Whoever Finds Me… Will Kill Me!

The Past[1]

Kaine has just eliminated the man he has been contracted to kill. As he turns to leave he finds an army of killers from the Assassins Guild standing behind them. They have come to deliver a message from their leader, Bella Donna Bourdeaux. She is impressed with Kaine’s skills and admits that they have not been able to learn much about them. She then tells Kaine if he is going to take contacts on Guild territory he either has to join the organization or pay a tithe to them. When one of the assassins asks Kaine what his answer is, he tells them that Bella Donna Bourdeaux can go fuck herself.

Now

Kaine is on patrol in the Spider-Man costume he stole from Peter Parker when he is suddenly ambushed by two members of the Assassins Guild, a gunman named Smithy and a ninja that used to be part of the Hand. Fighting back against his foes, Kaine is surprised how soon the Assassins Guild sent people after him after they learned he was in Dallas. Kaine quickly finds that his foes are a lot tougher than they appear as Smithy can summons new guns when disarmed and the Hand ninja appears to be unkillable.

Meanwhile, Kaine’s allies Wally Floyd and Donald Meland have arrived at the River Oaks home of Terrance Mitchell. Floyd, a police officer, advises against confronting Mitchell as they have no evidence to prove that he hired the Assassins Guild to kill Donald, a surgeon, from saving his family after a car accident. Entering the home anyway, they find Terrance sitting alone in the dark. When they make their presence known, Mitchell orders an armed member of the Assassins Guild to eliminate them.

While at the Galleria, Annabelle Adams and Aracely are on a shopping spree to get the young refugee everything she needs. Stricken with amnesia, the young Mexican keeps asking Annabelle what things are. When they begin trying on clothes, Annabelle questions why she agreed to do this and wonders where Kaine is. Aracely, who has previously on spoken in Spanish responds in English, telling Annabelle that she can sense that Kaine is on top of a building fighting someone.

At that same moment, Kaine is trying to get away from his attackers by leaping on top of a bus. However, Smithy teleports on the bus moments later and shoots Kaine through the shoulder. Kaine calls Smithy a dead man and then crushes his fingers with his bare hands and then throws Smithy off the bus. That’s when Kaine is knocked off the bus by another other assassins. It is a little girl in a night gown and teddy bear who is called Flower. When she tells Kaine to flee, he is knocked back down by another assassin, a sword wielding assassin in a skull costume called the Harvester.

Back at the Mitchell home, Wally has pulled his service pistol and ordered the assassin to drop his weapon. However, the assassin tells Loyd to step away from his husband, telling him that he has only been contracted to kill Donald. Don pleads with Terrance to call off the hit and tries to explain that it wasn’t his fault that his wife and daughter died in surgery. When Wally threatens to shoot Mitchell, he tells the officer to go ahead. That’s when Donald pleads his case, saying that there was nothing he could do due to the severity of the injuries and that the death of Mitchell’s wife and daughter will haunt him for the rest of his life. Don also points out that killing him won’t bring his family back and he needs to find a healthy way to move on with his life.

Back at the scene of the battle, Kaine recovers from Harvester’s attack. That’s when Flower loses her temper, as she berates Kaine for not listening to her, picks him up and throws him into a nearby wall with enough force to shatter the concrete. Kaine just barely manages to move out of the way when Flower tries to punch him. The force of her blow punches through the wall. That’s when Smithy teleports on the scene with the Hand ninja. Smithy is looking forward to get back at Kaine for breaking his fingers. However, before they can all gang up on him, Kaine activates the stealth mode on his costume, making him invisible to the naked eye.

Kaine then punches his fist through the ninja’s head and takes his sword. He then uses the weapon to cut off Harvester’s leg and warns the rest of the assassins to leave him alone or else he will kill them all. Flower charges at him but instead of killing the girl, Kaine fires webbing at her feet and makes her fall to the ground face first, knocking her out. The only one left standing is Smithy, who summons a gun but can’t make it work with his broken fingers. Kaine manages to close the distance between them and orders Smithy to hand over his phone. He calls Bella Donna Bourdeaux, and tells her to call off her minions as well as the contract on Donald. When she asks why she should do this, Kaine offers to do one job for her. However, this is conditional on them leaving him alone after he does said job. He then warns Bella that if she refuses he will kill every member of the Assassins Guild, starting with her. Bourdeaux is impressed with Kaine’s bravado and accepts his offer.

At that moment, Donald has convinced Terrance the errors of his way and he breaks down in tears. That’s when Wally notices that the hired assassin is now gone and suspects that Kaine had something to do with it.

When Kaine returns to his hotel room both Annabelle and Aracely are back from their shopping excursion. By this time Aracley has suddenly developed the ability to speak in multiple langauges. She also senses when Kaine returns and knows that he is upset. When Annabelle asks how he is doing, Kaine tells her that he needs to use the bathroom. There he looks at the blood on his hands and believes that this is who he is. In the bathroom mirror he suddenly sees all the people he has killed over the years looking back at him. One of them is Louise, a former lover, and seeing her decaying body causes him to run to the toilet to throw up.[2] After he is finished being sick, Kaine thinks that even though his body is healed, the blood on his hands will never come off.[3]

When Annabelle goes to check on him, Kaine doesn’t answer when she knocks on the bathroom door. Meanwhile, Aracely is watching a news report about the “Scarlet Spider-Man” that was seen battling the Assassins Guild earlier that day. When Annabelle asks what this is, Aracely tells her that the costumed hero is Kaine, much to Annabell’s surprise.

Recurring Characters

Scarlet Spider, Assassins Guild (Bella Donna Bourdeaux, Smithy, Harvester, Flower), Aracely Penalba, Wally Layton, Donald Meland, Annabelle Adams, Terrance Mitchell

Continuity Notes

1. As I write this (November 2020) the Marvel Chronology Project has yet to specify where this flashback fits in Kaine’s chronology. I would argue that this flashback takes place between Kaine’s appearances in the second story of Amazing Spider-Man #637 and a flashback in Spider-Man: Redemption #3.

2. This woman is Louise Kennedy, a police detective from Salt Lake City. In the early days when Kaine stalked and tormented Ben Reilly he had a brief relationship with Louise. When she betrayed him he murdered her in a rage. See Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1-3.

3. Kaine was the first and imperfect clone of Peter Parker that suffered from cellular degeneration for years until he was cured during Spider-Island. See Amazing Spider-Man #671.

Chronology

As stated above, there has yet to be an official or semi-official statement on where the flashback in this story takes place. It’s only two pages long and there’s not a whole lot to go on. What we can determine is that the flashback takes place when Kaine was an assassin for hire and before he obtained the suit that slowed his degeneration that he wore predominantly during the Clone Saga.

The only story that delves into Kaine’s time as an assassin-for-hire were the back-up stories in Amazing Spider-Man #634-637 when he was hired to eliminate Kraven the Hunter. That story ends with Kaine having a profound experience and killing his employer.

I argue that the flashback in Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #4 takes place after Amazing Spider-Man #637 is because Kaine has already established himself as an assassin and has earned enough reputation to attract the attention of the Assassins Guild. More over, he impressed them sufficiently for Bella Donna to invite him into the organization. I think those credentials would have been earned after he successfully survived a battle against Kraven the Hunter.

Topical References

• Real world businesses: Macy’s, Four Seasons Hotel