In his 60+-year run, our dear Spidey has had his fair share of stories. We have had some truly amazing adventures with the web crawler, but we have also had some not-so-amazing. Now, if you were to ask the casual comic book fan what the worst Spider-man story was, you'd likely hear them respond that it is the 2007 story arc titled "One More Day." But I beg to differ. To me, there is a story arc within Spider-Man continuity far worse than just Peter and MJ losing their marriage to the devil, Mephisto. I am, of course, talking about the '90s mess that was: "The Clone Saga".

This is how the Marvel Editors of the '90s Ruined Peter Parker

The Clone Saga is a story arc infamous among not only Spider-Man fans but also comic book readers in general. This is an arc that gets a lot of *stick* amongst fans - and so it should.The original clone saga storyline laid out by Marvel in the 1990s was only meant to take place over the course of approximately six months.

This story idea was the result of the editors at the time, no longer happy with where the character of Spider-Man had gotten to. They weren’t happy with Peter's more modern persona or character development, and no longer wanted to continue with his darker, grittier themes. Instead, they wanted to simplify the character and take him back to his more light-hearted roots.

However, this idea wasn’t as easy as it first appeared to be. Over the course of several reshuffles within the publishing department of Marvel, this simple idea turned into a massive chore for the writers. Multiple reworks and retcons came in from all angles.

This Six Month Story Turned into Two Years!


How the Saga Came about and Unfolded:

In 1994, Spider-Man was fast approaching his 400th issue and rival publisher DC had been receiving great success with their "Death of Superman" story arc and their Nightfall crossover in Batman. It made sense that Marvel would want to replicate something similar with their flagship character, Spider-Man.A pitch was put forward by Terry Kavanagh, who suggested they bring back the Spider-Man clone from The Amazing Spider-Man #149, a character that was brought to us after the classic tale, "The Night Gwen Stacy died" years before.

After the events of Gwen Stacy's death, Professor Miles Warren (who would later become the villain known as The Jackal in ASM #129) cloned a copy of her for himself, having fallen in love with her while she was alive and a student in his class.
As well as this, Professor Warren also cloned a copy of Gwen's boyfriend at the time, Peter Parker, and unknowingly created a clone of Spider-Man.

Why would he clone the boyfriend of the young girl he loves? Well... just to punch and beat on, really. The guy was really messed up.In ASM #149, the two Spider-Men fight, and one is killed in a confrontation with the Jackal. The issue ends with "Peter" taking the body of the "clone" and disposing of it within an industrial smokestack, never to be seen again.Is our Peter the Real Peter at the end of this issue? No one truly knows. And that is where the idea to reboot Spider-Man initially came from.

This would mean that this darker, grittier, '90s version of Spider-Man that we readers knew at the time (and who the editors despised) could now be simply swapped out for the "original Peter," a character who had been presumed dead and frozen in time from all those years ago!

The idea seemed flawless. That is, until the fans caught wind of it all.

Many readers and lifelong Spidey fans rightfully felt cheated by this. After all, readers had been following Peter Parker this whole time, and to swap him out now would be disastrous. But the editors just couldn't see it. Sure, they knew it would be controversial to swap out their flagship character, but it would fix a lot of the "problems" they had.This swap-out would undo Peter's marriage to Mary-Jane and give the character more freedom. They figured the clone could simply retire from the superhero life and move on with Mary Jane, giving the original Peter a chance to hop back into the life he had lost all those years prior.

The creative team over at Marvel was simply blinded by the potential possibilities this idea could bring

Tom Defalco was originally against this idea when it was first pitched to him, but he too was eventually won over and actually wrote the first issue to put the story into motion.

Within this issue, we see the clone return under the name Ben Reilly. (Ben after his uncle Ben and Reilly after his aunt's maiden name.)

Side note: I will say Ben's costume design here at this time was/still is epic!

As these issues went on and the story of the Clone Saga played out, we saw both Ben and Peter confronted by the Jackal and a new original (failed) clone called Kaine multiple times until a medical test "proved" that Peter was indeed the clone.

After this shocking discovery, Peter decides to give up crime-fighting and move away with the now-pregnant Mary Jane, leaving Ben Reilly to take on the mantle of Spider-Man once more.But! It all soon changes AGAIN, as it is revealed that Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin) is back! (That's right, he never died!)  It is he who has been orchestrating this whole thing, altering the lab results in order to mess with Peter and have him believe he was not the real Spider-Man!

YIKES! What a Mess!

