"Spider-Man: The Clone Saga" / "Miles Morales: The Clone Saga" Comparison

            The following piece is a comparison piece of the Marvel Comics Events “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” and “Miles Morales: The Clone Saga.”

            Hey, guys, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! My name just happens to be Tim Cubbin, and I just happen to be the writer of this blog. I might actually let someone else write for this blog, but for today, I’m your host!

            So, we have some fun planned for us right here, right now. To those of you who don’t know, I am a major Marvel Comic Books fan. I’ve been reading regularly since 2001, so by now that’s twenty years (I know, I’m so old). Over the past year, I’ve been doing this blog, posting reviews of Marvel prose and graphic novels. I have done several comparison pieces on graphic and prose novel with the same title and adaptations. This, however, is a first. I’m going to compare two COMIC book stories with similar titles. On July 25, 2021, I did a review of the Marvel Comics event “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” and a few hours ago on November 16, 2021, I posted a review of the Marvel Comics event “Miles Morales: The Clone Saga.” For those who don’t know, Miles Morales is the new Spider-Man. So these two reviews are the Clone Sagas of two different Spider-Men. If you haven’t read my reviews of the two events yet, I totally have to tell you to break now, then read the reviews by themselves (I gave you the dates posted for this express purpose), then come back and enjoy reading this comparison post. If you do this big favor for me, you are THE BEST!

            Okay, obviously I need to give you a little background on the Clone Sagas I previously wrote, for the purpose of differentiating the two Clone Sagas and preparing my comparison purposes.

            Let’s talk about the two Spider-Men to start this up. We’ll begin with the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Peter was a high school nerd, bullied and ignored by the other kids in his school. He went to a demonstration on radioactivity. While there, a spider got in the way of radioactive rays and became irradiated and bit Peter Parker and Cindy Moon before it died (Cindy Moon is the super hero Silk but has nothing to do with these stories, so she will not be mentioned in this review again). Afterwards, Peter Parker discovered he had spider-related powers. He has adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength and agility of a spider; and a precognitive awareness of personal danger he calls “spider-sense.” He was orphaned as a boy and was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. At first he tried to use his powers for personal gain. One day, he let a burglar run by when Peter could have stopped him. This burglar broke into Peter’s home and shot and killed his Uncle Ben. Peter stopped the burglar, and decided to use his powers to help others. He truly became Spider-Man and lived by the mantra that with great power there must also come great responsibility.

            Miles Morales was a high school student. His Uncle Aaron was a criminal called the Prowler. One day, Aaron stole from Oscorp, and accidentally grabbed a genetically altered spider. While hanging out with his Uncle Aaron, the spider bit Miles. He discovered he had spider-related powers. . He has adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength and agility of a spider; the ability to direct a mild electrical charge he calls “venom blasts;” the ability to turn invisibility; and a precognitive awareness of personal danger he calls “spider-sense.” He decided to use his powers to help others who needed help, like his hero Spider-Man and became the new Spider-Man himself.

            Okay, those are the origins of the two Spider-Men. Let’s talk about the storylines leading up to both Peter and Miles’ Clone Sagas.

            In college, Peter Parker fell in love with fellow student Gwen Stacy. Secretly, their professor Miles Warren also fell in love with Gwen. Gwen was killed by Peter’s super villain enemy the Green Goblin. Warren was a geneticist and became the super villain the Jackal. The Jackal cloned Gwen and Peter. Both clones were presumed dead. Peter’s clone, however, did not die and left New York to live a life of his own as Ben Reilly. The Jackal was able to create more viable clones of Peter and Gwen. When Aunt May had a stroke, Ben returned to New York, and he and Peter originally fought, but were eventually able to live in coexistence.

            As for Miles Morales, Miles was abducted by the Assessor, who studied Miles to the point of torture and created a clone of Miles. Miles faced the clone, but the clone turned out to be inviable and fell apart. However, the Assessor managed to create three semi-viable clones. Miles was lured by his clones who began to commit crimes in his name, including a scientist to create a cure that would stabilize the clones, but not knowing this, Miles destroyed the cure, incurring the wrath of the clones Selim, Mindspinner and Switch.

            For more details of the actual events of the two Clone Sagas, read my reviews of both events (if you haven’t done so already). Okay, now I’ve got to compare the two Clone Sagas. I must say, however, there were almost no similarities between Peter and Miles’ Clone Sagas. Both had clones, and both had clones that were inviable and tried to stabilize themselves. Both had clones that tried to ruin their reputations. Peter’s clone Kaine committed murder and Peter was put on trial after a fingerprint match implicated Peter. Miles’ clone Selim stole equipment and kidnapped a scientist, who Selim went on to murder. And that’s about as far as similarities come.

