JACK

Real Name: Jack

Identity/Class: Clone of human mutate

Occupation: Henchman

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Guardian, Jackal (Miles Warren)

Enemies: Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly)

Known Relatives: Peter Parker (Spider-Man, genetic progenitor), Miles Warren (Jackal, creator), Kaine (fellow clone), Ben Reilly, Spidercide, Guardian, Jacks, other Spider-Man clones (fellow clones, deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The Jackal's Adirondack Mountains base

First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man I#122 (March, 1995)

Powers/Abilities: Jack was superhumanly agile and dextrous. A faulty clone, he was disfigured by clone degeneration, and was also equipped with a genetic "self-destruct" mechanism. 

History: (Amazing Spider-Man I#399 (fb) ) - The Jackal's early attempts to clone Peter Parker resulted in two malformed clones - the hulking, slow-witted Guardian and the miniature Jack. Unwilling to let them go to waste, the Jackal wiped their minds clean and reprogrammed them to protect his hideout in the Adirondack Mountains. He put them in stasis to await his commands.

(Web of Spider-Man I#122) - When the Scarlet Spider, driven by mysterious clone instincts, journeyed to the Jackal's lab, Jack and the Guardian were activated. Jack found the Spider and led him to the base's doorway, but when the Spider grabbed him by the neck, he was attacked by the Guardian. Jack watched them fight, and walked off with Guardian after he defeated the clone.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#399) - Jack taunted Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider, and led them on a chase to the base's doorway. He lured them inside, and showed them around the Jackal's lab until both Spider-Men were attacked by a pain-maddened Guardian. Jack recognized that the Guardian's clone degeneration was in its terminal stages, and pleaded with his friend to live as the giant collapsed and died. Jack took off his mask, revealing his own degeneration scars - just in time for the Jackal to arise from his regeneration tank. Jack fetched the Jackal's clothes, then watched as Warren confronted Peter and Ben before unveiling another Gwen Stacy clone.

(Spider-Man I#56) - Jack fetched a dreww for the Gwen clone; later, when he tried to ask the Jackal about treating his clone degeneration, he was violently rebuffed. Nevertheless, he aided the Jackal when he fought the Scarlet Spider, then watched the Gwen clone degenerate into dust before his eyes. As he brooded over her remains, the Jackal set the base to self-destruct. The Jackal fled through a teleportation gate, leaving the Spider-men trapped; Jack advised them to try the front door, and told them to remember he'd helped them if they ever cured clone degeneration. The Jackal pulled Jack through the gate moments before the base went up in flames.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#222) - The Jackal and Jack resumed their work in a reinforced bunker within the destroyed lab. Before long, however, Kaine invaded the bunker, seeking out the Jackal and his research data. While Kaine and the Jackal fought, Jack contemplated making a copy of the data Kaine had stolen, until he was spooked by the sudden arrival of Scrier (Samuel Fox). Before long, both intruders left, and when Jack asked too many questions about them, the Jackal backhanded him across the room. He helped the Jackal move his equipment out of the bunker and to his new lab, in the Brooklyn Incinerating Plant, was rebuffed again when he asked about degeneration, and later accompanied the Jackal when he attacked Flash Thompson with his Genetrix creatures.

(Web of Spider-Man I#123) - When the Scarlet Spider showed up to battle the Genetrix, the Jackal sent Jack into the fray; he was nearly devoured by the Genetrix before the Spider saved him. He then stood by as the Spider defeated the Jackal; as Warren was taken away by the police, the Spider-snagged Jack with a webline. Jack gave him the data he'd copied, which he claimed was proof that Ben Reilly was the real Peter Parker; as he handed it over, however, the Jackal saw the two talking, and triggered Jack's genetic self-destruct mechanism. Jack dissolved into a puddle of slime before Reilly's horrified eyes.

Comments: Created by J.M. DeMatteis, Todd DeZago, Steven Butler, and Randy Emberlin.

And mere pages later, the Scarlet Spider threw that data disc, which Jack had given his life to get to him, into the damn river. Of course, it turned out to be all lies anyway...

Oddly, Mark Bagley depicted Jack as a guy in a Jackal costume, while Steven Butler, in Web, drew him as an actual jackal-creature. Given that Jack was depicted unmasking in ASM I#399, I have to assume he was intended to be a guy in a costume.

The Jackal apparently cloned a bunch of Jacks later on to assist him with his schemes - they seemed to lack the individual personailty of this little guy.

Profile by Minor Irritant.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Jack, a tiny deformed clone of Peter Parker, should be distinguished from

...but has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Web of Spider-Man I#122, p8, pan2 (main image)
Amazing Spider-Man I#399, p13, pan3 (unmasked)

Appearances:
Web of Spider-Man I#122 (March, 1995) - J.M. DeMatteis (plot), Todd DeZago (script), Steven Butler (pencils), Randy Emberlin (inks), Eric Fein (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#399 (March, 1995) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Larry Mahlstedt (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spider-Man I#56 (March, 1995) - Howard Mackie (writer), Tom Lyle (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#222 (April, 1995) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Bill Sienkiewicz (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Web of Spider-Man I#123 (March, 1995) - Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steven Butler (pencils), Randy Emberlin (inks), Eric Fein (editor)

First Posted: 09/20/2013
Last updated: 09/20/2013

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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