfold as they happen.
Traveller explains to Peter that his Host are sabotaging an experimental Geothermal Heating Station. The resulting explosion will reduce the city to a wasteland. Since they serve a greater purpose in Traveller's experiments to discover the true nature of evil (and in turn discover the true nature of all that is good), he can do nothing. He promises to keep Mary Jane and her unborn child safe, even if he fails, so if all Peter wants is the safety of his wife and child, he does nothing. Peter tells Traveller that he wants to see Mary Jane before doing anything.
At the police station, Jacob Raven talks privately with Conner Trevane. He knows Peter Parker is innocent of the crimes and asks Conner to help him prove Peter's innocence.
Scrier warns Traveller that he is straining the limits of his powers, which makes Traveller angry. He admits that Scrier has been his friend and confidant for hundreds of years, but he should never presume to be his equal. Scrier admits that he never would.
Peter pays a visit to his wife and tells her that he is sorry for everything that's happened and promises that things will be okay. He says that he'll always love her and swings off to find the Host and prevent Traveller's warning from coming true. The Scarlet Spider confronts the Host and is able to stop them from sabotaging the station, but they find another reason to worry. A transpatial time vortex has been created that will collapse on itself shortly, leaving a destructive force greater than what they hoped to accomplish originally. Scrier informs Traveller that it is the result of his toying with the space-time continuum and reveals that the source of the destruction was Traveller all along.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Does anyone besides me feel that this just isn't a Spider-Man story? ]
The vortex is trying to reclaim itself through Traveller. Scrier reveals that Peter's family will still be safe, since they're protected by the last of Traveller's powers, but the city will still be laid to waste, with Traveller dying, as well. As the vortex tries to engulf Traveller, we get a glimpse into his past, a past which includes the crucifixion, knights, gladiators and world wars. The Scarlet Spider reaches in to grab Traveller and pull him out of the vortex's power. As Scrier picks up his weakened partner, he warns Scarlet Spider that Traveller will never be satisfied until he can understand him and it will not end. Peter accepts it as part of his life and goes to his wife, and holds her close as Scrier and Traveller disappear.
Spectacular Spider-Man #225 is another anniversary bonanza with a holodisk cover. It's written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz and the story is titled "The Return of the Green Goblin," which is appropriate since the issue is basically a lead-in to a new ongoing Green Goblin series set to begin in a couple of months.
The issue opens with Peter Parker at the grave of his friend, Harry Osborn, who died like his father-in the guise of the Goblin. Peter explains that with all of the clones and doppelgangers, he doesn't know what to make of this newest Goblin. Elsewhere, the Jackal is feeling the same way. Though trying to devote his time to wiping out mankind, he can't help but notice the new Green Goblin and wonders it's a clone from a secret competitor: "a Valiant Dark Horse who is intent on ruining my Image." Cute.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Tom DeFalco was always doing stuff like that in his stories- throwing in little in-jokes that referred to what was going on in the comics industry at the time. I remember how Tom, as writer of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, savagely poked fun at the 1990s FF animated series. He caught some heat over that, but it was damn funny. Later, Tom D. would get a lot of mileage out of Marvel's financial woes by having the Daily Bugle go through the same thing. ]
Peter returns home to find Mary Jane sewing him a new Spider-Man costume. He's grown tired of wearing Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider duds so MJ has created another Spidey suit. Peter is intent on proving his innocence before his trial begins but Mary Jane tells him that he is needed at home, too. When they overhear a story about another homeless man set ablaze by the mysterious Firefist, they know Peter needs to check it out, as Spider-Man.
The new Green Goblin wants to investigate, as well, and his path crosses with Spider-Man, who isn't too pleased to see another person taking up the guise of his greatest enemy. As the Goblin pleads his case, telling Spider-Man he's one of the good guys, Spider-Man tries to stop him anyway. During the battle, Spider-Man realizes that the new Goblin can't possibly be an Osborn and wonders if he was possibly telling the truth.
In prison, Ben Reilly receives a visitor. Mary Jane confides in him that she's worried about the health of her baby and whether it's even fair to bring the child into this world. Ben says that although he's the most pro-life person in the world, being a clone that should have died years ago, Mary Jane can be assured that she won't go through any decision alone.
Spider-Man and the Green Goblin battle Firefist while the Jackal watches from the sidelines. Together, they manage to beat the villain, though the Goblin takes off as Spider-Man deals with the cleanup. The story ends with the Jackal returning to his lair to be greeted by... Peter Parker?
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Oy. Hadn't we seen this trick before? ]
It's also worth mentioning that there were five Spider-Man Super Specials that came out around this time. The main story was "Planet of the Symbiotes," which dealt with Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, Venom and Carnage battling aliens for the planet where the Venom symbiote originated.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Tom Brevoort and I edited those five Spider-Man Super Specials. There was one Super Special for each of the four monthly Spider-Man titles, and one for VENOM, as well. We inherited the "Planet of the Symbiotes" concept, which had been suggested by former Spider-Man Assistant Editor Mike Lackey and was approved by Spider-Man Group Editor Danny Fingeroth. Danny was overseeing Tom and me on this project, and suggested we hire former Spider-Man writer David Michelinie to write it. David was a logical choice, since he co-created Venom (with Todd McFarlane) and arguably knew more about the character than anyone else. If we were going to do a story exploring the origins of the Venom symbiote, it made sense for David to write it. I had never worked with Michelinie before, and was a little apprehensive. I absolutely loved his work on Marvel's STAR WARS comic back in the 1980s, and I was well aware of the legendary status his work on IRON MAN had achieved. But I must admit, I never really enjoyed his Spider-Man. Nevertheless, I thought David did a fairly solid job on "Planet of the Symbiotes," and it seemed like he was having fun with it. We also got to work with some really good artists, such as Kyle Hotz, Darick Robertson, and Steve Lightle.
One of these Super Specials had a short back-up story written by Stan Lee, penciled by Darick, and inked by the ever-awesome George PĂ©rez. This, if I recall correctly, was my first time really working with Stan, and I was totally jazzed. The story takes place right after Aunt May's funeral, with Peter thinking back to the day when he found out that his parents had died. It was a very touching story, and the art was just fabulous. George really liked inking Darick's pencils, and I know how thrilled Darick was to be working with both Stan and George. Darick and I are still good friends, and he cites this story as one of the high points of his career.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the "flip-book feature" in these five Super Specials-namely the SCARLET SPIDER five-parter that Tom Brevoort and I edited. Stretching across all five Super Specials, this would essentially be a Scarlet Spider limited series, which I thought was a pretty cool idea. Tom B. and I really did want to make it special, to produce a worthwhile story that further explored Ben Reilly as a character and deserved all the space that was being devoted to it. It was the kind of project that J.M. DeMatteis would have been perfect for, but I don't remember why we didn't get him to write it. He was probably too busy, or Tom B. and I simply wanted to use this project as an opportunity to bring in a different writer, one that we'd always wanted to work with.
Again, Danny Fingeroth was overseeing us on this, and somehow, for some reason, he got it into his head that we would be bringing back the Lizard for this story. Tom B. and I were present at the Spider-Man writers' conference where the idea had been mentioned in passing as a possibility, but we'd never committed to it as anything other than a possibility. And as I recall, neither Tom B. nor I had any real enthusiasm for the idea, so it wasn't something we were going to actively pursue.
Tom B. and I brought in John Ostrander, a writer who had greatly impressed me with his work on DC's SPECTRE series. The initial idea that John pitched us was very intriguing, about whether or not a clone could have a soul. Unfortunately, it conflicted with future plans in the main Spider-Man books. I think John took another stab or two at coming up with a story line, but for whatever reasons, we couldn't get his ideas approved, and John eventually decided to just move on. Not only that, but every time any new story idea came in, be it from Ostrander or another writer, Danny would ask, "Where's the Lizard?" Tom and I would roll our eyes and try to muddle through.
Eventually, it became clear that Danny would simply not approve any story idea that did not include the Lizard, and he had already started to push his own choice writers upon us. With time-and our patience-running out, Tom and I simply submitted to Danny's will and did whatever he wanted. Terry Kavanagh ended up writing the story, which featured the return of the Lizard.
This was one of the few instances where Tom Brevoort and I felt completely disconnected-creatively and emotionally-from a project we were working on. It became a project we had to endure, rather than something that we could really take any pride in having put together. Some time later, this Lizard story was systematically undone in the pages of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, and no one was more pleased by this than Tom B. and myself. ]
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : The holodisks were yet another in a long line of gimmick covers that were all the rage back then. We had just done a gimmick cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #400 that did not turn out very well, and these holodisks were not much of an improvement. They looked GREAT in the prototype stage, but when we got the final versions, it was clear that you needed to view them under a light that was about as powerful as the sun to really get the full effect of the 3-D live action. Strike two! ]
The Scarlet Spider (aka Peter Parker) is inside the Daily Bugle, searching through the computer for articles about Professor Miles Warren, to see if he can come up with anything that would clear Peter Parker's name for the murder charges. He turns up nothing, until he finds an address listed after Warren's "death." He follows the lead to the suburbs of New Jersey, where he goes to the last known address of Miles Warren. After digging around the house, he is confronted by Gwen Stacy, who thinks he's a burglar. Peter removes his mask, hoping Gwen will recognize him, but she strikes out anyway and Peter is tasered by Miles Warren.
There is a brief interlude, with Mary Jane confessing to Felicia Hardy (the Black Cat) that she worries that the health of her and Peter's unborn child will be adversely affected by Peter's irradiated blood. Back in Jersey, Peter wakes up to find Dr. Warren and Gwen both gone. As they drive towards an unknown destination, we get a glimpse into the past of Dr. Warren through his own thoughts. He was a family man. A husband and father of two, but the family left him due to his being more passionate about work than them. Before they could reconcile, Warren's family was killed. There's also an explanation as to how Dr. Warren and Gwen got together. Peter discovers that Warren knows he and Gwen are only clones, and more information refuting the earlier belief that the Gwen clone wasn't really a clone at all, but merely a woman named Joyce Delaney. It's explained here that a super being named Dreamweaver deluded the clone into thinking she was really another woman, assuming that would be easier to deal with than the knowledge that she was the clone of a dead woman. Peter also finds that Warren was working on a cure for clone degeneration.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : This was an attempt to finally explain away all the stuff established in "The Evolutionary War," but it probably could have been done better. And I REALLY didn't like finding out that the Gwen Stacy clone had set up housekeeping with a clone of Miles Warren in the suburbs - I thought that was just plain silly. Since I had no role in the development of this particular story (Eric Fein was the editor, and I was still Tom Brevoort's assistant), my involvement was limited to that of an observer. I don't think I even knew what was happening in WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #125 until I saw it in print. ]
The Scarlet Spider goes off in search of Dr. Warren and Gwen as a new Green Goblin arrives on the scene. As the car carrying Miles and Gwen crosses the George Washington Bridge (the scene of the real Gwen's death at the hands of the original Green Goblin), it crashes and nearly tumbles into the water below. The new Goblin swoops in and rescues Gwen, although it looks as if he's kidnapping her. The Goblin carries Gwen to the top of the bridge. While Warren shoots at the Goblin, Gwen loses her balance and falls, only to be rescued by the Scarlet Spider. After getting Gwen to safety, the Spider rushes to Dr. Warren to find that he's degenerated and the Goblin has gotten away. Gwen leaves during the confusion, and tries to come to grips with the realization of who she is; not Gwen Stacy, not Joyce Delaney, but a clone.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Returning to the bridge where Gwen died had become an established Spider-Man cliché by that point - and an overused one, at that. To this day, whenever a Spider-Man writer tries for dramatic irony or poignancy, it usually involves Spider-Man being at that bridge. I was guilty of using this cliché myself, in the very first professional Spider-Man story I ever wrote (it was in the 1995 SPIDER-MAN HOLIDAY SPECIAL, which we'll presumably get to in a few weeks). But it's now about six years later and I've seen this scene played again out a number of times since then, so all I can say is: ENOUGH WITH THE BRIDGE ALREADY! MOVE ON!
