Scarlet Spider #1 (2012)

Kaine recalls how a man in a snakeskin jacket talked at tedious length about a big-money deal which would take place at the Port of Houston. Later that night, at the Port of Houston in Texas, some kind of illicit deal is going down between two parties. Men start disappearing swiftly. Kaine reveals himself, and begins to take down the remaining men. While fighting, he admits that he, like those involved in the deal which he intrudes upon, is a bad person; that killing them feels right, like it is instinctual; that he appreciates his new abilities of web-slinging and night-vision; and that despite everything, something inside of him prevents him from killing the criminals. He finishes them all off except for one man, whom he allows to run away. He reveals that the sole reason for his exploits was to obtain the large amount of cash that was involved, and that indeed he didn’t truly care about what the convicts were doing. His reason for attaining the money is that he needs it to escape the country. Suddenly, he picks up the scent of the contents of the container which the criminals were smuggling, and realises that they were not dealing drugs, but trafficking humans, for a huge pile of dead bodies litters the container like a human pyramid. He notices one survivor, a girl, and rushes into the mass of corpses to save her. At the Park Plaza Hospital, a bald criminal, who had been shot by a police officer, is being treated by a doctor, Donald Meland, accompanied by the aforementioned officer, named Wally Layton. Kaine bursts in, carrying the girl, and demands that she is saved at once. Donald rushes over to help, but Officer Layton aims his handgun at Kaine, ordering him to drop the girl. Kaine disarms Layton with a web, and, one hand enclosed upon Layton’s face, he lifts him up into the air, angrily telling Officer Layton to threaten him. He immediately repents his actions, making a quick exit; as he does so, he informs them of the pile of bodies in the container at the port. While using a truck as a means of transport after connecting himself to its side with webs, he decides to lay low for one night, as although he believes that the Police, FBI, and Avengers are after him, he has so far seen no sign of anybody. He rents a $2000 per night suite in the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston. After catching himself in the mirror, he reflects on who he ‘really’ is: Kaine, villain, assassin, failure, dead man. He begins to recall his backstory. He had no mother, and his father was mad. The Jackal created him using Peter Parker's DNA in his plot against Spider-Man, and although he was more powerful than Spider-Man, he was flawed due to cellular degeneration. Despite only having months to live, he found a way to slow the degeneration down. He tells of how he tracked down Ben Reilly, another Spider-Man clone, who eventually perished at the hands of someone else. Kaine then died for Parker. However, The Jackal, under orders from the Queen, revived Kaine, giving him “a body to match [his] soul.” He was saved by Parker, who helped him rid himself of his degeneration. Kaine decides that although he cannot forget his scarring past, he can be someone better, and as a start to his new life, he shaves and cuts his hair. At the docks, the police are collecting the bodies of the dead humans Kaine discovered in the container. The Salamander appears atop a container, and tells the officers: “Burn.” Kaine, meanwhile, is frightened by a pigeon flying by, which leads him to realise he no longer has his spider-sense or precognitive flashes. A screeching car alerts him to a situation in which an old lady is close to being hit by said car, and Kaine, refusing to be a hero, says that there is nothing he can do about it. However, he feels compelled to indeed do something, and jumps onto the bonnet of the car, crushing it underneath his feet, saving the old woman. She thanks him, and he is stunned at her calmness, so gives her a strong verbal blast. People standing by point out the car’s driver, who was thrown through the car’s windscreen and onto the road, supposedly near to death. Kaine flees the scene. He returns to the hotel, where the bartender flirts with him; he, however, is more interested in the news item on the TV concerning The Salamander’s attack of the police officers at the dock. Back in his room, he tried to convince himself that unlike Peter Parker, he is not a hero, and this is not his problem. At the Hospital, Donald is wheeling Aracely through the hospital, when, all of a sudden, the doors burst open. The Salamander stands where they used to be, and addresses Aracely, asking her if she is ready to burn like the others, because this time, “there is no one to save [her].” As he says these final words, Kaine is pictured leaving the hotel on foot.