Spider Island Spoilers: Maximum Clonage

Spoilers

Spider Island doesn’t just give all of New York a chance to have the proportional strength of a spider, it gives the Spider-Man family a chance to get together.

In Amazing Spider-Man #666, we’ve got Spider-Man hanging out with all his amazing family: a quick team up with Anya Corazon, Spider-Girl. Poker with Jessia Drew, the Sensational Spider-Woman.A kung fu fight with Julia Carpenter, the current Madame Webb. There’s even a cameo of Flash Thompson as the new Venom, and a chance encounter with the Hobgoblin.

But it’s The Jackal who raises the most questions. He’s back, and he’s got a clone army of Miles Warrens doing his work. Except for his sidekick, a hulking silent type who’s also more spider than man. As The Jackal and his mysterious co-conspirator discuss their plans, we’re introduced to yet another figure, hidden in a glass tube. His existence excites the villains, but also makes The Jackal wary.

As they assess their new find, The Jackal and his mysterious girlfriend confirm that the hulking man-spider at his side is none other than evolved Parker 3.0. The misfit. The reject.

“Back when I had a bit of a God complex, it amused me to be a little biblical and call him Kaine.”

Kaine is back. As a man-spider lackey. I didn’t see that coming. So who’s the new experiment in the tube?

“And now you want me to try out our experiment…on the real firstborn of this era?”

They throw the switch. The figure becomes another man-spider. And yet he makes a beeline for The Jackal as he fights the transformation. Roughly translated, this subject asks, “What have you done? Stop you! Anywhere! I can!”

And then he falls to his knees in servitude.

Hm, gunning for Jackal, fighting the process…could it be? The clone? The Scarlet Spider? Is it Ben Reilly?

I’ll take that bet.

A sketchier bet is the identity of Jackal’s lady friend, who he seems to serve and answer to. This guess is a stretch, but the only woman Jackal might bow to would be Gwen Stacy. Is a Gwen Stacy clone the mysterious red word balloon speaking spider queen?

Cue dramatic fanfare.

Matt Graham is a freelance contributor when he's not writing and illustrating for himself and others. A screenwriter and illustrator with experience in nearly every role of comic and film production, he spends most of his time rationalizing why it's not that weird to have a crush on the female teenaged clone of the hairiest, barrel chested man in comics.