Clone Saga
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Clone Saga or Spider-Clone Saga was a major story arc in Marvel Comics which ran from 1994 to 1996 involving many clones of Spider-Man.
The story is considered within fandom to be one of the most controversial stories ever told for Spider-Man if not in the comics industry as a whole. The story was intended to wrap up in less than a year. However, the comics sold very well and the writers were encouraged to prolong the saga as long as possible. This led to some changes to the storyline that ultimately proved unpopular.[1]
Although there were many people involved, the Clone Saga is most closely associated with Terry Kavanagh, who proposed the idea, and Howard Mackie, who worked on the majority of the smaller crossovers involved in the overall storyarc. Executive editors on the storyline included Tom DeFalco, Bob Budiansky, and Bob Harras.
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[edit] Storyline
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Strictly speaking, there were two "Clone Sagas:" the original storyline in the 1970s and the second saga which consumed all the regular Spider-Man series, several limited series and one shots between 1994 and 1997. Between the two, there were also two smaller storylines that dealt with elements from the original saga.
[edit] The original Clone Saga
In the summer of 1973, writer Gerry Conway made the decision to kill off the girlfriend of Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, because the editorial team felt that Gwen had become stale as a character and they wanted to instill the element of tragedy into Peter Parker's life.[1] In the follow-up arcs, Conway introduced a new villain, the masked Jackal, and let Gwen Stacy seemingly return from the dead.
It was resolved that the Jackal was the secret identity of Gwen's and Peter's biology professor Miles Warren, who cannot cope with the death of his secret love Gwen. As an expert on cloning, he creates clones of both Gwen and Spider-Man and becomes the costumed villain known as the Jackal. Jackal blames Spider-Man for Gwen's death and wants to kill him.[2]. Conway let Jackal knock out Spider-Man and let him fight his clone, both believing they are the real Peter Parker. In the end, the writer lets Spider-Man defeat his clone and find out he must be real, because the real Spider-Man has already developed feelings to supporting character Mary Jane Watson, something the Jackal has been unaware of when he has cloned him. Gwen Stacy's clone disappeared to find a new life for herself.[2].
A few years later, Spider-Man encountered Carrion, who claimed to be a degenerated clone of Warren.[3] The clone of Gwen Stacy reappeared many years later when she was being pursued by the High Evolutionary, who was determined to discover how Warren had been able to perfect cloning. In the process, he discovered that Warren had not, but had instead created a genetic virus which transformed already living beings. "Gwen Stacy" was seemingly cured of the virus and left to lead her own life once more.
Later, Spider-Man investigated Warren's old laboratory and discovered that Carrion had in fact been a genetic weapon created by Warren. Another former student of Warren's, Malcolm McBride, became infected with the virus and became the new Carrion. [4] After that, with Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1, this story arc was molded to fit into the New Clone Saga.
[edit] The second Clone Saga
More years passed before Spider-Man's clone reappeared. He had survived the battle and for several years had lived an existence under the name Ben Reilly (a combination of Peter's Uncle Ben's first name and Aunt May's maiden name). A series of chaotic events followed, in which Peter and Ben were plagued by both a resurrected Jackal and by Kaine, who was an unsuccessful first clone. In the process, another clone of Spider-Man became the villain Spidercide. Matters were further confused by the interventions of the mysterious and seemingly all-powerful Judas Traveller and Scrier.
The revelations made by the High Evolutionary were revealed to have been inaccurate, driven by a determination to discredit Warren, who had formerly worked with him.
Medical tests indicated Peter was actually the clone and Ben the original. Peter temporarily retired as Spider-Man, leaving the mantle of Spider-Man to Ben. An explosive climax revealed that Peter, Ben, the Jackal and many others had all been manipulated for years by Norman Osborn, who had been secretly alive all along. Osborn said Peter was the original, a claim that was confirmed when Ben died saving Peter's life and his body degenerated like any other clone's. Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal (February 1997) explains the Green Goblin's role in the entire storyline.
