Clone Saga

I just finished reading the entire story from start to finish and didn't think that it ws as bad as everyone was saying back in '95. Anyone agree or

The clone saga made me stop reading spiderman (all of them). As soon as they said 'oops the spiderman you know and love is actually the clone, here is the REAL spiderman', I cancelled my subscription and walked away. It struck me as an incredibly lame concept that should have been done by 'As the World Turns' instead of Marvel Comics. I have only recently returned to reading Amazing Spiderman since JMS took over the writing.

Much of it was ok in the idea the trouble was in an ideal comic you have your characters (or introduce them if its a one off) and they have and adventure find a supervillain/problem solve it with various hijinks and wise cracks and then return to their life. Periphally long term stories take place but only at the edges as spidermans life progress's. In the clone saga the long term plot pushed out the adventures so if they happened at all they were fairly brief and unsatisying while most of the comic was just kane and scryer looking moody and inscrutable and you had to buy loads of comics accross mulitple lines every month, many of them marked up as expensive special editions, and do this for months on end for small things to happen. I mean the biggest fight with the green goblin lasted for about two issues the clones took years with so little effect they had to slaughter aunt may and doc ock just to keep out attention. After maximum carnage and now clones I too gave up on spiderman, its just became litteraly more expensive than I could afford and gave sod all in return.

I found pieces of it extremely well done. Ben being the main one. The slow buildup to the clone's return, the death of Aunt May.

But sadly they were outweigh by a lot of crap. Death of Doc Ock, the Jackyl's return, Spidercide, Peter bewing controlled by the Jackyl to kill Mary-Jane.

I was one of those in the minority that personally didn't mind the fact that Peter was the clone. They had set up several 'outs' for this scenario. One Ben stated no matter who the clone was, it was now Peter's life and he would take it back. The test could have been wrong for any number of reasons. In fact the way I read the issue, their DNA was exactly the same which to me would indicate that they were both clones of the original if they are going with the time honoured tradition of genetic drift.

The outcry that Peter was the clone was similar to the rage many old time Legion of Super-heroes readers felt when it was revealed that Lightning Lad was actually Proto.

What do you think of the current direction? I'm empressed with Straczynski's writing and JR JR's artwork on Amazing and the work on Peter Parker has been just as good. But I'd love to see some of the classic villians from time to time.

Ben Reilly was impaled by the Green Goblin's glider in Spider-Man #75, and died shortly afterward. His body degenerated into nothingness, like a clone's, which led Spider-Man to conclude that he was the real Peter Parker after all.

If you're interested in the clone saga, check out www.grayhavenmagazine.com. In the 'Columns' section you'll find a link to an ongoing series titled, 'Life of Reilly', which is an indepth review of the clone saga with insider information provided by former Marvel editor Glenn Greenberg. It is very much worth the reading. For example, it was revealed in the last column that the mastermind of the clone saga was not intended to be Norman Osborn