Spider-Man: The Clone Saga is one of the biggest failures and controversial storylines in the history of the Spiderman comic. It was supposed to dethrone the succesful storyline of The Death of Superman. While it started out really well and salesnumbers increased big time. The comic ultimately failed because the creative team behind the comic were told to drag it out and they couldn’t come up with an ending. The story took two years to tell and took over ALL of the Spiderman series that were published at the time.
Spiderman: The Clone Saga synopsis
When we talk about Spiderman: The Clone Saga, we talk about the one from the 1990s. There was a minor clone saga in the 1970s where a Professor Miles Warren created an alter ego named The Jackal and used bloodsamples of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy to create clones because that he was his medical specialization.
He figured out soon enough that Peter Parker and Spiderman were the same person. Spiderman and his clone were set up to fight each other but decided to work together and while they were succesful a bomb exploded killing both the Jackal and the Spiderman clone.
The real Spiderman realizes he is the only real one because he is in love with Mary Jane Watson. Which didn’t happen until after the night Gwen Stacy died.
Years passed and while Spiderman had run ins with degenerate clones of Miles Warren, it wasn’t until the clone, who seemingly did not die during the explosion, came back to visit Aunt May to pay his final respects.
The clone named himself Ben Reilly, Ben after uncle Ben and Reilly from Aunt May’s maiden name. Ben Reilly would eventually establish himself as The Scarlet Spider. With the same powers as the original Spiderman but he upgraded his weapons arsenal with impact webbing and stingers that would stun enemies.
Chaos ensued with Ben Reilly being chased by a resurrected but an even more twisted Jackal and the first original clone named Kaine.
Kaine’s powers were augmented by the clone degeneration process and while he doesn’t have any webbing, his brawn was his main thing. He also possessed the memories of Peter but was his character was defined by the twisted Jackal and the rejection because he was told that he was a failure.
Another plot in the chaos that dominated the Spiderman: Clone Saga for years was another failed clone named Spidercide.
And to make matters even worse, Judas Traveller and Scrier joined the stage in order to make life of the Spidermen even more confusing.
Even demi Gods entered the stage in the form of High Evolutionary who worked on cloning with Miles Warren. The statements at the time of High Evolutionary proved to be false but that didn’t stop him from trying to discredit Miles Warren.
Eventually , it turned out that Peter Parker was the clone and the final stage was set for Ben Reilly to take over the mantle of Spiderman. Peter Parker retired and went to take care of a pregnant Mary Jane. Peter even lost his powers but regained them after a near death experience.
During the endgame of the Spiderman: Clone Saga it was revealed that the Jackal, Kaine, Ben Reilly and many many others were all manipulated by none other than Norman Osborn. He survived the night Gwen Stacy died and while he was healing he came up with his grand masterplan to break Peter’s spirit.
Osborn revealed that Peter was the real Spiderman and that Ben Reilly was the clone. Norman had faked the evidence in of the conducted test to see who was the clone.
A claim that was proven to be true when Ben Reilly died saving Peter and he degenerated as only a clone would.
Conception of a controversial storyline
The Spiderman: Clone Saga was created to rival the succesful comicbook lines of Marvel’s rivals DC Comics. The Death of Superman and Batman: Knightfall were bestsellers at the time and Marvel felt that they couldn’t stay behind.
Spiderman editor Mark Bernardo said “Marching orders were given by upper management to come up with something similar in scope to DC’s “Death of Superman” storyline, which at the time was breaking sales records left and right.
Thus, no outrageous idea was out of bounds. Terry Kavanagh was cajoled into blurting out his clone idea, which first met with groans and indifference, until someone (to my recollection, J.M. DeMatteis) suddenly realized the radical possibilities of such a storyline.”
And while the story was eventually written, several of Spiderman’s creators felt the comic strayed too far from the original Spiderman comics. They tried to get the way Spiderman was portrayed back and in particular tried to jettison Spiderman’s marriage to Mary Jane Watson.
Spiderman writer Howard Mackie said the following about getting Spiderman closer to his roots: “When the story was begun we knew it would be controversial, and that was part of the point. The return to the single Spider-Man did enter the conversation eventually, but it was not the intent of the story when pitched.”
The trouble with the Clone Saga
While the story started out strong and the sales numbers increased, the writers were told to drag it out as much as possible. And they did. But instead of keeping the reader’s intention, the storyline became so chaotic that nobody on the creative team knew a) how to end the saga and b) the purpose of some of the newly created characters.
For instance, Kaine turned into a villain by killing the original foes of Spiderman such as Doctor Octopus and many more. But then Kaine returned and served no purpose and had no origin story. Which confused me as a reader at the time. Sure his power’s great and it was good to see that there could have been a darker side to Peter Parker, one who killed his enemies instead of putting them in jail endlessly only to break out and wreak more havoc.
But Kaine, just like Scrier and Judas Traveller, they really didn’t add anything to the Spiderman comics.
Judas Traveller in particular, nobody knew who he was or what his purpose was. Not even the creative team so imagine as a reader how frustrating it was to know there is a Judas Traveller but not understanding why he was in the Spiderman universe. Add to it that Judas Traveller was a character unlike anyone had ever seen and was so far off the Spiderman stories that the creative team and the fans just didn’t like him. To this day many people still wonder who Traveller is and I doubt that we will ever know.
After Spiderman passed the mantle to Ben Reilly, the writers were disappointed that they had to write stories for Ben Reilly. Ben Reilly was in fact a way for Marvel to wipe out 30-something years of comicbook history. Which is a shame because it was that rich backstory that was the inspiration of many many other stories of the web-head.
Comicbook writer Dan Jurgens pleaded with Marvel to reestablish Peter as the original Spiderman. He stated the fans were confused by Ben Reilly as the new Spiderman and that he just missed Peter Parker as Spiderman and its rich backstory.
The creative team originally wanted to have Mary Jane to have a miscarriage and divorce Peter just to get back to the status quo of the Spiderman comics in the 1960s and 1970s. Nobody ever really wanted to have the two of them married. And the two of them having a child would have alienated the younger readers from the comic.
The comic would have become too adult for the main base of readers. On top of that, can you actually have Spiderman sling through the city and put his life at stake while he has a child at home? I don’t think so. It would lead the comic further away from the path of the original concept of Spiderman. Especially when you consider that the mantra of the Spiderman comics is: With great power, comes great responsibility. And what greater responsibility is there than having to raise a child.
Marvel Comics 2 – What if Peter Parker and Mary Jane did get to keep the child?
After the Spiderman: Clone Saga ended, a What if: Spidergirl comic was published. The Marvel Multiverse was created to show what would have happened if Peter Parker and Mary Jane stayed happily married and raised their child.
The child, a girl, was known as May “MayDay” Parker. Named after Peter’s beloved aunt. Spiderman had long retired and lost his leg in the final fight with Norman Osborn. While MayDay’s powers emerged, the timeline showed what life would have been like with Peter and Mary Jane raising a child and Peter eventually assisting May controlling her powers.
Personally, I loved the way Spidergirl was written and I was bummed to find out that the Spidergirl comic was canceled. The storylines with an older Peter Parker resisting his daughter to become the next superhero was a reason for many interesting conflicts between the two with Mary Jane often acting as the conscience of both Peter and May.
Eventually Peter comes to terms with his daughter being a superhero. And the relationship between the two improved drastically.
Closing thoughts
While I think that the Clone Saga is worth picking up, I do warn, however, for the many consistencies of the comic. The story didn’t give me much closure but it is worth reading if only for nostalgic reasons of the 1990s and to show that you can’t simply create classic comics.