[edit] Selected bibliography
During the mid-1990s, Marvel consistently published four monthly Spider-Man series, roughly one every week. For the most part, the Spider-titles were treated during this storyline as a single weekly series, although occasionally they would separate, pair off, or have special anniversary editions. The Clone Saga ran through all four titles from October 1994 to December 1996, in addition to a multitude of spin-offs, one-shots, and ancillary issues. With that said, the relevant issues are:
Ongoings:
- Web of Spider-Man #117–129, and its replacement, Sensational Spider-Man #0–11
- Amazing Spider-Man #394–418
- Spider-Man #51–75
- Spectacular Spider-Man #217–240
- Spider-Man Unlimited (Vol. 1) #7–14
- Peter Parker: Spider-Man
- Furthermore, all five titles except Peter Parker: Spider-man were temporarily renamed with "Scarlet Spider" in place of "Spider-Man" for two months, in imitation of the X-Men's "Age of Apocalypse" stunt.
Special one-shots and mini-series:
- Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha
- Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Omega
- Spider-Man: The Lost Years
- Spider-Man: The Final Adventure
- Spider-Man: Clone Journals
- Spider-Man: The Parker Years
- Spider-Man: Redemption
- Spider-Man: Jackal Files
- Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand
Though no longer in print, there was a trade paperback which collected the four-part Revelation storyline. Originally, The Osborn Journal was to be included. Instead, Spider-Man #75 has 14 bonus pages. The first seven show Ben fighting briefly with Norman Osborn, set during Amazing Spider-Man #418. The second seven show Peter and Mary Jane mourning over the loss of Ben Reilly and Baby May, which has Spider-Man dumping Ben's ashes in the river. The bonus pages are drawn by John Romita Jr..
[edit] Production background
[edit] Introduction
The second Clone Saga was inspired by Marvel Comics' determination to produce a strong Spider-Man "event" story that would rival DC Comics' monumental storylines "The Death of Superman" and "Batman: Knightfall," both of which sold extremely well. Spider-Man editor Mark Bernardo said: "Marching orders we were given by upper management was 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 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."[5] He also added that the length of the arc was initially planned to be short, but rapidly spun out of control and ended as a fiasco: "The whole arc was supposed to end in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #400, and leave "Ben Reilly" as the one and only "original Peter Parker" and forge a new beginning. Ironically, the whole storyline, which was supposed to simplify Spider-Man's mythos and ultimately bring him "back to basics" ended up complicating everything beyond what anyone imagined!"[5]
Furthermore, Marvel's editorial structure at the time was divided into separate "groups" or "families," and some Spider-Man editors reported pressure to compete with the X-Men family's successful "Age of Apocalypse" event. Several of the Spider-Man creators believed that the character had drifted too far from his original portrayal and sought a way to restore the Spider-Man of old, in particular jettisoning his marriage to Mary Jane. There is some discrepancy between the recollections of production staff at the time, confused further by evidence that plans for the direction seemed to shift almost constantly.
