Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy

Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy is a 2016 Marvel Comics storyline starring Spider-Man.

Premise

This storyline will detail Jackal resurfacing as he manages to get Rhino, Lizard, Doctor Octopus and a female Electro on his side with a chance to reunite with their loved ones.^[1]

Plot

Prologue

Jackal resurfaces in the form of a mysterious man in a red suit with an Anubis mask. Approaching several of Spider-Man's enemies, Jackal offers a deal to them in the form of the chance to revive their lost loved ones if they follow his orders. He starts with Rhino presenting him with a mysteriously-revived Oksana. Rhino accepts the deal.^[2]

Jackal then heads to Andry Correctional Facility where he visits Lizard. Lizard accepts Jackal's offer when introduced to the revived Martha Connors and Billy Connors.^[3]

Giving Rhino a new black version of his suit, Jackal sends Rhino to break Lizard and a depowered Maxwell Dillon from Andry Correctional Facility. Afterwards, he offers Electro help to regain his electrical powers.^[4]

Jackal later sends Rhino to convince Kingpin to join up with him while using a revived Vanessa Fisk as persuasion. Kingpin snaps the neck of Vanessa Fisk calling her an abomination and not his real wife. Spider-Man appears at Fisk Industries as Kingpin goes after Rhino. Upon hearing that Kingpin declined the offer, Jackal tells Rhino that he has gained one strike. Jackal is then seen with a revived Gwen Stacy at his side.^[5][6]

Before Dead No More

After J. Jonah Jameson Sr. has been hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital upon coughing up blood, Peter Parker, Aunt May, and J. Jonah Jameson visit him. After being told by Dr. McCray that J. Jonah Jameson Sr. is undergoing treatment, Jameson blames Peter for what happened to his father claiming that he must've come down with a disease which led to Jameson Sr. calming him down and Dr. McCray stating that the disease is hereditary. Outside of Jameson Sr.'s room, Peter and Jameson are approached by Dr. Rita Clarkson of New U Technologies who had been called to the hospital by Dr. McCray. She says that New U Technologies has cutting edge technology with they want Jameson Sr. to be a test subject of. Jameson storms off in anger while Parker wants to have the full details to them. At Edmond, Oklahoma, a chemical plant that is owned by Parker Industries suddenly catches fire. On his plane, Peter reads the research from New U Technologies where the latest technologies has them making new organs from the subject's DNA that don't have any genetic defects to them. While Anna Marie Marconi suspects that it has something to do with mad science, Parker is already starting to consider the possibilities. Within Living Brain, Doctor Octopus' conscious is starting to take note of the procedure. Parker and Anna then get word about what happened in Edmond, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Jackal had been working with the Lizard and Martha Connors in an experiment to restore Electro's powers to him. Upon Electro's reluctance to proceed with the procedure, the Jackal had then presented a mysteriously-revived Francine Frye (without the tattoos and piercings), a former love of Electro's that he inadvertently killed when his powers were out of control after being experimented on by the Superior Spider-Man. Electro finally ceded and agreed to do whatever Jackal wanted. Before continuing, Martha Connors informs Jackal about the fire in Edmond, Oklahoma and watches the news to see Spider-Man's arrival as none of them had any involvement with the incident. Spider-Man arrives at the scene of the explosion where a police officer tells him that there are six trapped workers within the chemical plant. Spider-Man gets five of them out and goes back for the sixth one Jerry Salteres who he gets out from under the rubble before the chemicals exploded. At the nearby hospital where the chemical plant workers were taken, Peter Parker discovers from the doctor that Jerry had inhaled some chemicals that damaged his heart and lungs. Upon going into the closet, Peter Parker contacts Dr. Clarkson to have her people work on Jerry Salteres in order to save his life. The operation is a success, but Peter's Spider-Senses go off. At New U Technologies' headquarters in San Francisco, Jameson meets with Dr. Clarkson and states that he wants to see proof that their technology works. He gets his proof when Dr. Clarkson calls out a revived Marla Madison-Jameson.^[7]

It was revealed that the revived ones were cloned, created by Jackal to bring the villains to do his bidding. Jackal went awry that Francine's DNA cloned was mixed in with Electro's DNA. This led to Electro dying upon Francine absorbing the electricity and become the new Electro instead. When Prowler infiltrated New U Technologies on Peter Parker's behalf and was accidentally killed by Francine during a chase, Jackal revived him while providing Francine a suit when she becomes the new Electro. Upon becoming loyal to Jackal, Prowler was used by Jackal to find out what Parker Industries is up to.^[8]

