Spider-Man: The Clone Saga- The Lost Years
PART 7
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Artists: John Romita Jr. (Pencils) and Klaus Janson (Inks)
Hands down my favorite CLONE SAGA story! THE LOST YEARS heavily fleshes out Ben Reilly and Kaine’s rivalry & characterizations!
Ranking: 5 stars
Welcome to part 7 of CLONE MADNESS ladies and gentlemen, where we explore one of the most infamous Spider-Man comics of all-time... which actually managed to produce some great characters such as the two Spider-Man clones: Ben Reilly and Kaine!
To be perfectly honest, I’m kinda cheating in reviewing this one before I go over THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER. There are two reasons as to why I want to discuss my thoughts on THE LOST YEARS first though. The first is that while THE LOST YEARS was published directly after THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER, chronologically it takes place before all of the other CLONE SAGA stories I’ve reviewed so far, and acts as somewhat of a prequel to the events in THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER. The other reason is that THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER and the story that later followed MAXIMUM CLONAGE (yes, that actually was the title), are widely considered to be the absolute worst stories of the entire CLONE SAGA. Essentially, before I cover the worst CLONE SAGA stories, I felt it would be a good idea to go over my absolute favorite story of the entire saga, THE LOST YEARS! While stories such as THE EXILE RETURNS, WEB OF DEATH, and THE GIFT were spectacular in my opinion, none of them have managed to match the story quality and complex characterization found in this storyline. As I’ve stated in previous CLONE SAGA reviews, one of the major elements of Ben Reilly’s backstory was that after discovering that he was a clone and not the original Peter Parker, he traveled across the country on his own for the past five years in the hopes of coming to terms with his identity. While this five-year period was important for Ben's development into the character that he is today, we never actually got to see what exactly happened during that period of time. That’s where THE LOST YEARS comes in, which was proposed as a franchise that would explore Ben’s experiences while traveling across America. Although only one three-issue miniseries (though technically four if you include the 0th issue, but that contained pages from THE DOUBLE, and wasn’t related to the main storyline) and a 4-issue sequel called THE REDEMPTION ended up being published, THE LOST YEARS stands as not only my favorite story of the entire CLONE SAGA, but is quite easily one of the most underrated Spider-Man comics of all-time! While the story accomplishes its goals in explaining the events that led to Peter Parker being framed for murder in Salt Lake City and exploring Ben’s travels, it goes even further by delving into the origins of Ben and Kaine’s rivalry, conveying dualistic and complex characterizations for both of them while fleshing out the rest of the cast as well.
DISCLAIMER: (For those who have not read this masterpiece, I’m sorry but there are spoilers throughout this review. If you’re legitimately curious, I highly recommend that you go ahead and read it. Trust me, you won’t regret it!)
Written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by John Romita Jr., the story opens on the rainy interstate just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, where a truck driver suddenly suffers a heart attack during the downpour. Just before his truck crashes into another car, a mysterious figure is able to stop the truck with his bare hands while getting the driver out to perform CPR on him. The individual then escapes on his motorcycle, where he is revealed to be Ben Reilly, the clone of Spider-Man who was created by the Jackal to kill the web-swinger. While Ben was supposedly killed in the battle, the clone somehow managed to survive and fled New York after discovering that he was a clone and not the original Peter Parker. After three years on the road, Ben has no arrived to Salt Lake City, where he hopes to gain some degree of a normal life through the creation of false identity and acquirement of a job. While Ben hopes that this will distance him from Peter’s memories, he still feels a shred of guilt for lying about his life as it goes against the principles Uncle Ben taught Peter. Fortunately for Ben though, life begins to show a shred of hope for him when he meets Janine, who becomes first woman that Ben would open his heart to. Unknown to Ben however, he has been followed to Salt Lake City by Kaine, the less successful clone of Spider-Man, who also manages to discover love in the form of Louise Kennedy, the partner of Detective Jacob Raven (the man who would eventually arrest Peter for murder charges during THE CLONE SAGA). As Ben and Kaine attempt to gain some resemblance of a normal life, their anchors of hope are soon shattered when Ben, Kaine, Raven, Janine, and Louise become ensnared in the web of a ruthless crime lord named Vincent Tannen, who is attempting to spread drugs and corruption into the once peaceful city. The lives of all these individuals will be changed forever in a story of love, hope, despair, happiness, betrayal, and tragedy.
