Spider-Man: The Clone Saga- Web of Death
PART 3
Writers: J.M. DeMatteis and Tom DeFalco
Artists: Mark Bagley and Sal Buscema
A beautiful tale exploring themes of life and death, Peter and Octavius' relationship, Kaine's vendetta, and MJ's pregnancy!
Ranking: 4 stars
Welcome to part 3 of CLONE MADNESS, where we get to delve into THE CLONE SAGA, a story that despite being notorious for bad story lines and plot twists, actually presented a lot of promise when it first started.
And I’m being sincere when I say that, as most of the early stories that I’ve read from THE CLONE SAGA have actually been pretty good, or at least showed great potential despite their setbacks. While POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY did waste most of it’s time on Judas Traveller’s nonsense, it did provide us great insight on Ben Reilly’s character and dilemmas, and THE EXILE RETURNS was simply an epic story which saw Ben prove his worth by doing what Peter Parker could never do: defeat Venom! This showed that THE CLONE SAGA not only started out with a lot of promise, but that the writers genuinely wanted to create a memorable and epic event for Spider-Man’s mythos. While that was unfortunately not the case, as the prolonging of the story and introduction of confusing and convoluted plot twists would eventually cause the entire saga to collapse, you can tell that the writers were trying to tell a good story in these early CLONE SAGA arcs. And that evidence of genuine thought and effort is present once again in today’s story arc, WEB OF DEATH. I should provide backstory for this comic, as there were two story arcs that took place between this one and THE EXILE RETURNS. One was the BACK FROM THE EDGE story arc, which I have not actually read, but know from research that Peter was poisoned by the Vulture in that story and is now dying as a result. The other was the title that coincided with this one, WEB OF LIFE, which focused on Scarlet Spider’s side of the overall CLONE SAGA narrative. That arc had Ben Reilly confront the Grim Hunter, who wanted revenge on Spider-Man for the death of his father Kraven, who had committed suicide in the KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT storyline. This was also the story that fully introduced Kaine as a major player in THE CLONE SAGA, as he went on a killing spree of murdering Spider-Man’s enemies, and Grim Hunter was one of his victims. While I understood what the writers were trying to accomplish with WEB OF LIFE, and saw the potential it had, the story itself ended up being just kind of “meh” to me. It’s counterpart WEB OF DEATH on the other hand, not only further advances the plot of THE CLONE SAGA while offering great character development for Peter, Doctor Octopus, Kaine, and Mary Jane, but also provides intriguing themes about life and death.
Set after the events of BACK FROM THE EDGE while also taking place at the same time as WEB OF LIFE, the story opens with Spider-Man swinging across the rainy skyline of Manhattan. As Spider-Man stresses over the poison that is slowly killing him, he is unaware that he is being watched from the shadows by two separate figures. One is Kaine, who despite holding an intense hatred for Ben Reilly, is revealed to possess a deep appreciation for Peter, and is determined to make sure that no one can prevent him from living a peaceful life (which was why he began killing off villains like the Grim Hunter). The other figure, who reveals himself after Peter passes out from his deteriorating health, is none other than Doctor Octopus, one of Spidey’s greatest foes. Instead of using this opportunity to kill his hated enemy, Octavius takes notice of both the wall-crawler’s physical condition, as well as his dark vigilantism as “the Spider” in previous story arcs. This begins to trouble Octavius as he reveals to himself that he has always seen Spider-Man as a window to the man he used to be before becoming a super-villain. With Peter Parker being the only outlet to his lost humanity, Doctor Octopus and his girlfriend Stunner take it upon themselves to find a cure for their once noble foe. By doing so, Octavius hopes that Peter will be able to regain his past humanity, and return a sense of twisted symmetry into Otto’s life as a super-villain. Faced with one of his deadliest enemies now trying to save him, Kaine targeting anyone he perceives as a threat to Peter’s happiness, and his wife revealing shocking news, will Peter be able to escape the web of madness that has recently spun his life out of control, and become the selfless and noble person that he once was?
It's kind of ironic that I’m writing this review just after my critique of FALLEN SON: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, as WEB OF DEATH is a story that delves into similar concepts such as fearing death and appreciating life. In my opinion, WEB OF DEATH’s greatest strength is that it uses these concepts to provide a sense of despair and humanity to it’s characters, allowing the reader to easily become invested in their plight. This is especially prevalent in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues, as they were written by J.M. DeMatteis, a long-time Spider-Man writer who did excellent work on the famous KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT storyline, as well as the severely underrated THE LOST YEARS (which I’ll cover in a future CLONE MADNESS review). A feature that I’ve noticed in DeMatteis’ writing is that he tends to drive the character’s narration on an emotional level, allowing the reader to fully grasp the emotional state of the characters that he writes. While sometimes his narration does come across as pretentious, more often or not it makes the character’s emotions come across as human and believable. Such is the case in WEB OF DEATH, as the intense amount of emotions conveyed through the writing make Doc Ock’s attempts to save Peter and Peter’s struggles to regain his humanity all the more captivating. The aforementioned themes of death and life help enhance the reader’s investment, as death is something that all individuals fear at one point, and by gaining greater appreciation for life, the desire to avoid death becomes even stronger. Therefore, the reader is compelled to want to see Peter overcome his deteriorating physical and mental health in order to regain what he values most in life, as well as Octavius’ attempts to help Peter reach that goal. The emotional weight present through DeMatteis’ writing (as well as Tom DeFaclo’s in the SPECTACULAR issues) of the characters and themes make WEB OF DEATH a powerhouse of both despair and relief.
