I Kaine Not Stop Talking

I'm sorry.

Bought a big stack of back issues yesterday, including "Web of Spider-Man #1," which featured a short story about one of my favorite comics enigmas, Kaine.

"Kaine in: Echoes" is written by J.M. DeMatteis, who's, like, one of the most stalwart writers of Spider-Man ever. He's been writing him since at least the early 90s, and his stuff is almost always solid. He was one of the main writers during the original Clone Saga, so I figure he's got as solid a grasp on the character of Kaine as anyone. "If a man is never truly born... can he truly live?" Oh yeah, that's DeMatteis.

In the story, Kaine is dying in prison from the cellular degeneration that affects all clones eventually. He has hallucinatory conversations with Ben Reilly, the Jackal, his ex Louise, his past self, and Peter Parker. He realizes that his cellular degeneration is his body growing into a stronger form and accepts it, recovering fully and ready to embrace a new, uncertain future.

Kind of a kontinuity kleanup tale, but not a bad story by a long shot. However, it still didn't give me a real handle on Kaine's motivations. That's what fascinates me about Kaine. He has all of Peter Parker's memories, morality, and outlook up to a point; Peter, Ben, and Kaine all start down the same track, but at one point they split down three different paths, with Kaine becoming a killer and a monster. Why? What was the inciting event? What was it?

Kaine intones that he never had a mother, and that the closest thing he had to a father was a deranged murderer who only saw him as an experiment. Could that be what makes him different from Peter Parker? We know that Peter himself initially used his powers for showboating self gain before the death of his Uncle Ben... could the lack of parenting be the source of Kaine's rottenness? This rings hollow... he'd still have Peter's memories and experiences of good upbringing (even if he rejects them as "false"), and Ben is in the same boat but turned out okay. However, he does seem to get a lot more hung up on his relationship with the Jackal than Ben does (who is completely "whatever"). The Jackal essentially kicked Kaine out on his ass within ten minutes of birthing him but completely accepted Ben, so maybe the double rejection has something to do with Kaine's self-loathing and depression? Yeah, but it's clear to everybody that the Jackal is a complete loon, I doubt it'd be something Peter Parker couldn't get over, much less something that would turn him into a 90s faux-badass killing machine.

Kaine has a worse case of cellular degeneration than Ben, and is living in constant pain. I mean, that would make you pretty grumpy, but I don't think that by itself is enough to turn Kaine into a killer. If Peter was diagnosed with some sort of painful disease, would he turn into a supervillain? No, he'd fight through it. And Ben, while not suffering like Kaine did, had the knowledge that all clones like himself were fated to suffer a horrible disease-like death before their tenth birthday, and it didn't get him down. Could it be that, without pain, Ben saw his short time as a gift, whereas Kaine saw his as a curse? A combination of constant, almost debilitating pain with a short lifespan might account for a difference in outlook, but I just don't see Peter Parker ever succumbing to that kind of despair given the same circumstances.

Hm. Kaine has a sense of self-loathing that Peter doesn't. He hates being in solitary because he doesn't like being alone with his thoughts. He says he's been "running from himself" and can't find peace. Could that be the main difference? When Ben realized that he was a clone, he wanted to die and was briefly a fatalistic douchebag as well. While busing away from New York, he snapped at a depressed man to stop bothering him and that he'd be better off disappearing, but changed his mind when he stopped the man from committing suicide. He'd had an epiphany that losing "his life" could be the start of something new and better. Peter Parker himself went mental when he thought he was the clone; he tried to kill Ben, smacked his pregnant wife, and fell in with supervillains. Granted, that was more overwrought, terrible writing than anything else, but there's still precedent. Could it be that fate just didn't give Kaine an epiphany about his life that might have given him a different outlook? Again, this seems wrong. It suggests that Ben and Peter's coming around is solely based on luck, completely discounting the Peter Parker decency. I find it difficult to believe the same decency wouldn't sink into Kaine, even if it would take longer.

Y'know what? Maybe, by the same mistake that made him have more horrible cellular degeneration, he's just more mentally unstable. That kinda rings false also... if this degeneration is just a sort of "evolution," as this story suggests, then his brain should be fine. I mean, the side effects of the "evolution" might be long-standing brain problems that Peter or Ben wouldn't suffer, but just "brain problems" is hardly a satisfying explanation. I find it to be less unlikely simply because you can't really "convince" an insane person to be sane again, as happens in this story (of course, he's being convinced by his own hallucinations...). Furthermore, if it was just a mental condition, he would be cured now and acting more like Peter Parker, but from what I know of his later appearances he's still pretty much a fatalistic asshole.

Maybe it's just a combination. Upbringing, rejection, constant painful disease, bad luck, and possible mental problems can gang up on a guy. The problem is... it's Peter Parker. The guy's essentially got a butt crapping on him all day and all night forever, and he always always always manages to rise above and be the best man he can. That's what fascinates me so much about Kaine. Anything that would make Peter Parker abandon his deepest principles and succumb to hateful despair would have to be something BIG, and I want to know what that is. I just... don't see it there with Kaine.

Of course, I've far from read everything with him in it, so maybe I'll get another epiphany. I hope so!

Oh, by the way, I just got it. Kaine, as in "Cain and Abel." Kaine is Peter Parker's evil brother, Ben is his Abel. Only, y'know, with xtreme 90s letterz. They really had some nice foreshadowing with him. HE'S SO CLOSE TO BEING A GREAT CHARACTER.

Kaine also appeared in my copy of "Amazing Spider-Girl," where he's mellowed and helps out Peter Parker's future daughter. He acts kind of like how Peter Parker gets in those situations where he stops joking and gets serious, which felt very right.

Seriously, I need to go back and get more Spider back issues, I really had a ball reading them.