Description
Spider-Man #56 (1990 McFarlane Series)
SMOKE AND MIRRORS PART 3 – TRUTHS & DECEPTIONS
During their confrontation with the Jackal, Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider are shocked when a cloning chamber opens up revealing the naked body of Gwen Stacy. The Jackal has claimed that this is the real Gwen Stacy, who he helped cheat death years ago. He orders his assistant, a Parker clone named Jack, to bring Gwen some clothes and asks the two Spiders to avert their eyes while the woman gets dressed. However, Spider-Man refuses to believe that this is the real Gwen Stacy and lunges at the Jackal. Before he can beat his foe into submission, his hand is stopped by Gwen Stacy. Revealing that she knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, she begs him to believe that the Jackal’s claims are true and that she is the real Gwen. While she asks Peter to hold her, the Jackal recovers from the attack and begins mocking the couple. That’s when the Scarlet Spider grabs the Jackal by his jacket and demands that they talk. The Jackal agrees, saying that there is much he could tell the young man and then asks how Aunt May is doing. At that moment, Mary Jane is visiting Aunt May in the hospital where she is told that May has stabilized but is still in a coma. May’s physician, Doctor Julia Captuo has also heard that Mary Jane is pregnant and congratulates her on the good news. Left alone with May, Mary Jane begs May to come back to her and her husband, Peter Parker. Although the words appear to fall on deaf ears, somewhere deep in the mind of Aunt May hears them. Although she is happy to hear that Peter and Mary Jane are expecting a baby and she wishes she could be there, she feels so tired. Back at the Jackal’s lab, the mad scientist gets Ben to really look at Peter and Gwen together. He tells his creation that this could be him. That it could be Ben and Mary Jane, or Ben and Gwen together again. He tells Ben that he feels bad for what he has done, sending him on the five-year path of exile he endured. However, this speech is interrupted by Jack, who begs the Jackal to cure him of the degeneration that the other Parker clones have recently been suffering. Furious at being interrupted, the Jackal knocks Jack aside and offers to tell Ben Reilly the truth about who he really is. Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy continues to convince Peter that she is the real Gwen Stacy. However, Spider-Man refuses to believe this as he has been tricked by Warren’s clones of Gwen in the past. Seeking to expose this deception, Spider-Man begins trashing the Jackal’s lab. Not far away, the Jackal begins whispering in Ben Reilly’s ear, trying to convince him that everything he told them earlier was a lie. He then tries to convince Ben Reilly that he is really Peter Parker and that Spider-Man is the clone after all. He explains that he used mind control to convince Peter Parker and the clone to think they were the other. Then tricked Spider-Man into thinking his clone was dead and later recovered the body,
