One of the biggest comic book events of the '90s, the Clone Saga was meant to be the penultimate Spider-Man story. It didn't quite accomplish this goal. While this Spider-Man story has its fair share of fans, it is more commonly looked down upon as one of the worst Spider-Man events in the character's long history.
What made this story so disappointingly bad was the incredibly disjointed writing. There were some good stories to come out of this fiasco, however. Namely, stories from behind the scenes at Marvel. Here are ten behind the scenes stories from the Clone Saga you won't believe.
10 10. Marvel's Big "Event"
At the time of the Clone Saga, DC comics were on a roll. "The Death of Superman" and "Batman: Knightfall" were absolute hits at the time. As is the case with the DC/ Marvel rivalry, when one company does something well the other tries to replicate that success.
So, Marvel mandated the need for an "event" series to rival the likes of their competitor's flagship comic series. Who better to headline this new event comic than Marvel's most popular hero Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the creative heads at Marvel didn't create a story that was even close to as good as either of the famous DC events.
9 9. All This To Make Him Single Again...
When Peter Parker married Mary Jane, many writers felt as though the Spider-Man they had grown up with had been compromised. This sentiment lasted several decades and lead to the only other storyline as bad as the Clone Saga: One More Day. In their minds, Peter Parker was always a bachelor who's life as a hero was too difficult to balance with romance. Any time he tries to have both, he ended up losing in one way or another.
Instead of actually showing some growth in the character, instead of continuing his development into a man holding down the responsibility of a family, the writers decided they needed to make Peter single. Knowing that breaking Peter and MJ up would be wildly unpopular, they instead decided that taking Peter's clone and making him Spider-Man would immediately solve this problem.
8 8. Ben Reilly Was Always Supposed To Be The Original
The Clone Saga was created as a storyline to totally shake up the Spider-Man comics. While rapidly changing the status quo of a character can oftentimes be a great move. In this case, it was a huge mistake.
After revealing that Ben Reilly was, in fact, the original Peter Parker, fans freaked out. The hero they had been following all these years was just a clone. At the culmination of the Clone Saga, it was revealed that this was a double bluff and Peter was actually the original this whole time. The editors actually wanted to make Ben Reilly the original. It was only after fan backlash that they caved.
7 7. High Turnover
The long, arduous story of the Clone Saga was exceedingly complicated and convoluted. One of the biggest reasons for this was the high turnover of creative teams at Marvel at that time. The comic industry was suffering in the '90s, and it was hard to know if they were going to survive the decade.
Because of this, many writing teams were replaced during the run of the Clone Saga. It's easy to notice that the story seems disjointed and makes little sense. This was the reason for that.
6 6. Harry Was Supposed To Be The Villain
Norman Osborn, apparently having come back to life, ended up being the mastermind behind all of the events of the Clone Saga. This was not originally the plan. The creative team at Marvel originally envisioned Harry Osborn being the primary culprit.
Writers on Spider-Man had even begun laying out several clues pointing to Harry's complicity before the editors at Marvel decided to go in a different, more shocking direction.
5 5. Back To The Basics
The funniest part of all of this is that the Clone Saga was originally meant to send Spider-Man's status quo back to the basics. Instead, it totally complicated and convoluted everything.
By making Ben Reilly the new Spidey, Peter could go on and live his married life while Spidey was still single. When that plane backfired due to fan backlash, the whole story fell apart and became an absolute disaster.
4 4. Less Than A Year
Originally, the Clone Saga was meant to last for under a year. Although it was always going to be a big event, editors were hoping to keep the story tight. Anyone familiar with how the comic run turned out knows that this plan didn't exactly come to fruition.
At a time when Marvel Comics was not doing so great financially, the Clone Saga was selling like crazy. Because of this, the length of the story was greatly increased. Although it is one of the most hated Spider-Man stories of all time, the Clone Saga was also one of the best selling.
3 3. Nobody Knew What To Do With Judas Traveler
This Spider-Man series was full of brand new, mysterious villains. One of the most notable of these was Judas Traveler. Where did he come from? What were his powers? What was his evil plan? Readers didn't know the answers to any of these questions. Apparently, neither did the writers.
The writers of the Clone Saga had no idea who Judas Traveler was when they first created him. They just wanted a mysterious villain mastermind to be working behind the scenes. When reading the stories this really shows, as Traveler is one of the worst villains to ever face-off with the webhead.
2 2. Kaine Wasn't Any Better
When it came to Kaine, the writers of Amazing Spider-Man didn't have any more bright ideas. They wanted to create another new villain who's intimidation was only matched by the vague, mysterious nature of his origins.
While Kaine ended up turning into a slightly better villain than Judas Traveler, in the beginning, the writing was just as bad. He "permanently" killed several of Spidey's biggest villains, such as Doc Ock, just to make him seem intimidating. Other than this, there was nothing interesting about his character.
1 1. The Ultimate Clone Saga Was Actually Good
When it was announced Brian Michael Bendis was writing his own iteration of the Clone Saga within the pages of the critically acclaimed Ultimate Spider-Man book, fans were quite skeptical.
Despite all of that doubt, the Ultimate Clone Saga turned out to be one of the best versions of this iconic Spidey story to ever be told. In this version, Bendis decided to make Scorpion one of Peter's clines, and also tied the who story into Richard Parker and his mysterious past.