Spider-Man: The Clone Saga- The Greatest Responsibility
PART 10
Writers: J.M. DeMatteis, Howard Mackie, and Tom DeFalco
Artists: Angel Medina, Gil Kane, and Sal Buscema
While a flawed story, THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY is a much more heart-warming and satisfying farewell for Peter as Spidey...
Ranking: 4 stars
Welcome to the 10th part of CLONE MADNESS true believers, where we once again explore an era of Spider-Man history that introduced a great character, but was bogged down by bad writing. In my last review of THE CLONE SAGA I covered the story line MAXIMUM CLONAGE, which was undoubtedly the worst story of the entire saga. What’s truly sad in my opinion though is that the writers and editors were honestly trying their best to tell an epic story about Peter and his clone, and explore both of their identity crises while also revitalizing the Spider-Man franchise as a whole. Unfortunately however, they were creatively limited due to interference from the marketing department and Marvel’s financial troubles in the 90’s, which ultimately resulted in numerous controversial plot twists, and some truly horrendous stories like THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER and the aforementioned MAXIMUM CLONAGE. And while MAXIMUM CLONAGE was so badly botched that it only prolonged the saga even further, the good news is that the writers were now fiercely determined to prevent repeating the same mistakes that they did with that train-wreck. As a result, while the quality of the stories that came afterwards ranged from average to mediocre (with a few exceptionally great ones), none of them were even close to being as dreadful as MAXIMUM CLONAGE was. Such is the case with today’s storyline, THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY, which was a somewhat more successful attempt in resolving what I consider to be “Act 1” of THE CLONE SAGA and have Ben Reilly take over as the new Spider-Man. But before I delve into this comic, I need to provide some backstory as usual. Following the Jackal’s death in MAXIMUM CLONAGE, Peter and Ben were now unsure of whether or not who was going to carry-on the mantel of Spider-Man, which lead to two story arcs that helped build up to THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY. The first was EXILED, which further explored Ben’s friendship with Dr. Seward Trainer, the geneticist who gave the official lab results that Peter was the clone. Ben had met Dr. Trainer during his five-year trek across America almost immediately after he had been led to believe that he was the clone. Dr. Trainer helped Ben overcome his despair by offering him services as his lab partner. I really enjoyed the backstory behind Ben and Trainer’s friendship, as I felt Seward Trainer was another character introduced during THE CLONE SAGA that I felt had great potential. Not only was he a stern and serious, yet caring individual, but he also further supported the idea that Ben was a separate character from Peter by providing him friends and relationships that were uniquely his own. EXILED also foreshadowed the main antagonist of THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY, who was stealing high-tech equipment from Trainer’s labs. The other story was TIME BOMB, which helped resolve a plot point that had been built up in previous story lines. As I stated in my review of THE MARK OF KAINE, Kaine kept receiving ominous visions of the future throughout the saga that conveyed MJ being murdered by an unknown assailant. Just before Kaine was killed by Spidercide in MAXIMUM CLONAGE (which I’m still angry about), his visions finally revealed the face of MJ’s killer to him. While the killer’s face was kept in the shadows to the readers, it was clear that it was someone Kaine knew and could not fathom was someone capable of committing the murder. TIME BOMB resolved this plot point by revealing that the Jackal had implanted a hypnotic command in Peter that would force him to try and kill the person he loved the most (meaning MJ). Fortunately though, Peter was stopped by Ben Reilly and the New Warriors, and was freed from the Jackal’s mind control. As a result, TIME BOMB was a somewhat suspenseful story that finally brought an end to all of the Jackal’s bullcrap (thank goodness), and it helped build up Peter’s fears about the safety and future of his pregnant wife. The events in both EXILED and TIME BOMB have now leaded up to THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY. While the comic does suffer serious problems in its artwork, questionable science, and the villain, THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY was actually a fairly heartwarming story that not only succeeded in it’s goals of implementing Ben as the new Spider-Man, but was also a respectful and satisfying farewell for Peter by having the focus of his retirement be centered around his fear that being Spidey will cause him to become a neglectful father. The story opens with Ben Reilly operating virtual reality technology designed by Dr. Trainer. Using this