Jackal (Marvel Comics character)

The Jackal is an alias used by several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually depicted as enemies of the superhero Spider-Man. The original and best known incarnation Miles Warren was originally introduced in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #31 (December 1965) as a professor at the fictional Empire State University. Later storylines established him as also being a scientist researching genetics and biochemistry, and revealed an unhealthy romantic obsession he had for Gwen Stacy. Warren was driven mad with grief and jealousy so he created his Jackal alter-ego to seek revenge on Spider-Man, whom he blamed for Gwen's tragic death. To this end, he trained himself in martial arts, and created a green suit and gauntlets with claw-like razors. Although the Jackal initially didn't possess any superpowers, he later gained enhanced strength, speed and agility by mixing his genes with those of a jackal.

The Jackal was introduced in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February 1974), but his human identity was not revealed until ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #148 (September 1975). Originally one of Spider-Man's less popular rogues, the character rose to prominence after being one of the first in the Marvel Universe to master cloning technology, and creating various clones of Spider-Man, like Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker, as well as of other characters, including himself. His experiments went on to play a major role in several popular Spider-Man storylines, such as the "Clone Saga" (1994-1996), "Spider-Island" (2011), and " Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" (2016-2017).

In 2014, ''IGN'' ranked the Jackal as Spider-Man's 17th greatest enemy. The character has been featured in several media adaptations of Spider-Man, including animated series and video games.

Publication history

The character first appears in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February 1974), and was created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Ross Andru. In ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #148 (September 1975), the Jackal's identity was revealed to be Professor Miles Warren who first appeared in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #31 (December 1965), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Prior to his Jackal reintroduction, his appearances were essentially limited to the occasional cameo in which he acts as simple background to Spider-Man's civilian life as a college student.

When named at all in these early appearances, he is called only "Professor Warren". A "Mister Warren" had previously appeared in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #8 (January 1964) but he is a high school science teacher rather than a college professor, and is physically very distinct from Miles Warren. Despite this, Conway has said it was always his interpretation that "Mister Warren", "Professor Warren", and Professor Miles Warren/Jackal were the same character.

The character was featured in the controversial 1990s "Clone Saga" story arc, the 2011 storyline "Spider-Island", and the 2016-2017 storyline " Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy".

Fictional character biography

Miles Warren

Miles Warren was a professor of biology at Empire State University, where he would meet Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. During his tenure there, Warren becomes secretly infatuated with the much younger Gwen to the point of obsession and jealousy of Parker. After Gwen is murdered by the Green Goblin, Warren swears vengeance on Spider-Man, since it was reported that it was Spider-Man who killed Gwen.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #149. Marvel Comics. Gwen's death drives Warren into depression, despair, and insanity as a mad geneticist who eventually turns into the Jackal. Miles is also the brother of science teacher Raymond Warren of Midtown High School.

Early career

Miles is an assistant of the High Evolutionary at Wundagore Mountain after earning his Ph.D in biochemistry. Warren assists the High Evolutionary in experiments that involve turning animals into humans and vice versa. There is conflict between Warren and the High Evolutionary because Warren succeeds in creating "New Men" who looked practically human, whereas the High Evolutionary is not able to. Eventually, Warren evolves a jackal that exhibits a Jekyll and Hyde personality. When the test subject escapes, the High Evolutionary banishes Warren from Wundagore. Warren continues his research and eventually settles down with a woman named Monica who bears him two children who are all killed in what was originally believed to be a car crash; however, it is later revealed to be an assault by his highly evolved Man-Jackal envious of his creator.

