Clone Saga - Criticism

Criticism

The decision to replace Peter with Ben as the regular, true Spider-Man met with a massive outcry from many readers and was also unpopular with many of the creative staff of the day. The parts with Judas Traveller and Scrier were seen as being widely out of Spider-Man's league (coincidentally, this was similar to the plot device used by Marvel for the Spider-Man storyline "One More Day," which retconned Peter's marriage to Mary Jane). The decision to resurrect the original Green Goblin was also very controversial; his death was part of "The Death of Gwen Stacy" storyline that was widely considered a classic, but it was deemed necessary by Marvel's then-Editor-in-Chief. Glenn Greenberg author of the Osborn Journal commented "If Norman was alive and watching everything from the shadows, why did he let his son Harry die? Why did he let the first Hobgoblin come into being-especially since Hobgoblin #1 broke into Norman's secret hideout and stole his personal journals? " He further mentioned " (Tom) Brevoort didn't think Norman's return could ever possibly work. " and "Brevoort felt that there was just no way that Norman could have been alive all that time. Tom B. felt that if Norman could manipulate Spider-Man's life from afar, for so long, to such an extent, then so much of what had occurred in the books over the years would never have happened, or would have happened very differently."

Spider-Man editor Mark Bernardo said "the length of the story arc was initially planned to be short, but rapidly spun out of control and ended as a fiasco: Ironically, the whole storyline, which was supposed to simplify Spider-Man's mythos and ultimately bring him "back to basics" ended up complicating everything beyond what anyone imagined!"

Howard Mackie stated that "the Clone Saga has not always had the best rap. The thing that struck me in reading various things on the Internet is that people would complain about the Clone Saga, and then go on about how wonderful Ben Reilly was. There is a big movement of “Bring Back Ben Reilly” folks. I found that very curious." Interview host Matt Adler seemed to get to the heart of the criticism when he asked Mackie "You could have liked Ben as the Scarlet Spider, but disapproved of him replacing Peter Parker. Or you might have liked Ben as Spider-Man, but were displeased with how the Saga was resolved. Do you think having all those wildly disparate elements/phases makes it more difficult for readers to embrace the original Saga as a whole?" To which Mackie replies "Yes, and that is why I think the original, short, simple and direct story should have been stuck to. Even if it had not ended the way some of the readers had wanted, it would have been a tighter story. One that could have been more easily resolved." and further laments, The Clone story became the Clone Saga because the powers that be got cold feet based on initial impact from a vocal group of readers."

Recognizing the chaos of the storyline, Marvel eventually parodied it in Spider-Man: 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga (January 1997). The Clone Saga was parodied again with a gag cover for "Sheep-Man" in an issue of What If... that had a text box saying "Part 1 of 80 of the New Sheep Clone Saga—AAAAAGGGHH! NOT AGAIN!" In an issue of his own series, Deadpool frequently states that "kids don't like clones". In one of the last pre-One More Day Spider-man comics, J. Jonah Jameson remarks several times that he hates clones.