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 the Scarlet Spiders Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker, as well as of other characters, including himself and the chimera Spider-Girl. 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), the latter storyline of which established Ben Reilly as the second Jackal. 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. The character first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974), and was created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Ross Andru.