Incidentally, it's still unclear exactly which bridge was the site of Gwen's death. In the original story, told in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121, it was drawn as the Brooklyn Bridge, but writer Gerry Conway referred to it in the script as the George Washington Bridge. Spider-Man even comments that it's appropriate that Norman Osborn would go to a bridge named after his favorite president, and that Osborn has the same sort of hang-up about dollar bills. In later reprints of the story, the dialogue is changed so that the bridge is identified as the Brooklyn Bridge, and Spider-Man's comment about Norman's love for money is deleted. However, plenty of other stories were still being done in which the bridge was referred to as the GWB, which only added to the confusion. To deal with this, whenever Tom Brevoort and I worked on a story that referred back to the events of AMAZING #121, our approach was to simply not refer to the bridge by a specific name. That's how we had writer Kurt Busiek deal with it in the LEGACY OF EVIL one-shot, and how I dealt with it when I wrote THE OSBORN JOURNAL. ]
The backup story in this issue sheds even more light on the Warren and Stacy clones. It details how the real Miles Warren had a dream that his clones would live on to have lives he could never lead. The Warren and Stacy clones fall in love, and marry, living an idealistic life under the false notion of reality, though Warren is fully aware of the ultimate fate in store for all clones.
The Amazing Spider-Man #402, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley, Larry Mahlstedt, Al Milgrom and Joe Rubenstein, is the first of the 2-part "Crossfire" story. It begins with the Scarlet Spider paying a visit to Jacob Raven to go over the Parker murder trial. Raven tells Scarlet that he wants to prove Peter's innocence and Scarlet tells him that he's going to help in that quest. Peter goes back home, where MJ gives him the test results she's been worrying about, indicating that there could be some deformities with the baby due to Peter's blood. Before he can try to alleviate her fears, Traveller appears, stopping time in its place to transport Peter to another realm.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : For my opinions about Judas Traveller, you can check some of the earlier columns. I really don't have much to add about him here. ]
In this new realm, Traveller claims to have captured Aunt May's soul. He tests Peter's heroism by questioning how far he will go. Sacrificing himself is one thing, but would Peter sacrifice those he loves? Traveller tells Peter that it would be no big deal for him to return May to life, in return for Peter choosing the death of 100 others or 10 or even just one. The decision is his. Peter resists, telling Traveller that he is no god and that none of what Traveller says can be believed. Peter insists that it's all a game being played inside his head and he is in control, not Traveller. Traveller then admits that he is no god, but he's very close. He takes Peter forward in time 24 hours to witness a reality of New York City completely destroyed. The reason for the destruction? Peter himself.
Spider-Man #59, written by Howard Mackie and illustrated by Tom Lyle and Sam DeLarosa, concludes "Crossfire." Traveller and Scarlet Spider (Peter) stand atop the ruins of an old building, one of hundreds in the now-leveled city of New York. As Peter fights to find Mary Jane among the ruins, Traveller tells him that he, MJ and their child will all live, but at the cost of everything and everyone else; a choice he could have prevented. He then brings Peter back to the present, to let him see how things will unfold as they happen.
Traveller explains to Peter that his Host are sabotaging an experimental Geothermal Heating Station. The resulting explosion will reduce the city to a wasteland. Since they serve a greater purpose in Traveller's experiments to discover the true nature of evil (and in turn discover the true nature of all that is good), he can do nothing. He promises to keep Mary Jane and her unborn child safe, even if he fails, so if all Peter wants is the safety of his wife and child, he does nothing. Peter tells Traveller that he wants to see Mary Jane before doing anything.
At the police station, Jacob Raven talks privately with Conner Trevane. He knows Peter Parker is innocent of the crimes and asks Conner to help him prove Peter's innocence.
Scrier warns Traveller that he is straining the limits of his powers, which makes Traveller angry. He admits that Scrier has been his friend and confidant for hundreds of years, but he should never presume to be his equal. Scrier admits that he never would.
Peter pays a visit to his wife and tells her that he is sorry for everything that's happened and promises that things will be okay. He says that he'll always love her and swings off to find the Host and prevent Traveller's warning from coming true. The Scarlet Spider confronts the Host and is able to stop them from sabotaging the station, but they find another reason to worry. A transpatial time vortex has been created that will collapse on itself shortly, leaving a destructive force greater than what they hoped to accomplish originally. Scrier informs Traveller that it is the result of his toying with the space-time continuum and reveals that the source of the destruction was Traveller all along.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Does anyone besides me feel that this just isn't a Spider-Man story? ]
The vortex is trying to reclaim itself through Traveller. Scrier reveals that Peter's family will still be safe, since they're protected by the last of Traveller's powers, but the city will still be laid to waste, with Traveller dying, as well. As the vortex tries to engulf Traveller, we get a glimpse into his past, a past which includes the crucifixion, knights, gladiators and world wars. The Scarlet Spider reaches in to grab Traveller and pull him out of the vortex's power. As Scrier picks up his weakened partner, he warns Scarlet Spider that Traveller will never be satisfied until he can understand him and it will not end. Peter accepts it as part of his life and goes to his wife, and holds her close as Scrier and Traveller disappear.
Spectacular Spider-Man #225 is another anniversary bonanza with a holodisk cover. It's written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz and the story is titled "The Return of the Green Goblin," which is appropriate since the issue is basically a lead-in to a new ongoing Green Goblin series set to begin in a couple of months.
The issue opens with Peter Parker at the grave of his friend, Harry Osborn, who died like his father-in the guise of the Goblin. Peter explains that with all of the clones and doppelgangers, he doesn't know what to make of this newest Goblin. Elsewhere, the Jackal is feeling the same way. Though trying to devote his time to wiping out mankind, he can't help but notice the new Green Goblin and wonders it's a clone from a secret competitor: "a Valiant Dark Horse who is intent on ruining my Image." Cute.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Tom DeFalco was always doing stuff like that in his stories- throwing in little in-jokes that referred to what was going on in the comics industry at the time. I remember how Tom, as writer of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, savagely poked fun at the 1990s FF animated series. He caught some heat over that, but it was damn funny. Later, Tom D. would get a lot of mileage out of Marvel's financial woes by having the Daily Bugle go through the same thing. ]
Peter returns home to find Mary Jane sewing him a new Spider-Man costume. He's grown tired of wearing Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider duds so MJ has created another Spidey suit. Peter is intent on proving his innocence before his trial begins but Mary Jane tells him that he is needed at home, too. When they overhear a story about another homeless man set ablaze by the mysterious Firefist, they know Peter needs to check it out, as Spider-Man.
The new Green Goblin wants to investigate, as well, and his path crosses with Spider-Man, who isn't too pleased to see another person taking up the guise of his greatest enemy. As the Goblin pleads his case, telling Spider-Man he's one of the good guys, Spider-Man tries to stop him anyway. During the battle, Spider-Man realizes that the new Goblin can't possibly be an Osborn and wonders if he was possibly telling the truth.
In prison, Ben Reilly receives a visitor. Mary Jane confides in him that she's worried about the health of her baby and whether it's even fair to bring the child into this world. Ben says that although he's the most pro-life person in the world, being a clone that should have died years ago, Mary Jane can be assured that she won't go through any decision alone.
Spider-Man and the Green Goblin battle Firefist while the Jackal watches from the sidelines. Together, they manage to beat the villain, though the Goblin takes off as Spider-Man deals with the cleanup. The story ends with the Jackal returning to his lair to be greeted by... Peter Parker?
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Oy. Hadn't we seen this trick before? ]
It's also worth mentioning that there were five Spider-Man Super Specials that came out around this time. The main story was "Planet of the Symbiotes," which dealt with Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, Venom and Carnage battling aliens for the planet where the Venom symbiote originated.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Tom Brevoort and I edited those five Spider-Man Super Specials. There was one Super Special for each of the four monthly Spider-Man titles, and one for VENOM, as well. We inherited the "Planet of the Symbiotes" concept, which had been suggested by former Spider-Man Assistant Editor Mike Lackey and was approved by Spider-Man Group Editor Danny Fingeroth. Danny was overseeing Tom and me on this project, and suggested we hire former Spider-Man writer David Michelinie to write it. David was a logical choice, since he co-created Venom (with Todd McFarlane) and arguably knew more about the character than anyone else. If we were going to do a story exploring the origins of the Venom symbiote, it made sense for David to write it. I had never worked with Michelinie before, and was a little apprehensive. I absolutely loved his work on Marvel's STAR WARS comic back in the 1980s, and I was well aware of the legendary status his work on IRON MAN had achieved. But I must admit, I never really enjoyed his Spider-Man. Nevertheless, I thought David did a fairly solid job on "Planet of the Symbiotes," and it seemed like he was having fun with it. We also got to work with some really good artists, such as Kyle Hotz, Darick Robertson, and Steve Lightle.
One of these Super Specials had a short back-up story written by Stan Lee, penciled by Darick, and inked by the ever-awesome George PĂ©rez. This, if I recall correctly, was my first time really working with Stan, and I was totally jazzed. The story takes place right after Aunt May's funeral, with Peter thinking back to the day when he found out that his parents had died. It was a very touching story, and the art was just fabulous. George really liked inking Darick's pencils, and I know how thrilled Darick was to be working with both Stan and George. Darick and I are still good friends, and he cites this story as one of the high points of his career.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the "flip-book feature" in these five Super Specials-namely the SCARLET SPIDER five-parter that Tom Brevoort and I edited. Stretching across all five Super Specials, this would essentially be a Scarlet Spider limited series, which I thought was a pretty cool idea. Tom B. and I really did want to make it special, to produce a worthwhile story that further explored Ben Reilly as a character and deserved all the space that was being devoted to it. It was the kind of project that J.M. DeMatteis would have been perfect for, but I don't remember why we didn't get him to write it. He was probably too busy, or Tom B. and I simply wanted to use this project as an opportunity to bring in a different writer, one that we'd always wanted to work with.
Again, Danny Fingeroth was overseeing us on this, and somehow, for some reason, he got it into his head that we would be bringing back the Lizard for this story. Tom B. and I were present at the Spider-Man writers' conference where the idea had been mentioned in passing as a possibility, but we'd never committed to it as anything other than a possibility. And as I recall, neither Tom B. nor I had any real enthusiasm for the idea, so it wasn't something we were going to actively pursue.
Tom B. and I brought in John Ostrander, a writer who had greatly impressed me with his work on DC's SPECTRE series. The initial idea that John pitched us was very intriguing, about whether or not a clone could have a soul. Unfortunately, it conflicted with future plans in the main Spider-Man books. I think John took another stab or two at coming up with a story line, but for whatever reasons, we couldn't get his ideas approved, and John eventually decided to just move on. Not only that, but every time any new story idea came in, be it from Ostrander or another writer, Danny would ask, "Where's the Lizard?" Tom and I would roll our eyes and try to muddle through.
Eventually, it became clear that Danny would simply not approve any story idea that did not include the Lizard, and he had already started to push his own choice writers upon us. With time-and our patience-running out, Tom and I simply submitted to Danny's will and did whatever he wanted. Terry Kavanagh ended up writing the story, which featured the return of the Lizard.
