This page covers the Marvel comicbook event Clone Saga . If this is not the page you were looking for check here.

Before we start our travel in time, we must say that the "Clone Saga" is maybe one of the most important events Marvel ever had involving many clones of Spiderman, The original idea came from Terry Kavanagh and Howard Mackie, the last one was the man who worked on the majority of the smaller crossovers involved in the overall story-arc. Also, executive editors on the storyline included Tom DeFalco, Bob Budiansky and Bob Harras.

This saga was also design to have a "life spawn" of one year, at the end of that time the story should have ended completely, but things came great for the writers and the comics sold up pretty well for what was expected. So, they wanted to prolong the saga as long as possible. This led to some changes to the storyline that ultimately proved unpopular with some exceptions. Ok, already said that, lets start:

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The Original Clone Saga

This was released in the comic “Amazing Spider-Man #149” (October 1975). The story begins with Gwen Stacy being girlfriend of the Peter Parker we all know (the original). Unfortunately for Peter, in a battle against the Green Goblin she was seriously injured and eventually died by her wounds. Spiderman cant forgive himself for not being able to save her, leading to some internal conflict if he should still be Spiderman or hang out the mask.

Some months later, and decided to still be Spiderman, a new villain arrives in town, this time is the masked Jackal. The story gets the first twist when the dead Gwen Stacy inexplicably returns from the dead, even the investigation Peter made run on Gwen, showed a match in all sense; she was completely original, at least in the genes.

What Spiderman didn’t knew was that the Jackal’s real identity was Miles Warren, a biochemist at Empire State University were Peter studied. He fell in love with Gwen, and when she was killed by the Green Goblin, he went mad and started to genetically experiment with her DNA in hopes to preserve her memory. With a lot of failures and tries, he finally perfected the cloning formula and created clones of both Gwen and Spiderman.

Miles never knew what really happened in the battle Peter had against the Green Goblin, and even less the manner how Gwen died. So in his ignorance he blamed Spiderman for her death. With the Spider clone he made, he set a trap to Peter. He made the clone fight his original version wile the Jackal placed a time bomb nearby. The battle was too long and the countdown went to cero, that triggered an explosion catching the Jackal, Spiderman and his clone.

Only one Spiderman survived, the Jackal's body was missing, maybe dead. Trying to be sure he was the real Peter, Spiderman made himself some genetic test, but when the results came by, he didn't have the courage the see them. ¿What if he was the clone and the original was the one dead?, ¿Was his memories of a past life real or just a side effect of the cloning process?.

He taught, maybe he was the real thing; he determined that his feelings for Mary Jane Watson could not be duplicated. He was feeling something towards her before the other Spiderman appeared, so how could the clone (IF he was the real Peter) could have those feelings too? It would be impossible.

The clone of Gwen Stacy moved on with her life, she left the Empire State University in hopes to find a new life, a life were she could start all over again.

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Connecting the Original and the New Clone Saga

Years have passed by, but the memories of what happened haven’t run out Peter’s mind. Things got worse when Carrion presents to Spiderman as a degenerated clone of Warren.

The cloning process that the original Warren perfected got the attention of a very advanced geneticist known as the High Evolutionary who wanted to analyze how could the professor create the clones without driving them into an unstoppable genetic degeneration. The fact was, that Warren really didn’t perfected the cloning process at all, but had instead created a genetic virus which transformed already living beings, which led to more questions about how could Gwen Stacy clone appear if the original was dead.

Spiderman went to investigate in the old laboratory Warren used long time ago. There, with some notes, formulas and attaching ties, Peter discovered that Carrion was actually a genetic weapon made by the professor in order to infect all man kind. Decided to put an end to all Warren’s work, Spidey went to fight Carrion . Unfortunately, before he was defeated, the cloned version of Warren infected another student of the Empire State University in order to pass on his mission. The infected guy was Malcolm McBride that was a pupil of Warren when he was alive. That way, Malcolm became the new Carrion.

This how, with the comic “Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1”, this story arc was molded a bit in order to be a prelude to what should become the New Clone Saga

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The New Clone Saga

Many years later the events of the first saga, it appears that the clone that was declared dead in the time bomb explosion was alive, and not only that, he adopted the name of Ben Reilly (a combination of Peter's Uncle Ben's first name and Aunt May's maiden name) leaving New York deeply depressed after what happened. Convinced that he was a clone, he made a new life, gave himself a new haircut and with the new identity, started fighting crime again as the Scarlet Spider, of course, always trying to keep distance of Spiderman.

After Ben returned to New York and a series of chaotic events passed between them (we recommend to read Scarlet Spider’s page for more information about the lost years), Ben and Parker were challenged by Kaine, one of the first clones the Jackal made and consider it a success. Plus to that, it was known that another clone of Peter was made, this new clone by the other side became itself the Spidercide.