The Jackal's origin

The day after Gwen's death, Warren's lab assistant Anthony Serba reveals he successfully cloned a frog using their research technology. Warren gives Serba tissue samples of Gwen and Peter, telling Serba it's of rat cells. Sometime later, Serba confronts Warren, stating that the clones are human and must be destroyed immediately. Panicking, Warren attempts to cover Serba's mouth to shut up, accidentally suffocating Serba. Unable to accept responsibility for his actions, Warren develops a second personality to carry the weight of his misdeeds dubbed "The Jackal". He further develops his alter ego by fashioning a green suit and gauntlets with sharp, claw-like razors on each finger, and by training himself athletically. During this time, he also continues to experiment with cloning humans. Kaine is the first successful clone of Peter despite suffering from a slow cloning degeneration and having regenerative abilities to elude death several times.''Spider-Island: Deadly Foes''. Marvel Comics.

The Jackal's hatred for Spider-Man manifests in his belief that Spider-Man is solely responsible for allowing Gwen, whom he loved, to die at the Goblin's hands. He harasses Spider-Man numerous times, setting Spider-Man up against other adversaries. Warren allies himself with the Punisher against Spider-Man. The Jackal next attempts to incite a gang war between Hammerhead and Doctor Octopus. Later, he equips wrestler Maxwell Markham with the Grizzly costume and powerful exoskeleton to assassinate newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson. The Jackal then holds Parker hostage in a scheme to trap Spider-Man. Sometime after, he learns Spider-Man's identity.

Out of his numerous attempts to create clones of Peter, only one is a perfect copy of the original. He also creates two clones of himself, one a direct copy and the other a modified clone harboring the Carrion virus. The Jackal helps the Tarantula (Anton Miguel Rodriguez) escape prison, and the two become partners. The Jackal captures Spider-Man, but promptly lets go after proving that Spider-Man is no match for the Jackal in a fair fight. He then lures his nemesis to Shea Stadium'' reporter Ned Leeds to a bomb that only the original Spider-Man can disarm. But when a clone of Gwen tears off the Jackal's mask and confronts him on his crimes, Warren finally accepts responsibility for his actions. He attempts to correct his wrongdoings by freeing Leeds, only to be caught in the bomb's explosion.

Clone Saga

During the "Clone Saga", it was much later revealed that the clone of Peter had survived the explosion and gone into hiding under the alias of Ben Reilly, and the Jackal who died at Shea Stadium was later revealed to be a clone. Nearly five years later, another clone of Jackal would marry the original clone of Gwen and the two would live under the assumed names Warren Miles and Gwen Miles.''Web of Spider-Man'' #125. Marvel Comics. This clone of Warren eventually died of the clone degeneration that afflicted most of the Jackal's clones. The real Jackal resurfaced, where his experiments mutated his own DNA and give himself an actual jackal's attributes; his physical abilities had previously been the result of training rather than any superhuman powers.

When Reilly returns years later to New York City as the Scarlet Spider and allied with Spider-Man, the Jackal also returned to unleash his clone army and convinced both Parker and Reilly that the latter was the original Spider-Man, and the former was the clone. The Jackal created a number of clones of Peter who came into conflict with Spider-Man, the Scarlet Spider, and Kaine. Ultimately, the Jackal, in the process of attempting to kill and replace millions of people with clones that he could control, was killed falling off a tall building while trying to save the clone of Gwen.

It was ultimately revealed that the Jackal and this storyline's other major players had unknowingly been duped by Norman Osborn. The Jackal and various others (including Kaine) had been tricked into thinking that Reilly was the original and that Peter was the clone. All of the Jackal's machinations were influenced by his incorrect assertion that he knew who the real Peter was.