[edit] Establishing the clone
According to The Marvel Encyclopedia author Andrew Goletz and Spider-Man writer Glenn Greenberg, the starting point for the Clone Saga was the Spectacular Spider-Man #216 comic (Sept 1994), written by Tom DeFalco and Todd Dezago, in which two Spider-Man and a mysterious doppelganger appear. Greenberg immediately knew the Marvel bosses wanted to restart the clone storyline, and strongly disapproved: "My reaction, to be honest, was one of absolute dismay. I thought it was a terrible idea. My feeling was that the clone story was best left in the past... I indeed kept my mouth shut, I didn't tell ANYONE, and I think it's safe to say that I was one of the first people outside of the Spider-Man office to know that this was going to happen."[6] In the following issues, the writers established the clone's backstory as a frightened, homeless outcast and the villain Judas Traveller was introduced, whose agenda was to analyse to true nature of evil. Greenberg criticised: "no one -- not the writers, not the editors -- seemed to know who or what the hell Judas Traveller was. He was seemingly this immensely powerful, quasi-mystical being with amazing abilities, but what was the real deal with him? ... But to be honest, a character like Traveller didn't really fit into Spider-Man's world."[6] Taking interest in Spider-Man and his clone, Traveller and his ally Scrier pit Spider-Man versus his clone; the writers set up the possibility that the clone could be the real Spider-Man.[6]
The clone, who gets the name Ben Reilly, then is fleshed out as the Scarlet Spider. Greenberg commented: "I remember seeing the sketches of the Scarlet Spider, hearing the name, and just shaking my head and rolling my eyes. I thought it was really cheesy, and that the fans would feel the same way."[5]
[edit] First doubts
A major change in status quo was the decision to make Spider-man's wife Mary Jane pregnant. It had been an idea of DeFalco, who felt that "a major, dramatic event that would help set up the [clone] saga's ultimate resolution would be Mary Jane becoming pregnant."[7] But then, Marvel Comics as a company experienced a major financial crisis which nearly bankrupted the company, and the company went through a series of profound changes.[7] Editor-in-chief DeFalco was fired, and was followed up by five editors-in-chief:[7]
By then, the writers had established a new Spider-Man foe, namely Kaine. To prove that he was dangerous, it was decided that he would kill classic Spider-Man foe Doctor Octopus and make the death so graphic so any possibility that latter could return was ruled out. Greenberg commented: "Upon hearing about it, I was pretty skeptical. I'm not a big fan of killing off major villains, especially classic ones like Doctor Octopus, and I had serious doubts that a character of his stature and history could ever be suitably replaced by a new villain."[7]
At this point, the creative staff inserted a lot of open plot points waiting to be resolved, such as Ben Reilly worrying about "degeneration" of his body due to cloning, why Kaine was protecting Spider-Man but preying on Ben Reilly, who Ben and Spider-man shared dreams, why Kaine was foreseeing Mary Jane's death, and who the mysterious new character Seward Trainer was.[7]
Then, the creative staff brought back the Jackal, the original culprit of the clones, a move lauded by Greenberg.[8] He was used as a plot dump to explain the "clone degeneration" and also set up the possibility he was part of a greater plan by Judas Traveller and Scrier.[8]
With a plethora of writers and editors, the storyline was initiated throughout all the regular Spider-Man series, but slowly grew out of control. The sales department requested extensions to the storyline, buoyed up by very strong sales on the book at a time when most other comics were experiencing a noticeable decline in buyers. With this extension, the storyline outlived several key creative staff and many decisions on the eventual direction of the storyline were changed.
With Amazing Spider-Man 400, intended originally to end the series, the writers ended the life of Spider-Man's aunt May Parker, a major supporting character since 1962. The plot deepens as Spider-Man writer Howard Mackie reintroduced Judas Traveller. Greenberg commented how ill-conceived he thought him: "The biggest problem with Judas Traveller was that he was just too much of an enigma. What were the scope and nature of his powers? No one seemed to have an answer. What was his primary motivation? The answer from the Spider-Man writers was always, "Well, he's trying to understand the true nature of evil." Uhhhm, okay, but that's a bit... vague, you know? What does Traveller hope to gain from understanding evil? What's his ultimate goal? That always remained shrouded in mystery - even to us!"[9]