technology allows Ben to project a virtual avatar of himself that can transverse cyberspace in order to find the data stolen from Trainer’s laboratory back in EXILED. Unfortunately, Ben’s avatar is unable to access the enemy’s computer system when he is confronted by anti-virus programs, and is forced to eject himself from the virtual reality simulation. Meanwhile, Peter is silently pondering to himself on the rooftops of Manhattan, where he is relieved to have been released from the Jackal’s mind control in TIME BOMB, but fears that there may have been other subconscious commands implanted in his head. Fortunately for Peter, he is then met up with Mary Jane, who has now entered the mid-stages of her pregnancy. When Peter questions why she’s there on the roof tops with him, she tells him that he doesn’t need to keep his problems as Spider-Man to himself any more, and that they can face them together as husband and wife. It is at this moment where luck finally begins to shift in Peter’s favor as he later visits Trainer for some mind screening tests and learns that the Jackal did not implant any other hypnotic commands (YES!!! NOW WE CAN FINALLY FORGET MAXIMUM CLONAGE EVER HAPPENED!!!). To add onto these newfound moments of happiness, when Peter and MJ are out celebrating, they feel the baby kick for the first time. While all of this is going, Ben and Trainer are soon confronted by the person responsible for stealing Trainer’ technology, a woman revealed to possess the same robotic tentacles as the late Dr. Octopus (he was killed earlier by Kaine in WEB OF DEATH). This new Dr. Octopus is revealed to actually be Trainer’s daughter Carolyn Trainer, who seeks full access to her father’s technology in order to carry out her research into virtual reality. Ben attempts to stop the new Dr. Octopus, but is only able to force her into retreat with the help of Peter. But Peter was nearly killed in the battle, which causes him to question the impact his career, as Spider-Man will have on his baby. Matters become even more complicated when MJ and the baby fall ill to Peter’s radioactive blood, and the new Dr. Octopus steals the cure in order to blackmail Trainer. This and other events soon force Peter into a position where he must decide whether he should continue being Spider-Man, or pass on the mantle to Ben Reilly. All of his life Peter has followed Uncle Ben’s moral that with great power comes great responsibility, but he will soon learn that some responsibilities must be given up in the face of the greatest responsibility of them all. To be perfectly honest, under normal circumstances, the problems with THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY would have guaranteed this book a 3-star rating or lower, but the comic’s good elements were done so well that I couldn’t help but give this 4 stars. But before I discuss the areas in which THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY succeeds, I feel that I should elaborate on the comic’s problems first. The most obvious problem with this comic is easily the new female Dr. Octopus. While I did love the idea of her being Dr. Trainer’s daughter as it later provided a parallel for Peter’s own dilemma later in the story, this new Doc Ock has a rather bland personality. Most of the scenes featuring her just have her rambling on about how science is her religion, and how she plans to conquer virtual reality. In fact, outside of her being a former student of Otto Octavius, there’s very connection between her and the original Dr. Octopus. The only reason I can see why she was given the same title was that since the writers intended to have Ben Reilly permanently replace Peter as Spider-Man, they needed to give him villains that resembled Peter’s classic rogues gallery, and at the time they had no intention of reviving Octavius. To the new Dr. Octopus’ credit though, while she is a bland antagonist, at least she’s not annoying like the Jackal was, or unbearably boring like Judas Traveller was. Speaking of the new Dr. Octopus’ plans however, ultimate end goal is to conquer all of reality by merging it with virtual reality. This is quite easily the comic’s biggest flaw in my opinion, as the science involving cyberspace and virtual reality in this comic is absurdly ridiculous. Since this comic was made in the 90’s when computers first became widely open to the public, people had little understanding of what made them work, and came up with strange ideas as a result. THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY is a victim of this misunderstanding of computer science as well. As I stated in my summary of the comic, the story opens with Ben Reilly projecting a virtual reality avatar of himself into the Internet. This scene alone sums up the comic’s scientific inaccuracies, as it treats the Internet and virtual reality as if they’re some other form of reality that one can physically enter. In actuality, cyberspace and virtual reality are simply just data, with the Internet being scrambles of nonsensical text and coding like you’d see in THE MATRIX