This Spider-Clone recap is a lot less painful, if you didn't pay for those comics...

From Spider-Man: 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga, written by Mark Bernardo, pencils by Ben Herrera, inks by Mike Christian. The 1990's Spider-Man editorial crew, writers, and passersby debate and suggest multiple ways to wrap up the Spider-Clone storyline, which had already snowballed out of control.

I dug this issue back up, since over at the ever-entertaining Doomkopf a recent post asked the imminently fair question, who's bright idea was it to revisit the Clone Saga? Not to encourage going back to the well or anything, but there was plenty of other wells to choose from, don't go back to the poisoned water-hole.

My question is: If you go by the theory that all of Spidey’s stories, from 1962 on, are compressed in Marvel time into a sliding timeline of the last ten years or so; then how long was the Clone Saga for Spidey? A year or more? A couple of months? A few weeks? A really hectic afternoon? Keep in mind...I don't really care enough to look up exactly how long the Clone Saga ran for the poor fans that were buying it. (Oh, all right: from October 1994 to December 1996.)

Two more prescient bits from 101 Ways, after the break!

Glenn Greenberg shoots down a possible resolution, that would also have written Mary Jane Watson-Parker out of the book, on the grounds that she was still pretty popular. (Maybe that should be 'pretty, popular.') That seems to be a problem the Spider-books still reoccurringly struggle with, and arguably have since well before this issue as well: The creators and the fans like MJ, and want her around; but seemingly don't want Peter to be 'tied down.' (Supposedly. I don't think I had a problem with married Spider-Man, but I don't buy enough new Spidey comics to have a vote!)

And I'm positive someone else must've pointed this out by now: the "Greenberg Gambit," a last ditch attempt at appeasing both the Ben Reilly fans and the Peter Parker hardcore: mysterious villain Scrier was really Mephisto in disguise, who tries to take "Ben's" soul by throwing "Peter" back in time: Peter and Ben were the same person all along, just at different points in the timestream. One editor points out that "seems a little cosmic for Spidey," while continuity expert Peter B. Gillis seemingly undercuts the idea by noting, "If Mephisto is the prince of lies...why should anyone, including the reader, believe him?" Man, wish you'd been in on One More Day, Mr. Gillis...

This is a silly little read, but it may just alleviate a bit of the pain the Clone Saga may have caused you. Plus, if you find a copy, you can check out Tom DeFalco's two word solution, which was at least partially used!

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"Test yours today!"

I know traditionally you should test your fire alarms when you change your clocks forward or back for daylight savings time; but if you haven't, well, now's good. Well, maybe not now now, it's like five in the morning. But soon, 'kay?

Anyway, the other day I picked up Sunfire there--the angry guy with the dot, yeah--for $5.99 at a Ross. He was originally a Hasbro online exclusive, I believe, but the last of them are going to clearance stores. Not a bad figure, but I don't know a lot about Sunfire: of course, he was one of the second batch of X-Men but only briefly, the figure is based on his redesign for the Age of Apocalypse that's somehow become his current look, and his default personality trait is total asshole.

What the hell do you suppose these guys smell like, though? Jack O'Lantern's flame is some kind of special effect; and he probably smells more like metal and explosives than anything. Firestorm, I don't know if that's really burning, but it probably smells like radiation. Ditto Sunfire. The Ghost Riders smell like leather, motorcycles, and the torments of the damned. Johnny Storm smells like a campfire made of Axe body spray samples. And there has got to be like no oxygen in that room.

Anyway, possibly maybe something else later. Unless I'm busy. Sorry. Busy actually reading comics. I was going to get the new Mike Grell Warlord #1, but my local shop sold out! They'll get more, but check out Doomkopf, it's their Book of Doom this week! Instead, I got another copy of the relaunch, Warlord #10. That was the last issue, and I've said this elsewhere: that series started with a lot of potential. The last issue has sweet Phil Winslade art. It is also one of the most terrible single issues, ever. I think I have three copies of it, which is a substantial portion of the press run, but I'm keeping them from falling into the wrong hands...maybe. Let me think about that one, and we may even take a look at it. Knives out.
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(Mostly) Off-topic: Coming soon, and more.


It's still Wednesday as I write this, but with the holiday no new comics today. And I was getting excited to pick up Silver Surfer: Requiem, since it's the Book of Doom at Doomkopf.com, the Legion of Doom this week, and I'm guesting over there! Be sure to hit them up on Saturday, and see if it's worth buying, like the last Surfer limited, or if it's utter tripe, like the one before that.

I had other stuff lined up for here, but felt kind of lost today.

I miss video games.

I know that's probably an odd thing to say, since they are pretty much everywhere. Part of it is, I don't have as much time to sit around playing them anymore, either because of blogging or because of the kids. The Oldest and I used to play old school games on the Playstation 2 quite a bit, until the Youngest finally was able to roll off the bed if you weren't looking. (I swear, he only did that once, and he had never rolled before! 'Course, it did put him off rolling for a while afterwards...)

I picked up the X-Men 3 movie tie-in game a while ago out of a clearance bin; it's not a masterpiece of gaming, but I wanted to see why Nightcrawler bagged out of the third movie. Still, I haven't devoted any time to playing it; not because it's not interesting, but I don't seem to have the obsessive drive to finish a game right fricking now anymore.

I also miss arcade games, and the days when they were in every pizza parlor, convenience store, and mall. Oh, there's still a couple in town, but the games are becoming decrepit, eat quarters without starting, and are handled by progressively stickier children and surly pre-teens. And I've reached that age where I seem suspicious hanging out in an arcade without my own kids (thank you, Dateline...) yet taking them involves herding the Youngest and feeding quarters to the Oldest. My days of being able to quietly play Marvel vs. Capcom are over. (Also, my gaming skills are atrophying from age and disuse. I can't combo for anything...)

That said, I've been going to the gym again, doing yoga with my wife, and hitting the stationary bike and stair machines. I'm all about the cardio, and don't do a lot of lifting, but left to my own devices I'll bike or climb for an hour or two at a time. The problem now is keeping my mind occupied while droning along on the machine: the headphones are on, but that's not enough. Yesterday, one TV had WNBA, the other had the Rob Lowe movie Youngblood. Rrrrr. I've been re-reading Marvel Adventures collections--not the digest versions, so they're big enough to be easily handled and read, but I'm running out.

The Spider-Man game above was on sale at Target, and I waited a day before convincing myself I needed it more than air or food. I find myself doubting the gameplay is especially 'deep,' (Note: yeah, it's not.) but I like these little games as display pieces as well.

And after I jotted this down this afternoon, I went to the comic store anyway, since I had time after dropping the Oldest at basketball. Bought 14 bucks worth of quarter books, which I've barely made a dent on yet. I'll see what's worth a quarter, what I should've bought at full price, and what I should've got for less; and get back to you.
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