In the "Mark of Kaine" storyline by Terry Kavanagh and Mackie, more creative disarray awaited, because they juggled with more and more clones of Spider-Man.[10] However, Greenberg recalled that the sales of the Spider-Man comics skyrocketed, and therefore, the writers were encouraged to keep the saga going longer and longer. While Greenberg understood the gravity of the situation (at that time, Marvel was close to bankruptcy and needed every bit of money) he saw it as very myopic.[10] Also, multiple costume changes and multiple identity switches were established. Also, it was decided that Spider-Man was ready to kill his enemies, a drastic shift intended to make readers believe even more that Peter Parker could not be the real Spider-Man.[10] Greenberg said that creative control was lost: "All the identity switching, multiple versions of costumes... it was reaching fairly ludicrous proportions. As mentioned earlier, this was an ultra-confusing storyline, but there was at least some forward momentum."[10]
By now, the marketing department had decided to sell may Spider-Man comics with variant, holodisk and gimmick covers, on which Greenberg had a dim view.[11] Then, a Mackie and J.M. DeMatteis arc featured Judas Traveller teleporting Spider-Man into another dimension and has long philosophical debates on life, death and sorrow. This was widely criticized as out of scope with the down-to-earth Spider-Man comics.[11] To add to the chaos, another incarnation of classic Spider-Man villain Green Goblin was introduced without any backstory, and editor Danny Fingeroth forced the return of his favorite Spider-Man character The Lizard, a move with further alienated the writers from the subject matter.[11]
[edit] Ben Reilly established as Spider-Man
Then, the arc "The Trial of Peter Parker" was established, in which Ben Reilly is accused of murder and Peter Parker/Spider-Man is so emotionally wrecked that he hits his wife. The real culprit is Kaine, who is revealed to be a degenerated clone of Spider-Man/Peter Parker, and therefore protects Peter and hates Ben. But the major bombshell was presented in Spectacular Spider-Man #226, in which Peter is revealed as the clone of Ben. With this move by editor Bob Budiansky, the Spider-Man continuity since 1981 (the last arc with clones) was invalidated. Greenberg commented that Budiansky felt pressured to end the Clone Saga, found no other convincing way than this development, and felt bad about it: "I think he was a man constantly fighting his own instincts and trying to convince himself to move forward with something he did not and could not ever believe in." and admitted that making Peter strike Mary Jane was an unwise move.[12]
Ex-editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco that under him, the Clone Saga would have been resolved in a different way: "Our plan was to structure the clone saga like a three-act play. Act One would climax at or around Amazing #400 - when we revealed that Pete was the clone and Ben was the real guy. Act Two would last around three months and follow Ben's adventures. In Act Three, Peter would triumphantly return as the one, true Spider-Man. Mark and I were hoping the Spider-crew could make Ben a viable character during his turn in the spotlight, and we planned to star Ben in his own monthly title after Peter returned. It was kind of like what I had already done with Thor and Thunderstrike - two very different titles based on a single concept. Of course, our plan went into the trash the day I got fired."[12]
[edit] Maximum Clonage debacle
Then, the "Maximum Clonage" storyline was penned by Todd Dezago (who followed up Kavanagh, who had left the project), Mackie, DeMatteis and DeFalco, intended to tie up the many plot lines which has been dangling around for a while. Goletz said that the intended ending was to "begin the new era of Spider-Man. Peter and Mary Jane would be written out of the books, and sent off to live in peace with their soon-to-be-born child. Ben would get the chance to establish himself as Spider-Man and move forward. Going into the planning stages for what would turn out to be "Maximum Clonage," the intent was indeed to finish up the clone story line once and for all and quickly get Ben started as Spider-Man."[13] Also, the Gwen Stacy clone who had started the whole Clone Saga in the 1970 was to be killed to provide a fitting end.[13]
