I’m working on making a complete timeline of events covering
the History of the MC2, spanning the nebulous 15 year stretch of
time after the Main Marvel Universe (or Universe-616)
split off and became the MC2 (or Universe-982) and
before the next-generation of heroes began to debut starting with J2 #1, A-Next
#1 and What If #105. For this instalment, I’d like to take
a look at the world-worn, well-travelled
man called Kaine.
A reference to Kaine’s activities prior to his
appearances during the infamous Clone Saga appears in Spider-Girl #44
when Peter provides Mayday
with a heavily edited and censored version of some of the significant events. Notably,
this issue also features flashbacks to Ben Reilly with Peter and
a heavily pregnant Mary Jane.
Near as I can tell, Kaine’s next earliest appearance
chronologically was depicted in Spider-Girl #49 where he notes that he
first met Alison Mongrain ‘over a decade’ prior accidentally
while investigating Norman
Osborn who had murdered Ben Reilly, who Kaine considered
a brother. During this investigation Kaine learned that Osborn
was using the Scriers to secretly funnel money to Mongrain. Kaine
encountered Mongrain immediately after the visit from the Scriers
where they took back the infant May Parker and left the woman
unconscious with explosives set to kill her. Saving her life, Kaine
learned from Alison the plot to fake May’s death and kidnap the
child and disgusted, left Mongrain floundering in the bay. This gives us a clear picture of Kaine’s
motive for seeking out Osborn and how he learned of what had happened to
Peter and Mary Jane’s baby.
Seemingly immediately after reaching the shore, Kaine
phoned Mary Jane to tell her ‘Your baby’s alive’ followed
by an explanation including that Norman Osborn’s was responsible. Not
wanting the child harmed as a result of a confrontation, Kaine asked Mary
Jane not to tell Peter until she was safe in his arms (Spider-Girl
#48).
Next, we briefly see Kaine’s encounter with the Scrier’s
in Spider-Girl #49 in a single panel flashback. This is presumably the
very same encounter in the south of France at La Maison DeJunae
from ‘a little over sixteen years ago’ seen in more detail in Amazing
Spider-Girl #25, where we see Kaine has tracked down the Brotherhood
of Scriers. After making short work of them, he rescues baby May
from Philippe DeJunae, unknowingly being manipulated by Norman Osborn
who had already cloned the infant and held one of them in a lab at Castle
Osborn in the Swiss Alps.
We see Kaine return May to Mary Jane
and assure her she there are tests she can perform to confirm she’s not being
tricked. Kaine states he is doing this as part of the debt he owes to Ben
Reilly, indicating his intention to punish the man responsible: Norman
Osborn. Kaine’s revenge ultimately does not come to pass as Osborn
dies literally by his own hand when his pumpkin bomb explodes during his final
battle with Spider-Man (Spider-Girl #48-#49).
At some unknown point or at various points in his past, Kaine
was chased by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents across five continents, learning to
recognize their moves as a result. (Amazing Spider-Girl #10) I’m placing
this here purely because it’s around the only confirmed time we known he crossed
into other countries and continents. It’s by no means a definitive placement,
merely representative.
At some point ‘years earlier’ than the flashbacks
seen in Darkdevil #2, Kaine turned to the arcane to prevent his
clone degeneration, mastering skills which summoned the living spirit of vengeance,
Zarathos. In exchange for halting his degeneration, Kaine served
as the demon’s servant for a time.
After years of constant agony, Kaine’s nerve endings
simply stopped functioning, apparently meaning he no longer felt anything (Spider-Girl
#14). This and his prior degeneration may be connected to Kaine’s use
of a metallic body suit (first seen chronologically in flashbacks from Darkdevil
#1)
Kaine acted as a ‘Guardian Angel’ to the young son of
Ben Reilly, watching over him as he grew up. When the boy began to suffer
from the fatal clone degeneration he must have inherited from his father, Kaine
took the boy to his hidden lab and placed him in suspended animation within a ‘Resuscitation
Tube’ for months, visiting often during this time and telling him of his father
and his true family history (Darkdevil #1).