This was one of the few instances where Tom Brevoort and I felt completely disconnected-creatively and emotionally-from a project we were working on. It became a project we had to endure, rather than something that we could really take any pride in having put together. Some time later, this Lizard story was systematically undone in the pages of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, and no one was more pleased by this than Tom B. and myself. ]
Part 9
And now we arrive at the most crucial chapter of the entire clone saga, "The Trial of Peter Parker." Will Peter Parker go to jail for a murder he didn't commit? Who is Kaine? And most important, who is the real Peter Parker?
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The Tom DeFalco Interview
To help mark this special installment, we took some time to speak with another key player in the storyline, former Marvel Editor in Chief and current writer of the wonderful SPIDER-GIRL, Tom DeFalco.
Andrew: How much convincing did it take for you to approve the clone saga, and why?
Tom : It took quite a lot of convincing for me to approve the clone saga. Danny Fingeroth was the Spider-editor at the time, and had arranged for all the Spider-creators to come into town for a meeting. He showed up at my office pretty late one night, and proposed the clone saga to me. My first reaction was to reject it, but he convinced me to think about it overnight and come to the next day's meeting. I showed up and faced the staff - all the writers, artists and editors - and they all had passionate reasons why we should do this story. I had never seen such passion in all my years in the business. If the creators were so passionate, I figured the readers would be, too. Seems I was right!
Andrew: What was the reasoning behind such a drastic decision?
Tom: I guess I finally okayed it because I was convinced the crew could produce one heck of a dramatic story.
Andrew: If the clone saga was in response to DC's Superman and Batman "events" were there any other possible Spider-Man "events" considered before deciding to move on the clone saga?
Tom: I'm sure the "event" mentality had a hand in my decision to okay the clone saga, but the only other events that anyone were discussed in the Spider-office was A) Killing or divorcing Mary Jane, or B) Killing Aunt May.
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The "Trial of Peter Parker" is the four-part story running through the Spider-titles that finally answers the question of who Kaine is, and who is the one, true Spider-Man. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #126, written by Todd Dezago and illustrated by Roy Burdine, Randy Emberlin and Don Hudson, begins part one of the story.
Spider-Man is scouring the city, looking for Kaine, the one man who could provide answers to prove Peter Parker's innocence, but Kaine finds him. Kaine is furious that Peter is involving himself with things that have nothing to do with him. When Peter responds that being framed for murder involves him, Kaine mentions that his intent was to frame Ben Reilly for murder and Peter is suffering the consequences for allying himself with Reilly.
As the trial begins and the prosecutor introduces grisly evidence of the murder, Ben Reilly, as Peter, hopes that Peter can find a way to prove that Kaine is the killer. Kaine, meanwhile, is quite happy that Reilly will be found guilty and executed for murder, no matter what name he goes by. Kaine and Spider-Man continue to beat the hell out of each other. Kaine is stronger and more powerful that Spider-Man, but Peter will never give up.
Elsewhere, Jacob Raven and Stunner hear reports that Spider-Man and Kaine are fighting. They head to the scene to try and get their hands on Kaine, which they hope will prove Parker's innocence. All this is happening while Spider-Man gathers all the strength he can to fight back against Kaine and bring him in. He doesn't know what happened between Kaine and Ben Reilly to cause Kaine's hatred, but Spider-Man vows to bring Kaine to justice and set Ben free.
Spider-Man and Kaine take their fight to the streets and Jacob Raven and Stunner arrive on the scene. Stunner says that she wants to make Kaine pay for killing her beloved Otto, but before she or Raven can do anything, Traveller appears and transports both Kaine and Spider-Man away from the area.
Part 2 occurs in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #403, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley, Larry Mahlstedt and Sam DeLarosa. While Ben faces trial as Peter Parker for murder, Spider-Man is facing a trial of his own, presided over by Dr. Judas Traveller, with Carnage as prosecutor, Kaine, John Jameson and Dr. Kafka on the defense and a jury made up of Ravencroft inmates. The purpose of the trial is clear: is Spider-Man, by his very existence, responsible for the creation of these super-villains and would his death somehow "cure" them?
Kaine attacks Traveller, who he calls "Scrier's man." Traveller isn't affected by Kaine's power at all and takes offense to being called a servant of Scrier. At the trial of Peter Parker, Mary Jane has been called as a witness for the prosecution. They explain that while Peter may be prone to frequent absences due to his freelance assignments, there was a period a few years ago where he was missing and no one knew where he was. Mary Jane knows that Peter was buried alive by Kraven the Hunter at that time, but she can't say anything without revealing that he's really Spider-Man.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : That line about Traveller being "Scrier's man" was really the first concrete reference to the notion that Scrier was the real power behind Traveller. J.M. DeMatteis was definitely going in that direction, but he would not stick around long enough to see it through. I ended up sorting all this stuff out later on, in THE OSBORN JOURNAL one-shot, in a way that I am quite sure was not what J.M. had in mind at all. But we'll get to that in the future. ]
At Spider-Man's trial, Carnage blames his existence on Spider-Man, who brought to Earth the symbiote that corrupted the serial killer known also as Cletus Kassady. Kaine cross-examines Carnage by attacking him and the two fight it out until Traveller puts an end to it. Spider-Man begins to sense that for all of Kaine's crimes, there seems to be something beneath the darkness that surrounds him. Carnage's next witness is Malcom Macbride. Carnage asks what prompted Macbride to toy with Dr. Warren's Carrion virus in the first place. He offers that perhaps Malcom was jealous by the success of one of Warren's other students, and became irrational enough to play with the virus. When asked who the student was, Macbride answers "Peter Parker." With that, Carnage unmasks Spider-Man and reveals the face of Peter Parker, claiming that he destroys everything close to him, no matter what the identity.
Furious at having his identity compromised again, Spider-Man breaks free of his restraints and confronts Traveller. He concedes that Traveller will never leave him alone and offers to give himself fully, as long as Traveller will let him go long enough to bring Kaine to trial, clear Parker's name and save Ben Reilly's life. Traveller ignores the plea and asks the jury for a verdict, before the defense can plead their case. The verdict, of course is guilty and Traveller's sentence is death, to be carried out by the prosecution and jury immediately.
Spider-Man has been paralyzed by Traveller, so Kaine comes to his rescue, battling off the dozens of villains who seek to kill him. Traveller then ends the nonsense by transporting all of them back to their cells before Kaine almost dies. Spider-Man asks why he stopped it and Traveller reveals that he needed to understand Spider-Man's being. The fact that a corrupt soul like Kaine would sacrifice himself for Peter speaks more about Spider-Man's life than his actions ever could. Traveller concludes that the experiment is over for now, and returns Spider-Man and Kaine to the place from where he took them. Stunner is waiting for them. Back at the Ravencroft Institute, Carnage is in his cell, talking about killing Peter and his family, but is visited by Traveller. Traveller says that the knowledge Carnage has been given is too precious for one such as him and he removes Carnage's memory, as well as that of everyone else who witnessed the day's events.
Part 3 takes place in SPIDER-MAN #60, written by Howard Mackie and illustrated by Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna. Stunner is gaining the upper hand against a weakened Kaine, but Spider-Man intervenes. The battle between the three of them causes a building to collapse, nearly killing them all. Stunner disappears and Spider-Man tells Kaine that he's coming with him to the trial. When Kaine explains that he will fight him with every ounce of strength to keep from helping Reilly, Spider-Man nods in understanding and then puts all of his power into a single devastating punch which knocks Kaine unconscious.
Just as Spider-Man drags Kaine onto the courtroom steps, his captive breaks free and attacks. The two of them throw each other through walls and create enough of a disturbance to put the court into recess. Kaine and Spider-Man carry their fight into a private room where Kaine tells him the fighting needs to stop. Spider-Man wants the truth and Kaine asks which truth he wants. Kaine reveals that if Spider-Man were to examine his actions, he would understand that everything Kaine has done has been to protect Peter Parker. Everything. He won't allow Spider-Man to throw it away and risk it all for Reilly. To drive home the point of why he's so obsessed with Peter Parker's protection, Kaine removes his mask to reveal a scarred face of...Peter Parker. Kaine was the first clone, but the degeneration took effect, ending any hope he had at a real life. The degeneration also twisted his powers in a way that makes him stronger than either Ben or Peter and he's spent his life making sure that the life Peter built for himself was never in danger.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : So now we know who Kaine really is. Fellow Spider-Man assistant editor Mark Bernardo revealed this information to me early on, and I thought it was pretty intriguing. If you look at the original clone stories from the 1970s (which Tom Brevoort and I reprinted as the SPIDER-MAN: CLONE GENESIS trade paperback), you can see that there was definitely room for the creation of Kaine to have occurred, off-panel at least. So the idea certainly worked within the established continuity.
If memory serves, it was Howard Mackie who first came up with the idea of Kaine. But it was J.M. DeMatteis who really fleshed out and developed the character. DeMatteis had a real fondness for Kaine, and it showed. Whenever Kaine appeared in a DeMatteis story, there was a depth and three-dimensional quality to him that was just wasn't there in the other writers' stories.
And here's a few things you probably didn't know about Kaine. First, that weird costume of his was actually a life-support outfit that stabilized the debilitating effects of his cellular degeneration. Kaine lived in constant pain, and that would only get worse as time went on, but the outfit slowed down the degeneration and prolonged his life. That's why Kaine wore the costume in most of his modern-day appearances, and why he didn't have it in the LOST YEARS limited series, which took place years earlier.
Second, all of Kaine's powers were enhanced versions of Peter's powers. It was well established in the stories that Kaine was physically stronger than Peter, and he was clearly much taller and more massive. But the infamous "mark of Kaine" burn that he left on the faces of his victims was just a greatly enhanced version of the "stick-to-walls" ability that Peter possesses in his hands and feet. And the "future visions" that Kaine experienced from time to time, including the relentless vision of Mary Jane's death, was simply a much stronger version of Peter's spider sense.
Ironically enough, as Mark Bernardo - even to this day - has never failed to point out, NONE of the Spider-writers ever managed to work any of this information into the actual stories! Mark and I both felt that these were some of the most interesting aspects about Kaine - but as it turned out, the people in our little group would be the only ones who ever knew about them!
Spider-Man empathizes with his clone but is shocked to hear that Kaine still won't help save Reilly. He then decides the only way that Ben can be saved and Peter can be cleared, is to reveal his identity to the court and tell the world about the clone mess. With Kaine begging him not to do it, Spider-Man enters the court and offers new evidence that can clear Peter Parker's name. As he begins to pull his mask off, Kaine stops him and approaches the bench with a confession. He tells the court that he has hated Parker since Parker took a photo of him committing a murder. Since then, he had his fingerprints altered to match Parker's. While far fetched, Kaine puts his hand onto a table to let his prints be taken as evidence to prove what he's saying is true. Instead of just giving up, however, Kaine sets out to do what he has wanted for years, and carry out Ben Reilly's execution. ]
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #226, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz, concludes the "Trial of Peter Parker" storyline with the most shocking revelation of all. Immediately after Kaine confesses, he lunges at Ben Reilly, determined to kill him once and for all. Spider-Man charges after him and with the helped of several armed police officers, Kaine is taken into custody.
While Kaine makes a formal confession to the authorities, and the Jackal answers questions from yet another Peter Parker about when he can strike, Ben, Peter and Mary Jane are reunited at the Parker home. Seward Trainer calls the trio down to his lab immediately. After giving them the wonderful news that the baby appears to be very healthy and doing well, he offers some somber news. Although the baby will be fine, he's discovered that one of the parents is quite possibly a clone. He reveals that he doesn't know for certain since he hasn't had the opportunity to compare both Peter and Ben together.
