In the 90s there was this crazy and very long arc (2 years) of Spider-man called the Clone Saga. A lot

happened in it. But basically, a scientist called Miles Warren (The Jackal) became obsessed with Peter

Parker and Gwen Stacy and in his insanity started making clones of them. Of the clones of Peter, two

stand out: the latter, Ben Reilly, who was a perfect clone, had almost all of Peters memories and ended

up being a decent superhero (the first Scarlet Spider).

Ben Reilly, the original Scarlet Spider

Then there was the former, the one that came out wrong from the test tubes: Kaine. His first memories

are 1) some few vague images from Peters childhood that really dont feel like his own, 2) his father,

the Jackal, rejecting him after a while and trying to murder him, 3) being thrown into a pile of dead

bodies of other failed clones. Not exactly an ideal start.

Kaine with a clone of Gwen Stacy, remembering.

Suffering from cellular degeneration, he was slowly dying from the beginning and becoming increasingly

paranoid and mentally unbalanced. He became a supervillan/assassin for hire, and a thorn in Peters and

Reillys sides until they arrived to an uneasy peace of sorts.

Kaine, Mary Jane Watson and Aunt May.

After some other events (swapping places with Peter to save his brother of being sacrificed in a ritual

to bring Kraven the Hunter back to life, revived as a spider monster by the Jackal & Co., etc), Peter

managed to cure him of all his physical ailments and set him a bit in the right path. He lends him a

technologically advanced suit he was making and for a moment the two Parker Brothers fight together

to stop a worldwide threat (Spider Island).

After that, now with a cleared mind (and Peters costume that he borrowed but never returned),

Kaine set his own course.

This is where Christopher Yosts Scarlet Spider series starts.

Still a little bit paranoid and fearful that authorities or old enemies would come looking for him, he plans

to escape to Mexico and drink margaritas in the beach. To that purpose, he goes to Houston and takes

the opportunity to raise funds by disrupting an exchange between two sets of criminal groups and

stealing their money.

However, to his horror, he discovers that the whole thing was a botched human trafficking operation: a

whole truck filled with the bodies of dead people lays near. Only a girl survived.

That girl is Aracely Penalba. Kaine takes Aracely to a hospital and decides to spend the night at an

expensive hotel (the Four Seasons) to reflect. The next day a supervillain with powers over fire called

the Salamander comes to the hospital to assassinate Aracely and Kaine battles him to protect her

second chance at life.

Instead of killing the bad guy as he would have done before, Kaine feels a nagging sensation in the back

of his head that he should follow Bens and Peters example and abstain from killing. He does and as

the battle ends with him victorious, the crowd of onlookers begin to celebrate, much to his confusion.

Later that night, Kaine visits Aracely at the hospital and is compelled by police officer Wally Layton and

Doctor Donald Meland to take her with him as they reason she would otherwise get deported and,

alone in Mexico, she would be extremely vulnerable to whatever forces are trying to kill her.

At the end he accepts and decides to stay in Houston with Aracely at the Four Seasons hotel. To his

dismay, people would call him Scarlet Spider and a hero taking the mantle after his late clone

brother, Ben Reilly.

These events would be the start of Aracelys and Kaines adventures. With time they would discover that

she has powers of her own, battle werewolves of a mysterious Mexican drug cartel, disarm nuclear

bombs (without knowledge of how to do so), go to a rodeo and steal horses, stop alien-powered serial

murderers, try to shutdown human trafficking operations and illegal brothels, investigate the activities

of an amoral oil corporation, confront undead ninjas, stab Wolverine of the X-men in the heart and

annoy the hell out of each other. However, they also make friendship with others and remain together

at the end, side by side, as the headstrong people they are.

Right panel: Aracely, Annabelle Adams, Kaine, Dr. Donald Meland and his husband Sergeant Wally

Layton.