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The Spider-Man Clone Saga kind of sucks

HenslerHensler Registered User regular
edited November 2006 in Graphic Violence
I just read the Spider-Man Clone Saga. The artwork was good, but the actual story was pretty flawed. Note this contains extensive spoilers so don’t read if you haven’t read the Clone Saga.


The early Spider-Man stories could easily be read stand alone. This is almost retarded. I picked up the Lost Years mini which did explain some of the characters, and without that I would have been totally lost. It seemed like we had a collection of clones for no real reason. I would have rather had to read about of 2-3 Peter Parkers with each story fully explained. For example, just a story about Ben Reilly trying to find where he fits in the world.

The bad guy’s motivation is very unclear. Why does the Norman Osborn manipulate the Jackal when there was no relationship in the first Clone issue? Why would the Jackal from ESU be that easy to manipulate.

Repetitive death scenes. Both the cloned Ben Reilly and the 2nd Parker clone from the sewers degenerate in exactly the same melodramatic way.

Too obvious “we need to do some house cleaning” killing off of minor clones. The deaths also seemed to have an “X-Men 3” with Cyclops effect, where no one seems to really acknowledge these people being killed. It really feels like the main characters share the reader’s contempt for these minor clone.

The main plot seemed like the editors sat around and came up with a bunch of cool ideas – “what if Parkers powers were super advanced? What if Spider-Man's been a clone all these years? What if we threw in a mysterious guy who knows everything?” - and instead of narrowing these ideas down just went with them all. This made the story very hard to follow, and the final explanation that Norman Osborn was behind it all seemed a bit of a stretch. They should have focused on one main plot and fleshed it out instead. Also, it was never really clear what the Jackal was planning and why.

The whole "replace our hero with a hipper version" thing has been done to death. Give it a rest already. His new inventions and joining the New Warriors seemed like a bad story and forced into the Clone Saga.

The ending with the Green Goblin. The main thing ruining it was the too obvious homage to the characters original great death with the glider impaling Ben.



All in all the major problems was the whole Saga being impossible to follow since so many stories and lead ups were retconned, and lack of follow through in the later issues.

To be fair there was several cool scenes.


Kaine - Spider-Man's powers on crack. He killed Doc Ock without breaking a sweat.

The whole Ben Reilly approach to Spider-Man - cool costume, impact webbing and stingers were a nice touch. Seeing him learn the ropes and try to make his life work brought back memories of simpler Spider-Man stories.

Hensler on

Posts

  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Why were you still reading Spider-Man at this point, is my question.

    august on
  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited November 2006
    NO SHIT, SHERLOCK

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • robosagogorobosagogo Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    I thought this was going to be about comic fans making obvious statements and jokes, like the ones about Wolverine being in a lotta books or how Batman only needs time to prepare.

    robosagogo on
  • bobgorilabobgorila Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    If Batman had time to prepare he could totally be in more books than Wolverine.

    :winky:

    bobgorila on
    I like my women how I like my coffee.

    Anally.
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Maybe next we'll establsih that Spawn sucks.

    oh wait

    august on
  • ENERjAKzeroENERjAKzero Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Oh.

    Ha ha. This a response to the "Infinite Crisis sucks thread." Yay. I get things :P

    ENERjAKzero on
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  • robosagogorobosagogo Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Oh.

    Ha ha. This a response to the "Infinite Crisis sucks thread." Yay. I get things :P
    Oh, duh. Man I'm dense.

    robosagogo on
  • Mai-KeroMai-Kero Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Ultimate Clone saga is the best arc ever, however.

    Mai-Kero on
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    robosagogo wrote:
    Oh.

    Ha ha. This a response to the "Infinite Crisis sucks thread." Yay. I get things :P
    Oh, duh. Man I'm dense.

    Yeah well uh

    HIS MOM SUCKS AM I RIGHT GUYS BACK ME UP ON THIS ONE

    august on
  • ENERjAKzeroENERjAKzero Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    I never read the clone saga, and would at least like to read it at some point before officially. Has it been collected in a trade paperback form yet?

    ENERjAKzero on
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  • DMACDMAC Come at me, bro! Moderator Mod Emeritus
    edited November 2006
    I haven't made it through the whole thing, but this is a pretty interesting (and extensive) history of the Clone Saga, what it was meant to be, and why things didn't work out the way they were supposed to:

    The Life of Reilly

    DMAC on
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    35 part series?

    35 part series!?

    august on
  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited November 2006
    it's sort of like cutting yourself to see if you still feel pain.

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • HenslerHensler Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    robosagogo wrote:
    I thought this was going to be about comic fans making obvious statements and jokes

    It is.

    Hensler on
  • Eliot DuboisEliot Dubois Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    See, this thread almost works. Infinite Crisis (the trade, moreso than the whole series) does, in fact, kind of suck. Clone Saga, on the other hand, is more mind rapingly bad. A+ for effort but B- execution. :lol:

    Eliot Dubois on
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  • FuruFuru Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Life of Reilly is a really great and information series. I enjoyed reading it, and it really showed what was wrong with comics in the 90's: the marketing department ran everything.

    I have to give it to the Clone Saga for at least ending that retarded "THERE IS NO PETER PARKER THERE IS ONLY THE SPIDER" bullshit.

    Furu on
  • Sharp101Sharp101 TorontoRegistered User regular
    edited November 2006
    DMAC wrote:
    I haven't made it through the whole thing, but this is a pretty interesting (and extensive) history of the Clone Saga, what it was meant to be, and why things didn't work out the way they were supposed to:

    The Life of Reilly


    READ THIS.

    Sharp101 on
  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Well I just found out what I'll be doing today at work.

    Forar on
    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
    edited November 2006
    Sharp101 wrote:
    DMAC wrote:
    I haven't made it through the whole thing, but this is a pretty interesting (and extensive) history of the Clone Saga, what it was meant to be, and why things didn't work out the way they were supposed to:

    The Life of Reilly


    READ THIS.

    It's great, especially for the insight into just how much was made up as they went along.

    Bogart on
  • GABBO GABBO GABBOGABBO GABBO GABBO Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    The execution was flawed, but the actual idea was really cool.

    GABBO GABBO GABBO on
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Manifest wrote:
    The execution was flawed, but the actual idea was really cool.

    It seems like the execution was pretty cool, until the marketing department took control.

    Fencingsax on
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited November 2006
    As a kid, I hated everything from "Peter is the clone!" onward.

    Munkus Beaver on
    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • FuruFuru Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    I still have to wonder if DeFalco lied about the backdoor being there to begin with or if everyone at the Spider-Man office were too stupid to see it.

    Furu on
  • CyberJackalCyberJackal Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    So... Just how many god-awful costumes did they come up with during the clone saga anyways?

    CyberJackal on
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