Meet Kaine, Spider-Man's Violent Clone Turned Antihero

Across his history in the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man has faced quite a few clones—including a few clones of himself! But not all clones are created equal. The most fearsome clone to stem from Peter Parker's DNA, Kaine suffers from severe cellular degradation, which also fuels his heightened powers. 

Since his tumultuous debut, Kaine has progressed from a vengeful murderer to a reluctant antihero. To this day, he alternates between friend and foe for Spider-Man and his amazing friends.

In CHASM: CURSE OF KAINE (2024), Kaine once again finds himself on a collision course with his fellow Peter Parker clone Ben Reilly. Let's take a closer look at Kaine's history in the Marvel Universe, as well as his complicated morality and search for redemption.

THE ORIGINS OF KAINE

Kaine made his debut in WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) #119 as a clone of Peter created by the sinister super villain Miles Warren, better known as the Jackal. Because of flaws in the cloning process, Kaine showed acute signs of cellular degradation, which led to significant facial scarring and mental instability. 

However, this also upgraded his superhuman abilities, boosting his endurance and making him stronger than Spider-Man. Kaine's spider-sense is also enhanced; as a result, he experiences limited precognition through glimpses of what could possibly happen in the future.

Because of Kaine's perceived flaws, the Jackal cruelly discarded Kaine shortly after creating him to focus on improving his cloning experiments. Kaine—whose mind was still in its earliest developmental stage—saw this act as being abandoned by his father, traumatizing him severely. More dangerously, it fomented his lifelong resentment towards Ben Reilly, the favored clone.

THE MARK OF KAINE

Just as Ben initially believed he was the true Peter Parker, so too did Kaine, with this conviction worsened by his poor mental health. Seeing Ben as a pretender, Kaine committed murders and framed Ben for them, given that the two men shared the same fingerprints. While working as a mob enforcer in New York, Kaine escalated these efforts when he felt Ben was destroying Peter's personal life.

This plan backfired, as Peter, of course, also has the same fingerprints as both Ben and Kaine. As a result, Peter was arrested for the murders in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #400. After breaking out of prison to clear his name, Peter confronted Kaine in PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #224, leading to a violent showdown. After Spider-Man beat him, Kaine admitted he was the first clone of Peter and confessed to his crimes, proving Peter's innocence to the authorities.

THE REDEMPTION OF KAINE

When Peter became convinced he was a clone, Kaine blamed the Jackal for Peter's downward spiral and grew determined to kill his creator. After speaking with Mary Jane Watson, Kaine underwent a change of heart and joined Ben in defending the Jackal from an army of clones, saving him at the cost of his own life. 

In return, the Jackal resurrected Kaine through the use of a regeneration pod. This sent Kaine down his rocky road toward redemption, and he occasionally worked alongside Ben during his time as Spider-Man.

Though tensions remained between Kaine and Ben, the two clones finally reconciled in SPIDER-MAN: REDEMPTION (1995) #4, where Kaine turned himself into the authorities. At the Vault, a prison for super-powered criminals, Kaine learned that Norman Osborn was responsible for the machinations involving the Spider-Man clones, as well as the calculated torment of Peter and Ben. With the true mastermind of his brothers' pain identified, Kaine escaped and began battling Norman's associates around the world.

GRIM HUNT

A vengeful Kaine eventually resurfaced in New York. In AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #608, he worked with the super villain Raptor, who falsely claimed he could cure Kaine's cellular degeneration. Shortly after turning on Raptor, Kaine was hunted by Ana and Alyosha Kravinoff as part of the Kravinoff family's long-standing feud against Spider-Man and his associates. In their effort to resurrect Kraven the Hunter, the Kravinoffs murdered Kaine, who had secretly disguised himself as Peter, as part of their ritual in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #635.

