Spider-Man's Original Clone Saga Revisited
Decades before Spider-Man's convoluted, confusing, and infamous Clone Saga there was the original Clone Saga which the future arc built upon. Infamous may be putting it lightly, as many Spider-Man fans actually stopped reading comics during the era, never mind their favorite superhero, because they were suddenly told that the Spider-Man they have loved and read for decades has actually been the clone of the original Spider-Man from 1963-1975, making all the investments, developments, and the drama of the character kind of pointless.
While the first Clone Saga was actually quite a long story relative to the standards of its time's arcs, it was only spread upon nine issues making it more contained, readable, and frankly more fun. As a result the story is way more approachable, digestable, and grounded. That is not to say it doesn't his own shortcomings, and plot holes which we will shine a light upon. In this review we are looking upon the foundations of the future run that has shattered future comics for a long time.
THE SET-UP
Clone Saga begins in Amazing Spider-Man # 144 (1975) with a title named "The Delusion Conspiracy", although there is some sinister setting up to in the previous two issues. Peter Parker's first real love Gwen Stacy has been dead for two years, and he is just beginning to move on. His relationship with Mary Jane Watson is also getting serious for the first time in this saga, which makes it as important as the other developments. However he's been randomly seeing a woman looking like Gwen Stacy walking around Manhattan.
He has also been seeing phantoms of his villains all around, so at first he thinks these two types of sightings have the same origin. After a brief period of self-doubt, he gathers his confidence as Spider-Man usually does, and hunts down the villain responsible for the attacks on his reality : Mysterio. However after he defeats him, he again sees the same woman walking around, so he chalks it up to hallucinations, brought on by his desperate wishes to see his loved one again, and boosted by Mysterio's messing with his mind. A sound enough theory.
He makes himself move on, and soon his first kiss with Mary Jane happens. Not only is this a historical moment in Spider-Man's stories, it is also a very important development that has direct effects in the arc itself. He has a brief adventure in Paris saving Jonah Jameson from some kidnappers, and after he returns to New York it is where the proverbial sh*t hits the fan.
Unlike what Peter expected, Mary Jane doesn't greet him in the airport. He then takes a cab to his new shabby apartment, and finds Anna Watson anxiously waiting for him in its entrance. She informs that Aunt May is now in the hospital due to a shock she had, and the reason for it waits inside. Peter dashes inside to his flat, and sees Gwen Stacy waiting for him. This ending is very well written, where the tension increases panel by panel, culminated by the reveal in the end that the phantom Peter, and later Aunt May were seeing was actually flesh and blood. And from here on Clone Saga begins.
THE BEGINNINGS
Clone Saga is a heavy, shocking, and surprisingly mature story in which characters' emotions and reactions are written extremely well. Though the characters Conway writes can get needlessly melancholic in his other stories, when he does it right they become very real. Conway proved he can do this in the classic two issues titled "The Night Gwen Stacy Died", and "Goblin's Last Raid", and it is repeated in pretty much all the issues in this saga. In that arc Peter Parker's anger, and pain were shown in a brutally realistic way, and in the Clone Saga his anxiety, frustrations, confusion, and later existential dread feel very emotional, and believable. That is not to say the artists do not add their own touch to this realism. Gil Kane helped create this in the former stories, and in this arc it is Ross Andru who is the wizard, who also draws surprisingly dynamic action scenes.
At first Peter reacts with shock to Gwen's resurrection, but it quickly turns to anger. He went through hell accepting her death, and just as he moved on she is back in his life again. He quickly decides this Gwen must be an impostor, and gets pissed at his emotions played with. After being beaten by the Scorpion where we learn he can hold his breath for at least eight minutes (I wonder if this was remembered in future stories), he runs to visit his sick aunt in the hospital, where most of the supporting characters are waiting, including the impostor Gwen. Ned Leeds tells angry Peter that things are even more grim than it seems. The woman's fingerprints match the real Gwen Stacy, and scientifically this woman is indeed her. However the corpse in her grave is still there.
The new Gwen is also confused, because her memories are the same with the real Gwen up until a few months before her death. To her it is like waking up after sleeping for months and suddenly everyone thinks she is dead. Her existence also creates a sort of love triangle, and gives the arc romantical drama. Peter wants to move on with Mary Jane, but this new Gwen remembers they were lovers, and she is also in need. So he can't make time for MJ who ends up thinking Peter dumped her.
In the third issue of the Clone Saga (Amazing Spider-Man # 147) we see Jackal declaring that he hunts Spider-Man because he committed a murder two years ago. It is at this point the reader realizes he wants to avenge either Gwen Stacy, or Norman Osborn, two characters that Spider-Man was suspected to have murdered, although the police did deduce eventually the Green Goblin has killed Gwen Stacy. Jackal has been shown to have some beef with Spidey for a lot of issues now (starting with the classic Amazing Spider-Man # 129 where Punisher has debutted), and it is finally in this issue we get a clue why.
Jackal ends up allying with Scorpion, and tells him Spider-Man will be in the hospital room of Aunt May, suggesting that he knows his secret identity. However Scorpion is so dumb when he barges inside her room, and sees only her and Peter he begins to violently assault May to make her tell where Spider-Man is, and doesn't connect two and two when Spider-Man appears seconds later, and in yet another moment where we see what happens when Spidey doesn't pull his punches, beats him to a pulp while verbally declaring he is doing this to avenge May.
While Scorpion is not exactly the brighest tool in the shed, he must have the intelligence to suspect that the boy in the room must be Spider-Man. This kind of writing would probably be heavily criticized in present day. Anyway, Spidey terrifies Scorpion so much he accepts apologizing to Aunt May, giving us a weird campy ending looking out of place in the anxiety-ridden saga.
THINGS HEAT UP
The next issue (#147) is where the Clone Saga gets really serious. Lab results show Gwen Stacy is a clone of the original one. This is of course really bad science, as clones aren't grown that fast, nor would they have their originals' memories, but hey it is comics. The question is now who has cloned her and why? Meanwhile the c-rate villain Tarantula escapes prison with the help of his new ally Jackal, and attacks Spider-Man while he is actually cracking up fearing there may be a lot of Gwen clones out there. The resulting action is very well drawn, where Tarantula stalls Spidey as he waits for a city bus to come near, and smashes him inside it. However I can't say the action makes much sense, due to one of my pet peeves of in comics, namely power inconsistencies.
This is of course not a fault unique to Conway or the artists. Depending on who writes a certain character, their power levels tend to vary. In one story a character may resist a punch from the Hulk, and in another get knocked out with a normal-size villain. Basically a character needs to stay awake or get knocked out to serve the story, and the consistency is disregarded. This kind of stuff really annoys me, because I am a huge fan of the action sequences in the comics, but they have to be believable or the characters end up feeling like they have plot armor.
But the inconsistencies in this fight scene, and the upcoming ones in the arc, are really terrible. Tarantula has no super-powers whatsoever. He is basically a normal guy who was trained to fight, and has poison-tipped shoes as weapon, and it is a miracle he doesn't end up tripping over himself. But he makes Spider-Man struggle, and has total control of the fight, punching Spidey through the arriving bus at the right time in the right place. The bus then begins speeding and skidding fast, and Spidey somehow has the disadvantage in the fight. He has to be one of the last heroes in Marvel's roster that should have trouble finding his balance, while Tarantula with his clunky as hell looking shoes has no problem doing what he wants. His Spider-Sense is also non-existent most of the time when he is written by Conway.
Despite the illogicality of the fight, the sequence inside the bus is actually pretty well made. Driver stops at the wrong place, and lets a strangely unresponsive Gwen Stacy in. Spidey is confused, then tells the driver he is weird and must be not real. The driver unmasks to show he is the Jackal, and takes the bus to Brooklyn Bridge where Gwen died. Anxious Spidey tries to stop Jackal from leaving with Gwen, and ends up being backstabbed by Tarantula. He wakes up chained on top of the bridge where Jackal finally declares he hates Spider-Man because he killed Gwen Stacy, and they kick him down the bridge.
As the two villains leave with Gwen in a jetpack which for some reason shocks the New York City cops who must be used to seeing weirdo characters flying all around the city in weirder gizmos, Spidey finds strength to save himself because he wants to solve the Gwen case. Then he returns home dazed, not listening to Mary Jane who wants him to make a decision between her and Gwen (inspired by a quite realistically written advice from Aunt May, who is normally very boring and dumb in early Spider-Man issues), and slamming the door in her face. He realizes what he has done, but MJ is gone.
Then Ned Leeds visits him. The two join heads, and after some brainstorming Peter realizes his biology teacher Warren (who was a recurring character) and his assistant Selba gathered cell samples of their class a few months before Gwen died. Warren finds the samples gone, and claims his assistant has vanished months ago so he must have stolen them. Spidey zips to the address of Selba which is for some reason an abandoned factory, where he faces Tarantula again.
Once more, the set up to the action scene and the resuting fight are very well drawn, and once more it makes zero sense. The fight begins in darkness, where for some reason Spider-Man has the disadvantage. Not only his Spider-Senses normally makes him a perfect blind-fighter, Tarantula also doesn't have any kind of super-awareness, again harming the believability. Spidey has to take the fight outside, then beats Tarantula, but ends up being backstabbed by the Jackal this time. As he falls Spidey yells that no enemy can sneak up on him, as if he wasn't sneaked upon a hundred times already in twenty issues. But at least this time it is explained why because Jackal unmasks, showing he is Professor Warren who is sort of a friend of Peter.
THE CONCLUSION
The final issues of the saga are unexpectedly disturbing, even morbid at times. Spidey wakes up shackled in some Manhattan warehouse, breaks his bonds, and confidently attacks the Jackal. But somehow Professor Warren beats him as he explains he is just an oldish man who trained himself physically, once more creating an illogical fight scene. He also explains he admired Gwen Stacy since the day he saw her. While he says it was a fatherly love, the story seems to hint he was sexually attracted by her. When he read about her death he was devastated, but when the next day his assistant declared they have cloned a frog successfully, he got the idea to clone Gwen Stacy.
When Selba sees the cells he cloned were human cells, Warren accidentally murdered him. He was so shocked by his crime he somehow made an alter-ego semi-consciously, and blamed it all on him, as he incinerated Selba's corpse. This part is pretty morbid, straight out serial killer material, and a very creepy sequence is next, where the clone of Gwen Stacy is finally developed, and he takes her out of her capsule as she doesn't have any clothes on, and drools over her. I'm not sure if the creators meant this to be this creepy back in the 1970s, as it is not clear they intended that Warren was attracted to Gwen Stacy in a sexual way, but reading it at this time it feels that way. Which admittedly makes the story feel actually more mature and serious.
Anyway Jackal tells Spider-Man to go to the Shea Stadium at midnight, where knocks him out like the tenth time, somehow knowing exactly from which spot Spidey would pass as he swings down. When Spidey wakes up he sees another Spider-Man, and Ned Leeds tied to a dynamite. The Spider-Men have the same speech, and Jackal announces he has cloned him too (I guess he made his web-shooters from the clone's memory or something). He also declares he deleted original Spider-Man's memories earlier so both clones believe he is the real one. This doesn't make sense though, as Spider-Man is never shown to have forgotten anything happening in this saga.
Only the real Spider-Man can bypass the trigger mechanism of the bomb, so two Spider-Men for some reason attack each other, though one of them soon says it is because he dislikes himself, and offers alliance. As they are basically the same person the other Spidey naturally agrees. But then the hypnotized Gwen Stacy finally realizes Warren actually wants to kill them and he rips his mask apart, and calls him a sick (perverted) jealous murderer. This actually wakes Warren up, and he indeed realizes he is the bad guy, and sacrifices himself as he cuts Ned loose, triggering the bomb.
The resulting explosion kills Jackal, and one of the Spider-Men. This whole sequence with the two Spider-Men is actually very disturbing, even more so when one of them is shown dead, and you are once more reminded that Silver Age of comics was really over. The alive Spider-Man is confident that he is the real Spider-Man, and when Gwen asks how he can be sure, Spidey realizes he can't, which begins his existential crisis. There is a very sad ending where Gwen's clone tells Peter she is as confused as Spidey about her originality (apparently she still doesn't know he is Spider-Man) while they visit her grave, and says she wants to move on with her own life. Peter experiences second thoughts but Gwen tells him not to look back and leaves his life forever (until she is brought back ages later). Peter again loses the girl he loves, but this time it doesn't hit him that bad because he decided he loves Mary Jane.
The next issue is full on existential dread. Peter isn't sure he is the real Peter Parker, and decides to use Dr. Connors lab to find out who he is. Luckily Connors is there too, and helps the tortured superhero with his tests. After the tests are over Spidey finally sleeps, and wakes up to Vulture taunting him outside. He is weak from all the procedures, stress, and self-doubt, so doesn't fight well. When Vulture disintegrates after hitting a wall, he begins feeling even more crazy. He manages to barely beat his next attackers, the Sandman and the Kingpin, who also disintegrate upon death. Then the real villain comes, it was Professor Smythe who wanted to weaken him up by messing with him, who somehow was able to build a robot with Sandman's powers, but Spidey has already given up, thinking all the stuff is likely a nightmare. Still as Smythe begins killing him his life kind of flashes in front of his eyes, and he clearly sees Mary Jane, and concludes 100% she is the one for him.
There is some weird logic where to him this means he is the real Spider-Man. So even though the clone also had Spider-Man's memory, emotional responses are said to be learned from outside stimuli. By this Archie Goodwin seems to mean (who picked up after Gerry Conway) you can give someone memories, but that alone wouldn't be as real emotionally compared to the person who actually lived through them. So this apparently means the clone's emotional response at his final moment would make him torn between Gwen and Mary Jane, but he isn't, so Spider-Man finally realizes he is the original Spider-Man, breaks free, and beats Smythe.
Frankly I'm not sure this makes sense, but I guess I see where Goodwin is coming from. Spider-Man is so sure about his realization he ends up tearing the lab results without looking at them. This is of course the moment that made the future Clone Saga possible, and I'm not sure if the writer did this to make the later stories possible, or if he really tried to mean that Spider-Man's realization was absolutely true.
Clone Saga ends in the next issue, where Spider-Man swings to an incinerator in Brooklyn, and disturbed by looking at himself, burns the clone's corpse, because his own last wish is to be cremated. This final event is the most morbid scene in the Clone Saga, seeing Spider-Man dispose of a body is just creepy, so it hits pretty hard. It is a very effiicent ending to this rollercoaster of a messed up saga.
VERDICT
The Clone Saga was overall a very heavy, emotional, and mature story that actually surprised me. The saga also decisively shifts Peter Parker's love interest from Gwen Stacy to Mary Jane Watson, leaving no question Peter loves MJ now, so it is overall a very important arc in Spider-Man's story. That is not to say it is a perfect arc. It has terrible scientific errors regarding how cloning works (or maybe the writer just didn't care), and its fantastically drawn action sequences are way too illogical. And while it satisfied me personally, it left several questions unanswered. Like how Professor Warren became that strong, or how he found out Peter Parker was Spider-Man, none of these questions are answered. However the story still works, which was an absolute success for the creative team.
SCORE : B+