Scan barcode
snorful's review against another edition
3.0
Det är 90-tal, det är spindelmannen. Det är hockeyfrillor och det är benfickor. Små påsar på benen och fräna hoodies. Störtlöjliga skurkar och symbioter och knockoffs av arkham asylum. Vet man vad man ger sig in på så funkar det nästan.
uosdwisrdewoh's review against another edition
2.0
Fascinatingly bad.
I read this legendarily ill-conceived storyline when I was a teenager, but, like so many, never finished it as it dragged on for two-plus years over the course of over a hundred comics. Now Marvel is inexplicably collecting it in book form (it will probably take up to eight or nine fat volumes when done). Well, almost inexplicably. Marvel likely predicted that people like me would see it on a shelf and that morbid curiosity would lead them to see just how it holds up today.
A lot of work on the Spider-Man titles over the years has been a long tug of war to rejuvenate the character and to make him last past his creative lifetime. This has whiplashed between attempts to change the status quo (Have him get married! Get a great job!) and attempts to return him to being the struggling everyman superhero made him such an original creation in 1962. Only recently has one of those attempts, however controversial, stuck. This was one of the failed attempts, and it was an epic disaster of a story.
The long term plan for the clone saga (which later went way, way off the rails) was to have Spider-Man's clone from the 70s come back from the dead and eventually be revealed as the original and to take up the costume as the new Spider-Man. The storyline veers horribly later on, but in this volume, it's largely on course. It still suffers from awful 90s excesses (mystery men! bad dialogue!), especially the decision to have Spider-Man succumb to the darkness and discard his secret identity altogether as his life falls completely apart (again, one of those attempts to do something, anything, new with Peter Parker). Some surprisingly talented creators (J. M. DeMatteis, John Romita, Jr., Marvel stalwart Sal Buscema) show up here alongside the staff writers and journeymen artists that fill the rest of the pages. But even the gifted DeMatteis struggles with this material, raising interesting ideas about the nature of identity, but smothering those ideas in portentous, melodramatic writing and dodgy plotting.
A fun trip through the past for me, but by no means a good story on its own merits.
I read this legendarily ill-conceived storyline when I was a teenager, but, like so many, never finished it as it dragged on for two-plus years over the course of over a hundred comics. Now Marvel is inexplicably collecting it in book form (it will probably take up to eight or nine fat volumes when done). Well, almost inexplicably. Marvel likely predicted that people like me would see it on a shelf and that morbid curiosity would lead them to see just how it holds up today.
A lot of work on the Spider-Man titles over the years has been a long tug of war to rejuvenate the character and to make him last past his creative lifetime. This has whiplashed between attempts to change the status quo (Have him get married! Get a great job!) and attempts to return him to being the struggling everyman superhero made him such an original creation in 1962. Only recently has one of those attempts, however controversial, stuck. This was one of the failed attempts, and it was an epic disaster of a story.
The long term plan for the clone saga (which later went way, way off the rails) was to have Spider-Man's clone from the 70s come back from the dead and eventually be revealed as the original and to take up the costume as the new Spider-Man. The storyline veers horribly later on, but in this volume, it's largely on course. It still suffers from awful 90s excesses (mystery men! bad dialogue!), especially the decision to have Spider-Man succumb to the darkness and discard his secret identity altogether as his life falls completely apart (again, one of those attempts to do something, anything, new with Peter Parker). Some surprisingly talented creators (J. M. DeMatteis, John Romita, Jr., Marvel stalwart Sal Buscema) show up here alongside the staff writers and journeymen artists that fill the rest of the pages. But even the gifted DeMatteis struggles with this material, raising interesting ideas about the nature of identity, but smothering those ideas in portentous, melodramatic writing and dodgy plotting.
A fun trip through the past for me, but by no means a good story on its own merits.
jonathancrites's review against another edition
3.0
Picked this up on a whim last time I went to our local library branch (they are now open!). I was tangentially aware this story was going on when I was a kid, I picked this up and it was pretty good. The art has the disadvantage of changing as the story switches across titles, so it is somewhat inconsistent. Still, an interesting start to a huge story and I’ll probably try and read the rest.
library_jones's review against another edition
4.0
Is it weird that I enjoyed this? Or at least this part of the story. Reading further into the event shows why the Clone Saga has the reputation it does, but this first installment has an interesting premise and plenty of mystery. The issues written by J.M. DeMatteis are particularly good. Maybe it's because I'm a 90s kid, but I love the Scarlet Spider costume and think he was actually the more heroic of the two Spider-Men at the time. It's a shame that the event spiraled out of control but it got off to an interesting start.
More...