Spider-man/Daredevil: Send in the Clone!

[badficwriter]

Just in time for Day 1 (Friendship) of 30 Days of Winter!

Originally posted on Scans_Daily 1.0: 2006-03-21 15:08:00

During the infamous Clone Saga, Peter Parker was replaced by his clone, who called himself Ben Reilly. Except that Ben and Peter thought that Ben was the original Peter Parker, after being cloned wayyyyyy back in Amazing Spider-man 127 (i think), with all Peter's memories up to that point. It was very complicated.

At this point, Peter is retired to play expectant father and Bugle photographer while Ben donned a new version of the costume to fill the Spider-man role. They explained their resemblance as cousins (Ben dyed his hair blond) and acted like two goofy brothers. As part of Ben's 're-introduction' to the superhero community, he got to meet and work with Daredevil (the 'big brother', as it were).

July 1996. Daredevil 354 (7 pages worth of scans) Writer: Karl Kesel. Artists: Cary Nord, Matt Ryan.



Both Matt and Pete and Ben have gotten over some of the worst times in their lives (The 'I Am The Spider!' incident, most of Clone Saga, and Matt's faking his own death and subsequent multiple personality breakdown) and are in a rare moment of simultaneous happiness that accompanies the recovery period writers give readers.



Just as an interesting note: Matt told the world at large SHIELD put him in hiding to protect him from a supervillain and replaced him with a robot. Isn't the comic book world nifty?



All three of those people knew Matt's secret (!) identity. But none of them knew the others knew it. :)



Matt is so practiced at the Art of Manipulating Spider-people. And the Clone Saga, explained in just one panel! How can you beat that? Well, there's always Matt's response to the whole mess....







With the Shooter reminded by the helpful Spidey that DD is right there, Matty has to join Ben behind his brick wall.



Then they hit the Shooter with a watertower.



"...and the bad."

Matt and Ben don't get too much time together, as Ben isn't long for this world. But they did get one more surprisingly fun team-up in a Spider-man book.

Nov 1996. Spider-man 74. (4 and a half pages of scans) Writer: Howard Mackie. Artists: Al Williamson, John Romita jr.



Daredevil hears some interesting info from someone he's just taken down.



Once he's there, Matty sees some old friends...Hydra! And Ben's already broken out, of course.



Villains posture, they fight, they chat about recent events. Apparently, the Onslaught special event left these two the only heroes left in Manhattan.





"often." This page was a bitch to scan. It's from the period of time when panels were sometimes printed sideways, the theory being this gave them more room. Spider-clone finds himself in the position of having to save Tombstone's life whilst trying to hitch a ride on the rescue chopper.



This part makes me sniffle. 'Mr. Spider'! 'Mr. Devil'! And poor, sweet clone Ben, thinking everything will work out.


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Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

now See THAT Romita art i LIKE, dont like his current stuff on Avengers....

[thehefner]

Second time today I've heard someone dislike his Avengers work. I didn't mind it, but I suspect the difference between that Romita Jr and this Romita Jr may be Avengers inker Klaus Janson, who does some of the ugliest inks I've ever seen. I can only speculate how much better Dark Knight Returns would have looked if Miller inked himself.

[skalja]

It's not just that - he's noticeably boxier and more cartoony in 2010 than he was in 1996, or even the early/mid-2000s.

[badficwriter]

I dunno, his X-men period was the MOST boxy, IMO. But it did vary from time to time.

[skalja]

But was it as heavily cartoony? If you look at his art in, say, Kick-Ass and current Avengers, everyone's gone kinda rubbery with a giant head.

[citygod]

Oh, I can't let that pass! Klaus Janson is one of my favourite inkers and his work with Miller made Franks work much more fluid, not more boxy! Look at some of the work that Miller did at the same time as Dark Knight Returns - Ronin, for example. Very rough, quite crude (deliberately) but then Janson really smooths out his linework and creates much smoother textures and tones. And some of the Daredevil pages that Janson coloured, as well as inked, are lovely, and very slick.
JRJR seems to be "doing" Dark Knight era Miller, so I guess that's why he's working with Janson. (It's not working for me, though.)