But impressed by the Age of Apocalypse crossover of sister Marvel Comics title X-Men, in which huge sells were achieved by long, spread-out story lines and a liberal amount of variant and gimmick covers, Bob Budiansky ordered to duplicate this recipe for the Maximum Clonage project. Instead of tying up loose ends, the story was changed in such a way that practically every issue brought up new clones. The climax was "Maximum Clonage" Part 3, in which Spider-Man encounters hundreds of his clones. Greenberg was scathing: "Stuff like this, in my opinion, was the epitome of everything that had been wrong with Spider-Man over the previous few years-shameless sensationalism, milking a successful idea to death, overkill reaching ludicrous proportions."[13] Using heavy rewrites from Budiansky, the stories became more and more absurd, with Jackal getting killed off in a contrived "virus bomb" plot. However, the Gwen Stacy clone was kept alive. Greenberg, who had been pleading to kill off the character, said: "I was ready to smash my head against the wall... The whole clone thing had started with her back in the 70s, after all, and it was felt by everyone in the Spider-Man Group that once the saga came to an end... [but she survives and] to this day, I'm still not sure why that happened."[13]
[edit] Failed relaunch
By that time, the creative staff launched revamps of established villains (a new female Doctor Octopus, a new Vulture, and the Grim Hunter, the son of the dead Kraven the Hunter), without much success. Plot lines were long and sprawling, in spite of Bob Budiansky's plan to finally end the limbo, replace Peter Parker as Spider-Man and establish Ben Reilly as his successor. However, it took so long that DeMatteis, who was impatiently waiting for the green light to launch the Ben-Reilly-as-Spider-Man comics, resigned.[14] In retrospect, he was right; Greenberg recalled: "The idea was to have each Spider-Man book retitled so that the Scarlet Spider's name would replace Spider-Man's - AMAZING SCARLET SPIDER, SPECTACULAR SCARLET SPIDER, SCARLET SPIDER, and WEB OF SCARLET SPIDER. We'd get four new number #1's out of it, and it would be a way to capitalize on the Scarlet Spider's popularity one last time before he became Spider-Man. What that meant was holding off Ben's debut as Spider-Man even longer."[14] By that time, the Marvel marketing division had completely overpowered the creative department and could do whatever they wanted.[14]
The creative chaos is also illustrated in the "Parker Years" storyline, originally intended to write Peter Parker and the pregnant Mary Jane Watson out of the Spider-Man comics, have their baby and give them a happy farewell; finally, Ben Reilly would be the sole focal point of the franchise.[15] Instead, Bob Budiansky suddenly decided to reinstate Peter Parker as Spider-Man at all costs. [15] He did not want a super hero who was a father, but wanted the "youthful and carefree" Spider-Man from the past. Writer Fabian Nicieza obliged, but Greenberg comments how little Nicieza liked this development[15]
[edit] Mystery mastermind
By then, the plot twists had become so confusing that readers and staff demanded closure of the Clone Saga. Greenberg elaborated the set-up of the resolution, mostly penned by Mackie: "The mysterious figure was intended to be the sole mastermind behind the entire clone saga, a powerful and influential figure who was controlling Seward Trainer and manipulating the lives of Peter Parker and Ben Reilly from the shadows. Forced to wear an environmental suit to maintain his life functions, he would eventually be restored to health by Seward, and at that point, we would reveal his identity."[16] Initially, a plan was to send Peter Parker five years back in time and reveal that Scrier was Mephisto, the Marvel Comics equivalent of Satan, and use this as a deus ex machina device to explain everything in a reasonably neat way.[16] But this idea was not taken because of the "minimal impact" of Spider-Man in that draft. There was a everybody-against-everybody atmosphere in the Marvel Comics staff, and then yet another shift, as Marvel Comics downsized again and Budiansky was fired from the company. New Marvels editor-in-chief Bob Harras dissolved the five EICs into one (himself) and under his reign, the main plot is that Peter is dying from a mystery disease. Then, Harras had the idea that Norman Osborn (Green Goblin I), who had killed Gwen Stacy in the famous The Night Gwen Stacy Died and was killed in that 1973 arc, was the master planner behind all this.[17]
[edit] Green Goblin rebirth
Finally, the "Revelations" story arc was penned. Harras maintained a strict control over the plotting and refused to compromise on many points. As a consequence, Mary Jane's baby is seemingly stillborn and abducted by Alison Mongraine, Norman Osborn's henchwoman. Greenberg said: "We strongly felt that the baby story line should have a clean, clear, definitive ending...The problem with that was that there was NEVER going to be a resolution.", which Greenberg felt very unfair to the readers.[18]
The final ending came in the Peter Parker: Spider-Man 75 issue by Howard Mackie. There, Norman Osborn reveals himself to Spider-Man and says he is the mastermind behind the entire Clone Saga. In the following fight, Ben Reilly tries to help Peter, but is mortally wounded by Osborn's trademark pumpkin bombs and dies. In the end, Mary Jane and Peter rejoin and mourn their seemingly dead baby.