movies, and virtual reality is more associated with video games. In THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY, cyberspace and virtual reality are treated as if they’re other planes of existence that one can physically enter, as Ben is able to explore the Internet as if it were another dimension, and can fight physical incarnations of anti-virus programs. Overall, the science behind the Internet and virtual reality is stretched to the point of absurdity, and it makes the new Dr. Octopus’ plans come across as silly and laughable (it’s not as stupid as the Jackal wanting to kill the entire human population and replace them with clones, but it’s up there; and to make it even better, all of this virtual reality crap is later explored further in the CYBERWARS arc, and it's even more ridiculous there). The final major problem with THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY is the artwork, as the majority of it is overly gritty and scratchy, and the first issue has most of the characters looking as if they just walked off the set of the movie CONEHEADS, as they all feature absurdly oval-like heads, and necks so narrow that they would be unable to support they’re heads in the real world. There’s a problem with the artwork when the final issue by Sal Buscema is the best illustrated of the bunch (and while I’ve complained about his art in the past, it’s actually fairly decent here). I could also mention that the final issue does rip-off the classic MASTER PLANNER storyline to a degree (especially with the scene of Spidey being trapped under heavy rumble and having to lift it with all his might, which just like him reliving the moment of Gwen Stacy falling off the bridge, has become a reoccurring cliché in Spider-Man's mythos) but that’s just a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. So while the problems with the comic’s villain, inaccurate science, and artwork are definitely serious, I can easily overlook them as the areas in which THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY excels in are done unbelievably well in my opinion. The story is not only well written and put together from a narrative perspective, but the characters are treated with much more respect than they were in MAXIMUM CLONAGE. Aside from the new Dr. Octopus, all of the characters’ actions have logical reasoning to back them up, and make sense within the context of what we already know about them. One thing in particular that stood out to me though, was the amount of heart-warming moments that there were with Peter and MJ. I love how intimate and close the two are as a couple in this story, as Mary Jane says how she’s prepared to endure any obstacles she and Peter will face, and how they will get through them together. It’s scenes like these that portray why I love Peter and MJ as a married couple so much, as well as how much I hate ONE MORE DAY for undoing their marriage. Several of their scenes also nearly caused me to cry with joy, such as the scene where they feel the baby kick for the first time, or provided me some light-hearted humor like when Peter continuously keeps waking MJ up because of how much he loves feeling the baby kick. If a story is able to elicit such beautiful and emotional responses out of me, then it is one that I feel is doing something right! But the greatest strength of THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY in my eyes was the writer’s decision to use Peter’s fears of being a neglectful father as the factor that motivates him to give up being Spider-Man. As I stated before, this story was another attempt to end THE CLONE SAGA, and while it wasn’t the official ending to the saga (that would come later in the REVELATIONS story arc), it does succeed in accomplishing it’s intended goals whereas MAXIMUM CLONAGE failed to do so. At the time, the writers wanted to have Ben Reilly permanently replace Peter as Spider-Man, and have Peter go off with Mary Jane and their baby to live happily ever after. This was the goal that the writers set out to accomplish in MAXIMUM CLONAGE, but instead of focusing on the circumstances that would force Ben to replace Peter, it instead had Peter act like a whiny a**hole, with all of the other characters acting like complete morons as they tried to stop the Jackal from taking over the world. With THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY however, the writers instead use MJ’s pregnancy and Peter’s growing fears of being a neglectful father as the catalyst that enforces his decision to retire. This idea is much better incorporated into Spider-Man’s universe than the Jackal wanting to replace the human population with clones, as Spidey’s stories have always been centered around the human aspects of life that readers could easily relate to, as well as the responsibilities that one must endure and accept. In essence, that’s why this story is titled THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY, as over the course of the story he realizes that his upcoming responsibilities as a father will become more important