I have a confession to make...

After reading this short article on Comics Alliance, I feel I need to come clean. In all of my years of reading comics, I have never admitted this to anyone. I feel that it is my deepest, darkest secret, one that would bring shame upon my family should it ever come to light. This secret is the true reason I have never run for public office, for it would surely bury my political career. But I am ready to let it out. I feel it would be cathartic for me to do so, and help me to grow both spiritually and physically. So, here goes.

I enjoyed the Clone Saga.

Now hear me out before you crucify me.

There was a lot of good stories hidden within the Clone Saga. Granted, the bad outweighed the good by a huge margin, but the good was still there.

For starters, Marvel finally brought closure to the clone story. Who is the real Peter Parker? That question was (possibly) sitting in many people's heads after reading the original Clone story from the mid 70s. Though they had insinuated that the Peter Parker we know was the true Spider-Man, it would never be known for certain.

Despite what most people believe, I feel that Ben Reilly is an interesting character. I enjoyed his run as the Scarlet Spider, mostly due to his piece-meal costume of a red body suit, sleeveless hoodie, and webshooters on the outside look. It was a nice change of pace when he took up the Spider-Man mantle, allowing Peter to have a normal life with his family (though I hated the costume changes made when he took over.)

Another aspect that I liked was the Phil Urich Green Goblin. Being used to all villainous goblins, making one a hero was a nice move on Marvel's part. I loved the 13 issue series he had, in which they introduced some intriguing villains, some that I wish they would bring back today. And Phil certainly showed his heroic side when he destroyed his equipment in a battle against a Sentinel at the end of the Onslaught saga, forcing him to give up the hero biz.

Kaine was also an interesting character. Later revealed to be an early, disfigured clone of Peter Parker, Marvel kept readers wondering what the hell was going on with him. Kaine would do anything to protect Spider-Man, but wanted to destroy Ben Reilly at all costs. The final revelation came a quite a shock to me, even though it opened the can of worms for the whole clone extravaganza.

Let's not forget that the final wrap up to the Clone Saga brought about the return of Norman Osborn. If Marvel had not been in a tizzy to end the Clone Saga, then the current events of the Marvel Universe would never come to light. Norman would not become the head of the Thunderbolts. He would not have been the hero at the end of Secret Wars. Dark reign would be non-existent.

I decided to do a little research about the Clone Saga before writing this. What I discovered was some very shocking information. As a teenager, I had no idea that all of this shit was happening in the Marvel Bullpen. The marketing department had more control than the creative department? Two Editors-In-Chief had been terminated during the whole debacle? Most of this information was strange to hear. What I did learn was that the Clone Saga was, more or less, a disastrous attempt to sell comic books, but it did succeed in it's mission. At the time, Marvel was undergoing a huge financial crisis, and near bankruptcy. If this storyline helped them in anyway to keep their heads above water and stay in business until they were purchased by Toy Biz, then I would have to count that as another positive attribute of the Clone Saga. (I highly recommend you read the Wikipedia article. It is very interesting.)

I will be one of the first to admit that the Clone Saga storyline is a blight on the Spider-Man mythos. It was far too convoluted to be understood without multiple read-throughs. However, it brought about many positives, which are often overlooked when it comes up as a topic of discussion. Like everything else, it should be given a chance before it is destroyed. And like most of our mothers told us when we were kids, "If you can't say anything nice, then avoid talking about the Clone Saga." OK, that might have been paraphrased, but you get the point.