Peter wants to leave, feeling that Trainer is Ben's friend and they're plotting against him, but Mary Jane convinces him to do the tests. He's smart enough to know if something's been faked, so she tells Peter to do it for her, the baby and most of all, himself, to finally know the truth.
Peter agrees, and he and Ben undergo an exhaustive series of tests, checking and rechecking the data until they reach a conclusive, indisputable verdict: Peter's the clone and Ben Reilly is the real Parker. The news hits Peter and Mary Jane as hard as would be expected and Peter lashes out at Ben, telling him that he can't "steal his life." Ben points out that it's a life Peter never should have had in the first place, and that he, Ben, is the one who was robbed of five years. They continue to scream at each other and fight, but Peter is becoming more obsessed. He accuses Ben and Seward of playing him just like the Jackal and Kaine have done. He starts to strangle Reilly, claiming he'll make him confess even if he has to choke it out of him. Mary Jane rushes over to Peter to reason with him and in one of the most controversial moments, almost overshadowing the "Ben is the real one" revelation, Peter hits Mary Jane, sending her flying across the room. When he realizes just how far he's gone over the edge, he runs off, ashamed.
The story ends with the Jackal calling his newest Parker lookalike another clone and showing him a costume he's designed for him. Jackal tells his friend that the day will soon come when clones like him will rule the earth.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : SPECTACULAR #226 was, of course, the most pivotal issue of all. And in more ways than one. Yes, it was the issue where Peter found out that he was the clone and Ben was the original. But it was also the issue where Bob Budiansky faced his first real challenge as Editor in Chief of the Spider-Man books.
The thing you have to remember about Bob B. is that the clone saga did not originate under him - he inherited it when he took over as Spider-Man EIC. And I don't think he ever felt comfortable with the idea of revealing that the Spider-Man we all knew and loved for the previous twenty years had really been a clone. But he took over the books so late in the game, and the storyline had been so firmly laid out, that I don't think he felt that he could just make the writers suddenly switch gears and abandon the plans they had been following for so long. The way I see it, Bob was torn between what he felt in his gut was right for the books and his desire not to mess too much with his creative staff, who had been there long before him.
Did Bob know in advance what was going to happen in SPECTACULAR #226? Absolutely. He undoubtedly read the plot when it first came in. And I know for sure that he read the issue once it was completed, and that he signed off on it before it shipped. So he approved it, he signed off on it, he let the story run as it was originally written... and as I recall, he immediately regretted it. I remember that he had second thoughts about it right after the issue left house. He began pondering ways in which the story could be undone, without it looking like a total copout. Of course, at that point in the game, it would be utterly impossible. The time to undo the story was BEFORE it left house, not after it saw print and the readers essentially had the rug yanked out from under them once already. From that point on, after Tom DeFalco had so dramatically - and pretty damn DEFINITIVELY - established who was the original and who was the clone, any backtracking would be seen as Marvel copping out, Marvel buckling under pressure from its readers, Marvel not having the guts to stand behind its own stories.
As the dust settled, Bob B. calmed down a bit, and at least seemed willing to give Ben a chance as the "one, true, original Spider-Man." But looking back, based on what I saw back then and what I know now, I think he was a man constantly fighting his own instincts and trying to convince himself to move forward with something he did not and could not ever believe in. This dilemma would only get worse as time went on. I'll be exploring that in future columns, and Bob will presumably be providing his own insights on it in his upcoming interview with Andrew.
Now, on to the matter of Peter "hitting" Mary Jane. We got some heat over this, and some bad publicity. But come on, it's not like Peter Parker was suddenly being presented as a wife-beater! Consider the circumstances. Peter was in a rage, his whole world had been turned upside down, and he was in the middle of a brutal fight with the man he believed had just robbed him of his life. Mary Jane was warned by Seward Trainer not to go near them, that Peter and Ben were both out of control, but she ignored Seward and tried to get in the middle of them and stop the fight. She is clearly shown grabbing Peter's arm, and in the next panel, Peter is shown flinging that arm outward, to shove her away from him so that he can continue the fight. That's how I always interpreted the scene. Peter was so angry, so on the edge, that he wasn't fully aware of what he was doing. Had he been the slightest bit rational at that moment, he surely would have taken into account the fact that he had super-strength, and that he couldn't just shove a normal human being away like that. And I know that's how Tom DeFalco intended the scene to be interpreted. Looking at the issue now, though, I'll grant that maybe some of these subtleties did not come through in the art as clearly as they should have. And that provided enough fodder for anyone who was really looking to make a big stink about the scene.
Again, Bob Budiansky signed off on the issue - it's not like he didn't see this artwork before it was printed. But when Marvel took some heat after the issue came out, Bob's reaction was to get very conservative and skittish about showing anything that could possibly be perceived as violence toward women, or even showing women in any sort of jeopardy. This completely screwed up a cover for VENOM that Tom Brevoort and I had commissioned by artist Kyle Hotz. The cover was for a storyline in which Venom is reunited with his ex-wife, Ann Weying. The illustration depicted Venom looming over Ann, with his long tongue wrapped around her. It was romantic, in a twisted sort of way. But after SPECTACULAR #226, Bob, who had previously approved the cover, now asked for so many revisions on it - after Kyle had finished it and turned it in - that we ended up not using it at all. It just would have been so watered down to the point where it lacked any punch whatsoever. A shame - it really was a nifty cover! ]
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The Tom DeFalco Interview (continued)
Andrew: Was there any consideration about just bringing Ben Reilly back to introduce a new character and rogues gallery, or was the sole purpose to shock the readers by making him the real deal?
Tom: Here's a secret - when I finally okayed the clone saga, I told Danny Fingeroth to build a backdoor into it. I said that I wanted to be able to bring Peter back as the real deal. But I didn't tell Danny everything. I believe that both comic book creators and comic book fans are a cowardly and superstitious lot. While the fans claim they want change, they tend to react negatively to it. So do most creators! With this in mind, I later updated Mark Gruenwald on our plans for the clone saga. Mark was my second-in-command, and the logical guy to succeed me. He and I agreed that Peter was the real guy, but that we would let the Spider-team try to convince the readers otherwise. If the Spider-creators succeeded, they would love the idea of the old switcheroo. If they failed, they'd be soooo harry that they had a backdoor. Either way, the readers were guaranteed a great story with a lot of unexpected twists.
Andrew: How were you going to resolve the Clone Saga initially?
Tom: Our plan was to structure the clone saga like a three-act play. Act One would climax at or around Amazing #400 - when we revealed that Pete was the clone and Ben was the real guy. Act Two would last around three months and follow Ben's adventures. In Act Three, Peter would triumphantly return as the one, true Spider-Man. Mark and I were hoping the Spider-crew could make Ben a viable character during his turn in the spotlight, and we planned to star Ben in his own monthly title after Peter returned. It was kind of like what I had already done with Thor and Thunderstrike - two very different titles based on a single concept. Of course, our plan went into the trash the day I got fired, and Mark wasn't picked to succeed me.
Andrew: What do you remember the response being like from fans, regarding the clone saga? Did you see a change from when Ben Reilly was reintroduced as the story moved on?
Tom: The fans were intrigued, and they were responding to the story with a passion the Spider-office hadn't seen in my twenty years with the company. I think people didn't like Ben at first, but he slowly began to grow on them. I believe our plan was working - at some point the readers would have wanted Ben to have his own book.
Andrew: Where do you think the storyline fell short, if you think so at all?
Tom: I think editorial eventually lost control of the story, and the marketing department took charge. Instead of moving along at a brisk pace, the story was stretched farther and farther out. At one point, I was asked to plot a two-part story. After I pitched the story and it was accepted, I was informed that it would be stretched out over four issues instead of two. I was later told that marketing wanted to stretch it over eight issues. I argued and argued, and they agreed to keep it to four...if I could pitch another four-issue arc by the following morning. Let's just say, I did the best I could with the time I had.
Andrew: Do you think it'd be possible for Ben Reilly to co-exist with Peter Parker in the Marvel Universe?
Tom: Absolutely! Though they started from the same place, they were two completely different characters. The potential for conflict was unlimited!
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : The "backdoor" that Tom DeFalco says he requested had apparently never been worked out, because we later ended up spending MONTHS trying to figure out how to get the hell out of this mess. We (the writers, the editors, the assistant editors, Marvel's continuity cop, and writers who weren't even working on the Spider-books) were going back and forth, submitting one idea after another, until we were all sick of Spider-Man, of clones, and, to some extent, of each other. Had a backdoor been in place from the start, believe me, we would have welcomed it with open arms and taken full advantage of it.
Tom D.'s mention of Thor and Thunderstrike brings back memories of a major trend (some would call it an epidemic) that was going on at Marvel at that time - namely, taking an established character and creating a "spin-off" version of that character. This spin-off would be very similar to the original character, yet different enough to justify its own existence and, hopefully, its own ongoing title. In addition to Thunderstrike being spun off from Thor, the USAgent was spun off from Captain America, War Machine was spun off from Iron Man, and the Fantastic Force was spun off from the Fantastic Four. So from a business standpoint, it made a certain degree of sense to try to do the same thing with Spider-Man. But creatively? Well, all I'll say is that THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, and FANTASTIC FOUR are still being published to this day, and all of the spin-off characters are either dead, in limbo, or limited strictly to infrequent guest appearances. There was a major reader backlash to this practice of "duplicating" existing titles, and it's easy to see why: the original versions - the classic Marvel heroes - could no longer be unique or special with other Marvel characters running around who looked similar to them and had similar powers and abilities. It's safe to say that an ongoing SCARLET SPIDER series would have been met with the same reaction, and would have ultimately suffered the same fate as all the other spin-offs. ]
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The Tom DeFalco Interview
To help mark this special installment, we took some time to speak with another key player in the storyline, former Marvel Editor in Chief and current writer of the wonderful SPIDER-GIRL, Tom DeFalco.
Andrew: How much convincing did it take for you to approve the clone saga, and why?
Tom : It took quite a lot of convincing for me to approve the clone saga. Danny Fingeroth was the Spider-editor at the time, and had arranged for all the Spider-creators to come into town for a meeting. He showed up at my office pretty late one night, and proposed the clone saga to me. My first reaction was to reject it, but he convinced me to think about it overnight and come to the next day's meeting. I showed up and faced the staff - all the writers, artists and editors - and they all had passionate reasons why we should do this story. I had never seen such passion in all my years in the business. If the creators were so passionate, I figured the readers would be, too. Seems I was right!
Andrew: What was the reasoning behind such a drastic decision?
Tom: I guess I finally okayed it because I was convinced the crew could produce one heck of a dramatic story.
Andrew: If the clone saga was in response to DC's Superman and Batman "events" were there any other possible Spider-Man "events" considered before deciding to move on the clone saga?
Tom: I'm sure the "event" mentality had a hand in my decision to okay the clone saga, but the only other events that anyone were discussed in the Spider-office was A) Killing or divorcing Mary Jane, or B) Killing Aunt May.
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The "Trial of Peter Parker" is the four-part story running through the Spider-titles that finally answers the question of who Kaine is, and who is the one, true Spider-Man. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #126, written by Todd Dezago and illustrated by Roy Burdine, Randy Emberlin and Don Hudson, begins part one of the story.
