Jackal

Miles Warren was born into a family with a proclivity for science. His brother became a science teacher at Midtown High School where Peter Parker was his favorite pupil, but Miles' talents far exceeded that. After earning his Ph.D in biochemistry, Miles traveled to Wundagore Mountain to assist the High Evoloutionary in his experiments to evolve animals into human form. Whereas the Evolutionary's subjects never fully lost their animal appearance, Miles succeeded in creating two "New Men" who looked practically human. This caused some friction between Miles and the Evolutionary that accelerated when a group of New Men began to worship Miles. When Miles evolved a jackal that exhibited a Jekyll-Hyde personality and then escaped, the Evolutionary banished him from Wundagore. Miles stayed in the area where he met and married Monica, fathering two children, but he spent so much time with his research that Monica took the children and left. Unbeknownst to the Warrens, Miles' jackal-man, envious of his creator's life, had been stalking the family. He caused a car accident that killed Monica and the children. When Miles learned of this, he realized the cause and blamed the High Evolutionary. He returned to Wundagore, challenged the Evolutionary and left with the New Men faction that worshipped him, promising to make them human.

He returned every summer but spent the rest of the year in Manhattan where he had obtained a position as Professor at Empire State University. There, his brother introduced him to Peter Parker on the same day that Miles first saw and immediately fell in love with Gwen Stacy. Disturbed by his feelings, Miles convinced himself his intentions were paternal and that Gwen was like the daughter he never had, blotting out the memory of his dead children. The following semester, both Peter and Gwen were students in his biology class. Continuing his New Men research, Miles hired Anthony Serba as an assistant and had him collect cell samples from the students in his class. He created a serum from these samples and injected New Men volunteers. The serum made the New Men human but transformed them into living corpses, then killed them. Miles tried to genetically engineer duplicate bodies for the New Men, making his first excursions into cloning which he later continued at ESU with Serba. Back in New York, Miles invited Peter, his best, though occasionally distracted, student, to a science demonstration. When Peter brought Gwen Stacy along, Miles couldn't help but voice his approval. When Spider-Man appeared, Miles expressed an interest in studying him.

To Peter Parker, Miles was a professor who badgered him about not attending classes. Even after Gwen Stacy was killed by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn, also apparently killed), Miles kept up this routine but inside he was devastated. The day after Gwen's death, Serba showed him a frog produced by their cloning experiment. Miles then gave Serba tissue samples from Gwen and Peter. When Serba discovered he was cloning humans, he came to Miles and demanded their destruction. Hushing Serba up, Miles accidentally killed him. Unhinged by his act, he became convinced someone else did the murder. When he walked past a class discussing jackals, he recalled his jackal-man and created an evil alter-ego for himself: the Jackal. He designed a green costume with electro-prod claws and began extensive athletic training. Believing Spider-Man was responsible for Gwen's death, Miles sought revenge but his evil side also yearned to be a crime boss. So, the Jackal convinced the Punisher to kill the web-slinger. He then murdered the Punisher's colleague, the Mechanic, hoping to blame the Punisher for the crime. When this failed, he arranged to bring Hammerhead, Dr. Octopus and Spider-Man together, hoping to pick up the gangland pieces, but this scheme also fizzled.

Before continuing his plans, Miles combined his cells with his genetic virus to create a clone intended to destroy the human race, but the creature awakened too early to have full powers and became Carrion. Eventually, with Tarantula (Anton Miguel Rodriguez) in his employ, Jackal revealed his identity to Spider-Man, then pitted him against his Spider-Clone in a fight ending in an explosion that seemed to kill both Miles and his creation. In reality, the killed Jackal was a clone. Miles stepped out of hiding, found both Spider-Men alive and injected what he believed was the real one with a drug to simulate death. His plan was to later retrieve the body, revive him, and brainwash him into thinking he was the clone. Convinced by this, the "real" Spider-Man took the name Ben Reilly and left the city.

In reality, Miles' tests had been manipulated by Seward Trainer, following Norman Osborn's secret agenda, and Ben Reilly was the clone. Miles moved to a lab in upstate New York where he spent five years in a genetic regeneration chamber, reshaping his body to resemble his jackal-man, creating clones by long-distance and going totally insane. The High Evolutionary, thinking the Jackal dead, forced his Cult into hiding, then forged and planted a diary in Miles' handwriting to discredit his clone work by claiming the Parker and Gwen clones were Serba and a woman named Joyce Delany, who had been genetically reconstructed by the same genetic virus Miles previously tried on the New Men. The Evolutionary also planted Miles' genetic virus, which turned student Malcolm McBride into another Carrion. Believing all this, the superbeing Daydreamer transformed the Gwen clone into Joyce but she reverted back, later meeting and marrying Warren Miles, a Professor Warren clone who eventually degenerated.