Why isn`t Kaine a popular character?

[Darthfury78]

I agree with 1 and 2, but Kaine is NOT a mutant. Making him an X-Man makes zero sense from a storytelling perspective. He fits better with a team of misfits like New Warriors.

While Kaine is not a Mutant, that doesn't mean he can't be a part of the X-Verse, Kaine would make a great addition to the X-Family. This would allow that audience to see a development with Kaine in ways that would not be possible at the Spider-Office. Longshot is not a Mutant. Yet, he's stuck in the X-Verse. Making Kaine an X-Men makes a lot of sense storywise. What is a big tragedy is not loaning Robin Vega to the X-Office, and she's a Mutant. The character is stuck in limbo. If Kaine goes over to the X-Office, he would not be stuck in limbo now the focus is on Silk, Spider-Gwen, and Miles Morales...

[Celgress]

I can’t answer the question because I don’t agree with the premise....

Same here, I think Kaine post his Scarlet Spider run has been fairly popular. He is certainly more popular than his poor clone "brother" Ben these days.

[Snoop Dogg]

does kaine have a single media appearance beyond a costume

[PCN24454]

does kaine have a single media appearance beyond a costume

Ultimate Spider-Man's Ben Reilly was closer to Kaine than their official Kaine was.

[Alan2099]

Ultimate Spider-Man's Ben Reilly was closer to Kaine than their official Kaine was.

Their Ben Reilly was Kaine and their Kaine was Spidercide.

[Huntsman Spider]

does kaine have a single media appearance beyond a costume

Ultimate Spider-Man's Ben Reilly was closer to Kaine than their official Kaine was.

Their Ben Reilly was Kaine and their Kaine was Spidercide.

Pretty much this. Also, they were technically synthezoids made incorporating Spider-Man's DNA, a relatively new twist on the Spider-Slayers by making them cyborg clones of Spider-Man as opposed to just robots or cybernetically altered humans.

[HeavenlyDemonic]

Kaine’s biggest problem is not being unique enough in today’s comic market. I think he would work best on a team, like maybe x-Force or the Defenders(something similar to the original concept for the team). Also, Kaine needs a regular job like a bodyguard or bouncer. Both of those would fit his personality and eliminate his drifter mentality ( which is why I loved his solo series because it actually allowed him to lay down some roots). He also needs a personal life outside of the costume, friends and a steady love interest. He and Ben have developed a brotherly relationship, and that’s great for both of them, but Kaine especially could use more people in his corner to rely on.

[SuperiorIronman]

He's not popular largely due to things going on outside of him. Post-reboot, Kaine had a bright future but it seems that everyone who came on the character just either didn't get it or didn't care. So we basically hit the high note early and then everybody kept fucking up the landing every time they brought him back.

1. First being that he had his Scarlet Spider book launch during Superior Spider-man which ate up relevancy from pretty much everyone else. Scarlet Spider lasted a bit but Superior Spider-man was just the bigger deal so it fell by the side.

2. New Warriors just wasn't a Scarlet Spider book and launched in a period where a ton of team books had been on the shelf for the time. So New Warriors just didn't have as much an impact aside from overall quality.

3. His usage in the games had been fine as an unlocked costume but he didn't really have much relevancy beyond that. The Amazing Spider-man games just weren't very good and as someone who was involved with that community (brief as it was alive) the game just wasn't good enough to have the cult following things like Spider-man 2 did. So Kaine getting recognition from the games was out the window.

4. Spiderverse is not a good book. It's fan service ultimately with little to prop itself up on beyond that. Kaine being a focal point of that story had dick to do with anything so it was this time a failure of the writers and the tie-in being written as if it was done a few decades earlier which could make it a chore to read.

5. Following Spiderverse they wouldn't answer the damn question as to what happened to him so the fanbase was left with nothing for awhile and this caused interest to fade.

