The series introduces several new characters in the Marvel Universe, such as Aracely Penalba (the demigod superhero known as Hummingbird), and Annabelle as a love interest for Kaine. They play pivotal roles in the growth of Kaine as a superhero.
The series is written by Christopher Yost. While this title was cancelled at Issue #25, Kaine makes appearance as one of the main characters for Marvel NOW! reboot of New Warriors, also written by Yost.
Tropes
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The Armadillo in issue 16. Though it's really just another example of Love Makes You Dumb.
- Achilles in His Tent: Kaine after failing to save over two dozen Houston citizens from dying at the end of Minimum Carnage.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Kraven got killed like he wanted. Even though Kaine revived him, he doesn't need him to kill him any more and he managed to leave Meland critically injured.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Kaine vs Salamander in the hospital, and later Kaine vs Ana Kraven in Issue 6.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Series Finale. Kaine manages to save everyone when the hotel explodes, but he was forced to go into his monster form to do so and had to leave Houston with Aracely.
- Broken Pedestal: Considers Peter actually Otto in his body to be one after Issue #20, though the pedestal is somewhat rebuilt once he finds out what happened.
- Bullying a Dragon: Annabelle's Domestic Abuser/Stalker with a Crush ex who refuses to accept that he's her ex tries to intimidate Kaine. To be fair, while Kaine is pretty big (6'4" and built like a tank), the guy's an enormous Scary Black Man. Kaine refuses to pick a fight with him the first time because he's afraid of the Other making an appearance. The second time, he lays him out with a single punch.
- Call-Back: Kaine's first and second resurrections have connections to Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 3 Issue 15 and The Other, respectively.
- Christmas Episode: Issue 12.
- Clone Degeneration: As of issue #20, it seems to be back, but is actually an illusion instead.
- Create Your Own Villain: Kaine does this with Zoe at the end of the Second Master arc, as shown by her later appearance in Issue #24.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kaine vs. the Assassins Guild members that came to kill him.
- Darkest Hour: The Into The Grave arc.
- Deal with the Devil: Kaine makes a deal with the Assassins Guild to stop the contract they have on Dr. Donald Meland by the only remaining family of a former patient.
- After being killed by the Lobos siblings, Kaine makes a deal with Ero to be reborn in the same manner Peter was after being killed by Morlun during The Other story arc.
- You should be starting to see where the tagline comes from... Kaine makes one with Fisk to get the Assassin's Guild off his back, by agreeing to soften them up so they could be forcibly taken over.
- Death Seeker: Kraven the Hunter's sole goal now is to have Kaine kill him, since he's the only one who can. He succeeded, and was resurrected in full.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Annabelle is too scared of Kaine after he turns into a monster, and by the time of Amazing Spider-Man #1, she hates him.
- Didn't Think This Through: Kaine's MO, including sleeping with Zoe right after saving her as Scarlet Spider, and therefore revealing his (and possibly Peter Parker's) identity to her.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Aracely has a dream like in Issue #24.
- Dug Too Deep: One of Roxxon's oil digs drilled too deep and unleashed an Energy Being that they named Mammon.
- Fanservice Pack: When Aracely debuted she looked between 12 and 14. By the series' conclusion she looked around 16.
- Friend on the Force: Officer Wally Layton. Right up until Meland gets critically injured.
- Fully Absorbed Finale: Had at least two, in different series. The short story "Kaine" in Amazing Spider-Man #1 had Peter Parker visiting Houston and meeting Annabelle and Meland. The series New Warriors was effectively a sequel series to Scarlet Spider, co-starring Aracely and Kaine; New Warriors #9 was a direct sequel-finale, with Kaine briefly returning to Houston and meeting Wally again for the first time since his departure.
- Genius Bruiser: though Kaine says that he's 'not as smart as his brothers', he is smart enough to figure out how to hack the display of his costume.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Notable especially during the In the Midst of Wolves arc for several including drug usage and a scene with the main character being eaten alive.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Kraven and his clan.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kaine shoves his stinger into Carnage's brain, and later into Wolverine's heart. Wolverine healed pretty quickly, and as of Superior Carnage, so has Kasady.
- In-Series Nickname: He is often referred to as Scarlet Spider by the cops and media, but Carnage liked to call him "Not Spider-Man".
- Kaleidoscope Hair: Annabelle, whose hair went from red to pink, and eventually blonde, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man 1.
- Kid Sidekick: Aracely, who may actually be the Aztec sun/war god Huitzilopochtli. She later becomes this in full by taking on the alias Hummingbird and helping Kaine chase down Wolverine, infiltrating the X-Men's school and using the same disguise as her hero outfit in later stories.
