Scans_Daily

Ah, the Ultimate Clone Saga.
Not even worth the name. It barely confused anybody!

Hey, Ultimate Scorpion!
They never said what happened to him after Reed handed him over to Fury...
(Always figured the later other Scorpion would turn out to be him somehow. Stranger things and all that.)

I like that Johnny knows to go ew about the tail implant.
Although it's probably because of the words "spinal cord". Let's face it, there's not really any instance where you wanna be hearing that word in a sentence without the words "is completely fine".

-"No cloning. It's too controversial."-
"Unless we really need a Spider-Man clone to deliver clunky exposition, of course."

Hey, Ultimate Jess!
... you know, I was coming in here with this whole speculatory thing about whether Bendis didn't like Jess for some reason, because he barely had her show up (understandably, but still...), and when he did, especially in the Miles era, had her doing incredibly stupid things, and whether he'd been meaning to kill her off at the outset.
But nope, here she is in her first appearance, making idiotic decisions for no reason, so there goes that theory.

I do like her outfit. It works pretty well, has a nice colour-scheme, keeps the spider theme... why would anyone feel the need to change it?

Hey, Gwen, you're alive. And before Peter could even get all the angst out.

-"I was trying to protect you!"
"From what?"
"From this!"-
May has a point there. That unnecessarily dramatic entrance was a total dick move.
However... she's yelling at Peter for not telling her he was Spider-Man, when she said he was a coward a few weeks / months / whatever ago.
Probably a good thing Peter didn't bring that up, actually... Aunt May would probably glare him straight to Oblivion.

You left out the bit about the spoon.
You left out the bit about the spoon!
But that's the best bit of the completely-made-up flashback!
It's so quotable...

Don't you just hate when your friends come back from the dead and then turn out to be genetic monstrosities created using your blood?
Think we've all been there, amirite?

Aww, and the "hey, I'm not done childishly taunting you" bit's not here...

I do like how the SHIELD robots decide to shoot at Susan even when Nick Fury hasn't actually told them to.
Yup, shoot at them. It's not like one of them can punch out the Hulk or anything...
Why, it is utterly impossible to think that anyone wouldn't trust Nick Fury after something like this.

-"Don't rupture your spleen"-
Jessica Drew there, abducting the lead character and making herself lovable at the same time.
How does she do it?
(Must be that sexy hair...)

Though the most of her unmasking is sort of ruined by Bagley's drawing style meaning she does look pretty much exactly like Kitty.
... and if she's a clone, with no abode, no money and she's only been around for a few days... the hell'd she get the lipstick from?
Or, like Asami Sato, does she naturally look like her makeup's always just been done no matter where or when she is?

... I was going to complain about why Ben Reilly was giving this long monologue when there's no real reason, but hey, there is. There's a reason for the Monologue. It's cool.
(I get why we, the audience, would need it, but it's still pretty silly that part of their plan involves giving a monologue. Sneaky bastards.)

Oh, hey, Madame Web!
Bye, Madame Web!
... we never did find out what happened to her. Or Ben, for that matter.
Maybe they decided to go back to the cloning board?

... and there's a thing. Here, throughout this storyline, the cloning is said to be the brainchild of the FBI.
So why does everything after say it's because of Roxxon when they aren't even mentioned in any way here?
What up with that?
(And why'd they bother just cloning Peter? Why not clone Cap? How difficult could it be to get a DNA sample from Steve? Pretty sure two people in labcoats could just waltz into the Triskellion and no-one'd bother checking their ID. I mean, Otto at least has the excuse of doing it out of spite, but why is the FBI signing off on this?)

Oh, hey, MJ got injected with OZ. They sure fixed that one quick.
Yeah, sure, there were those two or three times she had nightmares or tremors, but those didn't come to anything.
(I did actually think during Death of Spider-Man that she'd Hulk Out and save Peter from Norman. But nope.)

-"It's not my place."-
...
When has that ever stopped you wiping people's memories before?
I mean, yeah, this time you're not going to do it, and you're right not to, but Professor X? You are a Terrible Person!

That is a very sweet hug, though.
They both needed that hug.

-"Reed Richards is awesome"-
"I sure hope he doesn't go crazy and evil for no real reason one day!"

Six whole panels just to show Kitty looking hurt? Really? Really?
Three would've been enough.

... while that scene with MJ having a flashback is pretty serious stuff, it probably would have been a bit more effective if Bendis hadn't had her doing the freaking "AIIEEE!"

Y'know, I taunt, but this was actually one of the better stories. Some good stuff, nice ideas, Jess, the worst of the Bendisisms either kept to a minimum or at least given some justification, and a shake-up to the status quo worthy of the hundredth issue.