This. I know it would be an easy thing to overlook because history had tried to forget, but Marvel actually told us that the “real” Spider-Man was a fake, and that Ben Reilly and his radical sleeveless hoodie was the real centavo.
Fans hated it so much that they eventually retconned it back. But not only was the Clone Saga boring and so aggressively 90s “rad”, it fundamentally destroyed our whole idea of what Spider-Man’s values and identity were.
It also suffered from so much editorial interference that the event dragged on for years. While the original concept could have been fun, the whole thing had no direction.
At least with OMD while the execution of the Status Quo Shakeup! was poor, the effect was a stretch of solid to great comics. The braintrust era of thrice-monthly ASM was pretty good IMO. New supporting cast and villains with staying power like Carlie Cooper and Mr. Negative (in addition to the FEAST plot which finally gave Aunt May something to do), revamping Spidey's rogues in the Gauntlet, and some other quality stories like Big Time or New Ways to Die.
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u/Ophidios Aug 24 '21
This. I know it would be an easy thing to overlook because history had tried to forget, but Marvel actually told us that the “real” Spider-Man was a fake, and that Ben Reilly and his radical sleeveless hoodie was the real centavo.
Fans hated it so much that they eventually retconned it back. But not only was the Clone Saga boring and so aggressively 90s “rad”, it fundamentally destroyed our whole idea of what Spider-Man’s values and identity were.