Spider-Man is scouring the city, looking for Kaine, the one man who could provide answers to prove Peter Parker's innocence, but Kaine finds him. Kaine is furious that Peter is involving himself with things that have nothing to do with him. When Peter responds that being framed for murder involves him, Kaine mentions that his intent was to frame Ben Reilly for murder and Peter is suffering the consequences for allying himself with Reilly.
As the trial begins and the prosecutor introduces grisly evidence of the murder, Ben Reilly, as Peter, hopes that Peter can find a way to prove that Kaine is the killer. Kaine, meanwhile, is quite happy that Reilly will be found guilty and executed for murder, no matter what name he goes by. Kaine and Spider-Man continue to beat the hell out of each other. Kaine is stronger and more powerful that Spider-Man, but Peter will never give up.
Elsewhere, Jacob Raven and Stunner hear reports that Spider-Man and Kaine are fighting. They head to the scene to try and get their hands on Kaine, which they hope will prove Parker's innocence. All this is happening while Spider-Man gathers all the strength he can to fight back against Kaine and bring him in. He doesn't know what happened between Kaine and Ben Reilly to cause Kaine's hatred, but Spider-Man vows to bring Kaine to justice and set Ben free.
Spider-Man and Kaine take their fight to the streets and Jacob Raven and Stunner arrive on the scene. Stunner says that she wants to make Kaine pay for killing her beloved Otto, but before she or Raven can do anything, Traveller appears and transports both Kaine and Spider-Man away from the area.
Part 2 occurs in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #403, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mark Bagley, Larry Mahlstedt and Sam DeLarosa. While Ben faces trial as Peter Parker for murder, Spider-Man is facing a trial of his own, presided over by Dr. Judas Traveller, with Carnage as prosecutor, Kaine, John Jameson and Dr. Kafka on the defense and a jury made up of Ravencroft inmates. The purpose of the trial is clear: is Spider-Man, by his very existence, responsible for the creation of these super-villains and would his death somehow "cure" them?
Kaine attacks Traveller, who he calls "Scrier's man." Traveller isn't affected by Kaine's power at all and takes offense to being called a servant of Scrier. At the trial of Peter Parker, Mary Jane has been called as a witness for the prosecution. They explain that while Peter may be prone to frequent absences due to his freelance assignments, there was a period a few years ago where he was missing and no one knew where he was. Mary Jane knows that Peter was buried alive by Kraven the Hunter at that time, but she can't say anything without revealing that he's really Spider-Man.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : That line about Traveller being "Scrier's man" was really the first concrete reference to the notion that Scrier was the real power behind Traveller. J.M. DeMatteis was definitely going in that direction, but he would not stick around long enough to see it through. I ended up sorting all this stuff out later on, in THE OSBORN JOURNAL one-shot, in a way that I am quite sure was not what J.M. had in mind at all. But we'll get to that in the future. ]
At Spider-Man's trial, Carnage blames his existence on Spider-Man, who brought to Earth the symbiote that corrupted the serial killer known also as Cletus Kassady. Kaine cross-examines Carnage by attacking him and the two fight it out until Traveller puts an end to it. Spider-Man begins to sense that for all of Kaine's crimes, there seems to be something beneath the darkness that surrounds him. Carnage's next witness is Malcom Macbride. Carnage asks what prompted Macbride to toy with Dr. Warren's Carrion virus in the first place. He offers that perhaps Malcom was jealous by the success of one of Warren's other students, and became irrational enough to play with the virus. When asked who the student was, Macbride answers "Peter Parker." With that, Carnage unmasks Spider-Man and reveals the face of Peter Parker, claiming that he destroys everything close to him, no matter what the identity.
Furious at having his identity compromised again, Spider-Man breaks free of his restraints and confronts Traveller. He concedes that Traveller will never leave him alone and offers to give himself fully, as long as Traveller will let him go long enough to bring Kaine to trial, clear Parker's name and save Ben Reilly's life. Traveller ignores the plea and asks the jury for a verdict, before the defense can plead their case. The verdict, of course is guilty and Traveller's sentence is death, to be carried out by the prosecution and jury immediately.
Spider-Man has been paralyzed by Traveller, so Kaine comes to his rescue, battling off the dozens of villains who seek to kill him. Traveller then ends the nonsense by transporting all of them back to their cells before Kaine almost dies. Spider-Man asks why he stopped it and Traveller reveals that he needed to understand Spider-Man's being. The fact that a corrupt soul like Kaine would sacrifice himself for Peter speaks more about Spider-Man's life than his actions ever could. Traveller concludes that the experiment is over for now, and returns Spider-Man and Kaine to the place from where he took them. Stunner is waiting for them. Back at the Ravencroft Institute, Carnage is in his cell, talking about killing Peter and his family, but is visited by Traveller. Traveller says that the knowledge Carnage has been given is too precious for one such as him and he removes Carnage's memory, as well as that of everyone else who witnessed the day's events.
Part 3 takes place in SPIDER-MAN #60, written by Howard Mackie and illustrated by Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna. Stunner is gaining the upper hand against a weakened Kaine, but Spider-Man intervenes. The battle between the three of them causes a building to collapse, nearly killing them all. Stunner disappears and Spider-Man tells Kaine that he's coming with him to the trial. When Kaine explains that he will fight him with every ounce of strength to keep from helping Reilly, Spider-Man nods in understanding and then puts all of his power into a single devastating punch which knocks Kaine unconscious.
Just as Spider-Man drags Kaine onto the courtroom steps, his captive breaks free and attacks. The two of them throw each other through walls and create enough of a disturbance to put the court into recess. Kaine and Spider-Man carry their fight into a private room where Kaine tells him the fighting needs to stop. Spider-Man wants the truth and Kaine asks which truth he wants. Kaine reveals that if Spider-Man were to examine his actions, he would understand that everything Kaine has done has been to protect Peter Parker. Everything. He won't allow Spider-Man to throw it away and risk it all for Reilly. To drive home the point of why he's so obsessed with Peter Parker's protection, Kaine removes his mask to reveal a scarred face of...Peter Parker. Kaine was the first clone, but the degeneration took effect, ending any hope he had at a real life. The degeneration also twisted his powers in a way that makes him stronger than either Ben or Peter and he's spent his life making sure that the life Peter built for himself was never in danger.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : So now we know who Kaine really is. Fellow Spider-Man assistant editor Mark Bernardo revealed this information to me early on, and I thought it was pretty intriguing. If you look at the original clone stories from the 1970s (which Tom Brevoort and I reprinted as the SPIDER-MAN: CLONE GENESIS trade paperback), you can see that there was definitely room for the creation of Kaine to have occurred, off-panel at least. So the idea certainly worked within the established continuity.
If memory serves, it was Howard Mackie who first came up with the idea of Kaine. But it was J.M. DeMatteis who really fleshed out and developed the character. DeMatteis had a real fondness for Kaine, and it showed. Whenever Kaine appeared in a DeMatteis story, there was a depth and three-dimensional quality to him that was just wasn't there in the other writers' stories.
And here's a few things you probably didn't know about Kaine. First, that weird costume of his was actually a life-support outfit that stabilized the debilitating effects of his cellular degeneration. Kaine lived in constant pain, and that would only get worse as time went on, but the outfit slowed down the degeneration and prolonged his life. That's why Kaine wore the costume in most of his modern-day appearances, and why he didn't have it in the LOST YEARS limited series, which took place years earlier.
Second, all of Kaine's powers were enhanced versions of Peter's powers. It was well established in the stories that Kaine was physically stronger than Peter, and he was clearly much taller and more massive. But the infamous "mark of Kaine" burn that he left on the faces of his victims was just a greatly enhanced version of the "stick-to-walls" ability that Peter possesses in his hands and feet. And the "future visions" that Kaine experienced from time to time, including the relentless vision of Mary Jane's death, was simply a much stronger version of Peter's spider sense.
Ironically enough, as Mark Bernardo - even to this day - has never failed to point out, NONE of the Spider-writers ever managed to work any of this information into the actual stories! Mark and I both felt that these were some of the most interesting aspects about Kaine - but as it turned out, the people in our little group would be the only ones who ever knew about them!
Spider-Man empathizes with his clone but is shocked to hear that Kaine still won't help save Reilly. He then decides the only way that Ben can be saved and Peter can be cleared, is to reveal his identity to the court and tell the world about the clone mess. With Kaine begging him not to do it, Spider-Man enters the court and offers new evidence that can clear Peter Parker's name. As he begins to pull his mask off, Kaine stops him and approaches the bench with a confession. He tells the court that he has hated Parker since Parker took a photo of him committing a murder. Since then, he had his fingerprints altered to match Parker's. While far fetched, Kaine puts his hand onto a table to let his prints be taken as evidence to prove what he's saying is true. Instead of just giving up, however, Kaine sets out to do what he has wanted for years, and carry out Ben Reilly's execution. ]
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #226, written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz, concludes the "Trial of Peter Parker" storyline with the most shocking revelation of all. Immediately after Kaine confesses, he lunges at Ben Reilly, determined to kill him once and for all. Spider-Man charges after him and with the helped of several armed police officers, Kaine is taken into custody.
While Kaine makes a formal confession to the authorities, and the Jackal answers questions from yet another Peter Parker about when he can strike, Ben, Peter and Mary Jane are reunited at the Parker home. Seward Trainer calls the trio down to his lab immediately. After giving them the wonderful news that the baby appears to be very healthy and doing well, he offers some somber news. Although the baby will be fine, he's discovered that one of the parents is quite possibly a clone. He reveals that he doesn't know for certain since he hasn't had the opportunity to compare both Peter and Ben together.
Peter wants to leave, feeling that Trainer is Ben's friend and they're plotting against him, but Mary Jane convinces him to do the tests. He's smart enough to know if something's been faked, so she tells Peter to do it for her, the baby and most of all, himself, to finally know the truth.
Peter agrees, and he and Ben undergo an exhaustive series of tests, checking and rechecking the data until they reach a conclusive, indisputable verdict: Peter's the clone and Ben Reilly is the real Parker. The news hits Peter and Mary Jane as hard as would be expected and Peter lashes out at Ben, telling him that he can't "steal his life." Ben points out that it's a life Peter never should have had in the first place, and that he, Ben, is the one who was robbed of five years. They continue to scream at each other and fight, but Peter is becoming more obsessed. He accuses Ben and Seward of playing him just like the Jackal and Kaine have done. He starts to strangle Reilly, claiming he'll make him confess even if he has to choke it out of him. Mary Jane rushes over to Peter to reason with him and in one of the most controversial moments, almost overshadowing the "Ben is the real one" revelation, Peter hits Mary Jane, sending her flying across the room. When he realizes just how far he's gone over the edge, he runs off, ashamed.
The story ends with the Jackal calling his newest Parker lookalike another clone and showing him a costume he's designed for him. Jackal tells his friend that the day will soon come when clones like him will rule the earth.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : SPECTACULAR #226 was, of course, the most pivotal issue of all. And in more ways than one. Yes, it was the issue where Peter found out that he was the clone and Ben was the original. But it was also the issue where Bob Budiansky faced his first real challenge as Editor in Chief of the Spider-Man books.
The thing you have to remember about Bob B. is that the clone saga did not originate under him - he inherited it when he took over as Spider-Man EIC. And I don't think he ever felt comfortable with the idea of revealing that the Spider-Man we all knew and loved for the previous twenty years had really been a clone. But he took over the books so late in the game, and the storyline had been so firmly laid out, that I don't think he felt that he could just make the writers suddenly switch gears and abandon the plans they had been following for so long. The way I see it, Bob was torn between what he felt in his gut was right for the books and his desire not to mess too much with his creative staff, who had been there long before him.
