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The Clone Saga was a major story arc in Marvel Comics which ran from 1994 to 1997 involving many clones of Spider-Man. The extremely convoluted storyline is considered by many comic book fans to be a textbook example of a storyline which spun out of the control of the writers & editors. The story is considered to be one of the most controversial stories ever told for Spider-Man, if not in the comics industry as a whole.

Although there were many people involved, the Clone Saga is until today most closely associated with the name of writer Howard Mackie, who worked on the majority of the story arc, and Terry Kavanagh, who proposed the idea.

Storyline
Strictly speaking there were two "Clone Sagas" - the original storyline in the 1970s and the second saga which consumed all the regular Spider-Man series, several limited series and one shots between 1994 and 1996. Between the two there were also two smaller storylines that dealt with elements from the original saga.

The original Clone Saga
Some months beforehand Gwen Stacy, the girlfriend of Peter Parker (Spider-Man's real identity) had died during a fight between Spider-Man and his arch enemy the Green Goblin. Subsequently Spider-Man was plagued by a new villain, the masked Jackal. At the same time Gwen Stacy seemingly returned from the dead and investigations revealed that the woman was identical to Gwen in every way.

It transpired that Peter and Gwen's biology professor Miles Warren had been driven insane by his feelings for Gwen and sought to preserve her memory. He had perfected cloning and created clones of both Gwen and Spider-Man. He had also become the Jackal. In a conflict Spider-Man fought his clone whilst the Jackal threatened to detonate a bomb. The bomb exploded and only one Spider-Man came to. The Jackal's body had been lost in the explosion whilst what appeared to be the clone was dead. Spider-Man undertook genetic tests but declined to view the results as he determined that his feelings for Mary Jane Watson could not be duplicated and that he was therefore the original. Gwen Stacy's clone disappeared to find a new life for herself.

The storyline ran in Amazing Spider-Man #141-151.

The remnant Carrion
A few years later Spider-Man encountered Carrion, who appeared to be a degenerated clone of Warren.

The storyline ran in Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #25-31.

The High Evolutionary exposes the cloning as a sham
The clone of Gwen Stacy reappeared many years later when she was being pursued by the High Evolutionary who was determined to discover how Warren had been able to perfect cloning. In the process he discovered that Warren had not, but had instead created a genetic virus which transformed already living beings. "Gwen Stacy" was seemingly cured of the virus and left to lead her own life once more.

Later Spider-Man investigated Warren's old laboratory and discovered that Carrion had in fact been a genetic weapon created by Warren. Another former student of Warren's, Malcolm McBride, became infected with the virus and became the new Carrion.

This storyline ran in Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 and Spectacular Spider-Man #149.

The second Clone Saga
More years passed when Spider-Man's clone reappeared. He had survived the battle and for several years had lived an existence under the identity of Ben Reilly (a combination of Peter's Uncle Ben's first name and Aunt May's maiden name). A series of chaotic events followed, in which Peter and Ben were plagued by both a resurrected Jackal and by Kaine, who was revealed to be the unsuccessful first clone. In the process another clone of Spider-Man became the villain Spidercide. Matters were further confused by the interventions of the mysterious and seemingly all powerful Judas Traveller and Scrier.

The revelations made by the High Evolutionary were revealed to have been inaccurate, driven by a determination to discredit Warren, who had formerly worked with him.

At one point a series of tests were conducted that revealed that Peter was in actual fact the clone and Ben the original. Peter temporarily retired as Spider-Man and he and Mary Jane (now his wife) moved away from New York, leaving the mantle of Spider-Man to Ben. Later on Peter returned. In an explosive climax it was revealed that Peter, Ben, the Jackal and many others had all been manipulated for years by Norman Osborn, who had been secretly alive for so long. It was also revealed by Osborn that Peter was the original and this was confirmed when Ben died saving Peter's life and his body degenerated like any other clone's.

Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal (February 1997) explains the Green Goblin's role in the entire storyline.

Production background
The original story was written by Gerry Conway in response to requests to resurrect Gwen Stacy. The response to the story was strong, as witnessed by the later creation of Carrion. The story was inspired by the common theories in the 1970s that cloning human life was possible.

In the late 1980s new developments in science, particularly the understanding that early in gestation human cells become greatly specialised, left greater scepticism as to the possibility of being able to duplicate fully grown organisms, which may explain Conway's decision to revisit the storyline and reveal that the process was not cloning at all. Science swung again towards the possibilities of cloning in the mid 1990s and once more the storyline returned to cloning.

The second Clone Saga was inspired by Marvel Comics's determination to produce a strong Spider-Man "event" story that would rival DC Comics' storylines "The Death of Superman" and "Batman: Knightfall". furthermore, Marvel's editorial structure at the time was divided into separate "groups" or "families," and some Spider-Man editors reported pressure to compete with the X-Men family's successful Age of Apocalypse event. Several of the Spider-Man creators believed that the character had drifted too far from his original portrayal and sought a way to restore the Spider-Man of old, in particular jettisoning his marriage to Mary Jane. There is some discrepancy between the recollections of production staff at the time, confused further by evidence that plans for the direction seemed to shift almost constantly.

With a plethora of writers and editors, the storyline was initiated throughout all the regular Spider-Man series but slowly grew out of control. The sales department requested extensions to the storyline, buoyed up by very strong sales on the book at a time when most other comics were experiencing a noticeable decline in sales. With this extension the storyline outlived several key creative staff and many decisions on the eventual direction of the storyline were changed.

The decision to replace Peter with Ben as the one true Spider-Man met with a massive outcry from many readers and was also unpopular with many of the creative staff of the day. The decision was soon taken to undo this and restore Peter as the true Spider-Man. However this proved a difficult decision to implement and many schemes were devised, including one proposal to reveal the entire confusion as having been spawned by the demon Mephisto as part of a struggle with Judas Traveller and Scrier. This was rejected as being widely out of Spider-Man's league. Eventually the decision was taken to reveal that an arch enemy of Spider-Man's had been manipulating events from behind the scenes. The decision to use the original Green Goblin was controversial in itself, as his death was part of the death of Gwen Stacy storyline that was widely considered a classic, but this was enacted.

Recognizing the chaos of the storyline, Marvel eventually parodied it in Spider-Man: 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga (January 1997).

Aftermath
The "Clone Saga" left the whole Spider-Man franchise in a deep hole. Fans were alienated by the erratic storytelling, extreme use of crossovers, and controversial character-handling. Especially the decisions to have Ben Reilly declared the "real" Peter Parker, and the sci-fi overtones - such as bringing in cosmic entities clearly out of league with Spider-Man's power level, estranged the community. In addition, Ben Reilly had been established as a likable character when he was killed off. This move affronted many readers who had grown fond of him. These multiple alienations resulted in a sales slump that continued for some years.

External link

 * Howard Mackie on the Clone Saga
 * Life of Reilly - A very detailed 35-part article covering this storyline, including behind-the-scenes information from Glenn Greenberg, who was part of the editorial team during this time, and interviews with other writers.
 * A detailed, negative evaluation of the Clone Saga