The story gets his own twist when all of the sudden, the interventions of the mysterious and seemingly all-powerful Judas Traveler and Scrier appeared. But these revelations weren’t as important as some next issues when medical experiments were done to Peter in order to re-check his originality, but the results he was so afraid of became true, Peter was the clone of Ben.

Depressed and feeling he has lived a borrowed life, he stands aside and quits being Spiderman. He even asks Ben to wear the original suit, the one he deserved to wear.

The story ends up in a very explosive way. It is revealed that the actions of Peter, Ben, Jackal and even Carrion were somehow manipulated behind the scenes by Norman Osborn, he was alive and this influence dated back many years. Osborn tells Peter to stop worrying, he is the original. Peter wants to believe him, but how can he ignore the medical results?

Finally it is confirmed. In his attempt to save Peter, Ben is killed by the Goblin's Glider, but instead of just dying, the body of Ben degenerates just like the body of any other clone. Peter is finally convinced that he is the original.

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Spider Wars

TV supported Clone Saga

This is one of the most notable saga since it took place in the animated series that launched Spiderman into popularity beyond the world. The story in this saga was short but full of twist and controversial plots. First thing we must remark is that the Spiderman showed in the series was NOT the one it appeared in the other two Clone Sagas.

After fighting in the Secret Wars where some Marvel celebrities joined Spiderman to fight the most evil villains. The Beyonder takes Peter to what it appears to be a completely destroyed New York, everything was devastated. Peter ask who was the responsible for such devastation for what the Beyonder answered that HE did it. Before Peter could say anything, the Green Goblin and the Hobgoblin passed by destroying some building as “their little entertainment”. Trying to stop them from stealing a Microwave Broadcaster from the top of the Daily Bugle building, Spidey is forced back from what appears to be another Spiderman.

This other version had the same costume, but something was wrong. Peter discovers that he was fighting not only another Spiderman, but a Spiderman bonded with Carnage. The Beyonder managed to teleport Spiderman away the battle since Spider-Carnage was too much to Peter to handle. There the real story begins.

Beyonder gathered 5 alternate versions of Spiderman and teamed them up to face the menace. In the lines was the Iron Armor Spiderman, the Octo-Spiderman, the mutant Spiderman, Scarlet Spider and a tv actor of Spiderman (that would be the one of our real dimension, the one we see Spiderman as a fictionary character). Since all Spidey’s were caught in the middle of other things, The Beyonder explained the reasons why he gathered them.

The thing is, that in the reality of Ben Reilly and Peter Parker (the reality of the Original Clone Saga), Peter had things very hard in his life. Ben Parker passed away and eventually his Aunt May also died, he lost Mary Jane too. But the thing that completely broke him the most, was the fact that he was a clone and that the real Spiderman was Ben Reilly. He started to concentrate all his anger towards the Scarlet Spider.

Ben was tracking down Kingpin’s latest mischief. He had managed to steal a transporter that could make any material travel between distances and dimensions. When Ben enters in action to stop the Kingpin, Peter appears in the scene. Ben taught Peter was there to help him, but it wasn’t like that, Peter went to fight Ben. In the action, the device is activated and creates a little vortex, from that vortex the symbiote appeared and attracted by Peter’s anger, it bonded with him and turned him completely insane.

¿But what does that have to do with the rest of the “other” Spiderman’s?, Beyonder then showed some images of the bomb that Spider-Carnage would build in a near future that consumed all realities.

The Spiderman from the animated series was made Leader of the team, and together they went to Kingpin’s tower. In the battle Octo Spiderman and the Iron Armor Spiderman were defeated and transported back were the Beyonder was. The mutant Spiderman finally transformed into a Spider monster delaying their advance. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stop Spider-Carnage from activating the bomb, wile the Scarlet Spider distracted Spider-Carnage, Peter manage to unplug the transporter from the machine.

Spider-Carnage managed to take the transporter and travel to another reality; Peter with the other versions were taken out of the explosion just in time.

Once they knew in which reality was Spider-Carnage, Peter went alone to stop him since Beyonder powers weakened too much to teleport the rest. The New York Peter landed was like the one he knew, and even better, people actually loved him as a hero not like his reality were he was a “masked criminal”. Peter realize that he was in the Iron Spiderman reality. It seems the Peter of that reality unmasked his identity a long time ago, that prevented Mary Jane to die, even to fall in love with him since Gwen Stacy was alive and as his girlfriend.

Spiderman found Spider-Carnage in the “Peter Parker Science Foundation” finishing the modifications for the device, after a quick battle, Spider-Carnage runs away kidnapping Gwen Stacy. For a brief moment Peter didn’t knew what to do, ¿how could HE defeat HIMSELF?, Spider-Carnage would know every move Peter could do and counter them, and to add to that, he had the life of Gwen Stacy on his hands. Evaluating the situation, Peter had an idea and maybe this was the ONLY reality were he could find the help he needed.

