Spidercide
Spidercide is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Spidercide
It was said that he was the result of a 5 yearlong experiment. He was considered the ultimate creation of the Jackal who christened him Spidercide and tasked him with eliminating everyone connected to Spider-Man. (Spider-Man: The Jackal Files v1 #1) Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider confronted the newly resurrected Jackal in his Catskills lab and were shown a third Peter Parker in a stasis pod. The Jackal teased that the third Parker might be the real Peter Parker, held in suspended animation for five years. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #399) After a fight between the Jackal, Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider left the Jackal's lab in ruins. Seemingly abandoned, Kaine searched through the Jackal's computer files for proof of the identity of the true Peter Parker. Accidentally activating what he believed was a self-destruct fail-safe, the pod that contained the third Peter Parker instead rose and opened. The third Parker slipped away during a fight between Kaine and the Jackal who had not actually abandoned the lab. Wandering further upstate, the clone was eventually picked up by a trucker while hitchhiking, unable to remember how he got there, where he was going or what his name was. (Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #222) Later that night, the third Peter Parker got out at a New York truck stop and, wracked with confusion, slept behind a dumpster and managed some degree of comfort, but a group of thugs approached the third Parker. Acting on instinct, he swiftly defeated them, intensifying his confusion. (Web of Spider-Man v1 #123)
Disheveled and slumped over on a bench, the third Peter Parker tried to make sense of his thoughts. A police officer approached, telling him he'd been sitting there for two hours and should go home. When the third Parker told him that he did not know where to go, the officer replied that he should have thought of that before drinking himself into a stupor. Asked for his I.D., the third Parker freaked out and leapt away, terrified by who he might be. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #400) His jumbled memories led him to the Queens neighborhood where Peter Parker had grown up, and the third Peter Parker found himself in the path of a runaway criminal. Acting on instinct once again, he stopped the criminal using his mysterious powers. A man chasing the criminal tried to congratulate him but the third Parker continued on, remembering something about power and responsibility. Perched on a rooftop overlooking the city, he realized where he should go. (Spider-Man v1 #57) In the next 24 hours after his emergence from the stasis pod, the third Peter Parker spotted a Daily Bugle headline announcing Peter Parker's arrest. Stunned that a suspected serial killer looked exactly like him and vaguely remembering the name 'Peter Parker', the third Parker continued toward his mission, unaware that the enigmatic Scrier was following him. The third Peter Parker, desperate for something to stir his memory, arrived at the warehouse where the burglar who had killed Uncle Ben Parker hid out in. Recognizing it as the place that defined his life, the third Parker realized where to go for answers. As he entered a cemetery, images of Aunt May and Uncle Ben, the spider bite that gave Spider-Man his powers, as well as scores of other memories, flooded the mind of the third Parker. Kneeling in front of May and Ben Parker's headstones, the third Parker realized who he was. (Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #223)
In addition to Ben Reilly, Kaine, Jack and Guardian another clone of Spider-Man was introduced, Spidercide. He was a red herring that was introduced to make him seem to be the real Peter Parker who was locked in a pod for roughly five years.[1][2] While still in denial of the fact that he was a clone, Spidercide died during a battle with Spider-Man, Ben, and Kaine.[3] Scrier recovered his remains and reanimated him, granting him the unique ability to turn into other materials and shapes in the process.[volume & issue needed] While Spidercide returned to the Jackal thereafter, his loyalty was always to Scrier from that point on. Spidercide harbors intense hatred to both Peter Parker and Ben Reilly, jealous of Parker of having a life with Mary Jane Watson as his wife and sharing Kaine's belief that Reilly is the original. His actions are in contrast with Reilly's, he does not share Spider-Man's morality, and would kill in order to claim Peter Parker's life as his own, thus resulting the development of his insanity. He later mortally wounded Kaine by impaling him through the chest, causing an enraged Ben Reilly to throw him into a power grid, electrocuting and seemingly killing him.[4] His new powers allowed him to regenerate and he came back once more. He ultimately betrayed the Jackal, sending a copy of all of the Jackal's data to Scrier. The Jackal found out and tried to kill him, and Spidercide was once again incapacitated when he fell off the top of the Daily Bugle building during the fight, splattering his protoplasmic body into a pile of inert goo. His remains were taken away by police and he was placed in a state of suspended animation to keep him from returning.
Afterwards, he experienced an evolution in his powers that improved his shapeshifting ability and could operate through multiple bodies. Similarly, he gained a new outlook where he wanted to understand humanity and went out into the world to interact with people whilst in various disguises. Under the guise of a dating, he met various people only to murder them when they refused to 'reveal' the secret of being human to him. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4) This led to him taking the guise of Joshua where, on one occasion, he went on a date with a 24 year old woman named Gail Harrison where he accompanied her to her apartment only to murder. Her body was later discovered by the authorities with the media beginning to refer to these events as the First Date Murders. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #1)
The Jackal has recently acquired a fresh sample of Kaine's DNA. Ignoring his own advice of never cloning a clone, Jackal plans to create Spidercide 2.0.