When Peter Parker scanned Living Brain to find out why it was acting unusually, Doctor Octopus' conscious asked why it was erased. Realizing the truth, Peter Parker shut down Living Brain only for Doctor Octopus' conscious to reactivate Living Brain and cause it to self-destruct while escaping in the Octobot. Arriving at New U Enterprises, the Doctor Octopus-possessed Octobot plans to get his biological body back, convinced that the consciousness in Parker's body was 'infected' by its time in Spider-Man to believe that Peter was superior rather than himself.^[9]

With J. Jonah Jameson Sr.'s health having taken a turn for the worse, Peter has to endure Jonah's and May's concerns for his extreme skepticism for using New U, with his secret identity preventing him from informing them of the real reason he doubts them. Peter remains adamant of sticking to the conventional procedure and J. Jonah Jameson Sr. has sided with him. Peter's superheroic endeavors prevent him from accompanying May and Jonah as J. Jonah Jameson Sr.'s health reaches critical status and he undergoes conventional surgery. To make matters worse, this is not enough and J. Jonah Jameson Sr. passes away.^[10]

Main Plot

After attending J. Jonah Jameson Sr.'s funeral, Peter decides to pay Jerry Salteres a visit in order to investigate why did his Spider-Sense go off in his presence. When they reach his house, his wife Emma reveals that New U had mysteriously taken Jerry away after he had accidentally forgotten to take a post-procedure daily pill prescribed by New U and his health decayed. As Spider-Man, Peter inflitrates the New U Headquarters and tries to locate Jerry using a microsopic Spider-Tracer he had tagged him with at the hospital once his Spider-Sense had gone off. Spider-Man delves deep into the laboratory and discovers several stasis tubes, with one of them apparently containing nothing but Jerry's nervous system, completely stripped off his body, and alive. Spider-Man is soon sighted by one of Miles Warren's clone/assistants, who calls the Rhino and Electro for help. After dispatching the two villains, Spider-Man continues to pursue Miles, only to find Gwen Stacy herself behind a closed door. The shock of Gwen's presence prevents Spidey from reacting to his Spider-Sense on time, and he's sucker-punched by the returned Doctor Octopus. In a side-story, it was shown that Gwen Stacy had overheard the discussion between Green Goblin and Spider-Man on the night that she died. Gwen is supposedly resurrected by Jackal and his clones. The Jackal claims that this one is not a clone, but the real Gwen who was harvested from her remains and still remembers everything in her life including her death (during which she was apparently aware but paralyzed by Green Goblin's gas such as being shocked to learn that Peter was Spider-Man). Jackal offers Gwen the opportunity to be his business partner as he tries to change the world with his new technology. Gwen is hesitant about this new life at first, but accepts it when the Jackal shows that he has reanimated the clone of her father George Stacy who is much better than he was before he died.^[11]

After the Jackal breaks up the fight between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, he shows Spider-Man around the New U Technologies. He was shown to have made reanimations of the villains Alistair Smythe, Bart Hamilton's Green Goblin form, Big Man, Eduardo Lobo, Hitman, a Hobgoblin, a Jack O'Lantern, Kangaroo I, Massacre, Mirage, Montana, a Mysterio, Ox, a Rose, Spencer Smythe, Stilt-Man, and Tarantula as well as reanimations of Ashley Kafka, Jean DeWolff, and Spider-Woman. George Stacy's clone recognizes something off about Gwen's face and points his gun at her. It was revealed that Gwen was actually the Gwen Stacy of Earth-65 that assists Spider-Man in escaping. The real Gwen Stacy clone is kidnapped by Kaine and taken to Parker Industries to be studied. Kaine reveals that he and Spider-Woman of Earth-65 came to this world to assist Spider-Man because they saw that apparently Spider-Man allying with the Jackal's offer on other worlds results in a global disaster in the form of the Carrion Virus.^[12]

Tie-Ins

Amazing Spider-Man

Trapped in Doctor Octopus' tentacles, Spider-Man expresses his disappointment that New U Technologies is cloning villains when they should be cloning other people like Prince. Doctor Octopus claims that he is the real Doctor Octopus and not a clone or a hologram. A flashback is shown that the Doctor Octopus-possessed Octobot went to Potter's Field where his body is buried to obtain some genetic material only to find that it was grave robbed alongside the corpses of Alistair Smythe and other villains. Making use of the Internet, the Doctor Octopus-possessed Octobot was confirmed of his suspicions upon finding out that New U Technologies was behind the grave robbing. Upon arriving at New U Technologies where his body is being held, the Doctor Octopus-possessed Octobot allowed his body to be cloned and perfected. Upon disposing of the copy of Peter Parker's conscious within the clone body, Doctor Octopus takes control of the body and emerges from the vat resembling his earlier appearance. Jackal was present where he presents him with his tentacle pack. Now an ally of Jackal, Doctor Octopus receives the special New U Pills to prevent his body from suffering clone degeneration.^[13]

