What are your thoughts on the Jackal?

[Mistah K88]

He is a character that the best interpretations of him never get around to suiting up/mutating himself. The only time I wanted to see more Miles Warren was in the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.

Also I wonder if Stan Lee had a teacher named “Mr. Warren” as he used the name for two of Peter’s teachers who were completely different characters (others gave them first names and connected the two as brothers).

[Kevinroc]

He was a "take that" directed at a toxic fanbase. He was Superboy-Prime decades before Superboy-Prime.

[charliehustle415]

I never really read Spidey in the 90's (I was an X-Men kid); but I don't understand how he is a big Spidey villain.

I mean he's kinda like a poor man's Mr. Sinister right?

He just likes to torment Pete (for reasons? ) just like Mr. Sinister tormenting the Scott?

[Frontier]

I never really read Spidey in the 90's (I was an X-Men kid); but I don't understand how he is a big Spidey villain.

I mean he's kinda like a poor man's Mr. Sinister right?

He just likes to torment Pete (for reasons? ) just like Mr. Sinister tormenting the Scott?

He predates Sinister by a lot.

He torments Peter because he had an obsessive love for Gwen Stacy and couldn't process her death and blamed Peter for it and went crazy with clones. He's at the end of the day a sad old man whose twisted manpain caused good people a lot of emotional grief.

[charliehustle415]

He predates Sinister by a lot.

He torments Peter because he had an obsessive love for Gwen Stacy and couldn't process her death and blamed Peter for it and went crazy with clones. He's at the end of the day a sad old man whose twisted manpain caused good people a lot of emotional grief.

I never knew that! Thanks Frontier!

I see, so he has an obsession with Gwen so that's his fixation with Pete?

Okay I feel there's a lot that that could be said but he always comes off as a weird creep that doesn't do much.

All I have ever read with him in it is just crazy clones and the tired story of "am I the clone or the real person?

I guess it shows how much of an impact he has had one reader who came to Spidey much later (when JMS took over)

[Frontier]

I never knew that! Thanks Frontier!

I see, so he has an obsession with Gwen so that's his fixation with Pete?

Okay I feel there's a lot that that could be said but he always comes off as a weird creep that doesn't do much.

All I have ever read with him in it is just crazy clones and the tired story of "am I the clone or the real person?

I guess it shows how much of an impact he has had one reader who came to Spidey much later (when JMS took over)

Well, that's definitely true of any iteration of the character...

[Dzika_Sowa]

I like him. He's like a wild card, You never know what's he up to, until it's too late. I think 90's version was cringe - but the one we got today is a pretty unique character in Spider-Man's rouge gallery.

[Spiderfan001]

He predates Sinister by a lot.

He torments Peter because he had an obsessive love for Gwen Stacy and couldn't process her death and blamed Peter for it and went crazy with clones. He's at the end of the day a sad old man whose twisted manpain caused good people a lot of emotional grief.

I think if they made him into a father who lost his daughter and saw his dead daughter in Gwen, he'd be much better.Like John wick type, he lost his wife and his dog was a means to process that grief, but acc. to him Spider-man took that away from him.

And He is definitely not a sinister rip-off.It's the other way around, Sinsiter is like Jackal but to Summers.

They could have done so much w/ him.

[Kevinroc]

I think if they made him into a father who lost his daughter and saw his dead daughter in Gwen, he'd be much better.Like John wick type, he lost his wife and his dog was a means to process that grief, but acc. to him Spider-man took that away from him.

And He is definitely not a sinister rip-off.It's the other way around, Sinsiter is like Jackal but to Summers.

They could have done so much w/ him.

Dude's a creepy old man obsessed with a dead college student. He works fine that way.

[Spiderfan001]

Dude's a creepy old man obsessed with a dead college student. He works fine that way.

He would work better if he wasn't a creepy old man obsessed w/ college students...

[exile001]

I love the Jackal, mostly because I like the conceptual nonsense of the clones.

The original Jackal story is pretty well done and was different for the time it was written. It gave us a villain with a strong emotional resonance (many fans wanted Gwen back) and he had a decent arc once the whos and whys and wherefores start coming out at the end.

But it's clones. Once that genie is out of the bottle it's impossible to get it back in because no matter how much you say they're all gone, dead or destroyed, there is always the inherent back up of more clones (and revealing any dead character as a clone).

