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Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic, Vol. 4
The Clone Sage continues as Peter Parker is put on trial for murder! A new Green Goblin debuts! The mass murderer Kaine is killed! The Jackal unleashes an entire army of Spider-Man clones, including the new and deadly Spidercide! The Gwen Stacy clone returns! Spider-Man is hunted by the Punisher! Judas Traveler and the Scrier pull Spider-Man's strings like never before! And what will Peter do when he fi nds out that Ben Reilly is the one, true Spider-Man? Guest-starring the New Warriors! COLLECTING: Amazing Spider-Man (1962) #402-404; Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #225-227; Spider-Man (1990) #59-61; Web of Spider-Man #125-127; New Warriors (1990) #61; Spider-Man: The Jackal Files; Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha, Omega
480 pages, Paperback
First published December 8, 2010
8 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Tom DeFalco
2,477 books106 followersTom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well-known for his association with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 31, 2018
Some of the issues here are great superhero fun.
Others of them veer into inanity, such as one section that reads more like a Marvel encyclopedia than a comic book; that part was not only dumb and unnecessary, but also hard to read.
I'm curious to see how this "saga" finishes up.
Others of them veer into inanity, such as one section that reads more like a Marvel encyclopedia than a comic book; that part was not only dumb and unnecessary, but also hard to read.
I'm curious to see how this "saga" finishes up.
September 19, 2016
Absolutely not ad good as I remembered.. storyline went out of rails for good and the same authors seem no more sure about how to develope it.. meh. :/
September 14, 2022
Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1962) issues #402-404; Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) issues #225-227; Spider-Man (1990) issues #59-61; Web of Spider-Man issues #125-127; New Warriors (1990) issue #61; Spider-Man: The Jackal Files issue #1; Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha #1, and Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Omega #1
I was around 12-years-old when this story was originally released, and I loved it! Since then, Ben Reilly has always been a favorite Marvel character of mine. This is the first time that I've re-read these issues since my childhood, and it still really worked for me. I'm sure this a nostalgia factor, so I wonder if new readers would enjoy it as much as me.
I can't imagine that this is a 5-star read to anyone else but me. I started reading comic books right before the Clone Saga started. Imagine my surprise when, having only been reading "Spider-Man" for a few months, his clones shows up. I ended up loving Ben Reilly's costume, and even now, seeing the Scarlet Spider in action is one of my highlights of this reading experience. There is a lot of good art in this book.
Reading this collection brings back so many memories for me. Even though I read comic books as an adult, the issues in this collection came out at the height of my childhood comic book fandom. I owned a lot of these issues as a kid, but there are some things that I missed that I'm just now reading for the first time. Ben Reilly as the Scarlet Spider remains my favorite Marvel character.
I was around 12-years-old when this story was originally released, and I loved it! Since then, Ben Reilly has always been a favorite Marvel character of mine. This is the first time that I've re-read these issues since my childhood, and it still really worked for me. I'm sure this a nostalgia factor, so I wonder if new readers would enjoy it as much as me.
I can't imagine that this is a 5-star read to anyone else but me. I started reading comic books right before the Clone Saga started. Imagine my surprise when, having only been reading "Spider-Man" for a few months, his clones shows up. I ended up loving Ben Reilly's costume, and even now, seeing the Scarlet Spider in action is one of my highlights of this reading experience. There is a lot of good art in this book.
Reading this collection brings back so many memories for me. Even though I read comic books as an adult, the issues in this collection came out at the height of my childhood comic book fandom. I owned a lot of these issues as a kid, but there are some things that I missed that I'm just now reading for the first time. Ben Reilly as the Scarlet Spider remains my favorite Marvel character.
April 25, 2017
Appallingly bad.
While the earlier books in this series included redeeming issues or features, volume four loses the plot completely. To its credit, this volume tries to draw the main storylines to a close--something many mid-90s comics didn't even attempt. With the centerpiece "Trial of Peter Parker" storyline, answers are given which make some degree of sense, including a then-definitive answer to who the real Spider-Man is, but then the whole thing goes off the deep end with "Maximum Clonage" where motivations, characterizations, and plot points shift from page to page.
At this point, it isn't even that fun in a car-crash watching kind of way, as the story slips from bad-in-a-fun-way to just incompetent. I think the next seven (!) volumes shift quickly into simply dull, so this may be the last stop on this nostalgia train for me. I made it about six issues further than I did as a teenager.
While the earlier books in this series included redeeming issues or features, volume four loses the plot completely. To its credit, this volume tries to draw the main storylines to a close--something many mid-90s comics didn't even attempt. With the centerpiece "Trial of Peter Parker" storyline, answers are given which make some degree of sense, including a then-definitive answer to who the real Spider-Man is, but then the whole thing goes off the deep end with "Maximum Clonage" where motivations, characterizations, and plot points shift from page to page.