[thehefner]

I was worried that my comment was gonna be sacrilege of some kind. But sorry, while I appreciate his own artwork (usually), I really dislike what he does to others' pencils. Then again, I'm of the opinion that Sienkiewicz's inks improve any pencils, regardless of artist, so take that how you will.

Agreed, Miller's inks on Ronin were hideous, but on the other side, I think Elektra Lives Again was the best color artwork he's ever done (half of which credit goes to Lynn Varley, before she discovered computer coloring). It's that Miller I'm thinking of in my dream Dark Knight Returns.

[badficwriter]

Pretty much any artist's style goes through good and bad stages. Janson said that Miller's work was very uneven. Considering the mix of hideous/neat, I can believe it.

[skalja]

The "Mr. Devil"/"Mr. Spider" exchange is one of my FAVORITE Spidey/DD moments.

I miss how comfortable Peter/Ben and Matt are with each other here -- it wasn't long after this that they started losing track of that, wasn't it?

[badficwriter]

Yar. Its funny but Peter is slightly more formal/older acting with Matt than Ben was. And Matt just gets more formal as the years go by.

Of course, it could be that Mackie is actually pretty good at dialogue. O_o

[skalja]

I'm not sure I'd say "older acting" or even "more formal" as that he gets increasingly distant as the 2000s go by. They both do, really. Matt's always been alternately tender and tough-love to Peter, but these days he just holds him at arms' length, and Peter's stopped being clingy.

And yeah, for all his (mostly justified) bad rep, Mackie's written some real gems. Hard to say how much of the awfulness was him and how much was constant editorial meddling.

[skalja]

Also! Between this, that time Matt lectured Peter on proper hydration (in Unusual Suspects) and that time Peter raided Matt's fridge and drank his milk straight from the carton (... I forget when), there is a noticeable trend of Matt mother-henning feeding Peter. What's up with that?

[badficwriter]

Aha! Food is Spider-man's weakness! Daredevil uses this vulnerability against him, thereby conditioning Spider-man to think of food when he thinks of Daredevil! See, thats how this entry falls under Weakness Week, too, see.. /planned it that way

(the stealing of milk is from Secret War by Bendis)

[skalja]

Or, you know, he's just being a brommy (bro + mommy).

Ah, yes, Secret War, my first event book. You know, on further consideration, as much as that scene makes me laugh for the whole food trend thing, it also really bothers me because it's playing Peter's casual ableism for laughs. It's a jerk move to pull on a guy who can't see (or, well, anyone, but especially a guy who can't see, no matter his other powers).

Things I am also tired of: Peter using a visual metaphor or making an assumption that would require Matt to be able to see, and then awkwardly backtracking.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Now THAT'S the way to efficiently handle a team-up! Get the 'Who are you, mister? Talk fast!' bit out of the way first, forego the traditional battle in favor of a hot dog, and wrap the whole thing up in one page so you can get to the good stuff. I approve.

[badficwriter]

I wouldn't be surprised if the motivation wasn't also "Let's have him explain the Clone Saga off-panel." >_>

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, yeah - at that point, nobody really wanted to hear about it ON-panel, I'm guessing.

[joysweeper]

Aww, that's cute.

[felinephoenix]

And then they had a very grumpy baby.

Seriously, though, that summary panel might be one of my favorite things from the Clone Saga. Aside from Ben, which let's face it, was pretty much the only good thing.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Okay, that fight against 'Shooter' was hilarious. I love how DD just casually suggest Shooter go after Spider-Man, and how he listens.

Also

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Shooter's firing a Browning 50 Cal, and switches to shot gun shells? Is this supposed to be a villain mistake, or writers?

Re: Also

[badficwriter]

Well, he wasn't having any effect with the Browning. I believe he's just stupidly following the Devil's Advocate who's casually suggesting he show all his weaponry. Maybe the shotgun had scatter effect to cover larger area? I dunno.

[bradhanon]

Am I the only one who really, really liked Cary Nord's art, and misses it?

[badficwriter]

I liked it, but 'cartoony' art seems not in vogue at Marvel, anyway.