Clone Comspiracy #3 spoilers and discussion

[DieHard200904]

If Ben is the Jackal, think of it as being like the video game, Arkham Knight, where real Jason Todd wasn't truly dead, just tortured and indoctrinated by the Joker to go and carry out the Joker's orders after the Joker was dead. In this case, Ben really was swapped out with a clone of a clone shortly before his "death" in Revelations. That way, it wasn't the real Ben that died, just a clone of a clone who was unstable enough to turn to ashes. The real Ben would get taken away and tortured/indoctrinated by Professor Warren/Norman Osborn, to carry out their wishes. Then Ben "breaks away" and tries to be good, but he has lost some screws in the process. Or maybe they will pull off the rejected clone saga idea that Peter was a clone and not the original. If Ben is a Jackal, he won't be what I will refer to as Jackal Prime, which will always be Professor Miles Warren. Instead, he will be a Red Hood, like Jason Todd is, even though the original Red Hood was The Joker.

Ben said that he died. The Ben we have here is a clone of the original Ben. The real question is who cloned Ben? I think Warren is around here somewhere as, like you described, Jackal Prime. But the idea that he may actually be somewhat unstable upstairs is possible. I don't exactly feel comfortable with the new Ben, I am suspicious of him for sure, though, or at least I think someone is ready to cut his strings, so to speak.

[Proteus]

Ben said that he died. The Ben we have here is a clone of the original Ben. The real question is who cloned Ben? I think Warren is around here somewhere as, like you described, Jackal Prime. But the idea that he may actually be somewhat unstable upstairs is possible. I don't exactly feel comfortable with the new Ben, I am suspicious of him for sure, though, or at least I think someone is ready to cut his strings, so to speak.

He said he is the Ben brought back. Not a clone of him.

[rward777]

He said he is the Ben brought back. Not a clone of him.

Just like the time when Peter was the clone and Ben was the original.

[DieHard200904]

He said he is the Ben brought back. Not a clone of him.

All of these people were cloned from the cells of a corpse, somebody got the DNA out of Ben's ashes. They are clones for now, but just wait until Marvel drops BS retcons for the Spider-Man equivalent of DC's Rebirth, somehow these "clones" will be retconned into being the original people all along and they will wave things as being the manipulated illusions of the Beyonder or some crazy BS in that vein.

Or Max Modell. But yeah, I agree it'd be cool if it were a good swerve instead of the obvious ones.



Be a bit of a waste of a good character IMO. But then I could actually see it happening.

Well, why do you think she didn't trigger the Spider-Sense? one part could be "no hostile intentions" but the other could be that her corpse genetic samples got contaminated with bits of Peter Parker's DNA such as dandruff particles from his suit, so she doesn't register as completely separate from Peter Parker. It would be messed up, but given the WTH factor of bringing back Ben, even having her Spider-Gwen counterpart killed off so it becomes clone Gwen's responsibility to replace her isn't that far out. I don't think Slott wants her in the 616 universe. They are both Gwen Stacy, only difference is that they are from different universes, and then Marvel will retcon people noticing any differences as to which Gwen. I hope I am wrong, but I get the wierd feeling that Marvel doesn't want multiple Gwen Stacys coexisting...

Now maybe I am going crazy, but this has been wierd, and comic books have wierd things happen in them.

[PaxHouse]

Grew out his roots? Well, that was a lie. We know from Electro that the clones are born natural. No tattoos, piercings or hair dye. This Ben never had blonde hair in the first place!

True, but less not forget that when Ben later became Spider-Man; he'd decided to dyed his hair dyed blonde to minimized his likeness as a clone to Peter and claimed that he was Peter's (long-distance) cousin.

[Patrick Gerard]

These aren't really clones, though, are they? That's a big part of the point here.

The title being "The Clone Conspiracy" throws people off but the only clone here is Ben... and maybe Gwen depending on whether that's Gwen or a Gwen clone who was revived.

These aren't new bodies. There isn't a corpse lying around somewhere else that the new bodies were cloned from. They're the Jackal's technology amped up to a point where they can regenerate dead bodies with memories intact. If these guys are clones then Wolverine and Deadpool are also clones.

[Kurolegacy]

Grew out his roots? Well, that was a lie. We know from Electro that the clones are born natural. No tattoos, piercings or hair dye. This Ben never had blonde hair in the first place!

That may have been less of a lie and more an attempt at humor to lighten the tension of the moment, especially with the way he said it.

