Nick Spencer left The Amazing Spider-Man to go work at Substack, the online newsletter site that somehow has seemingly billions of dollars to spend by offering contracts to every important comic book writer. Good riddance, as Spencer's run on The Amazing Spider-Man will go down as one of the worst in history. While the infamous, years long "Clone Saga" run might not have been the worst ever, it certainly was divisive. It ran from 1994 to 1996, a period that I didn't read Marvel comic books for one reason or another. The only thing I know about it is that Ben Reilly, Peter Parker's clone, became Spider-Man, and most people that read it back then either loved it or hated it. I doubt I'll ever read the "Clone Saga" simply because it took place over multiple years and multiple books and I don't think I want to read hundreds of issues. Well the new writers on The Amazing Spider-Man decided to make Ben Reilly Spider-Man again and be the star of the book. I'm not sure why they did this, though. I'd be happy if the book was just monthly and had one artist and one writer and Peter worked at The Bugle, look pictures, dated MJ, and fought bad guys. Oh, well. This issue, #80 (#881 in reality numbering), is Part 6 of 17 in the "Beyond" storyline. The book is now 3 times a month and has a whopping 5 writers working on it. No, I have no idea why there are 5 writers on this. Maybe if the story was shockingly awesome I wouldn't question it. After Spencer's terrible run, anything would be stellar, and "Beyond" has started out at least interesting. Peter Parker is in a coma. Ben Reilly is working for the Beyond Corporation who is controlling Spider-Man as a sort of corporate puppet with high-tech gadgetry. Of course the Beyond Corporation will turn out to be evil and Parker will wake up and return eventually. In this issue we have Ben Reilly fighting Kraven the Hunter. The climax has two big reveals; that the Beyond Corp wants to take out Miles Morales because they don't want another Spider-Man around and that Aunt May is getting Dr. Octopus to help her wake Peter up from his coma which is under mysterious circumstances. So there's a lot going on. The whole Kraven storyline, which lasted a mere two issues, was totally forgettable. It doesn't help that the Kraven mythos was fantastic but they fucked it up by bringing him back from the grave. And while this "Beyond" storyline is decent, I'm actually really excited what they're going to do after this. Will they keep 5 writers on board? What about the artists? This issue has Michael Dowling doing the art (it's okay) but they also have the superior Patrick Gleason doing some issues. All of the great covers are by Art Adams, although this particular cover is kind of lame. Spider-Man is a great character. Do you really need a frigging clone replacing him? Are they that bereft of ideas in this day and age? It took 5 writers to re-do the "Clone Saga?" Marvel's been floundering for awhile. Wake me up when they wake up. **
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