Heading Toward Ωmega

Maximum Clonage continues from Amazing Spider-Man #404...

While searching for Spider-Man in the Jackal's cloning facility, the Scarlet Spider has found himself in a room filled with Spider-Man clones. Outnumbered, the Spider breaks free from the room, and resumes his search for the real Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, Mary Jane returns to the home that she shares with her husband Peter Parker.[1] Her mind is focused on she has been left alone after the revelation that her husband Peter is actually a clone.[2] Entering the house, she is shocked to see Kaine looking through Peter's family photos. He wonders why Peter would give up a perfect life with his wife and their unborn child.[3] Back in his facility, the Jackal tries to console Spider-Man, who has joined the mad scientist after learning that he was a clone.[4] Seeing how upset Peter is, the Jackal decides that the young man needs something to cheer him up and asks him to go and recover the clone of Gwen Stacy.[5] Knowing where she is currently located and sends him on his way. After Spider-Man leaves, the Jackal gloats over how easily Spider-Man can be manipulated. Spidercide agrees with his master, grinning to himself.[6]

Elsewhere, the Scarlet Spider continues searching for Spider-Man, while being dogged by his clones. Needing to gain some ground, he begins taking down the clones with his impact webbing and stingers. The ensuing battle sends the Spider smashing through one of the walls to the outside. Getting his bearings, the Scarlet Spider is horrified to learn where the Jackal's secret lab is located. While back at the Parker residence, Kaine continues to lament over everything that Peter Parker has given up. When Mary Jane asks why Kaine cares so much about Peter Parker's life, he explains that he was the first clone of Peter created by Miles Warren. He recalls the early days of his life, how he earned the pride of his creator.[7] At first, Kaine seemed to be a complete success until the day that he got his first painful precognitive flash. Soon after, he began seeing the first signs of cellular degeneration. Learning that his creation was flawed, Warren attempted to kill Kaine. However, he manages to escape and spent his time spying on Warren and his cloning experiments. He saw as his next clone became his favored son. He hated Peter at first, but soon saw what he made of his life and envied him for it.[8] Thinking about how Peter has thrown his life away, Kaine once more loses his temper. Confronting Mary Jane, Kaine figures that since Peter's life means nothing to him now, so does she.

Back at his lab, the Jackal enters a room full of cloning chambers that all contain clones of Gwen Stacy. Deciding that there can only be one worthy of him, outside of the original, he allows all of the clones to degenerate all at once. At that moment, Spider-Man arrives at the home of the original Gwen Stacy clone. Gwen was prepared for this after the death of her husband Warren was killed.[9] Spider-Man is taken aback by how much this clone of Gwen looks like the original. He contemplates taking off his mask, but she tells him to stop, telling him that she can't bare living with someone else's memories. Peter tells her that he understands what she is saying. Calming down, Gwen admits that they have no control over their lives and agrees to go along, deciding that she has unfinished business with the Jackal. While back at the Parker residence, Mary Jane stands fearlessly before Kaine, certain that he won't kill her or her unborn baby. She convinces Kaine of his own humanity and convinces him to go and save Peter and Ben. This succeeds, but Kaine leaps out a window to go find them. Mary Jane decides that she is not going to wait around for Peter to come back either and rushes upstairs to think of a way to let him know she still cares.

At that moment, outside of the Jackal's lab, the Scarlet Spider realizes that his foe's lab is in the same factory that his body was disposed years earlier.[10] He is then swarmed by the army of Spider-Clones and is about to fall when he is joined by Kaine. Although the Scarlet Spider insists that Kaine not murder these clones, the two agree to fight side-by-side.

... Maximum Clonage continues in The Spectacular Spider-Man #227.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, Mary Jane Watson, Kaine, Gwen Stacy clone, Jackal, Spidercide,

Continuity Notes

1. Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.

2. Peter was told he was a clone in The Spectacular Spider-Man #226. However, this was a deception orchestrated by the Green Goblin as revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.

3. Mary Jane revealed that she was pregnant in The Spectacular Spider-Man #220.

4. Peter reluctantly joined forces with the Jackal in Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha #1.

5. The Jackal makes a distinction that he is not talking about the real Gwen Stacy, who has been dead since Amazing Spider-Man #121. He is referring to the clone of Gwen Stacy that the Jackal created. The details of his creating clone are detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #149.

6. Spidercide is grinning because he is secretly betraying the Jackal to Scrier, as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #404.

7. Chronologically, Kaine's flashback happens around the events of Amazing Spider-Man #127, per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, this puts Kaine's birth occurred roughly five years prior to this story.

8. As Kaine is telling this story, he is holding a photo of Peter and Mary Jane on their wedding day. In the original timeline, Peter and Mary Jane were married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. Presumably, after reality was altered in Amazing Spider-Man #545, the photo in Kaine's hand is a different photo.

9. Gwen's husband, a clone of Miles Warren named Warren Miles, was killed in Web of Spider-Man #125.

10. Believed to be dead, Ben Reilly's body was tossed into this factory's smokestack in Amazing Spider-Man #151. How he survived is explained in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.