By Marc Strom
As writers Tom DeFalco and Howard Mackie along with artist Todd Nauck continue to re-tell one of the most infamous Spider-stories of all time in SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA #3 on November 25, the nefarious Kaine makes his presence known in a big way. The character, a corrupt recreation of Peter Parker, first came about as the writers were planning out the original Clone Saga.
"Once again, you can blame [former Spider-Man writer] Terry Kavanagh and me for Kaine," confesses Mackie. "Early on we realized that Ben Reilly certainly wasn't going to be the villain of the storyline. Scrier, Traveler and the other characters introduced just didn't hit the right emotional chord we were looking for. As we were looking for a 'bad guy' for Peter to battle-or better yet both Peter and Ben to battle-one of us asked, 'What if Ben wasn't the first clone, only the first successful clone?' Following that line of thought lead us to asking, 'What if one of the unsuccessful clones had survived? What would they be like?'
"We liked the idea that since he was a clone of Peter Parker, he wouldn't really be an evil person-he was still Peter Parker at his core. We decided that failure of the cloning process had left him not only deformed, but in
constant physical pain, and he would be driven by only that pain and nothing else."
When it came time to name this corrupted clone, the writers "went for the biblical bad-brother reference," according to Mackie. "We wanted to change the spelling from Cain to comicize it-a word I just made up-[and] the name Kane was taken by [another] character, so we went with Kaine. And of course the 'Mark of Kaine,' and [his] visions, were all twists on powers that Peter already had."
Though the Clone Saga quickly grew out of the writers' hands, the character of Kaine didn't stray that far from how his creators originally saw him.
"All characters grow after they are originally conceived," relates Mackie. "Kaine was no exception. Though, I will say that overall he remained pretty true to how he was originally conceived. The key thing to always remind yourself when writing Kaine into a book is that at his core he is Peter Parker-a dark and twisted version of Peter, but Peter Parker nonetheless."
DeFalco, on the other hand, has had a very different history with the character.
"Since Kaine often appears in Spider-Girl-which can be found in the pages of the monthly WEB OF SPIDER-MAN or at Marvel.com-I've never stopped writing him during the last 13 years," DeFalco reminds readers.
And in the pages of SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA, Kaine will continue to play an integral role in the unfolding events.
"Kaine is a catalyst for this story, and continues to be one of the main protagonists throughout," confirms Mackie.
Looking to the future, Mackie and DeFalco hope to give readers a very different take on the way things could have gone.
"Haven't you ever wondered what could have been if Ben Reilly had lived?" poses Mackie.
"What would he have done? I wonder about that. How about you, Tom?"
"Nope," interjects DeFalco. "Couldn't care less. I just want to know who's the real clone? You or me?"
"Obviously, the better looking one is the clone," replies Mackie.
"I am not!"
Not a subscriber to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited yet? Join now!
Download SPIDER-WOMAN and ASTONISHING X-MEN Motion Comics now on iTunes! For more information on motion comics, visit the Marvel Motion Comics hub!"
Download episodes of "X-Men: Evolution", "Wolverine and the X-Men", "Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes" and "The Super Hero Squad Show" now on iTunes!
Check out the official Marvel Shop for your favorite Marvel Heroes!