- Magic Meteor: The basketball mascot Choke the Bear became Kaiju-sized and acquired Eye Beams from a meteor strike. Even weirder is that the meteor solely transformed the costume, the man piloting it from inside is still normal sized, only delusional that he's still working a game as he terrorizes Houston.
- MegaCorp: Roxxon who were responsible for hiring the traffickers to bring over Aracely as a test subject and awakening Mammon.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read:
- When Aracely tries to peek into Kaine's head, she's chased out by the Other.
- When Rachel Grey tries to read Aracely's mind, she's overloaded by Huitzilopochtli.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Kaine, when Annabelle discovers him keeping Aracely in his hotel room.Annabelle: Well, then what the hell—Kaine: She's... She's my niece.Annabelle: ...You @#$%*& pervert.
- Modesty Bedsheet: In issue #24, Kaine finds his girlfriend Annabelle waiting for him in his bedroom naked under the bedsheets and the scene soon cuts away... to the real Annabelle who is on her way to visit him. Turns out the Annabelle he slept with is actually the villainess Shathra who took the form of Annabelle to seduce Kaine.
- Mundane Utility: In issue #1, he uses the Mark of Kaine to give himself a shave and a buzz-cut.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Annabelle burns a frantic letter from Madame Web warning Kaine about Shathra's return, thinking it was from a crazy fan.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The Lobos siblings give Kaine one of these in issue 13, the ending isn't pretty. Kaine later returns the favour.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The Lobos Cartel get brought in to deal with Kaine.
- Overly Long Name: Aracely's full name is Maria Aracely Josefina Penalba de las Heras.
- Professional Killer: The Assassin's Guild.
- Retcon: In J. Michael Straczynski's run as writer, Peter was killed by Morlun and resurrected by a totemic spider-god called the Great Weaver. Another totemic spider-god calling itself "Ero" manifested in order to kill Peter and restore the natural order, returning a couple of times before being killed off. In In The Midst of Wolves, Ero returns and is retconned into having been the Great Weaver - or at least the totemic spider-god who resurrected Peter in The Other - all along, without explaining why she tried to kill Peter, took on human form, and tried to impregnate Flash Thompson in the original continuity. No explanation is given to how Peter was brought back to life since in the post-One More Day continuity he rejected Ero/the Other's offer, causing it to seek out Kaine as a host instead.
- Shapeshifting Seducer: Shathra the totemic wasp deity sleeps with Kaine while in the form of his current girlfriend. The real one shows up later.
- Sharing a Body: According to Beast, Aracely is sharing a body with something else - presumably the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli. Could be why everyone is trying to kill her.
- Shipper on Deck: Aracely ships Kaine x Annabelle, to the point that when they kiss she spies on them with her powers and quips that it's her best day ever.
- Super Team: The Rangers are (apparently) the Southwest's only heroes, barring Kaine, and consist of Texas Twister, Firebird, Fifty-One, Living Lightning, Shooting Star and Red Wolf. They tried to welcome Kaine into the group afterwards... he rejected the offer. Violently.
- Kaine despite quitting being the Scarlet Spider at the end of Issue 25, has been announced as joining the newest incarnation of the New Warriors along with Aracely, who's taken up the Hummingbird mantle full-time.
- Symbol Swearing: Actually happens quite a bit in the series and not just limited to Kaine.
- Which eventually leads to Aracely creating a swear jar. Pretty much any instance of a character swearing is met by other characters yelling "JAR!" now.
- The Team Benefactor: Kaine thanks to his stealing money from human traffickers and drug dealers. Does this again to fund his trip to Mexico to find Aracely's mother.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Turns out Kaine came up with a plan to take down the Assassin's Guild with Wolverine and the fight in Issue 17 was the set up... at least until he put the stinger into his heart after going evil for a moment. He topped it with another one in the next issue by revealing he had Wilson Fisk absorb the Assassin's Guild after they softened them up.
- Whole-Plot Reference: There are two to J. Michael Straczynski's run as writer:
- The In the Midst of Wolves arc is explicitly one to The Other arc. In The Other, Peter was mortally wounded and resurrected by agreeing to become the avatar of a spider-god. In In the Midst of Wolves, Kaine is mortally wounded and resurrected by agreeing to become the avatar of the exact same (more or less) spider-god.
- Shathra returns and goes after Kaine, but is killed for good this time.
- Wire Dilemma: Kaine and Wally have this issue after locating a nuclear Time Bomb, they spent most of the issue trying to find it and not knowing what to do after they found it. Kaine simply resorted to ripping out the wires. He reasons they were screwed either way.
- Yandere: Zoe is this, to an insane degree. After blowing up Kaine's room with a rocket launcher, she screams to Kaine that she loves him.
