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YMMV: The Clone Saga

YMMV tropes associated with the Second Clone Saga:

  • Author's Saving Throw: A few were built into the story, but they were never used properly as the collection of writers and editors tried to hash one out for themselves. A lot of ideas were bandied around.
  • Broken Base: Arguably the entire Saga, except you'll find very few people who thought the whole thing was good, and nowadays most agree that it had some good ideas.
  • The Chris Carter Effect
  • Complete Monster: This story marks the graduation of Norman Osborn from mentally ill Sympathetic Murderer to complete and utter bastard.
  • Dork Age: Pretty much what the Clone Saga as a whole as deemed by many fans. It could also be argued that this was the continuation of an earlier Dork Age or that it simply led into another Dork Age (some of the stories afterward were not received very well). And some people say that Spider-Man has been in one giant Dork Age since the nineties, and this was just a more prominent period of said Dork Age.
    • One of the things that aren't that apparent in hindsight is that before the Clone Saga, Peter Parker was going through some changes in an attempt to make him Darker and Edgier. Among other things, he was abandoning his Peter Parker identity and calling himself "the Spider". It's likely that the initial interest in Ben Reilly was because at the time, he was more like Spider-Man than Peter Parker was. No wonder some thought Peter was the clone. Oh, and the event that caused this Darker and Edgier turn was another story that went on too long (the supposed return of Peter's parents) - the trend was already in place.
      • It has been alleged that the writers did this on purpose to make people accept Ben as the original and Peter the clone.
    • The story also featured one for Lizard. Someone got the bright idea for Curt Connors to be stuck in mutated-Lizard form. No one—not even a lot of people involved in the Clone Saga—liked it, so near the end, it was revealed that Connors didn't mutate and the "mutated" Lizard got Ret Conned into being an experiment that Connors did in an attempt to rid himself of the Lizard.
  • Ending Fatigue: It was supposed to last about six months, but dragged out for two years. The comics were selling well (a stark contrast to others at the time) and Executive Meddling forced them to drag it out. "The Trial of Peter Parker" storyline eventually reveals that Peter is the clone and Ben the original, leading into the six-part Maximum Clonage story. That story ends with the Jackal's death and his plans foiled... but the overall saga keeps going because neither Peter nor Ben can decide "who will wear the webs." Eventually, Peter and MJ get Put on a Bus, leaving Ben the sole spider hero in town... but he stays as the Scarlet Spider. Marvel decided to milk it by printing Scarlet Spider issues for a couple of months (basically taking a cue from Age Of Apocalypse) before finally having him become Spider-Man (albeit in a modified costume). That would've been the end of it, but fans hated the reveal of Ben as the original and sales kept going down. So, Peter and MJ came back, a Spider-Man skeleton was discovered to create ambiguity about the results and a mysterious villain named Gaunt turned up. Things were going to be settled during "Blood Brothers" (another six-parter), but Onslaught was coming up and Marvel didn't want either story stepping on the other's toes. Some months down the line, the "Revelations" four-parter happened and finally put an end to this storyline.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: The whole thing was an attempt to get an unmarried Spider-Man. If that sounds familiar, you should note that at one point Mephisto was going to be the Author's Saving Throw, via a Shoot The Shaggy Dog Story Stable Time Loop. The editors at the time thought this was a bad idea and abandoned the concept. Then Joe Quesada picked it up again...
  • Padding: See Executive Meddling. It led to complaints of Arc Fatigue, which was one of the bigger complaints of the Clone Saga. On the other hand, this was an unfortunate trend in the Spider-Man comics already.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Ben Reilly was generally well-liked in his Scarlet Spider days, but the moment he was declared the original Peter Parker, the fandom saw him as this. Things only got worse once he officially became Spider-Man. Crashing sales led to a reversal as quickly as possible.
  • Tear Jerker: The death of Aunt May. Made less so when it was revealed she was a genetically modified actor after the Clone Saga.
    • Ben Reilly gets impaled by the goblin glider saving Peter and falls several stories. Ben is still hanging on by the time Peter/Spider-Man is able to get to him.
      Spider-Man: Ben! You've got to hang on. I'll get you to a hospital...
      Ben: Peter, come closer. I have things to say that we'd both rather keep from those looking on. From this day on... clone or not... you are Spider-Man. You have to carry on for me. Take care of my "niece," Peter... tell her about... her Uncle Ben. (dies)
      Spider-Man: No. No. No.
  • Wangst: Possibly justified, but a lot of it can also be considered bad writing.

YMMV tropes associated with the Ultimate Clone Saga:

YMMV tropes associated with the 2009-2010 miniseries:

  • Angst? What Angst?: Peter writes off Jackal telling him he’s a clone and Harry saying it’s not as the words of liars and lunatics and doesn’t seem to worry too much about it.

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