Did Bob know in advance what was going to happen in SPECTACULAR #226? Absolutely. He undoubtedly read the plot when it first came in. And I know for sure that he read the issue once it was completed, and that he signed off on it before it shipped. So he approved it, he signed off on it, he let the story run as it was originally written... and as I recall, he immediately regretted it. I remember that he had second thoughts about it right after the issue left house. He began pondering ways in which the story could be undone, without it looking like a total copout. Of course, at that point in the game, it would be utterly impossible. The time to undo the story was BEFORE it left house, not after it saw print and the readers essentially had the rug yanked out from under them once already. From that point on, after Tom DeFalco had so dramatically - and pretty damn DEFINITIVELY - established who was the original and who was the clone, any backtracking would be seen as Marvel copping out, Marvel buckling under pressure from its readers, Marvel not having the guts to stand behind its own stories.
As the dust settled, Bob B. calmed down a bit, and at least seemed willing to give Ben a chance as the "one, true, original Spider-Man." But looking back, based on what I saw back then and what I know now, I think he was a man constantly fighting his own instincts and trying to convince himself to move forward with something he did not and could not ever believe in. This dilemma would only get worse as time went on. I'll be exploring that in future columns, and Bob will presumably be providing his own insights on it in his upcoming interview with Andrew.
Now, on to the matter of Peter "hitting" Mary Jane. We got some heat over this, and some bad publicity. But come on, it's not like Peter Parker was suddenly being presented as a wife-beater! Consider the circumstances. Peter was in a rage, his whole world had been turned upside down, and he was in the middle of a brutal fight with the man he believed had just robbed him of his life. Mary Jane was warned by Seward Trainer not to go near them, that Peter and Ben were both out of control, but she ignored Seward and tried to get in the middle of them and stop the fight. She is clearly shown grabbing Peter's arm, and in the next panel, Peter is shown flinging that arm outward, to shove her away from him so that he can continue the fight. That's how I always interpreted the scene. Peter was so angry, so on the edge, that he wasn't fully aware of what he was doing. Had he been the slightest bit rational at that moment, he surely would have taken into account the fact that he had super-strength, and that he couldn't just shove a normal human being away like that. And I know that's how Tom DeFalco intended the scene to be interpreted. Looking at the issue now, though, I'll grant that maybe some of these subtleties did not come through in the art as clearly as they should have. And that provided enough fodder for anyone who was really looking to make a big stink about the scene.
Again, Bob Budiansky signed off on the issue - it's not like he didn't see this artwork before it was printed. But when Marvel took some heat after the issue came out, Bob's reaction was to get very conservative and skittish about showing anything that could possibly be perceived as violence toward women, or even showing women in any sort of jeopardy. This completely screwed up a cover for VENOM that Tom Brevoort and I had commissioned by artist Kyle Hotz. The cover was for a storyline in which Venom is reunited with his ex-wife, Ann Weying. The illustration depicted Venom looming over Ann, with his long tongue wrapped around her. It was romantic, in a twisted sort of way. But after SPECTACULAR #226, Bob, who had previously approved the cover, now asked for so many revisions on it - after Kyle had finished it and turned it in - that we ended up not using it at all. It just would have been so watered down to the point where it lacked any punch whatsoever. A shame - it really was a nifty cover! ]
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The Tom DeFalco Interview (continued)
Andrew: Was there any consideration about just bringing Ben Reilly back to introduce a new character and rogues gallery, or was the sole purpose to shock the readers by making him the real deal?
Tom: Here's a secret - when I finally okayed the clone saga, I told Danny Fingeroth to build a backdoor into it. I said that I wanted to be able to bring Peter back as the real deal. But I didn't tell Danny everything. I believe that both comic book creators and comic book fans are a cowardly and superstitious lot. While the fans claim they want change, they tend to react negatively to it. So do most creators! With this in mind, I later updated Mark Gruenwald on our plans for the clone saga. Mark was my second-in-command, and the logical guy to succeed me. He and I agreed that Peter was the real guy, but that we would let the Spider-team try to convince the readers otherwise. If the Spider-creators succeeded, they would love the idea of the old switcheroo. If they failed, they'd be soooo harry that they had a backdoor. Either way, the readers were guaranteed a great story with a lot of unexpected twists.
Andrew: How were you going to resolve the Clone Saga initially?
Tom: Our plan was to structure the clone saga like a three-act play. Act One would climax at or around Amazing #400 - when we revealed that Pete was the clone and Ben was the real guy. Act Two would last around three months and follow Ben's adventures. In Act Three, Peter would triumphantly return as the one, true Spider-Man. Mark and I were hoping the Spider-crew could make Ben a viable character during his turn in the spotlight, and we planned to star Ben in his own monthly title after Peter returned. It was kind of like what I had already done with Thor and Thunderstrike - two very different titles based on a single concept. Of course, our plan went into the trash the day I got fired, and Mark wasn't picked to succeed me.
Andrew: What do you remember the response being like from fans, regarding the clone saga? Did you see a change from when Ben Reilly was reintroduced as the story moved on?
Tom: The fans were intrigued, and they were responding to the story with a passion the Spider-office hadn't seen in my twenty years with the company. I think people didn't like Ben at first, but he slowly began to grow on them. I believe our plan was working - at some point the readers would have wanted Ben to have his own book.
Andrew: Where do you think the storyline fell short, if you think so at all?
Tom: I think editorial eventually lost control of the story, and the marketing department took charge. Instead of moving along at a brisk pace, the story was stretched farther and farther out. At one point, I was asked to plot a two-part story. After I pitched the story and it was accepted, I was informed that it would be stretched out over four issues instead of two. I was later told that marketing wanted to stretch it over eight issues. I argued and argued, and they agreed to keep it to four...if I could pitch another four-issue arc by the following morning. Let's just say, I did the best I could with the time I had.
Andrew: Do you think it'd be possible for Ben Reilly to co-exist with Peter Parker in the Marvel Universe?
Tom: Absolutely! Though they started from the same place, they were two completely different characters. The potential for conflict was unlimited!
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : The "backdoor" that Tom DeFalco says he requested had apparently never been worked out, because we later ended up spending MONTHS trying to figure out how to get the hell out of this mess. We (the writers, the editors, the assistant editors, Marvel's continuity cop, and writers who weren't even working on the Spider-books) were going back and forth, submitting one idea after another, until we were all sick of Spider-Man, of clones, and, to some extent, of each other. Had a backdoor been in place from the start, believe me, we would have welcomed it with open arms and taken full advantage of it.
Tom D.'s mention of Thor and Thunderstrike brings back memories of a major trend (some would call it an epidemic) that was going on at Marvel at that time - namely, taking an established character and creating a "spin-off" version of that character. This spin-off would be very similar to the original character, yet different enough to justify its own existence and, hopefully, its own ongoing title. In addition to Thunderstrike being spun off from Thor, the USAgent was spun off from Captain America, War Machine was spun off from Iron Man, and the Fantastic Force was spun off from the Fantastic Four. So from a business standpoint, it made a certain degree of sense to try to do the same thing with Spider-Man. But creatively? Well, all I'll say is that THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, and FANTASTIC FOUR are still being published to this day, and all of the spin-off characters are either dead, in limbo, or limited strictly to infrequent guest appearances. There was a major reader backlash to this practice of "duplicating" existing titles, and it's easy to see why: the original versions - the classic Marvel heroes - could no longer be unique or special with other Marvel characters running around who looked similar to them and had similar powers and abilities. It's safe to say that an ongoing SCARLET SPIDER series would have been met with the same reaction, and would have ultimately suffered the same fate as all the other spin-offs. ]
Part 10
After the shocking events of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #226, in which Ben Reilly was revealed to be the original Peter Parker, a few one-shots and mini-series were established to help shed more light on Ben's past, as well as prepare readers for the next big event to occur.
First, we'll deal with SPIDER-MAN: THE JACKAL FILES. This was a one-shot written by Todd Dezago and illustrated by a host of artists, each taking a page for the pin-up style data files reviewed by the Jackal.
The story goes into how the Jackal is preparing the newest Spider-clone to become his agent in the destruction of the Parkers. He is getting ready to download a huge quantity of information into the clone's head to better help him understand the people he will meet and eventually kill. From here, the story goes into a series of one-page pin-ups of different characters in the Spider-Man universe, each illustrated by a different artist, along with an editorial from the Jackal himself.
It's done in a humorous style, fitting for the deranged mind behind the whole process. The Jackal's own file, for instance reads like the profile sheet for a Playboy Centerfold, along with turn-ons (Gwen Stacy) and turn-offs (the degeneration process and clones that think they know everything). Jackal runs through everyone from Mary Jane and Gwen to villains like Stunner and Vulture to the newest members of the cast: Judas Traveller and his host and Scrier, whom he only refers to as enigmatic.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Speaking of Stunner, it's time for a major correction. I was recently informed by former Spider-Man assistant editor (and good buddy) Mark Bernardo that Stunner was in fact not created by Tom DeFalco, as I had indicated in a previous column. Stunner, Mark told me, was actually created by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Bagley, so my apologies to those gents.
Tom Brevoort and I edited the JACKAL FILES one-shot, and that was actually fun to work on. It was a one-shot intended to help newer readers get caught up on who everyone was in the Spider-Man universe. Well, actually, it started life as just another project that we could slap Spider-Man's name on and throw out into the marketplace because the Spider-titles were selling so well and we had a budget to meet and the marketing and sales departments wanted to milk the clone saga for all it was worth. But Brevoort and I figured that that didn't mean the book HAD to suck. We hired Todd Dezago, who was at that time an up-and-coming writer working fairly regularly on the Spider-Man books and showed that he could write fun, snappy dialogue. Tom B. and I enjoyed working with Todd. He took exactly the right approach - humorous, demented, tongue-in-cheek, but never too campy. I remember Brevoort and me getting Todd's script pages in and really getting a kick out of them as we read them. Tom B. let me hire most of the artists to draw the pin-ups, and that was fun for me - a chance to take on some added responsibilities and make contact with lots of different artists. Was this project going to win an Eisner? Of course not. But it's one of those things where I can look back and say, "Yeah, I had a good time on that." ]
Of that time, writer Todd Dezago says:
We did have a good time on that and both Tom and Glenn gave me room to run on it. I'd fax in pages of text and worry that they'd shoot down one thing or another because it was too silly or the double-entendre would be a bit much. They'd call me and just laugh and say, "More. More." That's always good...
When he begins to describe the clone who's getting these memories implanted, he describes him as the ultimate clone. He's what evolution would to do Spider-Man in 10,000 years. He has the ability to control his physical make-up on a molecular level, altering his shape, mass and density through force of will. Jackal tells him that after his experiment is over, the ultimate clone will kill everyone Peter's ever known, committing a sort of mass Spider-Cide. The Jackal is so pleased with himself over the description, he dubs his newest clone, Spider-Cide.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : This was the character that Tom DeFalco wanted to call "Freakface." He was the third Peter Parker clone that had been running around a few months earlier and supposedly died in a warehouse explosion. I can't remember ANYONE liking the name "Spidercide," but it still ended up being used. ]
The rest of the book is made up of the fun file pages they used to include in the books every so often, which showed diagrams of Spider-Man's equipment and how they work. Here, the Scarlet Spider's impact webbing and stingers are also explained in more detail.
The next event is the three-issue limited series called SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson. The series fills in some of the gaps of Ben Reilly's mysterious time on the road, including his encounter with Kaine and more about Jacob Raven and his partner's death, which resulted in Peter Parker going on trial for murder.