The '90s Clone Saga runs the gamut between legitimately clever and (mostly) absolute trash and is still insanely fun to me. And I love Ben and classic Kaine.

'90s Jackal is just... well, the most '90s character you can imagine. He's just a snarky, wise-cracking, 4th wall breaking plot device in a trench coat uttering vague nothings about some grand plan. I still find him incredibly fun but his arc is basically just a random thought experiment given form as the story was changed and stretched and editorialised to within and inch of its life.

Anyone else remember that weird mobster version, The Professor, from a random Daredevil/Punisher miniseries? The was just strange.

I rate Jackal as a favourite of mine but consider him a second-tier enemy. He's good for a fun story every few decades but I wouldn't want him to show up as regularly as a Doc Ock or Scorpion.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I see, so he has an obsession with Gwen so that's his fixation with Pete?

His beef is two-fold: 1. When he cloned Spider-man, he discovered he was Peter. At the time Spider-man was implicated in her death. 2. Gwen loved Peter. Full stop. Even the subsequent clones of her did. For a guy who was/is obsessed with Gwen as Warren was, her death and rejection of him more than drove him over the edge (later stories revealed he was unhinged already).

[Dzika_Sowa]

Him, being the creepy old man in love with one of his students is something unique to his character. That sort of things can happen. Is it creepy? Absolutely, it should be creepy.

Even the costume - is absurd and weird. What does it represent? A hairy gnome? I actually wonder if the initial concept, before retcons - was based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide.

As for writing Jackal, I think that Slott wrote the character really well. He nailed the craziness of Warren.

[Spiderfan001]

Maybe if they add a bit of nuance to him, do we know why he is obsessed w/ Gwen?
You know, "this happens IRL" is something a lot of people use to defend comic stuff but how often do Teachers fall madly in love w/ students.There are so many things that happen if we take every single person on a planet.But we need to see what works in a comics setting better and pick and choose.

Look at Mr Freeze, he's also an obsessive creepy guy madly in love w/ his wife but driven by love and loss.It adds a layer to his character that humanizes him, makes us understand him and feel empathy for him.
Jackal's motives from the get go alienate him, which also works as we saw w/ Joker(until people got tired of him).But Jackal isn't on that level, he's just not and thus is forgotten.Being unique doesn't make you a good character.He reads more like a plot device now, used to perpetuate clones.His own motivations and his character are rarely cared for.

Mr Freeze survived the test of time even though he hasn't played a major role in Batman for the most part.Jackal has specially w/ clone saga and still is below Freeze and the likes.There's a reason for that...

[Dzika_Sowa]

Maybe if they add a bit of nuance to him, do we know why he is obsessed w/ Gwen?
You know, "this happens IRL" is something a lot of people use to defend comic stuff but how often do Teachers fall madly in love w/ students.There are so many things that happen if we take every single person on a planet.But we need to see what works in a comics setting better and pick and choose.

Look at Mr Freeze, he's also an obsessive creepy guy madly in love w/ his wife but driven by love and loss.It adds a layer to his character that humanizes him, makes us understand him and feel empathy for him.
Jackal's motives from the get go alienate him, which also works as we saw w/ Joker(until people got tired of him).But Jackal isn't on that level, he's just not and thus is forgotten.Being unique doesn't make you a good character.He reads more like a plot device now, used to perpetuate clones.His own motivations and his character are rarely cared for.

Well, I don't think he needs any particular reason, it just happens. IIRC, this was an affection? We saw his and Gwen clone living a happy life together, so I don't think it was anything like lust, or something.

Freeze is a tragic character (and a great one at that, I agree - at least the one from Timmverse canon, that's the one I'm the most familiar with), but Jackal is different, he is supposed to be crazy teacher, that somewhat knows how to make a perfect clones of people.

It's so ridiculous, and I really like this idea. Remember when they tried to retcon it with High Evolutionary stuff, and it failed? I think that Warren works very well as he is.
In a way, he really is like the Joker - nobody knows if the current one is a clone or the real deal, he's unpredictable, and he is obsessed with Spider-Man.

I mean, all we need is literally one panel with the guy, and we know that Peter's life will be f*cked up for a few issues.