than being Spider-Man, and it acts as a reference to Aunt May’s statement in THE GIFT that “there’s no greater responsibility than raising a child.” What I also love is how this reason behind Peter’s decision to retire is effectively built up in not just this story, but from previous CLONE SAGA stories as well. In THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER there was a highly controversial scene where Peter accidentally struck MJ when she tried to stop him from strangling Ben after discovering that he was a clone (though I’m honestly not too offended by it; he was acting like a raging lunatic and didn’t know it was MJ before it was too late). Peter references that moment in THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY as he fears that his behavior in that story, as well as the hypnotic spell the Jackal had put him under in the previous story, will cause his life as Spider-Man to create an unhealthy and abusive relationship with his wife, and his fears are further cemented when MJ is poisoned due to the baby inheriting Peter’s radioactive blood. Peter’s growing love for his soon-to-be born child also effectively builds up his decision to retire, as when he and MJ feel the baby’s first kick, all Peter becomes so excited about being a father that he is doesn’t care that he’s a clone anymore. Because of his upcoming responsibilities as a father, Peter starts to become more cautious as Spider-Man when he is nearly killed in a fight against the new Dr. Octopus, as is afraid of the baby growing up without him, and when the baby is in danger of dying with MJ, Peter puts all his effort in might into retrieving the cure stolen by Dr. Octopus. Other factors that I felt helped add on to the build up were the inclusions of parallels to Peter’s dilemma. One was in a scene where he and Ben were battling a group of carjackers in order to gain information on the new Dr. Octopus, and Peter violently lashes out on one of the thugs when he discovers how he shunned his responsibilities as a parent. The other was with the new Dr. Octopus herself, as she hated Trainer for being a neglectful father to her when she was a child and focused more on his scientific research. These parallels not only reflected Peter’s own fears, but also served as the final steps that reinforce his decision to retire and have Ben take his place. Overall, the emphasis placed on Peter’s fears of becoming a neglectful father, as well as the build up that led up to his decision to retire, was not only exceptionally well-handled, but was a much more respectful farewell for his role as Spider-Man than having him constantly whine about being a clone and willingly join the Jackal like he did in MAXIMUM CLONAGE. THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY is one of those comics whose flaws I can easily overlook and forgive because of how well done its good elements are. While the new female Dr. Octopus is a bland villain, the comic’s interpretation of computer science is highly questionable, and the artwork is amateurish, the story itself is well-structured, the characters all act like the characters they’re supposed to, there are several beautiful moments with Peter and Mary Jane, and the emphasis placed on Peter’s fears of being a neglectful father as the reason behind his retirement, as well as the build-up to it, is unbelievably well executed in my opinion. What saddens me is that I’ve come across quite a few people who hate this story arc, primarily because of the new Dr. Octopus and that it attempts to have Ben Reilly permanently replace Peter as Spider-Man. While I myself am against having Ben permanently be Spider-Man (I’m okay with it as a temporary status quo though), I feel that this comic is deserving of more praise as while it does attempt to replace Peter, the way it was handled was done exceptionally well in my opinion, and felt respectful to his character, rather than offensive MAXIMUM CLONAGE was. And because the writers wanted to permanently establish Ben as the new Spider-Man, Marvel considers this to be the “official” ending of THE CLONE SAGA story arc (as evidenced by the fact that the COMPLETE CLONE SAGA EPIC graphic novels end with this story arc). In my opinion however, I view THE CLONE SAGA as being divided into two acts, with this being the end of “Act 1.” All of the stories that take place in “Act 2” will focus on Marvel’s attempts to reboot Spidey’s universe with Ben Reilly as the new Spider-Man before they gave up and decided to bring things back to the original status quo and undo all of the clone nonsense. But that’s the topic for another CLONE MADNESS review. As it stands though, while THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY does suffer a lot of flaws, it exceptionally excels in all of its good elements, which is why I feel it’s our greatest responsibility to remember and cherish them. “I think that enduring, committed love between a married couple, along with raising children, is the most noble act anyone can aspire to. It is not written about very much.” -Nicholas Sparks