Another prominent aspect that makes WEB OF DEATH a compelling storyline is it’s exploration of just how deep the relationship between Spidey and Doctor Octopus runs. In all of the stories that I’ve read before this, Doc Ock has been portrayed as a standard mad-scientist villain whose goals of carrying out illegal research are constantly interfered with by Spider-Man. However, I feel that this stereotypical portrayal of Octavius in most stories overshadowed the more interesting traits of his character that actually made him a complex parallel to Peter Parker. Like Peter, Octavius is also a man of science, understanding the value of knowledge, and desires to use his intellect and skills for the good of mankind. Unlike Peter however, Octavius did not grow up under the love and optimism of Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but instead under the shadow of an abusive father and weak yet overprotective mother. He also soon fell from innocence when his research resulted in a lab accident that drove him insane, transforming him into one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies. It was Octavius’ ability to act as a dark parallel to Spidey that made him an interesting villain in my eyes, and these mirroring traits were heavily explored in SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN, and they are here as well. In WEB OF DEATH, the reader learns that Octavius has always held a degree of appreciation for Spider-Man, as he sees in Parker the man that he once was before turning to evil. As such, Octavius feels that Spidey acts as the only anchor to his humanity, motivating him to save his enemy from the Vulture’s toxin. I found this new perspective of Otto’s relationship with Spider-Man to be fascinating, as it added a layer of humanity and dimension to the character that I feel several writers often overlook. As a result, the reader is able to feel sympathy for Octavius and want to see him succeed in saving Peter, despite being a villain. If I had one problem with this symbolism it’s that Octavius’ desire to keep Spidey alive only to purposefully fight him again later in the future feels a little too much like Batman and the Joker, but it is somewhat justified by Otto’s hoping that fighting Peter in a continuous loop will satisfy the connection with his lost humanity. Other than that, the symbolism behind Octavius’ attempts to save Peter provides emotional drama for both the character, and plot as a whole.
While WEB OF DEATH stands strong as a story on its own, it also introduces major plot points that help advance the overall narrative of THE CLONE SAGA. The first is that (SPOILER ALERT) this storyline reveals that Mary Jane now pregnant with Peter’s child. MJ’s pregnancy was first hinted at in POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY by having her feel nauseous while on an airplane, and again in WEB OF LIFE where a doctor gives her shocking news. The pregnancy was another concept introduced during THE CLONE SAGA that I felt possessed great potential. I like the idea of Peter and MJ having a child as it not only offered further development to their marriage, but would also act as a great motivator for Peter to temporarily give up being Spider-Man and let Ben take over later during the saga. Despite THE CLONE SAGA’s failure, it greatly benefited the overall narrative by providing Peter new responsibilities as a father while also allowing Ben Reilly to take up responsibility as the new Spider-Man (this idea was also used in THE “REAL” CLONE SAGA 6-issue miniseries). While the ultimate fate of Peter and MJ’s baby ended tragically in the saga’s finale, REVELATIONS, I still feel that the idea possessed great potential for future storyline while also advancing THE CLONE SAGA’s narrative. The other major plot point that was advanced in WEB OF DEATH was Kaine’s role in the saga. As I stated earlier, WEB OF LIFE introduced that while Kaine hates Ben Reilly, he is highly protective of Peter, and has begun killing several of Spidey’s enemies in order to protect him. This was presented in WEB OF DEATH by (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) having him murder Doctor Octopus at the end of this storyline. While I felt that the death of Doc Ock was rather abrupt, it didn’t bother me too much as the development and emphasis given to Octavius throughout the story showed that the writers were giving him a respectful farewell before killing him off (he was revived in a later story though…). This event also setup conflicts that took place later in the saga, and further establishing Kaine’s desire to protect Peter by having him go after prominent enemies rather than second-stringers like the Grim Hunter. Speaking of Kaine, the one of the reasons that I hold such deep appreciation for this character is because the writers had actually established his motivations and backstory before introducing him into the plot. I know this not just because of information read from THE LIFE OF REILLY essay, but also because Kaine’s narration both here and in earlier stories remains relevant to the later discovery of his true identity. While I feel that his inner monologues were somewhat redundant and could have been handled better in his early appearances (I personally feel that Kaine truly becomes a three-dimensional character once it's revealed that he's a "failed" Spider-Man clone later on in the saga), I still get enjoyment out Kaine in his earlier stories as along with Ben Reilly, he is one of my favorite characters introduced during THE CLONE SAGA (and I absolutely loved his SCARLET SPIDER solo-series that ran in 2012)!
If I had any legitimate criticisms with WEB OF DEATH, it would mainly be that the artwork is a mixed bag. While the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues illustrated by Mark Bagley (whose work on ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN I love) are wonderful, the SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN issues suffer under Sal Buscema’s artwork. Buscema is one of the many artists to suffer the horrible artistic trends introduced during the 90’s, as while his artwork started out decent, it rapidly devolved into scratchy pencil lines and heavy inks that were simply hideous as the saga progressed. While Buscema’s hideous art isn’t a major complaint, it’s somewhat distracting to half of what is an otherwise beautiful story. And on that note, WEB OF DEATH is a tragically engrossing story that contains emotionally captivating themes about life and death, unique character dynamics between Peter and Octavius, as well as plot points that helped advance the overall narrative of the saga. WEB OF DEATH is truly a sign that THE CLONE SAGA held great potential, as any story that is capable of capturing a reader’s emotions is one that shows signs of creativity and effort! Unfortunately, it would all start to go downhill in the next story arc, SMOKE AND MIRRORS…
“The amount of work and the amount of both physical and emotional investment it takes to get to the top.”
-Drew Bledsoe