Overview
Personality and attributes
It was the Jackal who gave him the name Spidercide on account that he would eliminate everyone connected to Spider-Man. (Spider-Man: The Jackal Files v1 #1) Kaine initially came to call him Freakface on account of his hideous features. (Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #224) With his powers, he was able to assume the identity of other people such as Scorpion, Lady Octopus and Kraven. At one point, the media came to refer to him as the First Date Murderer for the deaths he perpetrated on various people in the city. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
He was considered a savage without a shred of humanity. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
At first, he came to believe that he was the original Peter Parker and refused to think that he was a clone or genetic tool. Upon his mutation, he thought that Professor Warren had done something to him to make him into a freak. He claimed that normally he did not want to hurt anyone but that he could not live like his monstrous self. As such, he would go to any lengths to be turned back to normal even if it meant killing others. (Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #224) Spidercide came to know that the memories of Peter Parker's existence were just shadows and echoes downloaded into his head. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
He longed to serve no one but himself. Spidercide later looked to understand humanity and wanted to know the secret of the human heart. Despite this though, he came to consider himself to be something vile and akin to a disease where he wished he was never born. Facing his own extinction, he concluded that he could never fathom being human and decided to embrace his nature as a warped inhuman monster by rejecting humanity. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4) He came to believe that he lacked a soul. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #5)
His creator the Jackal considered him to be the perfect Peter Parker and the ultimate Spider-Clone. He was intended to be his maker's living doomsday weapon and was to serve as a fail-safe to be triggered as part of a dead-man's switch. (Spider-Man: The Jackal Files v1 #1) Initially, he worked for Professor Warren under the belief that he would be cured of his appearance and turned normal. (Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #224) Spidercide considered the Jackal to be his father but was happy to see him dead. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
Spidercide ultimately claimed that he had no desire to fight his clone brothers and that was simply the Jackal simply pitting them against each other. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
Powers and abilities
Spidercide was a clone of Peter Parker and thus possessed all his traits as Spider-Man. These included all his memories and unique abilities such as his agility, strength and Spider-Sense. However, he also experienced genetic changes by his creator the Jackal that gave him the power to control his physical make-up on a molecular level. This allowed him to alter his mass, density, shape and state through force of will. He was created to be adaptable to any contingency and was considered to be the evolution of Spider-Man in 100,000 years. (Spider-Man: The Jackal Files v1 #1) All these feats were achieved by instantaneously recoding his own DNA allowing him to morph his body at will. This allowed him to grow his limbs to monstrous sizes or shape them into mallets that he could use to crush his foes. These abilities also allowed him to survive catastrophic damage from debris that would normally kill a person. The Jackal had specifically designed him to counter the powers of Kaine which included his Mark of Kaine ability. (Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #224)
Originally, he resembled Peter Parker until he fell into the depths of madness whereupon a genetic trigger erupted from within him. This caused the manifestation of his shapeshifting abilities but caused his features to become distorted and hideous as a result. (Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #224) He could alter every aspect of his being allowing him to reform his body that could be turned into other shapes. This allowed him to assume the identity of another person and appear as anyone. Furthermore, he could turn his fist giant-sized or into tendrils to grab onto another person. In addition, he could reform his body to repair any injuries made to his body. In one case, he could engulf a person in his substance and trap them in a sac made of his own bio-matter. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
It was said that he was different from the Jackal's other creations though it was not known if this was intentional or not. Spidercide had the ability to evolve where over time he came to learn to increase his own strength. This led to him learning to divide his form and being allowing him to exist in multiple places. However, the more he multiplied himself then the weaker some of his bio-matter constructs bonds became allowing for a restrained enemy to free themselves from Spidercide's grip. Constant replication could break his genetic matrix leaving his body and those of his duplicates unstable where they began to break down. Such moments were said to be painful with it being akin to being on fire. The molecular structure could become so unstable that he could explode. Some of his aspects could die but Spidercide could still survive so long as the real version of him remained. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4) He came to refer to these other aspects of himself as a Duplicides. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #5)
As he was constantly evolving, he came to discover new abilities. One of these manifested in his ability to place a small aspect of himself into the bodies of others. It was then a simple matter to have these burrow inside another person and have them activate dormant DNA in their cells. Alternatively, he could place a tiny fragment of his DNA into others where this could empower them by giving them an adrenaline boost. Such individuals could find themselves given strength enough to stand up again and again. This could also be used to help heal an injured person by having these small fragments of his DNA repair wounds though this was dependent on how much life force Spidercide had left in him. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #5)
He could also manipulate nearby minds thus allowing him to negate a person's Spider-Sense. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1 #4)
Notes
- Spidercide was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Bagley where he made his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #399 (January, 1995).
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v1: (1995)
- Spectacular Spider-Man v1:
- New Warriors v1: (1995)
- Spider-Man: The Jackal Files v1:
- Ben Reilly: Spider-Man v1:
External Links
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