The original Jackal captured Ned in his one of his earliest appearances, maybe he had some of the DNA on hand when Ben took over.
Personally, I liked this issue. Hobgoblin is my favorite Spider-man villain and I am glad to see Kingsley get his empire back from Osborn. I also don't mind at all if Felicia dates Spider-man again (although I think it will ultimately go nowhere like the rest of his relationships since BND). I definitely prefer it to Felicia hooking up with a toxic garbage person like Odessa, who will only drag her back down into villainy. (We just got out of that terrible Queenpin character arc, I definitely don't want THAT revisited.)
"The White Queen welcomes you, TO DIE!"
To be fair, maybe that was something editorial or Wells requested of Spencer before he left.
It would explain why Ned suddenly returns at the very end of Spencer's run, and why he has an evil smile near the end of Giant Size ASM Chameleon Conspiracy:
Although it could also be Spencer's own dumbass idea, even if that sounds less likely.
That wouldn't explain why clone Ned is implied to have his memories from before his death, since the cloning process in Clone Conspiracy keeps the mind the person had to the point that the Otto clone was gonna have Spidey's mind, since his mind was the one that was in Otto's body, Ned being cloned from that early would mean his memories would stop way before there was a Hobgoblin, and hell, before he married Betty even.
Felicia ain't someone so easily influenced, I doubt Odessa would make her go back to villainy, specially Queenpin level again.I definitely prefer it to Felicia hooking up with a toxic garbage person like Odessa, who will only drag her back down into villainy. (We just got out of that terrible Queenpin character arc, I definitely don't want THAT revisited.)
On the other hand, as soon MacKay is out of the picture, she might start nuking countries if the same editorial is around, or another writer decides to pull a Slott.
Did it seem like this issue was hinting at two Hobgoblins? Maybe just me...
Well technically, cloning shouldn't automatically give you any memories anyways, doesn't matter when the sample was taken. (Heck, Peter was getting psychic images of Ben being beaten up in the snow during the 90's clone saga.) None of it is logical. Maybe Clone Ned was given a dossier of his previous life off panel.
It's just best to keep toxic people like that out of your life. Speaking from experience nothing good ever comes from it.
"The White Queen welcomes you, TO DIE!"
I feel like Ned being Hobby this time may be a bit too obvious, feels like a red herring where the twist may be more complicated like Kindred. Although I feel like they could be doing this all since Ned is now a big name in the MCU and may want to make him the actual Hobgoblin instead of Kingsley, also comments above made a point, during clone conspiracy NewU needed the corpse of the clone to create the “revived” clones, does that mean they used Ned’s corpse which is now revived to create clone Ned who talked to Pete right before OG corpse Ned came back? Clone Conspiracy Ned got done dirty, he died and Peter was the only one who ever knew he existed after Clone Conspiracy.
I absolutely hate the writing on this title. I had this stupid time jump storyline. I cannot stand the way Peter is being written or how inconsistent it is. The writer cannot even write the guest cast well like Black Cat. The only thing positive I can say about is the art.
Spencer implied that something was off with the Ned clone before he died in the scuffle between Rhino, Ant-Man and Taskmaster. And the Ned clone hinted that Betty was in serious trouble--presumably because the real/fake resurrected Ned was coming back for his life?
Not sure what Spencer intended, but he did set something up with regard to clones having the original's "real souls" and how Ned's was different.