The Spectacular Spider-Man #222

Name: The Spectacular Spider-Man #222
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Mar 1995 · Marvel · 1.50 USD; 2.05 CAD

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“Players and Pawns Part 1: False Truths”

★ 1st appearance — Spidercide

About this Issue

Spectacular Spider-Man #222 opens the 'Players and Pawns' crossover arc within the Clone Saga and delivers the full first appearance of the Peter Parker clone who will eventually be called Spidercide — a third figure claiming to be the real Parker, whose emergence deepens the saga's central 'who is the clone?' identity crisis to its most chaotic point yet. The issue is also a pivotal moment for Kaine, whose confrontation with Peter here marks, as contemporary critics have noted, the first meaningful step toward his evolution from blunt antagonist to a morally complex cult-favorite character. As the opening chapter of 'Players and Pawns,' the issue kicks off the phase of the Clone Saga that Marvel's own Clone Saga reading guides identify as the bridge between 'Smoke and Mirrors' and the landmark Amazing Spider-Man #400, cementing its place as a structural hinge in one of the most controversial Spider-Man storylines ever published. Internally, even editorial staff acknowledged the character and story threads introduced here were difficult to land, making the issue a candid artifact of the creative tensions that plagued the extended saga.

writer Tom DeFalco · artist Sal Buscema · inker Bill Sienkiewicz · colorist John Kalisz · letterer Clem Robins · cover Sal Buscema, Bill Sienkiewicz

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History

The issue was written by Tom DeFalco, penciled by Sal Buscema, and inked by Bill Sienkiewicz, with John Kalisz on colors and Clem Robins on letters; editors Mark Powers and Danny Fingeroth shepherded it under editor-in-chief Bob Budiansky. It went on sale January 24, 1995, carrying a March 1995 cover date. The Clone Saga at this point had already been stretched well beyond its originally planned conclusion — editorial sources confirm that marketing pressure to sustain strong sales led the Spider-Man group to keep multiplying plot threads rather than resolve them, and 'Players and Pawns' reflects that tension directly, introducing a third Parker clone when the creative team had not yet resolved the first two. Former editor Glenn Greenberg later recalled in the 'Life of Reilly' retrospective that he personally opposed keeping the Spidercide character, noting that almost no one on staff liked the name, yet the clone stayed and shaped months of subsequent storylines.

Trivia · 8 facts

Full first appearance of Spidercide (Earth-616), the third Peter Parker clone created by the Jackal — a cameo had appeared the same month in Amazing Spider-Man #399, but Spectacular Spider-Man #222 is the issue credited as his full debut.
Story title: 'Players and Pawns, Part One: False Truths' — Part One of a two-part crossover arc continued in Web of Spider-Man #123.
Creative team: Writer Tom DeFalco, penciler Sal Buscema, inker Bill Sienkiewicz, colorist John Kalisz, letterer Clem Robins; editors Mark Powers and Danny Fingeroth.
Cover art by Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz; published January 24, 1995, with a March 1995 cover date.
The issue features appearances by Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly), Kaine, the Jackal, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and the spider-clone Jack, as well as a background appearance by Scrier.
Kaine discovers and removes genetic data from the Jackal's lab that purports to prove which Parker — Peter or Ben Reilly — is the original, and delivers it to Peter, setting up a major plot thread carried across subsequent issues.
The Jackal unleashes the Genetrix — genetically engineered creatures — on a youth center where Flash Thompson is present, forcing a confrontation between the Jackal and the Scarlet Spider.
Collected in Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic Book Three and the Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Web of Life, Web of Death, among other trade paperback editions.