By Todd DeZago, J.M. DeMatteis, Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie, Luke Ross, Mike Wieringo, Steve Skroce, John Romita Jr. & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-0560-3
There was a time in the mid 1990s where, to all intents and purposes, the corporate monolith known as Marvel Comics seemed to have completely lost the plot. An awful lot of stories from that period will hopefully never be reprinted, but some of them at least weren’t completely beyond redemption.
If you mention “the Clone Saga†to an older Spider-Man fan you’ll probably see a shudder of horror pass through the poor sap, although if pushed, many will secretly profess to have liked some parts of it.
For the uninitiated: Peter Parker was cloned by his old biology teacher Miles Warren AKA the Jackal, and the Amazing Arachnid had to defeat his alchemical double in a grim identity-duel, resulting in the copy’s death. Years later the hero discovered that he was in fact the doppelganger and a grungy nomadic biker calling himself Ben Reilly was the true, non-artificial man.
As the convoluted drama interminably played out, Parker – who had married Mary Jane Watson during those intervening years when he had battled in mask and webs – eventually surrendered the Spider-Man persona and whilst Reilly swung across the city battling a host of foes, the happy couple settled down to await the birth of their first child…
This slim collection, re-presenting Spectacular Spider-Man #240, Sensational Spider-Man #11, Amazing Spider-Man #418 and an extended Peter Parker, Spider-Man #75 – which included 14 extra pages to the conclusion – shook up the status quo all over again and set up a whole new deadly undercurrent and milieu for the World’s Most Misunderstood Superhero…
The game-changing drama began in Spectacular Spider-Man #240’s ‘Walking into Spiderwebs’ (November 1996, by Todd DeZago, J.M. DeMatteis, Luke Ross & John Stanisci) wherein Reilly’s best friend Dr. Seward Trainer revealed his true colours after curing one of the Wall-crawler’s greatest enemies and discovered that he had been secretly serving another for all the time Ben had known him.
Meanwhile the happy couple eagerly prepared for the imminent birth of their firstborn unaware that the most incomprehensible danger was closing in on them…
‘Deadly Diversions’ by DeZago, Mike Wieringo & Richard Case from Sensational Spider-Man #11 (December 1996) found Peter and Ben discussing the memories they shared but only which only one of them had actually experienced when a deadly robot attacked and Parker was forced to resume the super-heroic life he’d missed so much – if only briefly – alongside the new/old Spider-Man.
Across town Mary Jane had gone into labour but there were complications: the most notable being that she was blithely unaware that the doctors attending her were in the pay of the malicious mastermind who had waited years and moved mountains to get revenge on everyone with the name “Parker†and all the people who knew them…
Tom DeFalco, Steve Skroce & Bud LaRosa crafted the stunning blockbusting shocker ‘Torment’ from Amazing Spider-Man #418 (December 1996) as Ben and Peter tackled a host of deadly automatons and Mary Jane endured every expectant mother’s greatest nightmare, before the staggering extended climax of ‘Night of the Goblin’ by Howard Mackie, John Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna from Peter Parker, Spider-Man #75 (December 1996) revealed the hidden history of the hero and his greatest foe.
With nothing but vengeance on the agenda, the clash between good and evil escalated into a cataclysmic Armageddon which would leave only one Arachnoid Avenger alive and victory a bitter taste in the Web-spinner’s mouth…
Irrespective of how the Clone Saga played out, was retro-fitted, ignored, reworked and re-imagined since; at the time this classy little book was released, Revelations shook up the Marvel Universe all over again and annoyed as many fans as it delighted.
With the benefit of a little distance however the tale reads exceptionally well and works exceedingly hard to set the ever-unfolding epic of Spider-Man back onto a solid dramatic footing: one that stripped the character back down to its effective essentials and cleared the scene for even bigger and bolder efforts.
Gripping and beautifully executed, this is a Fights ‘n’ Tights treat for all action and adventure fans.
© 1996, 1997 Marvel Characters. Inc. All rights reserved.