Spider-man: The Clone Saga #1
art by Pasqual Ferry
This is either going to be a great week or loathsome one for Spider-man fans. Because, when it comes to the Clone Saga, you either love it or you hate it.
On Wednesday, Marvel releases Spider-man: The Clone Saga, the first of six issues revisiting the much-maligned 90s Spider-man event that sought to dissolve the Peter/Mary Jane marriage and reset Webhead’s status quo (something that seemed to be an editorial mandate since 30 seconds after the vows were exchanged).
The original plan was to re-introduce the Spider-man clone created by the Jackal from Amazing Spider-man #149 and reveal that he was actually the original Spider-man and the guy parading around in the webs for the past 5 years was an imposter. Thus, the clone and his wife Mary Jane would hit the road, and the long absent, and single, Spider-man could swing around the city continuity free.
The Scarlet Spider
art by Steven Butler
Unfortunately, writing, staff, and editorial changes plagued the project and what was to be a relatively short run stretched out into over 2 years of convoluted stories. And, once the “original” Spider-man had been restored to his roster slot in the Marvel U, fans were outraged, so a double-fake was written in that revealed the whole thing was a ploy orchestrated by the not-as-dead-as-everyone-thought Norman Osborn. Peter had always been Peter, and the clone had always been a clone.
However, despite all of the mess and controversy of the Clone Saga, it did do a few things right. It brought Norman Osborn back from the grave and established him as the character that now dominates the 616 in the ongoing Dark Reign storyline. But, it also gave us a great character in the clone himself, Ben Reilly the Scarlet Spider.
As many people hate him, there are twice as many (although some are probably embarrassed to admit it) that like their Spider-men wearing cut-off hoodies.
Does Kaine's reappearance in ASM #608
mean that Ben Reilly's return to regular
continuity is coming?
Apparently someone took notice of Ben Reilly’s growing fanbase because Marvel is revisiting the saga and telling it “as it was meant to be told.”
One of the original architects of the saga and Spider-girl writer Tom DeFalco, along with artist Todd Nauck (of the Spider-man/Obama crossover fame) are retelling the story in a six issue miniseries using the original plan before too many hands stretched six issues into hundreds.
Marvel is treating this as an out-of-continuity, “What if?” scenario. However, with the recent Ben Reilly name-dropping in this year’s Amazing Spider-man Annual, the appearance of Kaine (a central figure in the Clone Saga) in the upcoming issue #608, and the-devil-erased-every-good-Spidey-story-of-the-past-twenty-years status of current continuity, perhaps it won’t be long before we see the Scarlet Spider shooting some impact webbing in the regular Spider books.
But for now, it should be very interesting to see what DeFalco has in store in this tale of what could have been.
Need something else to look forward to this week? Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Seen any good movies lately? Surrogates comic-to-film comparison
Want another reason to be grateful for the few good comic movies we have? Nic Cage as Superman
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