Spider-Island

The Jackal later returned in the "Spider-Island" storyline, being further genetically altered to the point where he frequently displayed animalistic tendencies. His body is always cold, requiring him to wear a thick fur coat even in the hottest weather. He's now a crime lord calling himself "The Professor", and allied himself with Hammerhead but the two eventually went to jail.'' Daredevil Vs. Punisher''. Marvel Comics. He returns in the "Infestation" back-up feature of ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', unleashing genetically-engineered bedbugs to pass on Spider-like abilities to thousands of citizens in Manhattan.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #659-660. Marvel Comics. He achieved this through the aid of several human clones of himself, and funding from Adriana Soria.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #668. Marvel Comics. Although the bedbugs had later died, the virus gave New York's citizens spider-powers and had now been airborne to infect the world to create a new race of Homo-Arachnus as part of his co-conspirator's plan to overtake the Great Web of Life. The Jackal has also enlisted the aid of his mutated henchman Tarantula.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #666. Marvel Comics. It was revealed that the clone of Gwen introduced in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #144 was only Abby-L (Gwen's second clone and the first cloning attempt) was a flawed clone with degenerative debilities. Before this seemingly perfect copy of Gwen died at Abby-L's hands, it was revealed the copy actually had some degeneration on her hand, suggesting not being perfect after all. Abby-L was also infected with the Carrion virus and had Carrion's same abilities. Abby-L was manipulated into killing the other clone of Gwen who was living in London under the alias of Joyce Delaney, and coming into conflict with the Jackal and Kaine. With his own ulterior motives, the Jackal manipulated various gang leaders into adorning duplicate costumes of Spider-Man to cause chaos in New York City.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #667 He experimented on the Spider King's host form to spread of New York City's infestation on a global scale.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #670. Marvel Comics. The Jackal also reveals that he still knows Spider-Man's true identity despite the worldwide mindwipe to the rest of the world. After a cure was created by Reed Richards with Max Modell's Horizon Labs using Anti-Venom's antibodies, the Jackal assured Soria that no cure was possible to which Soria killed him after realizing his co-conspirator's powers were amplified into the god-like Spider Queen due to a frequency that returned Spider-Man's spider-sense. The aftermath revealed that the one who died was a clone while the real Jackal had kept his distance the entire time with his former self's surviving clones, anticipating the outcome and gaining a sample of his slain female co-conspirator's DNA, recognizing his success in obtaining DNA unbeknownst to the Avengers and Spider-Man.

It's later revealed that the Jackal has been monitoring Peter's accidental creation of Alpha, and has set his sights on Spider-Man's new protégé.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #692-693. Marvel Comics. The Jackal resurfaces accompanied by his cloned mutated human-spider hybrids of Soria and is bent on harvesting Alpha's powers for himself in order to clone a race of Alpha males. But his plans fail as the Alpha energy cannot be cloned, resulting in a collection of powerless, near-mindless copies of Alpha, all of which are destroyed when the enraged Alpha breaks free. It was revealed that the two versions of Jackal that Spider-Man and Alpha fought were also clones.

Superior Spider-Man era

When Otto Octavius's mind possessed Spider-Man's body, the X-Men battles a 30 ft. human-spider hybrid attacking New York which turns out to be a human created by the Jackal using Mister Sinister's works.''Avenging Spider-Man'' #16. Marvel Comics. The Jackal later attacks the Superior Spider-Man and the new Scarlet Spider with some mutant-powered spider-clones.''Superior Spider-Man Team-Up'' #2. Marvel Comics. Superior Spider-Man kills the clones by destroying the Jackal's hideout, but the Jackal escapes. It is revealed that he kept samples of Scarlet Spider's DNA. The Jackal tells Carrion that he is prepared to develop Spidercide 2.0.''Scarlet Spider'' vol. 2 #20. Marvel Comics.

Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy

Ben's dissolved remains were collected by the Jackal and was resurrected thanks to a new cloning process. However, the Jackal found problems with the cellular degradation. He had Ben killed 26 more times, all of which had Ben's life (and most of Peter's) flash before his eyes. The ordeal of repeated death caused Ben to become mentally unbalanced and morally ambiguous, due to the trauma and very soul being damaged from being removed and replaced over and over. Ben eventually breaks free and knocks out the Jackal. After improving Warren's formula, Ben makes clones of Miles and persuades the Jackal that ''he'' is a clone, thereby making it nearly impossible to tell who is the real one. Now free with a number of clone of Miles as servants, Ben acts as the new Jackal during the " Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" storyline and is determined to repay the people who have heavily influenced Ben's and Peter's lives with the Jackal's technology to make sure that no one has to suffer again and that those who have can become whole, and even does this by establishing New U Technologies.''The Amazing Spider-Man'' vol. 4 #22. Marvel Comics.

