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Clone Saga Chronicles… Alpha Edition

CLONE SAGA CHRONICLES:

Alpha Edition—

Overall, before the now infamous image of the Devil taking a piece of Spidey’s life and stomping on it, there was one story that was so hated, despised, and voted on as the worst story of all time in many polls, personal and public in the 40+ year existence of Spider-Man:

The Clone Saga.

Don’t Believe me? Ask Ron Frenz of Spider Girl Fame when talking about it said: ‘It [ASM 545] makes the Clone Saga a cakewalk’

While many of you at your computer, laptop, iMac or iBook are sitting there wondering why, as the Ultimate Clone Saga Apologist, am writing a statement like that, the reason is simple: I know that there is a ‘consensus’ among readers that this story is too confusing, too terrible to stomach, and in some cases, the beginning of the end for Spidey.

Actually there is some substance to the story than most believe. This is only part of the overall series of articles that will reflect back on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly parts of the ‘Saga. That’s Right, take that bad taste you have for it out, there are good parts to every story.

This ‘Alpha’ edition is the first of what will be several chapters, with a closing statement in the Omega chapter which is just that: the end, and the rise of the new storylines that went into the reboot.

Alpha is my story. And Through My story, well we’ll get into the Saga.

The reason I am writing this series of articles is that while I enjoyed Life of Reilly, The series IS 35.5 parts long, every part extremely long to read and to plow though takes an entire afternoon. I want to make this clear: We are not trying to duplicate, remanufacture or take the place of Life of Reilly. We will site them as an invaluable resource, and an inspiration for me to write this series of articles, but the point isn’t having a hard hitting nitty gritty of the Saga. I’m looking at it purely from the prospective that I, Zach Joiner have been one of the biggest defenders of Ben Reilly and his story. Because to me, that’s what it truly was: The Story of Ben Reilly within Peter Parkers Universe.

Call it what you will, Death of Spider-Man, Ultimate 90’s story, Worst Story Ever… it’s still being talked about and debated after 10 years. Every writer wants his work to be talked about for years to come, and quite frankly for all the flack he gets, Terry Kavanagh has to be applauded. Without him, we wouldn’t have Ben Reilly. (We also wouldn’t have F.A.C.A.D.E. either, but that’s another day) So to him, I thank you for the Initial concept.

But as a character, no man was more instrumental to Ben than Jon Marc DeMatteis, who was writing Amazing, and had just made the jump from Spectacular. Tom DeFalco had come to that title with Sal Bucemea, who holds the title of most issues of one book at 124.)

With the Clone Saga, I got my start. You always remember your first. I’d never had a brother. I had a twin sister, who I loved very dearly, but I never had that mentor, that older brother to guide me.

Enter Spectacular Spider-Man 223.

To place this on the timeline, if was a week after ASM 400 had came out. But being that I got the issue at a small town grocery store, the issue had been on the stands for a couple of months, it was in cluster of other books, that were really old and just there waiting for someone to take them. (Which I’m kinda glad as Max. Cloneage was in this period, which was never ever a good story. That could’ve been my first issue.)

I loved that issue, and when I went to the big city, I picked up ‘Blood Brothers’, the Clone Saga’s last big storyline before Revelations had came out. I got every single issue of the story (SEN 4, ASM 411, SM 68, SPEC 234, SEN 5 and ASM 412) With the notable exception being Sensational #5, which was sold out.

Once the bug hit me, it was on. I was hooked on Spider-Ben, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson for life.

Several years had passed, and there was a lot of outcry, most of which I was somewhat shielded from as I never went to a comic shop, or read wizard. And in 96, I didn’t even have internet back then, and barely had a computer. I say barely, as I did have a TANDY 3000, and that thing was a beast to use. 16” Floppy drives and painfully slow, if my 8 year old self had seen what I’m using now (Toshiba laptop), he’d be floored. And floored that I got to be as good looking as I am, as well.

But Once I went online, there were only a handful of sites devoted to Spidey, and a couple devoted to Ben.

Of those sites, there are only a few that have been around since 98, The Spider-Man Crawl Space, Spideykicksbutt.com, Spider-fan.org, Amazing Spider-Man.info (samruby.com back then) and Spideydude.com.

Now Naturally these addresses have changed, with all of them at some point being hosted by other sites, before graduating to .coms orgs, or .infos. But still, there was a void that needed to be addressed.

Enter Me.

From the beginning, I had Scarlet Spider Wallpapers, Scans, and animated GIFs. Stuff sites didn’t have. But as times changed and everyone and their dog got internet, it got diluted, and outdated fast. Times where a changing.

I was wondering around the Spider-Man Message Board and Comicboards, and found a site called ‘Life of Reilly’ a 35 Part series that dealt with the Saga. I was colored impressed by the insight that the articles had, and loved every freaking word. I also learned more and more the reasoning behind the deciding factors that led to my favorite characters demise in Peter Parker Spider-Man 75.

I look at this Series of Articles as a stepping point. It will be something handy for quick reference, and easy access. But that won’t be all: I’ll be bias when it’s necessary, and give my thoughts to the whole matter, showing people that Ben Reilly is the only person worthy of the Mantle of Spider-Man.

Okay, the only MALE worthy of the Mantle of Spider-Man.

Check back for Part One: The 1970’s Clone Saga, and the Clone Saga’s infancy. Which, Will be coming out on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17! BE THERE!

Excelsior!

Spideydude