[edit] Fan reaction
The decision to replace Peter with Ben as the regular, true Spider-Man met with a massive outcry from many readers and was also unpopular with many of the creative staff of the day. The decision was soon taken to undo this and restore Peter as the true Spider-Man. However, this proved a difficult decision to implement and many schemes were devised, including one proposal to reveal the entire confusion as having been spawned by the demon Mephisto as part of a struggle with Judas Traveller and Scrier. This was rejected as being widely out of Spider-Man's league. (Coincidentally, this was similar to the plot device used by Marvel for the Spider-Man storyline "One More Day," which retconned Peter's marriage to Mary Jane.) Eventually, the decision was taken to reveal that an archenemy of Spider-Man's had been manipulating events from behind the scenes. The decision to resurrect the original Green Goblin was also very controversial; his death was part of "The Death of Gwen Stacy" storyline that was widely considered a classic, but it was deemed necessary by Marvel's then-Editor-in-Chief. Osborn's return led to a brief stint in a Lex Luthor-like role, minimizing his Goblin identity and leading to "The Final Chapter," which closed out the first volume of Amazing Spider-Man.
Recognizing the chaos of the storyline, Marvel eventually parodied it in Spider-Man: 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga (January 1997). The Clone Saga was parodied again with a gag cover for "Sheep-Man" in an issue of What If... that had a text box saying "Part 1 of 80 of the New Sheep Clone Saga - AAAAAGGGHH! NOT AGAIN!"
[edit] Clone Saga follow up in MC2
While the mainstream Spider-Man titles rarely touches upon the Clone Saga, Spider-Girl (May "Mayday" Parker) has referenced it. Mayday generally wears the costume based on Ben Reilly's Spider-Man design. Elizabeth Tyne/Janine Godbe from The Lost Years had Ben's son, Reilly Tyne (Darkdevil). Felicity Hardy fights crime as The Scarlet Spider. Kaine is also a recurring character.
Spider-Girl #44–50 and 52 focus on loose ends of the Clone Saga, such as Alison Mongrain planning to kill Normie Osborn, believing he could pose a threat to the child who was placed in her care. May reveals herself to Alison, in order to save Normie. Alison is last seen in Spider-Girl #52. #44 is noteworthy as Peter tells May about her Uncle Ben, minus the fact he was a clone. Overall, the issue recaps the Clone Saga storyline. There was to have been a panel with Ben Reilly in his Scarlet Spider outfit, but it was left out[19], hence why the cover mentions him as The Scarlet Spider.
A new MC2 feature, Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man, to be published in Amazing Spider-Man Family in 2008, will explore Mayday's early history as a young child. The series also establshes that Mayday was retrieved from Osborn's grasp by Kaine and a regretful Mongraine six months after Revelations, and that the events of The Final Chapter (or more accuratly, "The Gathering of Five"), take place two years later. At the conclusion of the MC2 version of the "Gathering" storyline, Peter and Norman Osborn's final battle costs Osborn his life and Peter one of his legs.
A new Clone Saga has begun in the pages of Amazing Spider-Girl. Normie Osborn, inheriting a few of his grandfather's laboratories, stumbles across a fluid tank containing an exact physical duplicate of Mayday Parker, with several journal entries left behind by Norman Osborn indicating that she is the real Mayday. The story is ongoing.
