Doppelganger

The Doppelganger, also called the Spider-Doppelganger, is a fictional character and supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is a near-mindless duplicate of Spider-Man with a vicious, animal-like mind who primarily acts as a servant to other villains rather than having a full will of its own. Along with Peter Parker's agility, speed, and power to cling to walls, the Spider-Doppelganger possesses greater strength, six arms, talons, and organic web-spinnerets on each forearm that fire "razor-sharp" webbing. Publication history Doppelganger first appeared in The Infinity War #1 in 1992 and was created by Jim Starlin, Ron Lim, and Al Milgrom. The issue featured multiple superheroes being attacked by demonic doubles (referred to as doppelgängers), mutated and sent by the series villain Magus. Spider-Man's battle is unseen, but it is shown that his personal double (which the hero later refers to as the "Spider-Doppelganger" or simply "the Doppelganger") winds up dead. The same month, Spider-Man #24 (1992) presented a full version of the battle and revealed that afterward, the villain Demogoblin revives Spider-Man's doppelgänger. While the Magus's other doubles are destroyed by the end of The Infinity War, Demogoblin's intervention apparently allows the Spider-Doppelganger to survive. The Doppelganger acts as Demongoblin's follower in Web of Spider-Man #94-96 (1992) and then later becomes a pet to the villains Shriek and Carnage in the 1993 storyline Maximum Carnage, where it apparently met its death. That story, along with the video game adaptation Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, led to a large number of Spider-Man fans becoming familiar with the Spider-Doppelganger. 17 years after its apparent death, the character returned to the series Carnage in 2010. In that story and most appearances since the creature is still associated with Carnage and Shriek. Fictional character biography During the battle known as the Infinity War, the Magus (a manifestation of all the evil inherent in Adam Warlock) visited the other-dimensional entity Anthropomorpho, director of the Manifestation race. The Manifestations are inorganic "fractual" beings, not truly living in the traditional sense, that would be altered into avatars or "M-bodies" for powerful and cosmic entities. For the Magus, Anthropomorpho engineered several Manifestations to become monstrous "doppelgängers" of Earth's superheroes, creating a small army.