Out of all the CLONE SAGA stories that I’ve read and reviewed so far, THE LOST YEARS quite easily stands out as my favorite one! While J.M. DeMatteis succeeds in telling a compelling story about Ben’s travels on the road and the events behind the murders that Peter is later framed for, THE LOST YEARS accomplishes far more than just it's original intentions. In my opinion, the most memorable stories are the ones that provide not just compelling plots, but also complex characters that readers can understand and connect with. DeMatteis excels in this department, as he heavily fleshes out not just the dualistic personalities of Ben and Kaine, but also the entire supporting cast as well. Providing any character three-dimensional development is already a difficult task for most writers to accomplish, so for DeMatteis to flesh out not just an entire cast of characters, but one that is mostly unfamiliar to the Spidey fans is an accomplishment worthy of recognition.
The characters that receive the most development in this story are the two clones of Spider-Man, Ben Reilly and Kaine. As I’ve stated throughout these reviews, these two are my favorite characters that were created during the saga, and THE LOST YEARS is a perfect example of why that is. With Ben, one of the most interesting aspects about his character in my opinion has been his identity crisis. While Ben is a clone of Peter Parker, he still possesses all of the memories and experiences of the original. This creates an interesting dilemma as while Ben is tempted to take back a life that is not actually his, he is still bound to the morals and lessons taught by Peter’s Uncle, which has led him to traveling the country in the hopes of forging his own identity. I felt that this aspect of Ben was heavily emphasized throughout THE LOST YEARS, as we see Ben attempting to create a life of his own by holding a job at the Science department of Salt Lake City’s university, as well as developing a romance with Janine. However, the reader is simultaneously exposed to Ben’s identity crisis, as while he wants to distance himself from Peter, he can’t bear to let go of certain elements of Peter’s life, such as guilt for gaining a job under a false ID (as it goes against Uncle Ben’s teachings), as well as fighting rising crime wave as a masked superhero (even though he’s trying to avoid any connections to Spider-Man). Ben’s struggles to develop his identity help create a three-dimensional dilemma for his character. In him we see a man who while struggling to let go of aspects of a life that’s not actually his own, attempts to create his own persona by finding a new career while also forging new relationships with others. As a result, these dilemmas perfectly convey the transition of Ben from a clone without an identity of his own, into the stronger and more optimistic character that we have seen in the present day.
While Ben’s dilemmas have him develop hope and optimism in the face of adversity, Kaine’s character development on the other hand, goes in a much darker direction than Ben’s. Kaine is a Spider-Man villain that I feel deserves much more attention and praise than he has gotten. Unlike the useless CLONE SAGA villains like Judas Traveller and Scrier, Kaine not only has three-dimensional depth and development that is on par with, if not equal to that of Ben Reilly, but also acts as a perfect foil for Ben as well. While both Kaine and Ben are clones of Peter Parker, Ben was one of the few successful clones to be created by the Jackal. Kaine on the other-hand, suffered from a condition called “clone degeneration,” which was slowly destroying his body on a cellular level due to a flaw in the cloning process. As a result, Kaine has developed an intense hatred for Ben Reilly, who he mistakenly believes to be the real Peter and therefore blames him for being indirectly responsible for his constant suffering and agony. What I found intriguing about Kaine’s character in THE LOST YEARS was how DeMatteis does not immediately write Kaine as the psychotic serial killer that he later becomes in THE CLONE SAGA, but instead takes the time to flesh-out his hatred for Ben, as well as his descent into insanity. When Kaine is first seen following Ben, we learn that while he holds a fair amount of contempt for Ben, he still possesses some degree of hope that the two can somehow put aside their differences. Kaine also wishes to have some chance at a normal life despite having previously given up on it. This dilemma is primarily conveyed through Kaine falling in love with Louise Kennedy, as in his eyes, she’s an anchor of light for the darkness in his heart. Through Kaine's relationship with Louise, the reader can perceive that Kaine is still trying to linger onto what little hope and humanity he has left. Unfortunately though, when Kaine’s cellular degeneration suddenly begins to rapidly accelerate, it is at this moment when he truly begins to hate Ben Reilly, wishing to share his agony by not simplykilling Ben, but by robbing him of any chances of happiness as well. Kaine’s torment doesn’t end though when he discovers that Louise was not the beacon of light that he perceived her as, completing his transformation into the insane monster that he would become during the present-day THE CLONE SAGA. DeMatteis’ emphasis on this gradual development of hatred and insanity not only makes Kaine a three-dimensional antagonist, but also acts as a perfect foil for Ben’s own character and dilemmas. While Ben still struggles in coming to terms with his identity, the hope he possesses eventually allows him to overcome his crisis and become more appreciative of life as a result. Kaine on the other hand, feels that because of his clone degeneration will never have any chance at happiness, and when the one opportunity that he seems to have turns out to be a lie, he becomes hateful towards Ben’s success and devolves into an insane serial killer as a result. Not only does DeMatteis flesh out Ben and Kaine into three dimensional characters of their own right (despite being clones), but also forms a rivalry between them that is so in-depth to the point where one character’s yin can easily act as the other’s yang, and vise versa!
