That particular era of Spider-Man comics still stands head and shoulders
above a lot of other comics.

***
Agreeing to disagree-- I can't understand the fondness people have for
the original Clone story. I found it too ridiculous to take seriously at any
level-- it was exciting as a mystery, but the more the truth was revealed,
the more inane the whole thing felt. How did the Clone age so rapidly,
have the same memories as the real Gwen, etc.? And what sense did it
make to have the Doctor also be "The Jackal"? It felt like cutting edge
writing --for Silver Age Superboy.

Finally ending it all with the Clone Gwen walking off to live somewhere
else has cruel and illogical implications. It certainly didn't wrap things up
in my opinion. I wasn't surprised that the clones eventually blew up into a
more complicated "saga" -- cloning Spider-Man was such a weird
concept at its core. I kind of knew it had to come back, but it didn't feel
like a good thing.

***That's great for you, obviously. Is it therefor "almost perfect" as Roger
called it?

Edit: Joe wrote: "The story ended because that's what stories did back
then."

I missed this at first-- What does this mean? Having the giant clone
Elephant in the room just walk off at the end reminds you of all the other
stories from back then? THIS story "did" that, but can you name another
that did? I can't think of any other endings like that off the top of my
head.

Edited by Mark Haslett on 23 March 2011 at 6:51pm

----

Yes, but I don't recall how.

+++++++++

It was said that ithe Jackal planted biological booby-traps in his lab--a version of the virus that turned his assistant into the Spider-Clone, and an innocent young woman into "Gwen". Some other innocent person stumbled upon the virus, and became Carrion, who was programmed to seek revenge in the event of the Jackal's death.

The whole idea of a clone was such a 1970s idea too. Of course Conway jumped on that bandwagon.

There had to be a point in your life where you didn't need much more than to be entertained.

It wasn't about pie-charts and character lineages when you were a kid, right?

If Lowly the Worm ran over a shoe in a Richard Scarry book, I wasn't looking for that shoe in the next book to see if it had a dent in it, or a scuff.

Surely your criteria for the "nearly perfect" comic story is different than "it entertained me when I was 9".

Maybe you know what I mean. Are there any stories that you liked back then which don't seem so hot when you revisit them?

Anyone who loves the Clone story has my support-- taste is taste and love whatever you love. But if you want to discuss whether or not it's "nearly perfect", then the conversation moves beyond "I liked it when it came out".

And please don't put words in my mouth. I don't like this story and I'm not alone. I said why the story is lacking for me. I never said squat about "pie-charts and character lineage".

That's all Rog said....

obsessive madness of the Jackal, and put Peter Parker through the wringer

I think it does that, too.

That doesn't make it almost perfect, which is the point where I picked up from.

If you want to talk about that, cool. If not, then I'm done.

The art is just fantastic, IMO, and I tend to measure all comic art against the Andru/Esposito/Giacoia/Hunt issues. It's my cup of meat, ya know?

Please forgive my inclusion of the 'pie-chart' comment, as it was not intended as a slight towards you or the people who do not like this story.