Or, What If Marvel Didn't Wait Until the 90s to do The Clone Saga.
Back in the original Clone Saga, the Spider-Men confront each other, but one punches the other out and saves Ned and the Gwen clone on his own. He then puts the other Spider-Man (who he assumes is a clone) into stasis. He notes that the other is older than him and that he has no memories after giving a tissue sample to Miles Warren- revealing to the audience that the Spider-Man we're following is the clone, Ben Reilly (as he would be named upon his return).
Ben tries to return to his life, but since it's been three years since Peter unwittingly made the gene donation Ben was cloned from, a lot has changed. He lives in an apartment, Aunt May lives with their neighbors the Watsons, and his supporting cast has changed a good deal- Peter has dated Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane (who Ben only knows as 'the woman who was cloned' and 'Mrs. Watson's niece', respectively), Betty Brant has settled down with Ned Leeds, and he's Harry Osborn's roommate. Once Ben gets into his apartment, he finds letters from Gwen Stacy during their relationship, and learns that she was killed by the Green Goblin.
Ben, seeking answers about his memory loss, breaks into Miles Warren's lab and discovers his cloning plans, realizing that he is Peter's clone. Ben has an understandable freakout and a short confrontation with Kingpin (who he doesn't remember either), and tries to live Peter's life for a little before deciding that he has to set the real Peter free from his stasis. The two confront Kingpin together at Coney Island and defeat him.
With that over, the two decide to live together and share the Spider-Man identity, and all's well that ends much better than the canon Clone Saga did.
What If Tropes were Cloned?
- Age Lift: In the original comic, the clone was made from a DNA sample that Warren took when he knocked spider-man out. Here Warren used Peter Parker’s tissue samples from when he was a student so the clone is three years younger.
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Kingpin's goons hold Peter hostage during the Coney Island, which doesn't work out well since "Peter" is Ben Reilly in civilian clothes (he and Peter flipped a coin to see who got to go as Spider-Man and who as Peter Parker).
- Clone Angst: Ben has an identity crisis when he realizes he's not the original, but he's over it by the story's end.
- Clones Are People, Too: Peter accepts Ben (who doesn't yet have that name) into his life fairly easily, and they decide to live together and split Spider-Man duties. At the end, Ben refers to himself as Peter's "kid brother".
- No Name Given: Peter's clone is never named in the story itself, though his canon return would name him 'Ben Reilly', after Peter's middle name and May's maiden name.
- Superdickery: The cover has Ben Reilly trap Peter in a cryogenic tube and telling him he'll never escape. In the actual story, Ben only puts Peter in the tube temporarily, and sets him free when he realizes Peter is the original.
- Tomato in the Mirror: For most of the story, readers follow Ben Reilly, who is unaware that he's the clone.
- What You Are in the Dark: Ben Reilly could kill Peter when he was in stasis and take over his life with no one the wiser, but he's too much Peter himself to go through with it.