Another element of THE LOST YEARS that stood out to me was that while Ben and Kaine were the most heavily developed characters, J.M. DeMatteis was also make the entire supporting cast heavily three dimensional as well. The first of these secondary characters is Detective Jacob Raven, who is conveyed to the readers as a devout Christian that holds a deep love Salt Lake City’s peace and tranquility. When crime lord Vincent Tannen threatens to disturb the peace by polluting the city with crime and drugs, Raven is fiercely determined to bring him down as that the city’s usual peace increases his faith in God by giving him something to believe in. As a result, Detective Raven comes across as a strong-willed law enforcer who holds deep faith in the greater good, and is willing to do whatever he can to protect and preserve it. This not only fleshes out Raven’s character, but also conveys why he was later willing to track down the murders Kaine committed all the way from Salt Lake City to New York in the present-day THE CLONE SAGA stories. Another character who receives interesting development is Ben’s girlfriend Janine. When Ben attempts to develop a relationship with her, we see that while Janine is a beautiful redhead, she is often shy and introverted around others. These character traits not only develop chemistry between Ben and Janine (whose physical appearance resembles that of Mary Jane, but her shyness reflects that of Peter Parker when he was in high school), but also later serves to reveal a dark secret of Janine’s past that I dare not spoil. The final secondary character that I felt was given three-dimensional depth was Kaine’s lover, Louise Kennedy. What was interesting about her was that while Kaine saw her as the light that would fill the darkness in his heart, Louise herself was beginning to doubt the light. Because of Vincent Tannen’s growing influence on Salt Lake City’s criminal underworld, Louise begins to doubt Detective Raven’s hope that peace will return. As a result, Louise immediately becomes attracted to Kaine as she can sense the darkness inside of him, which has begun to envelop and consume her. Louise’s characterization not only adds on to the chemistry between her and Kaine, but also acts as both a parallel to Ben’s romance with Janine, as well as one of the factors that causes Kaine’s descent into madness. To not only introduce a series of secondary characters the reader has never seen, but also develop three dimensional qualities and relationships for them would be a daunting task for any writer, but J.M. DeMatteis excels in doing so as if it’s second nature to him! These were characters that though most of whom I had only just met, I came to care about and wanted to see get out okay. And if any story is able to make you care about a character to that extent, then it is definitely one that is worthy of praise and recognition!
The final aspect I loved about THE LOST YEARS was the artwork by John Romita Jr.! Ever since I was first exposed to JRJR’s artwork in JMS’s run on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, he has become not only my favorite Spider-Man artist, but also my third favorite comic book artist of all-time (right behind Jim Lee and David Finch)! His artwork is easily identifiable through angular and somewhat-cubist facial and body proportions that are unique to his style alone. I feel that JRJR’s art provides the perfect balance of realism and fantasy that belongs in Spidey’s world, making him the perfect artist for the wall-crawler in my eyes. As it stands, THE LOST YEARS is not only my number-one favorite story from THE CLONE SAGA, but is also quite easily one of the most complex and developed comics in Spider-Man history! The book excels in not only providing a compelling story about Ben Reilly’s travels, but does so through providing complex development for Ben and Kaine's characters along with their dualistic rivalry, while also providing three dimensional depth to the rest of the cast as well. Ben Reilly and Kaine stand out as two of the most complex and developed characters that I’ve recently encountered, and THE LOST YEARS is the perfect example of why I love them so much! It really saddens me that this story has been widely forgotten by Spidey fans due to the saga’s overall infamy, as it is one of the most compelling Spider-Man comics I’ve ever read. Even if you have concerns about anything related to THE CLONE SAGA, my sole advice to you is this: IGNORE ALL THE HATRED SURROUNDING THE SAGA AND READ “THE LOST YEARS” NOW!!! IT IS A EMOTIONALLY COMPELLING STORY THAT HEAVILY EXPLORES COMPLEX CHARACTERIZATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS, AND SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED OR FORGOTTEN! And now that I've elaborated on my absolute favorite CLONE SAGA story, I'll be covering the absolute worst CLONE SAGA stories in my next two reviews of the series.
“I find that the more I begin to look around, I see so much good that people do that goes unnoticed. So many wonderful things.”
-Ernie Hudson