At this point, it isn't even that fun in a car-crash watching kind of way, as the story slips from bad-in-a-fun-way to just incompetent. I think the next seven (!) volumes shift quickly into simply dull, so this may be the last stop on this nostalgia train for me. I made it about six issues further than I did as a teenager.
January 19, 2016
Just awful. It's easy to see why this is pointed at when people ask for worst storyline. There is little logic. Lots of shock value. (One of which is completely ruined by earlier trades. The Kaine reveal has no power because the first volume told us his story)
If you're going to write a mega-event and you start needing multiple "in case you need to catch up " issues, you've gone on for far too long.
If you're going to write a mega-event and you start needing multiple "in case you need to catch up " issues, you've gone on for far too long.
November 12, 2020
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man (1) #402-404, New Warriors (1) #61, Spectacular Spider-Man (1) #225-227, Spider-Man (1) #59-61, Spider-Man: The Jackal Files #1, Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage—Alpha #1, and Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage—Omega #1 (June 1995-August 1995). With the arrival of a new Green Goblin and continued problems with clones popping up around him, Peter Parker finds himself posing as the Scarlet Spider as Ben Reilly faces a murder charge as Peter Parker. Peter must find a way to save “himself” from the charges without exposing his secret identity as Mary Jane worries that Peter’s genetic mutation from being Spider-Man could hurt their unborn child. Meanwhile, Seward Trainer has been researching the clones, and his discovery could change everything for Peter, Ben, and Mary Jane.
Written by Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis, Todd Zago, Terry Kavanagh, Mike Lackey, Tom Lyle, Howard Mackie, and Evan Skolnick, Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 4 is the penultimate collection of the Marvel Comics event series. Following Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 3, the series features art by Mark Bagley, Michael Blair, Eliot R. Brown, Robert Brown, Mark Buckingham, Roy Burdine, Sal Buscema, Steven Butler, Guy Dorian, Dan Lawlis, Ron Lim, Tom Lyle, Pat Olliffe, George Perez, Jordan Raskin, Roger Robinson, Joe St. Pierre, Liam Sharp, Tod Smith, and Patrick Zircher. Issues in this collection were also collected as part of Spider-Man: The Clone Saga Omnibus—Volume 2.
The Clone Saga was an extremely divisive Marvel event. Many cite this series as a series that turned them off Spider-Man, but some also are big fans of some of the characters like Scarlet Spider who were introduced in this series (and later went on to other series once much of the criticism died down). This collection features the big reveal and “once and for all” tells who the clone is…for now.
The collection is divided into a few smaller series, and it also serves as an introduction to Phil Urich who became the Green Goblin for his own series and later a nemesis of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. The Judas Traveller character gets his showdown with Spider-Man in the two part “Crossfire” and “The Trial of Peter Parker” wraps up the accidental framing of Peter Parker by his admirer clone Kaine. In the context of the Clone Saga they aren’t that bad, but if you were already bogged down and done with clones by this point, you might not care.
The premiere part of this collection is “Maximum Clonage” which the Clone Saga was really building to. The six part series was bookended by premium (read that as 1990s foil cover) comics Maximum Clonage: Alpha and Maximum Clonage: Omega. This deals with the ramifications of the big reveal of Spectacular Spider-Man (1) #226 (July 1995) which revealed the Peter Parker that had been known and loved by readers since Amazing Spider-Man (1) #149 (October 1975) was actually the clone. It was very soap opera and infuriating since that meant everything (including his marriage to Mary Jane) wasn’t actually Spider-Man…just some genetic creation. It didn’t go over well and the “Maximum Clonage” storyline is even more insulting with Peter siding with the Jackal and turning on Mary Jane. It just isn’t good.
I will say rereading these issues in the post Clone Saga isn’t as jarring as reading them the first time. You know that Peter Parker will be restored as the rightful Spider-Man (primarily from the backlash), and the story is more tight and concise as a collection than the sprawling, multi-title monster that it was in the 1990s. The storyline bloomed out of proportion and reminds me a bit of how Twin Peaks dragged on the Laura Palmer storyline beyond viewers’ will to follow. Was that the wrong decision or an underestimation of the readers? Regardless, the Clone Saga was a controversy and this collection gets a lot of the wrath. Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 4 was followed by Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 5 which wrapped up the storyline at that point.
Written by Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis, Todd Zago, Terry Kavanagh, Mike Lackey, Tom Lyle, Howard Mackie, and Evan Skolnick, Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 4 is the penultimate collection of the Marvel Comics event series. Following Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 3, the series features art by Mark Bagley, Michael Blair, Eliot R. Brown, Robert Brown, Mark Buckingham, Roy Burdine, Sal Buscema, Steven Butler, Guy Dorian, Dan Lawlis, Ron Lim, Tom Lyle, Pat Olliffe, George Perez, Jordan Raskin, Roger Robinson, Joe St. Pierre, Liam Sharp, Tod Smith, and Patrick Zircher. Issues in this collection were also collected as part of Spider-Man: The Clone Saga Omnibus—Volume 2.