*Ben Reilly’s son, known as Reilly Tyne, is said
to be ‘barely thirteen’ when he first formally meets Kaine. For various
reasons, this does not seem to fit with the established timeline. At some point
I intent to dedicate an entire post to the topic, but for now let’s focus on Kaine*
Around this time Kaine worked as an enforcer for Wilson
Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime when the District Attorney had collected
enough evidence to finally put Fisk away for life. Confronting him,
Daredevil found himself in battle with Kaine. With nothing to lose, Fisk
ordered his men to open fire on Daredevil despite Kaine being in
their way. In a heroic final act, Daredevil died shielding Kaine from
a barrage of bullets with his own body, saying that even a monster like Kaine
deserved better. Moved by the hero’s sacrifice for him, Kaine took the
body of the Man Without Fear to his laboratory where he tried in vain to
reanimate his corpse.
Realizing that
science could not help him, Kaine turned to sorcery, again summoning Zarathos
and this time begged him to revive the fallen hero in exchange for his own life
and soul. Uninterested, Zarathos ignored Kaine’s protests and
instead took possession of the boy still in suspended animation, physically ageing
him into an adult and giving him a demonic appearance. Fortunately, the spirit
of deceased Daredevil stood against Zarathos and eventually drove
the demon from the boy’s body (Darkdevil #2).
With Zarathos banished, the boy was left seemingly
stuck in a demonic adult body and blamed Kaine, who ‘skulked away’. Fortunately,
the boy had also been imbued with the spirit of Matt Murdock, and soon mastered
his new demonic abilities including appearing as a mortal man in his twenties, took
a job at Nelson’s law firm as an intern under the name Reilly Tyne
and became the heroic vigilante known as Darkdevil, though still
harbouring resentment toward Kaine (Darkdevil #3).
Kaine returns to New York from parts unknown ‘after
all these years’ to ‘check up on a family matter’ so it appears he
has not set foot in the city for some time prior to Spider-Girl #12 or
at least others are not aware of him doing so.
Based on these comments throughout various MC2 titles,
we can piece together the order of events prior to Kaine’s return in the
MC2’s present day. Here is what we have:
·
Kaine, seeking vengeance on Osborn,
saves Alison only to leave her for dead upon learning her part
in May’s kidnapping
·
Kaine contacts Mary Jane and tells
her May is alive but insists she not tell Peter until May
is safely returned to her parents
·
Placing May in the care of Philippe
DeJunae, protected by hired members of the Scriers, Kaine
rescues May from DeJunae, unaware events have been orchestrated
by Osborn
·
Kaine reunites May with her mother
Mary Jane, determined to find Osborn
·
Kaine mastered arcane skills in order to
summon the spirit of vengeance Zarathos, working as the demon’s servant
for a time in exchange for staving off his clone degeneration
·
Many years later, the son of Ben Reilly
and Elizabeth Tyne is found near-death by Kaine, who places him
in a Resuscitation Tube to stave off his clone degeneration
·
Kaine works as an enforcer for the Kingpin
·
When the District Attorney has collected
enough evidence to send Wilson Fisk to jail for life, Daredevil
is killed saving Kaine from Fisk's gunmen
·
Kaine attempts to revive Daredevil
using science but fails, and so resorts again to the arcane
·
Kaine summons Zarathos and pleads
with the demon to restore Daredevil to life in exchange for his own
·
Zarathos instead possesses and alters the
body of Reilly and Tyne's son
·
Daredevil's spirit battles Zarathos
for the boy's soul and body, eventually driving the demon out
·
The boy eventually masters his demonic abilities
and studies law, gaining a job at Foggy Nelson's law firm under
the name Reilly Tyne while also operating as the masked hero Darkdevil
in Murdock's honour
I believe that’s all we have regarding the History of the
MC2’s Kaine, but it’s always possible I’ve missed a detail somewhere
along the line. If you find something I haven’t noted, please let me know in
the comments.
Until I play a pivotal role in the lives of various major MC2
characters for years to come, I remain
frogoat