The story takes place three years after the original Peter Parker fled New York, believing himself to be the clone and adopting the name Ben Reilly. He's been living a nomad's life for years, taking a job here and there for a month or so before moving on to the next city. His latest stop is Salt Lake City, where he is taking a job in the science department of a local university, thanks to a letter of recommendation from his friend, Dr. Seward Trainer. After his interview, Ben stops off for a bite to eat at a local diner and runs into Janine, a beautiful redhead who immediately catches his eye. He also meets Detective Jacob Raven, who Ben immediately feels affection for. Raven seems to radiate decency, although Janine doesn't share that feeling. Ben and Janine hit it off immediately and they plan to go out for dinner.
Elsewhere, Kaine is getting into trouble at a local bar. He's been following Reilly for years, keeping an eye on him. He apparently knows the truth regarding Ben's true identity, but wants him to suffer as he has. After Kaine dispenses with his own brand of justice, he meets Louise Kennedy, who is later revealed to be the partner of Jacob Raven. The two cops are trying to bust up the remnants of the Tannen mob family. Tannen's already in prison, but his power reaches from beyond the walls of his cell.
A bust by Louise goes wrong and Tannen's men gain the advantage and are ready to make her "disappear" until Kaine crashes through the window, rescuing her. When Louise asks, "Now what?", Kaine tells her that he can think of a few things.
As Ben drives to meet Janine, his spider-sense goes into overdrive and he follows it towards a house. When he approaches the house, it explodes. Ben rushes into the house and rescues a woman and child. They live, but doctors aren't sure whether they'll pull through or not. It is revealed that the people Ben rescued were Detective Raven's wife and child. Raven himself has been kidnapped by Tannen's men and Louise gets the news via a phone call, while she's getting intimate with Kaine.
Reilly knows he must do something, but wishes that someone other than him could save the day. He's found some measure of peace and doesn't want to get involved. But he knows he has to. Creating a non-costume of bandaged hands and a bandage face-mask, Reilly tracks down Tannen's men as they depart with Detective Raven to parts unknown. He handles Tannen's men effortlessly and tells Raven that the cop has nothing to fear from him. The police arrive and Raven is told about his wife and boy.
Ben takes to the skies to find solitude, wondering to himself why he continually gets involved when it isn't his job to do so. He realizes that it's his responsibility, whether he likes it or not. Meanwhile, Kaine is having a deep thought moment of his own. He's found true joy in life for the first time with Louise Kennedy. Until now, all he's known is suffering. Could he ever have anything else?
Detective Raven's wife doesn't survive through the night. The boy will be all right, but Raven is a shell of his former self. Tannen is unhappy to hear about the lack of success in eliminating all of the Ravens and puts the word out to get it done right.
After teaching his class, Reilly runs into Janine and apologizes for breaking their dinner date. From that point on, they spend almost every moment together, enjoying life and each other. While Ben builds on his relationship with Janine during the day, he wages a one-man war against Tannen's organization at night. Ben wonders whether he's doing it out of responsibility to the innocent or fear of how quickly things are moving for his love life.
After his crime fighting activities, Ben spends some time with Janine. As they begin to kiss and make their way inside Janine's home, she tells him it has to end. Reilly accepts this, believing that his place is soaring high above the world, not being a part of it.
In a quiet part of town, Kaine and Louise enjoy a tender moment overlooking the city. As Kaine considers Louise to be the light in his dark world, she tells him that they're more alike. She calls him the night sky and the darkness, which is why she loves him. They return home, but their tender moment is shattered when Kaine feels the horrible effects of clone degeneration. To find an outlet for the tremendous pain he's feeling, Kaine seeks out Ben Reilly, who's back tearing up the rest of Tannen's organization. Kaine, being a much stronger opponent, handles Reilly easily, only holding back a lethal blow because he wants Ben to suffer. Ben Reilly is the real Peter Parker. He'll never have to suffer as Kaine does, and for that Kaine will hound Reilly for the rest of his life. Kaine leaves and before Reilly can regain his strength he's captured by Tannen's men-and Louise Kennedy.
The conclusion of this mini-series picks up with Ben in dire straights. Mob boss Vince Tannen has gotten out of prison and taken Raven's son hostage. Tannen's men prepare to kill Ben Reilly as Raven's partner, Louise Kennedy, looks on. It's revealed that Kennedy has been on Tannen's payroll for some time, which comes as a shock not only to Ben and Jacob Raven's son, but also to Kaine, who crashes back into the frey. Cellular degeneration is one thing, but betrayal by the one he thought he loved is too much for Kaine. He viciously barrels through Tannen's men with only one objective: get to Louise Kennedy. Kennedy manages to escape with Tannen, leaving Kaine behind as Ben tends to Raven's son.
After delivering young Matthew Raven to his father, a battered and bruised Ben Reilly shows up at Janine's door, collapsing. Janine takes Ben in and cares for him, and as he mends, they reveal all their secrets to each other. Janine's real name is Elizabeth Tyne and she's been on the run for murder. When she was a child, Elizabeth/Janine was abused by her father, and when she got older the rage came pouring out and she killed him. Ben holds Janine/Elizabeth and tells her that he loves her. When she asks how he could possibly love someone like her, Ben replies, "I could ask you the same thing." In a terrific moment, Ben takes Janine with him as he leaps across buildings and climbs wall, letting her know his secrets, too.
The cracked mirrored lives of Ben and Kaine continue as Kaine again faces off against Louise, who tells Kaine that she truly loved him. For the first time in his life, Kaine weeps. After Louise leaves him, Kaine follows Reilly and Janine, wondering how a man stripped of his soul, his very identity, could find love again. He thinks to himself that Professor Warren would be proud that his "son" was finally reaching his full potential.
Ben and Janine decide to head East, but stop off to get something to eat for the trip. They're confronted by Raven and Kennedy, who tell Janine that it's time to stop running. Ben pleads with Raven to consider that he's saved both the older and younger Raven's lives, and then Louise recognizes Ben, telling Raven that he's one of Tannen's men. Reilly snaps, knocking the gun from Louise's hand and grabbing Raven's neck with the other hand, telling Raven to leave them alone.
Ben and Janine leave the restaurant and as they continue on their journey they're attacked by Kaine, who seems intent on killing Ben. Reilly fights back with everything he has, telling Kaine that he finally has something, someone, to live for. As they fight, Kennedy and Raven arrive, still tracking Ben and Janine. Kennedy breaks away from Raven and pulls a gun on Ben, ready to kill him. She fires and misses, giving Kaine enough time to grab her and snap her neck. Kaine then reaches down and Ben sees, for the first time, "the mark of Kaine" on Louise Kennedy's face.
Kaine runs off, leaving Jacob Raven to deal with the murder of his partner. Ben Reilly quickly moves to disarm Raven and remind him that if he was truly a killer, Raven would be dead now, too.
The mini-series ends on a cryptic note as Ben relays how "the mark of Kaine" would come back to haunt him years later. He also says that he "lost" Janine, but will treasure the miracle they shared until the day he dies.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS began in Danny Fingeroth's office. I believe it was Danny who put the creative team together and got the whole thing rolling. When Bob Budiansky came on as Spider-Man's Editor in Chief, Bob integrated his staff (including me, Tom Brevoort and associate editor Sarra Mossoff) into the Spider-Man Group, and some projects were shuffled. Sarra ended up getting THE LOST YEARS and put it out, although she shared the editor credit with Danny.
This was John Romita Jr.'s big return to the Spider-Man Group, after penciling the three-part "Parker Legacy" story line that ran as a back-up in the Spider-books a few months earlier. This was very appropriate, as THE LOST YEARS is a sequel to "The Parker Legacy" in that it essentially picks up where "Parker Legacy" left off and continues the story of Ben's early days in exile.
JR and DeMatteis were a great team, and this story played to both of their strengths. I'm sure JR would have preferred to actually draw Spider-Man in full costume, but he's so great at drawing gritty, down-to-Earth, crime drama type of stuff that it really didn't hurt the story at all that Ben never dons a real super hero outfit. And it was nice to finally learn what went down between Ben, Kaine, and Jacob Raven years earlier. DeMatteis did a terrific job tying it all together and providing an intriguing backstory to the present-day "Trial of Peter Parker" story line. I was particularly taken with Janine, and wanted to see more of her - or at least find out what happened to her.
LOST YEARS was great, with a top-notch creative team, and Bob Budiansky wanted to turn it into a whole new franchise. It would be the continuing saga of Ben Reilly's years on the road. He'd be out of costume, but still inevitably ending up having to use his powers to help or protect the innocent... because with great power must come great responsibility. Once or twice a year, we would do a "Lost Years" project, each by a different creative team, to fill in the missing chapters of Ben Reilly's life. At this point, Budiansky was apparently committed to the idea of Ben as the one, true, original Spider-Man - I really don't think he would have planned an entire franchise around a character that he knew he was eventually going to debunk.
I was very excited about the prospect of "Lost Years" as a franchise, and wanted very much for the Brevoort/Greenberg office to be in on it. If Ben was indeed going to be the original Spider-Man, I felt that there was a genuine need for such a franchise. For starters, I got to be the reprint editor of the LOST YEARS trade paperback, which collected the three issues in one volume. Additionally, Tom B. let me take the lead on developing new "Lost Years" projects for us to work on, and compiling lists of potential writers and artists to talk to. Tom and I ended up putting together one "Lost Years" project, but not in the way we had originally intended. The project ended up as a four-issue limited series called SPIDER-MAN: REDEMPTION. It was a direct sequel to SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS, but it was primarily set in the present day. I'll discuss this project at length in a later column, but I will say this as a teaser: the road to get it done had more twists, turns, and drama than anything Ben Reilly would face in the actual story. ]
First, we'll deal with SPIDER-MAN: THE JACKAL FILES. This was a one-shot written by Todd Dezago and illustrated by a host of artists, each taking a page for the pin-up style data files reviewed by the Jackal.
The story goes into how the Jackal is preparing the newest Spider-clone to become his agent in the destruction of the Parkers. He is getting ready to download a huge quantity of information into the clone's head to better help him understand the people he will meet and eventually kill. From here, the story goes into a series of one-page pin-ups of different characters in the Spider-Man universe, each illustrated by a different artist, along with an editorial from the Jackal himself.
It's done in a humorous style, fitting for the deranged mind behind the whole process. The Jackal's own file, for instance reads like the profile sheet for a Playboy Centerfold, along with turn-ons (Gwen Stacy) and turn-offs (the degeneration process and clones that think they know everything). Jackal runs through everyone from Mary Jane and Gwen to villains like Stunner and Vulture to the newest members of the cast: Judas Traveller and his host and Scrier, whom he only refers to as enigmatic.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : Speaking of Stunner, it's time for a major correction. I was recently informed by former Spider-Man assistant editor (and good buddy) Mark Bernardo that Stunner was in fact not created by Tom DeFalco, as I had indicated in a previous column. Stunner, Mark told me, was actually created by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Bagley, so my apologies to those gents.