[edit] Ultimate Spider-Man Clone Saga
The Clone Saga was adapted for Marvel's Ultimate imprint. It began in Ultimate Spider-Man #97 (July 2006) and concluded in #104 [1], with a small epilogue in #105. In the Ultimate Spider-Man continuity, the character Miles Warren was first introduced as Harry Osborn's psychiatrist who was hired by Norman Osborn to brainwash out any memories of his Goblin persona. Ben Reilly was established as an African-American lab assistant with no personal ties to Peter. Although in the "Carnage" story-arc, Reilly refers to the Carnage creature as "Little Ben". The creature itself being created from Peter Parker's and Curt Conner's DNA with traces of the Venom suit's genetic material as well.
In this version, Bendis wrote a story in which the Ultimate Scorpion is captured and revealed to be Peter's clone, sharing 94.2% of Peter Parker's DNA (issues 97, 98). MJ is then abducted, and searching for her, Peter runs into Ultimate Spider-Woman, and in the following issues, further Spider-Man clones appear, among them one with a disfigured face (Kaine) and a black-suited clone with six arms (Tarantula). Bendis also made Peter reveal his secret identity to Aunt May and the Fantastic Four, and let an amnesiac Gwen Stacy and Peter's presumed dead father Richard re-appear (though the former of the two actually escaped). Via a longer dialogue through Peter and Spider-Woman, Bendis also established that every clone has inherited Peter's love for MJ, and his worries of her getting hurt; as a result, they each tried a different approach, the Scorpion trying to make sense of his jumbled memories, Spider-Woman trying to stop the other clones, Kaine using his advanced mind to incorporate the drug OZ into MJ's body, and the Tarantula trying to defend MJ from Kaine.
Upon waking to find that she has been injected with OZ, MJ is enraged, and her anger triggers a transformation into a large, red monster. As of issue 103, the masterminds behind the clones seem to be Dr. Octopus and Ben Reilly (Reilly stole a sample of Peter's blood shortly after the death of Gwen Stacy). A fight between the clones and Dr. Octopus leaves the Tarantula and Kaine apparently dead, and Dr. Octopus captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. As a twist, Bendis established that Dr. Octopus and Reilly acted with consent of the CIA. In addition, Gwen is revealed to be Carnage, and Richard revealed to be yet another clone (issues 99-103), aged artificially and given psychic treatment to create his false memories.
As of the end of the Ultimate Clone Saga, the clone posing as Richard Parker died from his rapid aging, Jessica Drew fled after helping Peter defeat Octavius, and Doctors Franklin Storm and Reed Richards found a cure for Mary Jane's OZ-related affliction; Peter's relief at her safe condition made him realize his true feelings for her and re-consummated their relationship. Reed Richards suggested that they might even remove Peter's powers after some more research, since they are also partially caused by the OZ serum. However, after a talk with Nick Fury, Peter rejects the cure and got back together with MJ. The Spider-Woman clone left to embrace the "Jessica Drew" identity and the other remaining clones - the Scorpion and Gwen Stacy - were left in the custody of Nick Fury, who advised his Scientists to 'get to work' on them.
In re-imagining the story for the Ultimate Universe, Brian Bendis inserted many references to the original Clone Saga. Among them are that the brief appearances of the characters Miles Warren and Ben Reilly; Peter re-examining his relationship with MJ; an amnesiac Gwen Stacy appearing from nowhere, then turning out to be more than she seems; Aunt May experiencing a heart attack; a "Scarlet Spider" (Spider-Woman) evading Peter and later being used as a plot dump; a half-formed, semi-insane clone appearing several times, specifically wanting to protect MJ; a 'mystery women' called 'Jessica'; an old friend and colleague of Norman Osborn appearing to have been manipulating the scenes from behind (Dr. Mendel Stromm in normal Marvel continuity, Otto Octavius in Ultimate Marvel continuity), later revealing unseen powers over robotics.