The Clone Saga was an extremely divisive Marvel event. Many cite this series as a series that turned them off Spider-Man, but some also are big fans of some of the characters like Scarlet Spider who were introduced in this series (and later went on to other series once much of the criticism died down). This collection features the big reveal and “once and for all” tells who the clone is…for now.
The collection is divided into a few smaller series, and it also serves as an introduction to Phil Urich who became the Green Goblin for his own series and later a nemesis of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. The Judas Traveller character gets his showdown with Spider-Man in the two part “Crossfire” and “The Trial of Peter Parker” wraps up the accidental framing of Peter Parker by his admirer clone Kaine. In the context of the Clone Saga they aren’t that bad, but if you were already bogged down and done with clones by this point, you might not care.
The premiere part of this collection is “Maximum Clonage” which the Clone Saga was really building to. The six part series was bookended by premium (read that as 1990s foil cover) comics Maximum Clonage: Alpha and Maximum Clonage: Omega. This deals with the ramifications of the big reveal of Spectacular Spider-Man (1) #226 (July 1995) which revealed the Peter Parker that had been known and loved by readers since Amazing Spider-Man (1) #149 (October 1975) was actually the clone. It was very soap opera and infuriating since that meant everything (including his marriage to Mary Jane) wasn’t actually Spider-Man…just some genetic creation. It didn’t go over well and the “Maximum Clonage” storyline is even more insulting with Peter siding with the Jackal and turning on Mary Jane. It just isn’t good.
I will say rereading these issues in the post Clone Saga isn’t as jarring as reading them the first time. You know that Peter Parker will be restored as the rightful Spider-Man (primarily from the backlash), and the story is more tight and concise as a collection than the sprawling, multi-title monster that it was in the 1990s. The storyline bloomed out of proportion and reminds me a bit of how Twin Peaks dragged on the Laura Palmer storyline beyond viewers’ will to follow. Was that the wrong decision or an underestimation of the readers? Regardless, the Clone Saga was a controversy and this collection gets a lot of the wrath. Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 4 was followed by Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga—Book 5 which wrapped up the storyline at that point.
September 24, 2018
Much like the other books in the series, this one MOSTLY has art that I love. MOSTLY.
The story takes some twists and turns—some good, some awful—, and I’ve just kind of gotten burnt-out on this entire event. It’s so bland, and it feels like progression is only an inch at a time, which kills the flow AND the excitement I once had to try this whole work for myself.
Many aspects I enjoy from comics are thrown into here—the Punisher, for example, makes a very awesome cameo in this volume, and I nearly shit myself because of the excitement to see Frank spark things up! Such a good idea, and then it feels wasted.
Peter feels so out of character during this series, but, here, he feels REALLY different. And I don’t think that’s just a problem of the writing teams. I think this whole story is just sloppy, and messy, and not worth anyone’s time or money.
Not to mention, the biggest twist in this book was spoiled, back in the very first volume, because this series has been published in chronological order.
The identity of Kaine is given, as well, and it’s dumb, too. I also realized something else about Kaine: sometimes he’s drawn to have a black latex BDSM mask, with no eyes at all, and sometimes he has dark red eyes, depending on who you are reading from.
I’d say, by now, that you should skip the entire saga. I love Ben Reilly as a character, but most of this storyline has been utter shit, no matter how many times I consider the wonderful things—like the “Gift” story we had gotten, a while back.
Nothing feels as though it has any worth, here.
The story takes some twists and turns—some good, some awful—, and I’ve just kind of gotten burnt-out on this entire event. It’s so bland, and it feels like progression is only an inch at a time, which kills the flow AND the excitement I once had to try this whole work for myself.
Many aspects I enjoy from comics are thrown into here—the Punisher, for example, makes a very awesome cameo in this volume, and I nearly shit myself because of the excitement to see Frank spark things up! Such a good idea, and then it feels wasted.
Peter feels so out of character during this series, but, here, he feels REALLY different. And I don’t think that’s just a problem of the writing teams. I think this whole story is just sloppy, and messy, and not worth anyone’s time or money.
Not to mention, the biggest twist in this book was spoiled, back in the very first volume, because this series has been published in chronological order.
The identity of Kaine is given, as well, and it’s dumb, too. I also realized something else about Kaine: sometimes he’s drawn to have a black latex BDSM mask, with no eyes at all, and sometimes he has dark red eyes, depending on who you are reading from.
I’d say, by now, that you should skip the entire saga. I love Ben Reilly as a character, but most of this storyline has been utter shit, no matter how many times I consider the wonderful things—like the “Gift” story we had gotten, a while back.
