Please give me your thoughts on the Clone Saga

[Sr. Bungle]

Yeah. That arc wasn’t bad despite being steeped in early BND continuity. Well, at least Kaine and Ben (in flashback) were depicted pretty faithfully. I remember my biggest issue with it was the art. In the flashbacks it’s very difficult to tell Ben and Damon Ryder (Raptor) apart.

That was exactly how I felt. It was Mayhew doing the flashbacks or am I remembering it wrong?

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

That was exactly how I felt. It was Mayhew doing the flashbacks or am I remembering it wrong?

I believe it was Luke Ross. Might be wrong though.

[Huntsman Spider]

I wonder if maybe the “Who’s the real Peter, and who’s the clone?” was maybe an example of talented writers accidentally moving a plot point too close to editorial’s meta-narrative desire, and thus helped trigger the backlash.

Ambiguity about who’s the clone and who isn’t still allowed both Peter and Ben to be seen as “real Spider-Men” regardless of who went on what adventure after the first Clone Saga.

Attaching a “Who’s a real boy and who’s not” aspect to the story, even as an organic, character-driven existential query, comes close to asking *and answering* “Who’s the real Spider-Man? …because the other one isn’t Spider-Man.”

Again, it’s a smart question for humans to ponder and worry about, but it also errs close to pointing out how editorial and management saw Spider-Man as assets rather than characters, and sort of highlighted how editorial was at least somewhat willing to reject massively popular adventures and events out of hand.

It might have made fans think something editorial didn’t want - “They want to get rid of MY Spider-Man!” - even just subconsciously.

It might even resemble how some of the writing on the Flash franchise during the New 52 and Rebirth at DC managed to have extra aggravation to Wally West fans, in contrast to how much fewer “trigger” Kyle Rayner fans got during Green Lantern Rebirth. Like keeping your cards close to your chest versus laying them out.

Pretty much. At least Green Lantern kept Kyle Rayner around, even if in a somewhat reduced role, and made sure to give him some respect every now and then.

If they needed a pitch like Death of Superman and Knightfall then telling readers that the Spider-Man they've been reading for the last 2 decades (at the time) wasn't the one that Stan Lee created in the 60s is a good pitch.

How, if I may ask? Because technically, the Death (and Return) of Superman and Knightfall sagas were about seemingly killing off or otherwise putting their main heroes out of commission and installing a successor (or multiple candidates for succession) to those roles that were more in line with then-modern trends in superhero comics, only to turn out to be not up to snuff. Hell, it's even older than those two storylines by DC, as Marvel in the 1980s had Steve Rogers quit being Captain America when the government tried to strongarm him into missions that clashed with his morals and values and subsequently replaced by John "SuperPatriot" Walker, who was even stronger and more aggressive than Steve, thanks in part to the Power Broker's superpower-granting process and in part to his more jingoistic attitude, only to turn out to be an unwitting pawn of the Red Skull trying to tarnish Captain America's name and legacy.