It's scary how everything looks better on hindsight. We are always so caught up chasing after the "next big thing" that we sometimes forget what gems we are served with in the present. Case in point: the much-maligned "
Clone Saga" in the Spider-Man titles of the 1990s. Readers were so annoyed by the never-ending multi-parter story that they spent more time criticising it than appreciating it for what it really was - a bold, innovative exploration of an icon that was hitting his 30th anniversary (then - now, we're closer to his 50th anniversary in 2012). Unfortunately, I missed most of the Clone Saga when it was being published in the 1990s. I read an issue here and there and liked what I read. But at that time, I was so into exploring the various alternate timelines in the X-Men titles that I had little time for Spidey.
Fast forward to 2011. We've come a long way since the 1990s. Since that time, we've had truly horrible stuff like John Byrne's "
Spider-Man: Chapter One" and his run with Howard Mackie on the monthlies. We've also had fresh recons by Brian Bendis for the Ultimate line as well as Mark Millar for the 616-Universe. Then, of course, we have the much-criticised 6-year run by J. Michael Straczynski (which I loved, by the way) and the "
One More Day" fiasco (that is now officially the most-hated Spidey story - even beating "
Clone Saga" and "
Sins Past" put together!). "
Brand New Day" came and went - it was uneven, to say the least. Some story arcs were good (e.g. "
New Ways to Die", "
Election Day", the Betty Brant issue, and "
American Son") and some were not so good (e.g. "
Gauntlet"). We're now into Dan Slott's twice-a-month "
Big Time" semi-relaunch and it's still a bit early to tell whether Slott's run will go into history as one of the all time greats. Personally, I haven't really been impressed by anything I've seen so far.
Earlier today, I picked up my son's copy of "
Sensational Spider-Man #0" and realised that 1990s Spidey blew everything out of the ballpark compared to the "illusion of change" stuff being done today. Firstly, we get a special holographic cover featuring Spidey's metamorphosis from the original Ditko/Romita costume into the newly designed Mark Bagley costume. Next, the book was done by true innovators of the day - Dan Jurgens (Writer/Penciller - who was also responsible for the "
Death of Superman" stuff over at DC) and Klaus Janson (Inker - best known for his work on DD). This book features Ben Reilly coming to terms with his identity (believing that he's the original and Peter Parker is the clone) as well as the death of Aunt May. Peter and MJ have moved away and Ben is trying to kickstart his career in NYC as the new "original" Spider-Man. That being said, he's penniless and staying in a motel. Jurgens fixed that by getting Ben a job at the Daily Grind coffee-shop. The main villain of the piece is a technological thief named Armada, whom we learned was working for Mysterio (who was shown in a cool new costume). Ben also dyed his hair blonde after a chance meeting with Anna Watson who mistook him for Peter.
The issue was overall a set-up issue for a new monthly series to feature Ben Reilly, previously the Scarlet Spider, taking on the identity of the "one true Spider-Man". Unfortunately, I never got to read the subsequent issues so I have no idea of the development of the Jurgens/Janson story. As a stand-alone issue, this work is pure-comicbook-gold. It felt like a much-needed jab in the veins for a then 30-year old icon. Everything felt fresh and bold. New and yet deeply tied in to previous continuity (unlike "
Ultimate Spider-Man" that established its own continuity). Besides that, the artwork was pure 1990s comicbook artwork - and waaaaaaaaaaaay more appealing now to eyes that are tortured monthly by the computerised digital art nonsense in today's comics.
In short, if the rest of the "
Clone Saga" were even 10% as good as this issue was, I'd be glad to hunt down the new series of TPBs collecting the whole thing... :)
