Sounds to me like Marvel is testing the vitality of the character.

In the vein of X-Men Forever I guess this book would tell the story quickly and concisely the way it was originally planned to be told, before it got stuck in the quagmire of shifting editors and “event” mania. A story where very quickly Peter quit being Spider-Man and left to start a family with Mary Jane, while Ben Reilly took took over the role as a new “single” Spider-Man.

What amuses me is when it happened fans weren’t ready for the change back in the 90s, but with the “post omd/bnd” Peter, fans suddenly wish Ben was back.

It seems that a lot of fans who didn’t like OMD/BND liked or even loved the Clone saga. So I guess Marvel is trying to recover those fans. It doesn’t matter to the company that those fans have bad taste.

Superpouvoir posts early solicit info all the time, they’re a pretty reputable French news site and I’ve seen tons of real books pop up first there. I’m pretty sure this is real, I don’t even think it needs to be classified as a rumor.

“Written by HOWARD MACKIE & TOM DEFALCO”

HAHAHAHA! Are you serious? They’re letting them do this AGAIN?! The Clone Saga is the biggest stain on the Spider-Man books of all time(OMD was a delight comparatively), and these two guys were pretty much responsible for all of it. I hated JMS’s boring run on the title, but I’d much rather read that for the rest of my life than EVER revisit the Clone Saga. At least Marvel had the sense to keep this garbage by itself in a mini-series, likely to be ignored by continuity(and anyone with taste).

Anything with clones is another reason to stay away from the stinking pile of crap that Spider-Man is nowadays

The last remaining Scarlet Spider from the Initiative takes up Ben’s old costume. N’uff said.

“The Clone Saga” (and I hated that it’s referred to as a “saga”…it implies that it was something legendary) is one of the main reasons I stayed away from Marvel in the 1990′s, but this is something that could be fun. Sounds like it will be outside of continuity, which makes it ever better. However, if handled properly, a return of Ben Reilly to regular continuity could be interesting. By the way, anyone who wants to blame Mackie and DeFalco for the Clone Saga is totally misinformed. Everyone by now knows that the writers themselves were not at fault. There was pressure from editorial and the suits to keep it going far longer than it was supposed to.

If this is what it appears to be – the original story without the editorial interference, the changes due to AoA, and everything else detailed in the “Life of Reilly” – and is sort of a “What if…?” then it could be a really cool idea.

The Clone Saga is a classic example of an interesting idea that went way out of control. If they’d kept the storyline tighter, with it being just the whole Peter vs Ben trying to figure out which was the real deal, that would have been a much better story. It would have been better that way, instead of all those stupid clones like Spidercide running around.

I think alot of people have been asking for it the clone saga did not do well because it got drawn out too long but Ben Reilly was and is a great character so my opinion is that a short series is how it should have been done so this could be really interesting and a definent pick up if this is actually real really excited about it aswell!

I was a teen when the Clone Saga came out. I didn’t like what they did with Peter, but I gave Ben a chance and he turned out to be a pretty good character. It’s hard to believe, but I prefer the Clone Saga over Brand New Day. I suppose it’s all relative.

No one’s been harder on Marvel than me lately, but even I have to defend them against…

…those who laugh at the notion that people have been asking for more Ben Reilly : THEY HAVE. I can’t go a week without someone on some message board asking for his return. Those of you who HAVEN’T been asking for more Ben need to get over yourselves.

…those who laugh at the notion that Marvel is letting Mackie and DeFalco “do this again”, get a clue. Just about the only thing most people can agree on is that the idea had potential before editorial got involved. The *only* valid reason to revisit the Clone Saga is to let the original writers finish the story the way they intended. Like they allowed Roger Stern to do with the Hobgoblin (for better or worse.. in Stern’s case, it was worse.. hard to imagine that it will be the same with Mackie/DeFalco, considering what their story will be compared to).

…those who laugh at the notion that it’s referred to as a “saga” because the word implies that it was something legendary : the story might not have been, but the controversy surrounding is IS legendary. Not even the original Secret Wars (aka the most successful company-wide crossover of all time) is referred to as often as the Clone Saga. Maybe it’s not for the best reasons, but the Clone Sage is most certainly as legendary as any arc is ever going to get.

So in conclusion, it’s a legendary story that people HAVE been asking to revisit (even if some of you haven’t), and letting the original writers re-tell the story is just about the most credible way to go about it.

Absolutely nothing to complain about from me.

/AS

With Joey DaQ in charge, I’m not the least bit surprised. Another terrible idea in concept and execution. Please, someone fire his butt.

So this is what we lost “Mr. And Mrs. Spider-Man” for?

“ScottyQuick, we detect great rage within you”

I wasn’t even ten when the Clone Saga was coming out, but I still remember both of the new costumes that they tried out. I loved the crap out of them. Even Kaine seemed pretty awesome. I know that for the older readers, it must have been infuriating, but I think that a lot of the proponents of the Clone saga or kids in their early twenties like myself. I’ve read back over all of the issues that I had from the time, and I still am incredibly fond of Ben Reilly. I’m really looking forward to this mini, as well as what Guggenheim is going to be doing with it. I’d love to see the clone suits again. I just wish that they had picked a different interior artist. Todd Nauck’s Obama backup looked horrible.

Right i get it! not every one loved the whole clone saga but check it what if ben comes back differant? picture this when mary jane walks up to metaphisto and wispers in his ear she tells M that pete was better off when he had his clone brother to help lighten the load in the crime fighting ! plus she adds peter getting a new start should mean just that he should be free of all the mutation that happend as a result of THE OTHER storyline. So the stingers the organic webshooters the enhanced spiderpowers that pete no longer has are all transferd to ben! thus makeing ben quite a differant scarletspider!

“Just about the only thing most people can agree on is that the idea had potential before editorial got involved.”

I disagree. The basic idea was perhaps compelling, but in the hands of such talentless writers, it was bound to fail regardless of the editorial debacle it became. Bad writers write bad stories.

I do agree that the Clone Saga is legendary in its failure, and that’s the only reason this book is even getting made(if it is getting made). OMD/BND indeed caused a riff among Spidey fans. It seems most people who enjoyed the Clone Saga do not appreciate BND and vice versa. So they’re just taking advantage of all the BND haters who refuse to read good writing and good stories(because omg, no MJ), and they’re selling them some old bad ones again. That’s fine by me so long as they keep it away from continuity. Just another big gimmick, similar to Back in Black. They’re great at taking something old and popular and poorly rehashing it. Doesn’t take a lot of work.

I guess i was the only fan of the clone saga but im a loyal spidey fan and I can’t wait .

Oh, man. BOUGHT.

oh, and Clone Saga was nowhere near as bad as OMD! i quite enjoyed ben reilly as spidey.

But, Angelous… it IS a mini-series.

QUE VIVA BEN REILLY!!! Let The Scarlet Spider take over a few issues! Give Parker a break.

It would be interesting to me if they treated it IN continuity, had the clone/Ben Reilly come back and realize he was a clone of the old(er) Peter Parker pre-BND. It would make for a great story, however I’m not sure if Marvel really wants to jack around with their post-BND continuity just yet.

So long as when all is said and done, Ben remains the clone and Peter and Mary Jane keep Baby May then I have no problems with this.

I’m a fan of the original clone saga. It introduced some great characters like Stunner, Kaine, a new Doctor Octopus and even put the Scarlet Spider into his own series.

I know my opinion is not a popular one, but then again I don’t really care what most of you think about my opinion. Some say the story was drawn out. I say it was epic, and I was sad to see it end.

Ben was a great character, and I hope they do bring him back to mainstream Marvel. In fact, I’m going to go read my 90′s Spideys right now.

The attitude towards the Clone saga is why comic book stories and characters never really advance, because comic fans (while they all want to come across as progressive) are nothing more than nostalgia puppies who live in constant fear of change. The companies have no other option than to return to the status quo constantly for fear of alienating fans who aren’t mature enough to accept that comic characters, like real people, should grow, evolve, and move on.

Bringing back Ben would certainly make me happy, as I found him and his story much more interesting than the ever inconsistent Peter Parker, but they should never have killed him in the first place, and allowed the story of SPIDERMAN, not PETER PARKER, evolve. But thanks to the attitudes of so many fans, the dead will continue to rise, and the publishers will continue place more value on their wallets than artistic integrity.

Anal Surprise Says: “Just about the only thing most people can agree on is that the idea had potential before editorial got involved.”

VoltronShakespeare Says: “I disagree. The basic idea was perhaps compelling, but…”

In what world does “the basic idea was compelling” disagree with “the idea had potential”? You basically wrote the exact same thing I did with different words. Doesn’t this planet have enough conflict without anyone seeing some where none exists?

Angelous Says: “I get what your saying Anal Surprise, but personally my problem with this is that there going to interrupt all the potential storylines going on in Amazing Spider-Man just to cause some controversity.”

First of all, you don’t know that. You’re assuming Amazing will be interrupted without any indication whatsoever that it will be (quite the opposite, in fact). As I just wrote to Voltron, isn’t there enough conflict in this world without the need to see some where none exists?

Second, even if Amazing *was* interrupted for this, you do realize that the idea here is to CORRECT things, right? Whatever the writers perceive as having gone wrong the first time around will undoubtedly be FIXED; or there will be an attempt to. How does this not at least have the POTENTIAL of good storytelling? Why is it AUTOMATICALLY going to suck?

Marvel recently revisited ONSLAUGHT with a sort-of-sequel. ONSLAUGHT, for the love of God. It happened in a self-contained mini and had absolutely no effect on any ongoing titles, Amazing included. The only fallout was the introduction of the female Bucky in the 616 universe (whom I get the feeling will soon sidekick Nu-Cap).

If this series exists only to gage fan reaction to Ben Reilly once the story is told the way the original writers wanted it to be told, and nothing else gets disturbed until the demand for Ben Reilly to interrupt Amazing is clear and present… where’s the harm?

That being said, Marvel is not without fault in several other areas, beginning with the last issue of Amazing (American Son pt.3) where we can see a clearly unmasked Spider-Man lying at the feet of Osborne and his Avengers. I don’t mind that he’s wearing the wrong costume on the cover, there’s a reason for that and it doesn’t disturb the story. The clearly visible face of Peter Parker, however… when Spider-Man is nowhere close to being unmasked in that issue… is as gratuitous as that FF cover with Dr Doom wielding Mjolnir, a scene that appears in neither continuity nor so much as a dream sequence.

I will *always* hold Quesada responsible for this kind of below-the-belt marketing. I realize he’s legally allowed to put anything he wants on the cover. But it’s still a cheap stunt.

/AS

I’m not going to buy this. Marvel has sure been dusting off alot of bad ideas to try to creat new stuff lately
so far we’ve seen Onslaught fantastic force and 2099 what will see next Act Of Vengeance.

enough already Marvel if we didn’t like the idea the first time why would we now? besides The Clone saga was all ready redone in ultimat spiderman by bendis

good day

Actually now that I think of it they should spin BM Bendis off into his own “Reality” series styled comic: “Anti-Midas” – the comic writer with the “Toilet Paper Touch!” Unlike any of his “mainstream” work I’d strain to read that kind of loose “decompressed” stoolytelling…