6. Clone Conspiracy is not a good book. And for whatever ass backwards reason they started taking away powers from him and made him all moldy again for reasons that I don't understand while continuing to separate him from his old cast (y'know cause regression was why people liked Scarlet Spider /s).

7. Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly) is not a good book. And ultimately whatever good will it had was lost as people stopped caring both in terms of readership and apparently the creative team.

8. Kaine was used in Ultimate Spider-man but it was towards the end of the show's life and it was at that point the worst animated incarnation so nobody cared. Kaine was however used for Ben Reily in terms of appearance and persona but the name was used for something that I assume was an incarnation of Spidercide.

9. Everybody kept getting relaunches and reboots and retooling and the one thing Marvel could sell, they didn't. You have four maybe five Peter Parker books at varying levels of quality and cancellation but no Scarlet Spider. Silk got a few relaunches and nobody cared (I didn't even realize she's on Agents of Atlas) but no, you can't have Yost finish Scarlet Spider.

[Huntsman Spider]

He's not popular largely due to things going on outside of him. Post-reboot, Kaine had a bright future but it seems that everyone who came on the character just either didn't get it or didn't care. So we basically hit the high note early and then everybody kept fucking up the landing every time they brought him back.

1. First being that he had his Scarlet Spider book launch during Superior Spider-man which ate up relevancy from pretty much everyone else. Scarlet Spider lasted a bit but Superior Spider-man was just the bigger deal so it fell by the side.

2. New Warriors just wasn't a Scarlet Spider book and launched in a period where a ton of team books had been on the shelf for the time. So New Warriors just didn't have as much an impact aside from overall quality.

3. His usage in the games had been fine as an unlocked costume but he didn't really have much relevancy beyond that. The Amazing Spider-man games just weren't very good and as someone who was involved with that community (brief as it was alive) the game just wasn't good enough to have the cult following things like Spider-man 2 did. So Kaine getting recognition from the games was out the window.

4. Spiderverse is not a good book. It's fan service ultimately with little to prop itself up on beyond that. Kaine being a focal point of that story had dick to do with anything so it was this time a failure of the writers and the tie-in being written as if it was done a few decades earlier which could make it a chore to read.

5. Following Spiderverse they wouldn't answer the damn question as to what happened to him so the fanbase was left with nothing for awhile and this caused interest to fade.

6. Clone Conspiracy is not a good book. And for whatever ass backwards reason they started taking away powers from him and made him all moldy again for reasons that I don't understand while continuing to separate him from his old cast (y'know cause regression was why people liked Scarlet Spider /s).

7. Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly) is not a good book. And ultimately whatever good will it had was lost as people stopped caring both in terms of readership and apparently the creative team.

8. Kaine was used in Ultimate Spider-man but it was towards the end of the show's life and it was at that point the worst animated incarnation so nobody cared. Kaine was however used for Ben Reily in terms of appearance and persona but the name was used for something that I assume was an incarnation of Spidercide.

9. Everybody kept getting relaunches and reboots and retooling and the one thing Marvel could sell, they didn't. You have four maybe five Peter Parker books at varying levels of quality and cancellation but no Scarlet Spider. Silk got a few relaunches and nobody cared (I didn't even realize she's on Agents of Atlas) but no, you can't have Yost finish Scarlet Spider.

Good points, especially the last one. That still stings for me.

[classicgmer]

He's popular enough to where he's featured in some type of mini series at least once a year (Spider-Force, Scarlet Spiders) or makes some appearances in a Spider-man event (Clone Conspiracy) or some other book. (New Warriors, Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider) It would be nice if he had an ongoing again but the same could be said of a lot of other characters so I think he's in pretty good shape as far as not being forgotten about. (more so than Ben anyhow)


The primary thing I think that keeps him from gaining new fans I think is stuff like this.

For me it begins and ends with the fact that he is a clone. I've never seen the attraction some people have to clones, especially ones of Pete/Spidey. I imagine perhaps it's because they can be seen as an alternate version of the original and writer might have a little more leeway in how they are portrayed but to me that's stuff to be addressed in a What IF issue, or some other version of an AU that doesn't affect the 616 universe. But that's me, there's no doubt alot of people like clones.

Which I can kinda see as being maybe a bit frustrating for fans of him and then I have to remind myself I myself have a similar disdain in that I can't stand the vast majority of Marvel's teen characters so I can't really be mad at somebody for not digging clone characters even though I don't agree with it.

[Alan2099]

Another obstacle Kaine has is the people that can't tell him part from Ben Reilly and between the two of them, Ben usually gets the attention.

Spider-man's clone that becomes Scarlet Spider? That sounds like Ben Reilly to me.

As for his costume making it into games, that means nothing. The Slingers costumes have made it into games.

[Mister Mets]

Interesting question.

Part of it is that the backstory is convoluted, so he's tied extensively to an unpopular era, where his arc wasn't told very deliberately.
Compare it to Venom, where the alien costume saga and early Micheline/ MacFarlane appearances were accessible and well-received.

There are so many mirror versions of Spider-Man, and making him literally a clone doesn't help him stand out.

His motives have often been all over the place. A jealousy over Ben Reilly isn't going to make someone a character others find compelling in his own right.

[SuperiorIronman]

Interesting question.

Part of it is that the backstory is convoluted, so he's tied extensively to an unpopular era, where his arc wasn't told very deliberately.
Compare it to Venom, where the alien costume saga and early Micheline/ MacFarlane appearances were accessible and well-received.

There are so many mirror versions of Spider-Man, and making him literally a clone doesn't help him stand out.

His motives have often been all over the place. A jealousy over Ben Reilly isn't going to make someone a character others find compelling in his own right.

Origins ultimately have no effect on a character. Your average reader today may know of the clone saga but you only need to understand the cliff notes of the saga in order to figure out what's going on. You don't need to have read the clone saga in order to know what Kaine's deal is. The average reader also has no need to understand what Kaine was doing at Peter Parker's trial or what the deal with Judas Traveller was. Venom at that has origins within Secret Wars but most overlook that since it's just not relevant to knowing what Venom's deal is. No one needs to know and most readers today have not the slightest care to the specifics of how Venom showed up as much as how he's doing things currently.

All you needed to know about Kaine was that he was a reformed Spider-man villain who had similar powers because he's a clone of Spider-man. You don't need to read his whole wikipedia page. And since most modern readers will not have been there nor can be expected to have owned the omnibuses you can expect that the basic description from earlier is about as much as they need to know. They'd know him as Scarlet Spider and not an assassin in a purple cape.

[classicgmer]

]Another obstacle Kaine has is the people that can't tell him part from Ben Reilly [/B]and between the two of them, Ben usually gets the attention.

Spider-man's clone that becomes Scarlet Spider? That sounds like Ben Reilly to me.

As for his costume making it into games, that means nothing. The Slingers costumes have made it into games.

I don't really see this would be confusing for peple....Yes they're both clones of Peter but whether it was in the 90's or in the most recent SS series they've never been depicted as identical to one another and their costumes have always been distinct frome one another.

[Snoop Dogg]

Origins are extremely important because it affects how you can adapt a character for media. If a character is hard to adapt, they will miss their shot to hit it big. The concept of a character is very important when trying to sell a character and Kaine is the 3rd most popular edgy Spider-Man and the 2nd most popular clone. Spider-Man is not a franchise about clones, and if they're going to do a story about a clone that becomes Peter's ally, they're only going to pick one. And if they're going to do a story about an edgier Spider-Man, it'll be more likely an adaptation of the stories involving two out of his three most popular enemies. The best thing that could've happened to Kain in the current landscape was the idea of shifting him into the straight man and check for Ben's manic disaster shenanigans, but that rich premise was wasted on a mediocre, wheel-spinning book. The message I am trying to get across is for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with himself as a character, KAINE IS FUCKED and has no reason to exist in the current Spider line. Which is why we are waiting for someone to pick up the ball.