Prior to Kaine's return to his Earth, it was revealed that Kaine's human body emerged from the Other's corpse similar to Peter's in the "Changes" storyline. After returning to the Great Web thanks to the Master Weaver, Kaine discovers that he's dying from a zombie-like Carrion Virus that's a side-effect of Warren's cloning process, and isn't allowed to go back to his Earth to avoid anyone catching it. Karn shows Kaine a number of realities with zombie apocalypses caused by this disease and Kaine decides to visit these realities to find a possible way to stop it as he'd be immune to the attacks. He tries to keep himself hidden from Karn's Web Warriors while researching it, but is caught by Spider-Woman of Earth-65 who assists him in going to other worlds and trying to find research to stop the Carrion Virus. Kaine discovers that all the downfalls of these realities was caused by Parker Industries teaming up with New U Technologies to spread Warren's technology which made the Carrion Virus widespread. In one of the realities, they manage to steal research from Peter and Warren before battling that reality's Kaine who dies from the Carrion Virus during their fight. They take the alternate Kaine's corpse to the Great Web to study it learning that Kaine himself is not contagious. Karn reveals that the events Kaine encountered in the other realities is starting to happen in Kaine's own reality. Since it's in the early process and Peter hasn't formed a full partnership with Warren yet, they still have a chance to stop it from happening. Their plan is to infiltrate New U Technologies and have Spider-Woman of Earth-65 replace the Gwen Stacy of Earth-616 to find out more about New U Technologies. While Spider-Woman of Earth-65 changes her looks, Kaine reveals to Karn that his research on his deceased counterpart led him to discover when he's going to die and he has very limited time. He kept it a secret from Spider-Woman of Earth-65 to make sure saving the Earth-616 reality is their top priority.^[14]

Prowler

After stopping a bank robbery that a revived Madame Web (Cassandra Webb) foresaw, Prowler returns to the New U Technologies to stop a fight between Jack O'Lantern, Kangaroo I, Massacre, Mirage, Montana, and Tarantula. Jackal reminds Hobie that he brought Hobbie back to keep the reanimated supervillains in line and that he wants Hobie to warn him when he leaves the building so his technology doesn't go out into the world. Knowing how annoying it is to be stuck in the same location, Jackal assigns Hobie to take care of a potential hacker in San Francisco. When Hobie goes to get more information on the hacker from Madame Web, she tells him that she sees buildings filled with agony that can't escape. After confronting his killer Electro, Prowler figures out Madame Web's precognition and goes to Alcatraz where he sets off a trap and gets caught in the process.^[15]

Hobie wakes up in a cell in Alcatraz and discovers that the hacker is the current Madame Web Julia Carpenter who's been using leftover technology from Shroud to investigate New U Technologies. Hobie angers Julia by severing the connection to stop her from looking more into New U. Back at the company, the villains are getting out of control. Jackal sends Electro to find Prowler to put them under check again. Electro goes to Cassandra Webb's room and tortures the telepath into giving her Prowler's location with the intent to kill him. Julia finds out Cassandra's alive from telepathic feedback resulting from Electro's attack. Prowler tells Julia what New U Technologies has accomplished and tries to get her to join them, but she refuses and escapes in a puff of black smoke. Prowler's body then starts failing due to not taking his New U Pills for an extended period of time as he questions what he's doing with his life. Prowler is then found by Electro.^[16]

Silk

Cindy Moon is glad to have her family back following her trip to the Negative Zone, but still feels distant from them and doesn't make as much of an effort to spend as much time with them. When J. Jonah Jameson wants one of his workers to investigate the New U scenario in San Francisco, Cindy volunteers to go to get away from the city as Hector Cervantez (now calling himself Spectro) accompanies her. Jameson is enthusiastic for her that her family is back together and leaves for dinner, but Cindy found something off about his behavior. She and Hector decide to investigate Jameson's room in New U Technologies and she uses her powers to create a different costume from her Silk outfit to avoid suspicion. Hector calls her new identity in this form "Silkworm" much to her annoyance. Cindy's suspicions are confirmed when she finds Jameson talking with his formerly-deceased wife while Spectro finds a room with a number of test subjects in capsules. Spectro triggers the intruder alert, prompting Cindy to escape. Before Cindy can leave, she is attacked by the resurrected Mattie Franklin.^[17]

Titles involved

Before Dead No More

• Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 4 #16-19

Main issues

• The Clone Conspiracy #1-5^[18]

Tie-Ins

• Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 4 #20-24
• Prowler Vol. 2 #1-5
• Silk Vol. 2 #14-17

References

External links

• Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy Reading Order Checklist at How to Love Comics