[edit] Television
- Further information: The Return of Hydro-Man and Spider Wars
In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the Clone Saga appears in two forms. First in the show, Spider-Man is reunited with Mary Jane after she disappeared into a vortex in his last fight with the original Green Goblin. It was soon revealed that this Mary Jane was a clone as was the resurrected Hydro-Man all of which were the product of the experiments of Miles Warren. Spider-Man tears his costume in a fight with the Hydro-Man clone. The Mary Jane clone saves him with water powers she has by virtue of her body structure being derived from Hydro-Man. Warren runs off from an upcoming flood Hydro-Man's clone would create and finds a piece of Spider-Man's costume, hinting at the possible cloning of Peter Parker. Due to their unstable cell structures, the Mary Jane and Hydro-Man clones evaporate in front of Spider-Man. The death of the Mary Jane clone devastates him, and he is next taken to another dimension by Madame Web to fight in the animated version of the Secret Wars. Warren managed to get a sample of Spider-Man's DNA from a torn piece of his costume.
After that was the two-part Spider Wars series finale, where Spider-Man is presented in an alternate reality version of the Clone Saga. In this version of events, though, the revelation that Peter is the clone, and Ben Reilly is the original leads Peter to become incredibly depressed and vulnerable. The Carnage symbiote takes advantage of this and merges with Peter Parker, becoming the composite being known as Spider-Carnage, who then attempts to destroy all of existence; which includes all universes; from his native universe. Later, after his plan to destroy all of reality is stopped by the original Spider-Man and other Spider-Men from different realities; including the Scarlet Spider; Carnage attempts to destroy every reality, one at a time, starting with the universe that was home to a wealthy, armored version of Spider-Man. However, the "prime" Spider-Man follows Spider-Carnage into that reality. Realizing that his armored counterpart is so arrogant because he has never failed, the "prime" Spider-Man contacts that reality's version of Uncle Ben, the only person who might be able to get through to Spider-Carnage. The gamble works, and Spider-Carnage stops the chain of destruction he had been about to initiate. He sacrifices himself by jumping in one of his unstable portals from the Time Dilation Accelerator in his reality which disintegrates him. The "prime" Spider-Man at one point remarks: "This is starting to sound like a bad comic book plot!" and part of the arc was called "I Really, Really Hate Clones".
Of note is the fact that the Spider-Carnage character first appeared in comics, and was the result of a forced mergance between the Carnage entity and Ben Reilly, who had taken on the role of Spider-Man at that time. The Peter Parker with whom the symbiote merges with was wearing the original version of the costume, however when the symbiote merges with him, his costume takes on the appearance of Ben Reilly's Spider-Man costume, which was itself subtly changed by the creature merging with him.
[edit] References
- ^ 100 Greatest Marvels, #9-6, introduction to reprint of Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, #121
- ^ a b Amazing Spider-Man #141–151
- ^ Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #25–31
- ^ Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 and Spectacular Spider-Man #149; part of the "Evolutionary War" story arc.
- ^ a b c Life of Reilly, Part 2
- ^ a b c Life of Reilly, Part 1
- ^ a b c d e Life of Reilly, Part 3
- ^ a b Life of Reilly, Part 4
- ^ Life of Reilly, Part 6
- ^ a b c d Life of Reilly, Part 7
- ^ a b c Life of Reilly, Part 8
- ^ a b Life of Reilly, Part 9
- ^ a b c d The Life of Reilly: Part 11
- ^ a b c Life of Reilly, Part 14
- ^ a b c Life of Reilly, Part 17
- ^ a b Life of Reilly, Part 22
- ^ Life of Reilly, Part 24
- ^ Life of Reilly, Part 32
- ^ Tom D. - Re: #44 Questions For Tom D
[edit] External links
- 1 Life of Reilly - A very detailed 35-part article covering this storyline, including behind-the-scenes information from Glenn Greenberg, who was part of the editorial team during this time, and interviews with other writers.
- The Clone Saga Timeline - A page on Sam Ruby.com featuring a detailed chronology, summary and list of titles.