When Spider-Man activates the Webware to stabilize the human and clone cells all across the world that were in danger of succumbing to clone degradation, the various clone of Miles melt as Ben fights Doctor Octopus. The so-called clone that does not melt realizes that he ''is'' the true Warren and vows to have revenge on Ben as the true Jackal. Ben returns to a safe-house and finds Miles in his Jackal outfit waiting in the living room. The Jackal proceeds to burn Ben's safe-house down and engages in one final battle. Ben defeats the Jackal and leaves him in the burning house to die.

The Jackal however, survived the fire and targeted the neural net that was built by Dr. Yesenia Rosario when the woman was doing a presentation of it at Empire State University. The Jackal was defeated by Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel as Dr. Rosario destroys her own invention by setting it to self-destruct.

He later surfaced in the Empire State University once more, under the guise of "Professor Guarinus" and is shocked to bump into a super-powered counterpart of Gwen Stacy from another universe, who had recently enrolled in this universe's ESU. He injected himself with actual jackal DNA, allowing himself to transform into looking exactly like his iconic green costume but for real. He recruited another new student, Benji, to befriend Gwen in exchange for the possibility of great power if she does her job well and while Benji is able to tell Miles that Gwen is a costumed hero from another world, she somehow had failed Warren and was punished for it.

Ben Reilly

Benjamin "Ben" Reilly is the second major character to use the Jackal alias.

Powers and abilities

Prior to his regeneration, Miles Warren is a genius in the fields of biochemistry, genetics, and cloning. The Jackal was a talented martial artist and gymnast. He later spliced his genes with the DNA of a jackal, having the strength, durability, speed, and agility amplified to inhuman levels. Warren can access to state-of-the-art laboratories, as well as advanced gadgets or devices if needed.

Copies of Jackal

Prior to the death of the Warren clone at Shea Stadium, he had created a clone of himself. The clone remained in stasis within a cloning casket that malfunctioned and super-aged the clone beyond death. Eventually, it emerged and became known as Carrion that wielded power and had no conscience for its actions. He was the first carrier of the Carrion virus, which Warren designed to destroy humanity. Carrion contained all Warren's memories which contained within his RNA, that included his hatred and knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity. Carrion wielded the power to create a Red Dust that would spread as pestilence as well as his touch that would incapacitate or even cause organic matter to degenerate to the point of disintegration. The original Carrion intended to kill Spider-Man with a spider-amoeba, but failed as Carrion was absorbed by the amoeba, engulfed in flames that ensued from his battle.

Much later, fellow ESU rival Malcolm McBride stumbled across Warren's old lair, where he was infected with a strain of the Carrion virus and became the second incarnation of Carrion. The virus allowed McBride to become endowed with the knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity; however, he was unsure whether he was Dr. Warren's first clone or Malcolm McBride. Eventually, McBride teamed with the likes of Demogoblin and Carnage, but was later cured of his condition and incarcerated in Ravencroft Asylum.

A man dressed as the Jackal once attacked Alpha Flight and claimed to be Miles Warren's son. It was later indicated that this Jackal was the Ani-Man Warren created that ultimately murdered the Professor's family.

A version of the Jackal dubbed as "The Professor" fought Daredevil and Punisher.

He used multiple stand-ins, such as the clones of his human form and the Jackal in "Spider-Island". There was also an additional clone accompanying the Jackal in "Sibling Rivalry" after targeting the Superior Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider.

Ben Reilly later made clones of Miles Warren to help run New U Technologies.

Other Clones

The following clones were created by the Jackal:

* The clone of Miles Warren who died at Shea Stadium

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