Because Peter was linked to Kraven's death and not Kaine, the ritual was impure. As a result, Kraven's flawed resurrection could only be rectified if he killed the true Spider-Man. Kaine similarly rose from the grave, albeit mutated with more visibly arachnid features, in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #637. The Jackal recovered Kaine and mutated him further to serve as one of his monstrous enforcers.

A NEW SCARLET SPIDER

In AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #666, the Jackal transformed the populace of Manhattan into humanoid spider monsters, leading Spider-Man to use the Anti-Venom symbiote to cure the city and reverse the mutated effects. This also cured Kaine, but that's not all: in addition to restoring his normal human appearance, it also reversed the cellular degeneration he had suffered all his life. Now a stable clone like Ben, Kaine relocated to Houston, Texas, where he donned his own costume and became the new Scarlet Spider.

Throughout SCARLET SPIDER (2011), Kaine defended Houston from a variety of threats, including organized crime syndicates and super villains. Among the familiar foes that Kaine faced in Texas were Ana Kravinoff, who sought vengeance for her father's pain, and Carnage, which led to a team-up with Venom. 

Although he died again at hands of the villainous Lobo brothers, he found himself resurrected by the Other, the Spider-Totem that revived Peter after his earlier battle with Morlun. Reborn, Kaine received enhanced powers and a more arachnid-like appearance once more.

KAINE INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Shortly after joining the New Warriors, Kaine was attacked by the Inheritors, an immortal race that travels the Multiverse to consume Spider-Totems like Spider-Man. After they sensed his connection to the Other, Kaine became their latest target, so he joined a group of Spider-Heroes from across the Multiverse in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2014) #9. 

During a showdown with Morlun, Kaine seemed to die at the hands of a vicious Inheritor. He was revived in his Other form and emerged from it like a cocoon in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2014) #15.

Without his connection to the Other, Kaine's cellular degeneration returned. He also learned that Ben was not only alive again, but had become the new Jackal. Kaine vowed to stop his wayward brother and tracked him down to Las Vegas in BEN REILLY: SCARLET SPIDER (2017) #2. 

This confrontation led to a contentious partnership between the two clones, who worked together to stop greater threats before the two violently came to blows. In the end, Ben stabbed Kaine and warned him to stay out of Las Vegas in BEN REILLY: SCARLET SPIDER (2017) #25.

THE CURSE OF KAINE

Following a renewed conflict with the Inheritors in SPIDER-GEDDON (2018), Kaine resurfaced in WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (2024) #1. There, he learned Ben had fallen to villainy once again after the Beyond Corporation messed with his mind and removed some key memories, impacting his sense of morality. 

Now referring to himself as Chasm, Ben wielded both his spider-based powers and magic alongside his wicked girlfriend Hallow's Eve. Chasm and Hallow's Eve openly employed lethal force against their enemies and robbed innocent bystanders, prompting Kaine to track them down in CHASM: CURSE OF KAINE (2024) #1.

Back in New York, Kaine searched for Ben in an effort to stop his latest antics and bring him back to his senses. However, with Ben's missing memories making him dangerously unstable, Kaine's latest challenge is far more complex than he anticipated. For so much of their shared history, Kaine was considered the more sinister clone, but—given the trauma Ben has since experienced—the clones' alignments appear to have reversed… for now.

Kaine continues his pursuit of Chasm in CHASM: CURSE OF KAINE (2024) #2, on sale now!

Want to read more about Kaine? Join Marvel Unlimited for instant access to 30,000+ comics on the Marvel Unlimited app or on the web, with digital issues spanning Marvel Comics classics to ongoing series!

Grab these comics and more at your local comic book shop! Or redeem then read your digital copy on the Marvel Unlimited app by using the code found in your print comic. Find and support your local comic book shop at ComicShopLocator.com.

To read your Marvel comics digitally, download the Marvel Unlimited app for iOS and Android devices. Gain an expansive catalog of 30,000+ comics spanning Marvel Comics history, plus access your entire digital library including comics redeemed from print.