[stillanerd]

These aren't really clones, though, are they? That's a big part of the point here.

The title being "The Clone Conspiracy" throws people off but the only clone here is Ben... and maybe Gwen depending on whether that's Gwen or a Gwen clone who was revived.

These aren't new bodies. There isn't a corpse lying around somewhere else that the new bodies were cloned from. They're the Jackal's technology amped up to a point where they can regenerate dead bodies with memories intact. If these guys are clones then Wolverine and Deadpool are also clones.

Actually, every person who's been "reanimated" in this story is a clone. In Amazing Spider-Man #20, we're clearly shown how this "reanimation" process works. They extract the DNA from corpses, then create a brand new body from that DNA. In other words, it's still cloning. The only difference here is that these clones have all the memories up to the moment they died because of "psychic imprinting" left on the originals remains--which means those memories themselves are copies by definition. Not to mention these clones will turn into full blown Carrion virus rage-zombies if they stop taking their daily meds. What this Jackal/"Ben Reilly" called "reanimation" is really nothing more than cloning under a different name.

[Webhead]

These aren't new bodies. There isn't a corpse lying around somewhere else that the new bodies were cloned from. They're the Jackal's technology amped up to a point where they can regenerate dead bodies with memories intact. If these guys are clones then Wolverine and Deadpool are also clones.

Doc Ock's corpse was shown to be picked up, harvested and a new clone body was grown from a test tube. The corpse wasn't involved other than to pick up DNA samples just like you would for your regular clone. If these people were the original you'd have to get to explaining what exactly was the Peter Parker consciousness that awoke and was quickly killed in Ock's body (which Otto himself called a copy).

Also, I'm glad Jackal addressed the reason to avoid just killing Peter and replacing him with a servile clone.

[John Ossie]

Max Modell, good call! That would be so incredibly devious of Slott.

And he does have a moustache as well, so he could do the evil moustache twirling routine...

Well, why do you think she didn't trigger the Spider-Sense? one part could be "no hostile intentions" but the other could be that her corpse genetic samples got contaminated with bits of Peter Parker's DNA such as dandruff particles from his suit, so she doesn't register as completely separate from Peter Parker.

Spider-Gwen was posing as the Clone Gwen at the time, which is why his Spider-Sense didn't kick in. As for Marvel not wanting multiple Gwen Stacy's, I suspect you're right there.

[Phantom Roxas]

This might be the real mistery, if ben was dead like he said, who was the person who cloned him? another AU Ben reilly?

I'm going to guess it's Miles. I know I just brought up the same thing in another thread, but we have this cover.



So our two Jackals could be the Ben and Miles. So much for "updating" the Jackal, then, since this is really just an update for Ben Reilly.

[Vegeta]

He doesn't "sound" anything like Ben when he speaks, and cloning seems a bit out of his field of expertise. (Didn't Marvel give us a "High Evolutionary" retcon back in the 90's to explain why a college professor like Miles Warren was able to create something so advanced? No way Ben learned THAT much from Seward Trainer.) Maybe the Jackal's brain is inside "Ben's" body because he knows it's someone Peter will trust? (Not like he hasn't duped Peter in joining him before, ala "Maximum Clonage.")

I hope they don't go forward with bringing Uncle Ben back, I'm not at all interested in all the angst that will be created with an Aunt May, Uncle Ben and Jameson Sr. love triangle.

[Scott Taylor]

Actually, every person who's been "reanimated" in this story is a clone. In Amazing Spider-Man #20, we're clearly shown how this "reanimation" process works. They extract the DNA from corpses, then create a brand new body from that DNA. In other words, it's still cloning. The only difference here is that these clones have all the memories up to the moment they died because of "psychic imprinting" left on the originals remains--which means those memories themselves are copies by definition. Not to mention these clones will turn into full blown Carrion virus rage-zombies if they stop taking their daily meds. What this Jackal/"Ben Reilly" called "reanimation" is really nothing more than cloning under a different name.

Its Ultimate Universe cloning where a clone doesn't have an automatic "clone" stigma. The writers clone who they want to clone and then never mention that person as a clone again.

[Cloudman]

There's going to be a lot of empty space on my pull list now that ResurrXion looks so disappointing. Surely they'll have the sense to spin a Scarlet Spider series out of this?

[lalalei2001]

According to this the Jackal in Spider-Island was also Ben Reilly. Somehow. http://comicvine.gamespot.com/spider...acter-1846276/