Tom Brevoort and I edited the JACKAL FILES one-shot, and that was actually fun to work on. It was a one-shot intended to help newer readers get caught up on who everyone was in the Spider-Man universe. Well, actually, it started life as just another project that we could slap Spider-Man's name on and throw out into the marketplace because the Spider-titles were selling so well and we had a budget to meet and the marketing and sales departments wanted to milk the clone saga for all it was worth. But Brevoort and I figured that that didn't mean the book HAD to suck. We hired Todd Dezago, who was at that time an up-and-coming writer working fairly regularly on the Spider-Man books and showed that he could write fun, snappy dialogue. Tom B. and I enjoyed working with Todd. He took exactly the right approach - humorous, demented, tongue-in-cheek, but never too campy. I remember Brevoort and me getting Todd's script pages in and really getting a kick out of them as we read them. Tom B. let me hire most of the artists to draw the pin-ups, and that was fun for me - a chance to take on some added responsibilities and make contact with lots of different artists. Was this project going to win an Eisner? Of course not. But it's one of those things where I can look back and say, "Yeah, I had a good time on that." ]
Of that time, writer Todd Dezago says:
We did have a good time on that and both Tom and Glenn gave me room to run on it. I'd fax in pages of text and worry that they'd shoot down one thing or another because it was too silly or the double-entendre would be a bit much. They'd call me and just laugh and say, "More. More." That's always good...
When he begins to describe the clone who's getting these memories implanted, he describes him as the ultimate clone. He's what evolution would to do Spider-Man in 10,000 years. He has the ability to control his physical make-up on a molecular level, altering his shape, mass and density through force of will. Jackal tells him that after his experiment is over, the ultimate clone will kill everyone Peter's ever known, committing a sort of mass Spider-Cide. The Jackal is so pleased with himself over the description, he dubs his newest clone, Spider-Cide.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : This was the character that Tom DeFalco wanted to call "Freakface." He was the third Peter Parker clone that had been running around a few months earlier and supposedly died in a warehouse explosion. I can't remember ANYONE liking the name "Spidercide," but it still ended up being used. ]
The rest of the book is made up of the fun file pages they used to include in the books every so often, which showed diagrams of Spider-Man's equipment and how they work. Here, the Scarlet Spider's impact webbing and stingers are also explained in more detail.
The next event is the three-issue limited series called SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS, written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson. The series fills in some of the gaps of Ben Reilly's mysterious time on the road, including his encounter with Kaine and more about Jacob Raven and his partner's death, which resulted in Peter Parker going on trial for murder.
The story takes place three years after the original Peter Parker fled New York, believing himself to be the clone and adopting the name Ben Reilly. He's been living a nomad's life for years, taking a job here and there for a month or so before moving on to the next city. His latest stop is Salt Lake City, where he is taking a job in the science department of a local university, thanks to a letter of recommendation from his friend, Dr. Seward Trainer. After his interview, Ben stops off for a bite to eat at a local diner and runs into Janine, a beautiful redhead who immediately catches his eye. He also meets Detective Jacob Raven, who Ben immediately feels affection for. Raven seems to radiate decency, although Janine doesn't share that feeling. Ben and Janine hit it off immediately and they plan to go out for dinner.
Elsewhere, Kaine is getting into trouble at a local bar. He's been following Reilly for years, keeping an eye on him. He apparently knows the truth regarding Ben's true identity, but wants him to suffer as he has. After Kaine dispenses with his own brand of justice, he meets Louise Kennedy, who is later revealed to be the partner of Jacob Raven. The two cops are trying to bust up the remnants of the Tannen mob family. Tannen's already in prison, but his power reaches from beyond the walls of his cell.
A bust by Louise goes wrong and Tannen's men gain the advantage and are ready to make her "disappear" until Kaine crashes through the window, rescuing her. When Louise asks, "Now what?", Kaine tells her that he can think of a few things.
As Ben drives to meet Janine, his spider-sense goes into overdrive and he follows it towards a house. When he approaches the house, it explodes. Ben rushes into the house and rescues a woman and child. They live, but doctors aren't sure whether they'll pull through or not. It is revealed that the people Ben rescued were Detective Raven's wife and child. Raven himself has been kidnapped by Tannen's men and Louise gets the news via a phone call, while she's getting intimate with Kaine.
Reilly knows he must do something, but wishes that someone other than him could save the day. He's found some measure of peace and doesn't want to get involved. But he knows he has to. Creating a non-costume of bandaged hands and a bandage face-mask, Reilly tracks down Tannen's men as they depart with Detective Raven to parts unknown. He handles Tannen's men effortlessly and tells Raven that the cop has nothing to fear from him. The police arrive and Raven is told about his wife and boy.
Ben takes to the skies to find solitude, wondering to himself why he continually gets involved when it isn't his job to do so. He realizes that it's his responsibility, whether he likes it or not. Meanwhile, Kaine is having a deep thought moment of his own. He's found true joy in life for the first time with Louise Kennedy. Until now, all he's known is suffering. Could he ever have anything else?
Detective Raven's wife doesn't survive through the night. The boy will be all right, but Raven is a shell of his former self. Tannen is unhappy to hear about the lack of success in eliminating all of the Ravens and puts the word out to get it done right.
After teaching his class, Reilly runs into Janine and apologizes for breaking their dinner date. From that point on, they spend almost every moment together, enjoying life and each other. While Ben builds on his relationship with Janine during the day, he wages a one-man war against Tannen's organization at night. Ben wonders whether he's doing it out of responsibility to the innocent or fear of how quickly things are moving for his love life.
After his crime fighting activities, Ben spends some time with Janine. As they begin to kiss and make their way inside Janine's home, she tells him it has to end. Reilly accepts this, believing that his place is soaring high above the world, not being a part of it.
In a quiet part of town, Kaine and Louise enjoy a tender moment overlooking the city. As Kaine considers Louise to be the light in his dark world, she tells him that they're more alike. She calls him the night sky and the darkness, which is why she loves him. They return home, but their tender moment is shattered when Kaine feels the horrible effects of clone degeneration. To find an outlet for the tremendous pain he's feeling, Kaine seeks out Ben Reilly, who's back tearing up the rest of Tannen's organization. Kaine, being a much stronger opponent, handles Reilly easily, only holding back a lethal blow because he wants Ben to suffer. Ben Reilly is the real Peter Parker. He'll never have to suffer as Kaine does, and for that Kaine will hound Reilly for the rest of his life. Kaine leaves and before Reilly can regain his strength he's captured by Tannen's men-and Louise Kennedy.
The conclusion of this mini-series picks up with Ben in dire straights. Mob boss Vince Tannen has gotten out of prison and taken Raven's son hostage. Tannen's men prepare to kill Ben Reilly as Raven's partner, Louise Kennedy, looks on. It's revealed that Kennedy has been on Tannen's payroll for some time, which comes as a shock not only to Ben and Jacob Raven's son, but also to Kaine, who crashes back into the frey. Cellular degeneration is one thing, but betrayal by the one he thought he loved is too much for Kaine. He viciously barrels through Tannen's men with only one objective: get to Louise Kennedy. Kennedy manages to escape with Tannen, leaving Kaine behind as Ben tends to Raven's son.
After delivering young Matthew Raven to his father, a battered and bruised Ben Reilly shows up at Janine's door, collapsing. Janine takes Ben in and cares for him, and as he mends, they reveal all their secrets to each other. Janine's real name is Elizabeth Tyne and she's been on the run for murder. When she was a child, Elizabeth/Janine was abused by her father, and when she got older the rage came pouring out and she killed him. Ben holds Janine/Elizabeth and tells her that he loves her. When she asks how he could possibly love someone like her, Ben replies, "I could ask you the same thing." In a terrific moment, Ben takes Janine with him as he leaps across buildings and climbs wall, letting her know his secrets, too.
The cracked mirrored lives of Ben and Kaine continue as Kaine again faces off against Louise, who tells Kaine that she truly loved him. For the first time in his life, Kaine weeps. After Louise leaves him, Kaine follows Reilly and Janine, wondering how a man stripped of his soul, his very identity, could find love again. He thinks to himself that Professor Warren would be proud that his "son" was finally reaching his full potential.
Ben and Janine decide to head East, but stop off to get something to eat for the trip. They're confronted by Raven and Kennedy, who tell Janine that it's time to stop running. Ben pleads with Raven to consider that he's saved both the older and younger Raven's lives, and then Louise recognizes Ben, telling Raven that he's one of Tannen's men. Reilly snaps, knocking the gun from Louise's hand and grabbing Raven's neck with the other hand, telling Raven to leave them alone.
Ben and Janine leave the restaurant and as they continue on their journey they're attacked by Kaine, who seems intent on killing Ben. Reilly fights back with everything he has, telling Kaine that he finally has something, someone, to live for. As they fight, Kennedy and Raven arrive, still tracking Ben and Janine. Kennedy breaks away from Raven and pulls a gun on Ben, ready to kill him. She fires and misses, giving Kaine enough time to grab her and snap her neck. Kaine then reaches down and Ben sees, for the first time, "the mark of Kaine" on Louise Kennedy's face.
Kaine runs off, leaving Jacob Raven to deal with the murder of his partner. Ben Reilly quickly moves to disarm Raven and remind him that if he was truly a killer, Raven would be dead now, too.
The mini-series ends on a cryptic note as Ben relays how "the mark of Kaine" would come back to haunt him years later. He also says that he "lost" Janine, but will treasure the miracle they shared until the day he dies.
[ GLENN'S COMMENTS : SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS began in Danny Fingeroth's office. I believe it was Danny who put the creative team together and got the whole thing rolling. When Bob Budiansky came on as Spider-Man's Editor in Chief, Bob integrated his staff (including me, Tom Brevoort and associate editor Sarra Mossoff) into the Spider-Man Group, and some projects were shuffled. Sarra ended up getting THE LOST YEARS and put it out, although she shared the editor credit with Danny.
This was John Romita Jr.'s big return to the Spider-Man Group, after penciling the three-part "Parker Legacy" story line that ran as a back-up in the Spider-books a few months earlier. This was very appropriate, as THE LOST YEARS is a sequel to "The Parker Legacy" in that it essentially picks up where "Parker Legacy" left off and continues the story of Ben's early days in exile.
JR and DeMatteis were a great team, and this story played to both of their strengths. I'm sure JR would have preferred to actually draw Spider-Man in full costume, but he's so great at drawing gritty, down-to-Earth, crime drama type of stuff that it really didn't hurt the story at all that Ben never dons a real super hero outfit. And it was nice to finally learn what went down between Ben, Kaine, and Jacob Raven years earlier. DeMatteis did a terrific job tying it all together and providing an intriguing backstory to the present-day "Trial of Peter Parker" story line. I was particularly taken with Janine, and wanted to see more of her - or at least find out what happened to her.
LOST YEARS was great, with a top-notch creative team, and Bob Budiansky wanted to turn it into a whole new franchise. It would be the continuing saga of Ben Reilly's years on the road. He'd be out of costume, but still inevitably ending up having to use his powers to help or protect the innocent... because with great power must come great responsibility. Once or twice a year, we would do a "Lost Years" project, each by a different creative team, to fill in the missing chapters of Ben Reilly's life. At this point, Budiansky was apparently committed to the idea of Ben as the one, true, original Spider-Man - I really don't think he would have planned an entire franchise around a character that he knew he was eventually going to debunk.
I was very excited about the prospect of "Lost Years" as a franchise, and wanted very much for the Brevoort/Greenberg office to be in on it. If Ben was indeed going to be the original Spider-Man, I felt that there was a genuine need for such a franchise. For starters, I got to be the reprint editor of the LOST YEARS trade paperback, which collected the three issues in one volume. Additionally, Tom B. let me take the lead on developing new "Lost Years" projects for us to work on, and compiling lists of potential writers and artists to talk to. Tom and I ended up putting together one "Lost Years" project, but not in the way we had originally intended. The project ended up as a four-issue limited series called SPIDER-MAN: REDEMPTION. It was a direct sequel to SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS, but it was primarily set in the present day. I'll discuss this project at length in a later column, but I will say this as a teaser: the road to get it done had more twists, turns, and drama than anything Ben Reilly would face in the actual story. ]
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