The story finally comes to a close with both Spider-Men taking on the Green Goblin and Ben Reilly turning to dust after he is killed. (Revealing that yes, he was the clone after all.)

What you have read above is the story in its simplest form. Believe me when I say that this era of Spider-Man is a mess - it is no understatement. They had a total of THREE different creative visions for this story arc at Marvel over the two years in which this story ran its course and as I said before, by the end it truly was all over the place.

The Ideas bouncing around the office at the time:
Vision 1 - Peter and Ben are one and the same, with Ben being a version of Peter from the future who would eventually send Peter back in time to re-fulfill the story over and over.Vision 2 - Harry Osborn would return as the mastermind behind all these events.In fact, several clues had been dropped and hinted at this, but after yet another creative shuffle, a new vision was implemented.Vision 3 - It was revealed to be Norman and not Harry Osborn who orchestrated this whole scenario, undoing the "perfect" death of the Green Goblin all those decades before.

But it gets worse! So much worse...

As I mentioned above, Peter had moved away with a now-pregnant Mary Jane. (A plot they created in order to give Peter the happy ending and sendoff they thought the hero deserved.) Now, with Peter being proven to be the real Spider-Man the baby had to be...well, "dealt with". After all, the editors couldn't have their beloved, carefree Spider-Man be a father. Heck, they didn't even want him married, hence this whole fiasco!And so, in their infinite wisdom, the creators at Marvel decided that Mary-Jane and Peter's baby would be stillborn, ending any chance of Peter being a father and growing up too much more.

Let's now go back and look at Amazing Spider-Man #400

In this milestone issue, (which fortunately contained very little Clone Saga story) Aunt May dies. In this beautifully written issue, Aunt May reveals in her final days that she had always known Peter was Spider-Man and that she was actually very proud of him.

It's a beautiful issue and deserves to be considered a key.

After Aunt May's death, Peter is arrested for murder. (In fact, the police arrest him at the funeral.) Thankfully, this is later resolved in a series of books within the ongoing Clone Saga titled: The Trial of Peter Parker, where it is revealed it was Kaine (the first flawed clone) who murdered the individual and not Peter.

Bringing Aunt May Back

At the time of this saga, we got several hints that Norman Osborn might have actually kidnapped Peter and MJ's baby.  However, again, this incredibly high-potential idea was squashed by the editorial team.

Upon invading Norman's hideaway (issues outside of the Clone Saga), it is revealed not to be a baby, but instead... Aunt May. Yep, that's right! Aunt May never died in that incredibly well-written issue of ASM #400. No, that was an actor given plastic surgery just to look like Aunt May by Norman Osborn.Seriously. This is just stupid.Instead of "fixing" Spider-Man, these creators actually brought the character to his lowest point. Honestly, say what you want about "One More Daybut the Clone Saga is far worse!

One More Day might not be everyone's favourite Spider-Man story, but at least it is a concise story.

To break it down - what did the Clone Saga actually achieve? What did it bring to the Spider-Man universe?• We are introduced to Ben Reily, aka The Scarlet Spider (With an incredible costume design!)• We are introduced to Kaine (The first failed clone)• Professor Miles Warren actually turns himself genetically into a Jackal, rather than a man in a costume...• We are introduced to Judas Traveller (worst character ever!)• Aunt May dies (but this is undone...)• Peter and Mary-Jane lose a child, which is never mentioned in the main continuity again ('Renew Your Vows' being in an alternate universe)• Norman Osborn is brought back after decades of being absent in real-time to us readers.• Kaine kills Spider-Man's classic villain: Doctor Octopus - Yes Really! More on that another time!

Spectacular Spider-Man #231

The Clone Saga appeared to be over. However, in Spectacular Spider-Man #231, the editors somehow allowed for a skeletal corpse (wearing a Spider-Man costume) to be found when a demolition crew knocked down a smoke stack.What? ...Why? ...How? Who does that make Ben Reilly, if not the Clone from ASM #149? This makes no sense! And nothing ever comes of it!Now, to be fair, like I said before. I get it. There was a lot going on at Marvel at this time. Bankruptcy was filed for, and creative teams were being reshuffled every couple of months. But can we really forgive Marvel for this abomination of a story? A six-month idea that wound up spanning over two years?

The Clone Saga Story basically told me (a young kid reading comics in the '90s) that the Spider-Man character that I had fallen in love with was fake and not the REAL Spider-Man!

...And boy wasn't that a kick in the teeth to hear and live through until they fixed it.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!