not a new topic but...

Since the board's been dead I thought I would make like Johnny Storm and bring in the old Clone Saga flame war back.

So the question is

'What could Marvel have done to make it better?'

I'll start.

1) Remove the Jackyl from the picture. His addition to the story was not needed (at least early on). Perhaps he could have been brought in later to say who the clone was. Leave it strictly as a personal dilemma for them. Who is the clone? Who should be Spider-man? How will you explain this long lost 'relative' to your friends?

2) Actually clear up the issue that says Peter is the clone. I've read this thing 5 or 6 times and nowhere do the results point to Peter being the clone (unless the writer was trying to say that they were both clones). The finding were that Peter and Ben were exactly the same. Therefore no genetic drift that is a comic/scifi staple. If thats that's the case then either they are both clones (thus the drift from the original is the same) or the genetic drift scenario is a fallacy, thus is not a valid way to differentiate between the two.

3) Removing Peter's powers. Why? And how did they return (sorry I can't remember this)?

4) Bringing the Norman Osborn back. Not I didn't say the Green Goblin. They could have easily returned Harry as the Goblin (faked his death). He has the knowledge and the access to the pharmecuticals. But Norman should have stayed dead.

I will state that I did not have a real problem with Ben being the 'real' Peter. I did have a problem with how they threw him away when the Goblin returned.

Things I liked.

1) Ben. He was the old Peter. Girl problems, no money, etc. All the things that made Peter/Spidey waht he is. Peter being married just never real worked for me. The relationship was poorly scripted after the first year or two of marriage.

2) Peter stepping down to raise his family. This made sense. Peter was able to off-load the responsibility of being Spidey on a full-time basis.

3) Aunt May's death. This was such a well done issue that bringing her back made no sense except for the bait and switch.

All thoughts and flames are welcome.

I loved the clone saga until they retracted having Ben Reilly as Spider-Man. That was a mistake in my opinion. I did like the 'Revelations' story over all, and was excited to see the return of the original Green Goblin. I didn't have a problem with bringing Norman Osborn back. Having him turn out to be the one behind the whole thing was the only thing that didn't make me really pissed off about the ending. I was able to accept it because of that.

I agree with the things you liked about it, and some of the things you didn't.

I always really liked Ben, he was my favorite by far. Scarlet-spider was great.

They should have kept him.