Nothing feels as though it has any worth, here.
June 26, 2024
Okay, I am beginning to see exactly why people hated the Clone Saga. The amount of backpedaling and “everything you know is a lie” and “the truth is finally revealed” drove me nuts, especially when each new reveal contradicted the previous reveal and established continuity. The sheer number of Spider-titles, crossovers, and one-shots that Marvel literally required you to buy in order to follow the story is ludicrous. Think about it...this book is well over 400 pages, and that's only 3 months worth of product.
The writing and artwork don't help this book's cause along much. Much of it is overwritten, with Todd Dezago's dialogue being the worst offender. His characterization of the Jackal is pitiful, especially when compared to Gerry Conway's original version of the character. The artwork ranges from Bagley's competent take on Spider-Man to Roy Burdine's horrible, distorted artwork. His pencils were accompanied by Randy Emberlin and Don Hudson's inks.
Not everything here sucks, though. There are definite moments of goodness in storytelling, character development, and, occasionally, even the artwork. The shortcomings in this book seemed to far outweigh the goodness, but hey, it's Spider-Man. I can't hate it too much, and my completist OCD compels me to see it through to the end.
The writing and artwork don't help this book's cause along much. Much of it is overwritten, with Todd Dezago's dialogue being the worst offender. His characterization of the Jackal is pitiful, especially when compared to Gerry Conway's original version of the character. The artwork ranges from Bagley's competent take on Spider-Man to Roy Burdine's horrible, distorted artwork. His pencils were accompanied by Randy Emberlin and Don Hudson's inks.
Not everything here sucks, though. There are definite moments of goodness in storytelling, character development, and, occasionally, even the artwork. The shortcomings in this book seemed to far outweigh the goodness, but hey, it's Spider-Man. I can't hate it too much, and my completist OCD compels me to see it through to the end.
July 26, 2024
This was the only complete epic book out of the 5 that I bought (after buying and reading omnibus 1). This book included some issues that I believed I wanted to read, but didn’t want to have to buy the omnibus 2. While there are some good issues in this book, it is a bit inconsistent. Sometimes the writing and art is good, but other times it’s not. Towards the end, the dialogue is a little awkward and the way they try to constantly remind you of the confusing plot and previous events was kind of annoying. I appreciate being reminded, but didn’t like the ways they did it. I found the Jackal character to be particularly boring and annoying. I liked the issues involving Kaine and seeing how his story ends.
I would only recommend this book to a clone saga fan or someone who wants the highlights of the clone saga.
For reference, below are the books I chose:
1. The Original Clone Saga
2. Clone Saga Omnibus 1
3. Complete Clone Saga Epic book 4 (THIS BOOK)
4. Spider-Man: Revelations paperback
I would only recommend this book to a clone saga fan or someone who wants the highlights of the clone saga.
For reference, below are the books I chose:
1. The Original Clone Saga
2. Clone Saga Omnibus 1
3. Complete Clone Saga Epic book 4 (THIS BOOK)
4. Spider-Man: Revelations paperback
September 11, 2025
Finally finished off the clone saga (well...the part they've printed as being the clone saga, at least). It wasn't amazing, but honestly, I didn't hate it as much as I expected to from all the complaining I've heard over the years. I'd give the whole thing 3.5*. It was interesting to see what they were trying to accomplish - basically retcon Spiderman and start fresh - and I know it didn't take, but the effort was worth reading once.
January 22, 2022
Definitely alot weaker story-wise compared to the previous volumes but with the original two writers being phased out more and more as the series progressed what can you realistically expect? Still enjoyable if you're able to put wildly high expectations on the shelf.
May 27, 2019
The trial of Peter Parker and Maximum Cloneage! The Clone Saga Never Ends!!!!
July 13, 2022
Gets more ridiculous by the moment. Why was Punisher in one issue?
April 27, 2016
You know, if this arc was merely convoluted then perhaps I would give it three stars because the plot lines of comic book serials tend to be convoluted. The issue here is that Peter acts completely out of character when he "learns" that he's the clone and not Ben. I know that we all find out shitty things that ruin our days/week/months/lives but does that make us completely abandon our core values? "Power and Responsibility" have been harped so much in the previous three volumes that I'm just not buying it, and that ruins this for me.
October 23, 2023
It starts shlocky and mediocre at best, but from the Maximum Clonage prologue issue the sequence of e events progressively gets more and more aggressively stupid and nonsenical. The final issue of this volume is insultingly vapid and surface-level writing wise, and is often obnoxious to look at. The Jackal also manages to be the most annoying super-villain I’ve ever read inanely blather for pages on end.
Just a straight nose-dive off a cliff in quality coming off of the first omnibus, which was already not great.
Just a straight nose-dive off a cliff in quality coming off of the first omnibus, which was already not great.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews