When last we left our intrepid heroes, the mother of all bombshells was dropped: the person we thought was the original Peter Parker for the last two decades was actually a clone, and Ben Reilly was actually the original Peter Parker. Seems like a pretty big deal.
This leads to a bit of an existential crisis for Peter as one might imagine. To tackle these latest clone questions, an event titled “Maximum Clonage” was launched officially beginning with Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha #1 written by Tom DeFalco and Todd DeZago with pencils by Ron Lim (although the prelude took place in New Warriors #61). This one is pretty bonkers, so I’ll do my best to try to recap what happens. Basically Jackal has taken the dead mutated Parker clone we discussed last time and has resurrected him as an amorphous goo person dubbed Spidercide. He’s basically an oversized Spider-Man that can change shape and has a symbiote-like mouth, and he will serve as Jackal’s enforcer and lackey.
Jackal’s master plan is to unleash a new variant of the Carrion virus (Carrion has a very interesting history, but that is a story for another day) on the world that will kill everyone who isn’t a clone. Then Jackal will repopulate the world with clones loyal to him so he can be the Clone King. Pretty foolproof plan. Airtight. Anyway, Jackal has Spidercide test it out in a small Pennsylvania town, and it successfully kills off the entire population of over 2,000 people. Big yikes!
From there, Peter’s existential crisis leads to him being duped by Jackal into believing he has his best interests in mind for some reason. This is easily one of the most perplexing moments of the “Clone Saga” to me. I can accept Peter feeling hopeless and confused by learning he’s a clone, but I just can’t believe he’d throw in with a megalomaniacal mass murderer (yay alliteration!) like Jackal.
Before we can dwell on what Peter is doing, Punisher shows up and shoots Jackal which mortally wounds him. Peter gives Frank a quick beating then takes Jackal to one of his magical clone pods that are also healing pods now to successfully save his life. Ben also shows up, and the two have a heart-to-heart. By that I mean Peter lashes out and punches him before storming off. Before Ben has a chance to react, Spidercide shows up to fight him. While Ben is dealing with that, Kaine shows up to confront Jackal. Finally, Peter shows back up as well, and the entire thing devolves into a bunch of shouting and punching. This kerfuffle ends with Kaine storming off and Ben being thrown into a room with just way too many clones. The full page splash from Bagley is pure unadulterated nightmare fuel.
Things just get more convoluted from there. Kaine visits Mary Jane, Ben fights a thousand clones, Peter sulks, and Jackal continues being a jerk. Eventually Kaine teams up with Ben to fight off the clones and Spidercide while Jackal makes more Gwen Stacey clones as is tradition. During the clone brawl, Spidercide murders Kaine by stabbing him in the chest with a hunk of machinery. I just wish all of these “siblings” could get along.
After Kaine’s death, we get back to Jackal’s master plan to kill everyone and replace them with clones. Spidercide turns on Jackal and ends up falling off a building to his death. Shortly thereafter Jackal also falls off a building to his death, and Ben foils his plan by grabbing the canister containing the virus and throwing it far away. I guess it wasn’t a foolproof plan after all. “Maximum Clonage” concludes with Peter offering Ben the mantle of Spider-Man and Ben declining.
There are a few issues following “Maximum Clonage” where Peter and Ben work together to deal with some threats (including a new Doctor Octopus) before the “Clone Saga” has its first potential conclusion in Spectacular Spider-Man #229 by Tom DeFalco, Sal Buscema, and Bill Sienkiewicz. This issue sees Mary Jane get hospitalized due to potential complications with her pregnancy while Peter and Ben do battle with the new Doc Ock. Peter comes to the conclusion that his responsibility now is to his wife and future child, and he decides to officially retire as Spider-Man and let Ben be the hero going forward. All of the Spider-Man titles would go on to rebrand as Scarlet Spider titles while Peter and Mary Jane head off into the sunset. It would signify the end of one era and the beginning of another. Come back next week to see how Ben Reilly does now that he’s the only Spidey boy in New York (please sing that in your head to the Simon & Garfunkel song)!