He tracked down Spider-Carnage trying to use the microwave broadcaster, but instead of going alone, he went with Ben Parker to talk sense to him. The plan worked, and the Peter inside the symbiote manifested at last. He really didn’t want to do anything the symbiote was forcing him to do. He tried to expel Carnage from his body but it was useless, so the only way to stop the evil resident was to take the device and using it to destroy himself.

Spider-Carnage was finally killed. And before Peter returned with the Beyonder to his reality, he took the so long wanted chat with Uncle Ben. The special end they gave to this saga was that Spiderman was sent to our reality meeting nothing else than Stan Lee. After that, he was sent to go find Mary Jane, the REAL Mary Jane. That was the final episode of all the 90's animated series

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Ultimate Clone Saga

In this "new version" of the story some of the characters past have been modified a bit. Like for example Ben Reilly, who was established as an African-American lab assistant with no personal ties to Peter Parker (better known as Spiderman) like in the other stories were he was a clone of Peter.

The trama beggins in the Ultimate Spider-Man continuity, and starts when Harry Osborn was presented to hes new psychiatrist who was hired by hes own father, Norman Osborn. The name of that man was Miles Warren. The goal of Miles was to absolutely erradicate the criminal alter ego of Harry known as the Green Gobling.

Later on, Ultimate Scorpion fights Spiderman in the streets, when Scorpion is defeated, Spidey realize that the men behind the mas was no other than Peter Parker, wich was imposible to belive since he was the REAL Peter. In the issues 97 and 98, it is determined that Peter's clone was sharing 94.4% of hes DNA. This was certantly a big shoot for Spidey, unable to clean Peter Parker name without revealing hes real identity.

The story continues on and Spidey gets the hint that Mary Jane (Spiderman eternal love and unaware of Spidey identity) was abducted, in hes search for her, he runs into Ultimate Spider-Woman, the thing was, this version was hes clone aswell (of course, her chromosomes were manipulated to make her female, but the rest was pure Peter's genes).

Following up the story, Spiderman faces other clones of hymself, among them was one with a disfigured face and another one with six arms in a black costume (issues 98 and 99). In this issues Peter Parker is faced to say the truth of hes identity to hes Aunt May, and even to unmask in front of the Fantastic Four. Not only that, hes forced to leave an amnesiac Gwen Stacy and face the re-appearence of hes presumed dead father, Richard.

Peter and Spider-Woman had theire talk and strange at it may sound, she revealed that all the clones (even herself) had inherited Peter's love for Mary Jane, and his worries of her getting hurt. That was the reason why the disfigurated clone kidnapped Mary Jane to introduce in her a powerfull drug called OZ, in the process, the clone said to her not worry at all, to look at it as a favor, that he was doing it because she would finally be able to defend herself.

Following the issues 99 to 103, the masterminds behind the clones seem to be Dr. Octopus and Ben Reilly (Reilly stole a sample of Peter's blood shortly after the death of Gwen Stacy), the clones agreed to fight him but unfortunate in the battle, the six-armed tarantula and the disfigured Kain were killed in action. Finally Dr. Octopus was defeated and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D took custody of him. Then the story changes again and in a great twist when the doctor declared that he and Ben were receiving orders of the CIA. Plus to that, it resulted that Gwen Stacy was really the body host of Carnage and that Peter's father was nothing more than another clone.

As of issue 104 the clone posing as Richard Parker died due to a side effect of the cloning process that makes him age a lot more faster than normal beings, Jessica Drew fled after helping Peter and hes clones defeat Octavius and Doctors Franklin Storm that were also involved in the process. Reed Richards have found a cure for Mary Jane's OZ-related affliction, affirming that her powers will slowly disappear. Peter gets the chance to declare hes love to Mary Jane.

Reed Richards had another surprise for Spiderman, he gave him a choice, he could decide to be normal again using a cure Reed made to remove hes powers since they were somehow realted to the OZ-drug or to still be the man behind the mask.

In issue 105 Peter rejects the cure and gets back together with Aunt May and Mary Jane. The Spider-Woman clone leaves to embrace the "Jessica Drew" identity. Nick Fury gets interested by Gwen's condition and decides to cure her, or at least to try. Meanwhile Mary Jane is still traumatized by the whole thing and wishes to move on.

The interesting part of this saga is that it is inserted many references to the original Clone Saga: it includes Miles Warren and Ben Reilly; it begins with Peter re-examining his relationship with Mary Jane; an old friend and colleague of Norman Osborn appears to have been manipulating the scenes from behind: Dr. Mendel Stromm in normal Marvel continuity, Otto Octavius in Ultimate Marvel continuity; Also, both of these associates turned out to have respective unseen powers over robotics; an amnesiac Gwen Stacy appears from nowhere, turning out to be more than she seems; Aunt May experiences a heart attack; a "Scarlet Spider" (Spider-Woman) evades Peter and is later used as a plot dump; a half-formed semi-insane clone appears like a million times and specifically wanting to protect Mary JaneJ. Finally, both clone sagas feature 'mystery women' called 'Jessica'

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