If I remembered correctly MJ was pregnant during the Clone Sage? The original plan was to have Peter Parker 'retire' and what better way than to have a baby as a primary reason? Ben Reilly was to be the 'new' Spider-man.

However, due to a massive negative fan reaction the above plan was reverse and Peter remained as the original Spider-man. Things get murky from there...MJ was given a poison of sorts and went into labour. Whether the baby was dead or alive, it was not revealed but he/she was kidnapped and handed over to the 'mastermind'...who was later revealed to be an old foe of Spidey who was making his return in a long, long time.

The JMS run...its pretty interesting - it went it to the mystical aspect and Spidey encounters one of his most powerful/deadliest foe...if I recall correctly.

 

I finished the third issue to Lives and that was good. That was a satisfying conclusion too. I'm kind of scared to read Goblins at the Gate now.

If you say so. I don't get the big deal out of it, but it's cool because we're starting to have both versions available to us.

I loved the JMS run. In fact, at the time it was some of teh best Spider-Man stuff I had ever read. Now having read Stern's work and a vast majority of the Lee stuff, I'm sure my opinion on it will differ if I were to reread it today. I do hope they release it in Omnibus form soon though.

 

The plan was to have Peter go away long enough to have Ben sort out the dark shit that was going on, then reveal Peter as the real SM and have him come back. Due to the marketebility of the Clon Saga it went on longer than planned.
MJ had the Baby, was told it died, just to then be revealed as a lie and Osborn had kidnapped it to kill her personally.

 

When was it stated Osborn killed her? I thought Marvel stated MJ had a miscarriage, then they just never mentioned her again outside of the Spider-Girl book years later.
Supposedly the "package" the villain got was Aunt May, since they brought her back and claimed an actress died in her place.

 

With the Clone Saga, I think it's best to assume that anything you've heard was the original plan probably was planned at some point. The writers and editors were constantly changing their minds about what was going to happen next during that whole era.

 

So it was like Knightfall?

 

This arrived today:

 

I'd say even worse. You can try checking out the Life of Reilly, a blog dedicated to the Clone Saga and the stuff that happened behind the scenes.

 

I'm just going to wait until I buy the Omnibuses of the Clone Saga and experience it for myself.

 

Good grief! How does such a blog exist?! I'm still trying to forget that saga after all these years! X)

Knightfall...IMO at least that was readable! LOL!

 

The biggest takeaway from that (although one a lot of people seem to have a hard time believing was Marvel's actual plan, despite official confirmation from multiple sources over the decades) is that Ben was originally intended to be revealed as the "real" Peter Parker, and that the Peter we'd been reading about since 1975 was in fact the clone...after which, Ben (probably going back to calling himself Peter) would be the star of the books forever from that point on. Clone Peter could ride off into the sunset with MJ and their baby and live happily ever after.

To the surprise of no one with a brain, this angered fans beyond belief and Marvel quickly backpedaled. But looking back, they probably should have stuck to their guns and waited for fans to accept it. It was the perfect solution in terms of getting Peter out of the marriage, because the Peter we'd been reading about who got married could have stayed married to MJ, while the "real" Peter would be single and free to feature in the kinds of stories Marvel wanted to use him for. They wouldn't have had to do that stupid deal with the devil OMD thing.

 

Honestly it was only the latter part of the 90s Clone saga that was so bad for me. Ben Reilly was a great likable character back then. Maybe it was because the guy acted like the Spidey of the 70s/early 80s while Peter then was dark and brooding? Anyway a lot of Spidey fans loved Ben Reilly despite the Clone Saga.

Supposedly the storyline wasn't gping to involve Mhisto but rather Loki, not sure who got the bright idea to toss JMS' original pitch for it but it was definitely something that changed late in the game as ads even hinted at it

 

Yeah Loki owed Peter a favor from earlier in the run. Peter saved one of his kids life. I don't think it was ever resolved, It was an editorial decision for it to be Mephisto. It overrided JMS's plans. It was supposedly Quesada. But some rumors claim it may have come from higher up the power chain and it was Perlmutter's idea..

 

It was a great era across the board for Marvel. Almost every major book they were publishing at the time was going from strength to strength.

 

Oh yeah, I liked Reilly too but no way, should he replaced Parker. If Marvel did that, I would have dropped the book even earlier. That being said, they shouldn't have 'killed' Reilly at the end of the Clone Saga too.

 

Yeah replacing Peter and telling everyone who grew up over the past 20 years that he was the clone was a big finger to a generation of fans. I don't know about Ben being killed off being the wrong decision, after the twists and turns at the tail end of the Clone Saga, fans needed concrete evidence he was the clone and not Peter, and the only way to really prove that was to have him dissolve like a clone. Marvel has proven that's not the end for them anyway as the Clone Conspiracy showed, but man, Dan Slott really screwed up with Ben there.

 

Yeah, I really like Reilly but to suddenly make Peter the clone is literally giving Spidey fans the finger.

I haven't read Clone Conspiracy yet...maybe I'll get the trade next week or so but I've been told the storyline is pretty good! Its been ages since I last read Spidey and I've been catching up on Spider-man: Worldwide. Its weird to see Peter as a CEO but its kinda nice to see Parker moving ahead in life. The poor chap deserves a break!  

 

I'll say this as a warning - if you love Ben, Clone Conspiracy does some pretty terrible things to him, as opposed to say how he was handled in Spider-verse. As a Slott fan, this also isn't one of his better works, story was a bit plodding, plus his build-up didn't really get a great ending, in fact the actual conclusion left a bit of stuff off the board that had to be explained in a one shot and a regular issues if I remember correctly. The Jim Cheung art is stellar though, the guy needs to be doing more big books for Marvel.

 

Marvel's First LEGACY Renumbered Title Revealed

So this is a weird one to use it on. Current Ultimates have nothing to do with Ultimate's Ultimate (but like Thunderbolts, Red She-Hulk, etc i can see why they would use the old numbering). Plus instead of renaming it Ultimates they're gonna keep it as Ultimates 2.

So it went from Ultimates to Ultimates 2 to Ultimates 3 to Ultimates to Ultimates 2...and issue #100 will be under the Ultimates 2 title.


This is Marvel though...when it comes to numbering guess anything title related will count. Like Venom becoming #250.

 

It's a gimmick, not the first time it's happened, and certainly won't be the last. Unfortunately as long as these things give em sales boosts no matter how temporarily, they'll keep on doing it.