            Okay, now you’re probably wondering which Clone Saga I preferred. If you read my reviews, you know I score my reviews on a scale of one to ten, one being totally awful, ten being totally awesome. You will also know at the time of writing the reviews, I gave Peter Parker’s Clone Saga a five, while I scored Miles Morales’s Clone Saga at a six. Please note I sometimes have a change of heart after writing my posts. But you may have read that I thought Peter Parker’s Clone Saga was too long, whereas Miles Morales’s Clone Saga was too short. There was just an imbalance on the length of the stories. Peter Parker and Ben Reilly both had solo stories and connecting stories. I felt that Miles Morales’s clone Selim just did not have enough time to be thoroughly established. Granted Selim was an evil clone, I thought more development of Selim, Mindspinner and Switch would have actually been more interesting if each clone actually had a story rather than just being deteriorating. So, yes, my promised preference. This is actually a very tough decision to make. Both had flaws. Both had good points. I have to say that, though being lower scored, Peter Parker’s Clone Saga was my preference, owing to each clone actually having a developed storyline rather than just eight issues solely focusing on Miles. It could have had much potential.

            Now I’ll revisit my accessibility statements in order to give recommendations. If you were to actually read these events, I felt that Peter Parker’s Clone Saga required a good deal of Spidey knowledge for optimal enjoyment, while I said that Miles Morales’s Clone Saga actually felt self-contained. I still, all these months later, stand by both statements. If you’re new to the Spider-Men and want to start a Clone Saga, I’d have to tell you Miles Morales’s is easier to pick up and read. At the same time, I’m not telling you to just read Miles’ Clone Saga as Peter’s was actually rather better developed. I just have to tell you if you either prefer Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider to Miles Morales/Spider-Man, go with whoever you like. Now, let’s get serious about something. I am NOT making your decisions for you. What I may like in comics are things that you have no interest in, or even dislike and hate, while you may like things that I don’t. That is ENTIRELY up to you. If you want to read either, both, or neither of them based on what I write, that’s on you, and I can’t force feed this on you. You make your own decisions. This is From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin, after all, not “From the Mind of One (Insert Your Name Here).” My opinions are my own, I can’t expect you to always agree with me. That’s the magic of free will.

            So if you either have read or go on to read either Clone Sagas, feel free to tell me what YOU think. I’d love to hear it. You can leave a comment on my blog page, message me on Facebook, leave a Tweet on this Twitter page, I’d LOVE to hear your opinions. And feel free to Retweet or Share with your followers and friends, that’d be awesome and you are totally THE BEST! I love the support, this blog is what keeps me going from day-to-day. I’m a certified journalist unable to get a job, which is why I do this. I’m semi-professional with this blog, and I do this just so I can share my opinions and encourage you to read and connect with me. You can also check out more of my blog posts if you enjoyed this. I do plenty more than just reviews and comparison pieces, I do essays about mental health (I happen to have bipolar disorder and am a mental health advocate), editorials about stupid things that bother me, short stories, poetry, and more. I post pretty frequently, so always expect more content, and I’ll say goodbye to you, and, as always, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Miles Morales: The Clone Saga"

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics event “Miles Morales: The Clone Saga” as presented on Marvel Unlimited.

            Welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. I’m your reviewer Tim Cubbin. If you’ve never read any reviews on this blog before, I’ll tell you how this works. If you’ve read one of my reviews before, you know the rundown, but still read the next few sentences anyway as it might be a little different from my prior reviews. First off, I am a total diehard Marvel Comics fan. I read from Marvel Unlimited pretty much every day and now any events I read I review, so here we are. Anyway, at the start of every one of my reviews, I give my opening shtick (like the one you are reading now). Then I give a brief explanation of the major characters you need to know about as you read this review. Following that, I give a synopsis of the main stories in the event. After that, I give my thoughts, what I liked, what I disliked and why. Following that, I’ll tell you the level of background knowledge I feel you should know before making the commitment to read this event. Then comes the numeric score I give the event. After that, I’ll tell you if I recommend it and to whom I think would like to read this event. Finally, I’ll give my log off message and stop wasting your time.

Well, if you’re still with me at this point and have not been scared off, let’s get right to it. The main character of the event is Miles Morales/Spider-Man. Miles was bitten by a genetically altered spider and gained several powers: adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength, and agility of a spider; the ability to camouflage himself to the point of invisibility; the ability to discharge an electric charge; and a precognitive awareness of personal imminent danger. He also has web shooters. He took on the name of Spider-Man (even though there already IS a Spider-Man, who agreed to share the name with Miles).

Peter Parker/Spider-Man: The original Spidey.

Rio Morales: A nurse; Miles’ mother (knows her son is Spider-Man).

Jefferson Morales (formerly Davis): Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; Miles’ father (knows his son is Spider-Man).

Billie Morales: Miles’ newborn baby sister.

Ganke Lee: Miles’ best friend.

Tianna Toomes/Starling: the granddaughter of original Spidey baddie the Vulture. Has a flight suit.

Kamala Khan/Miss Marvel: Size-changing polymorph. Miles’ teammate in the young super team the Champions.

Knull: the King in Black. Malicious god of the symbiotes.

Selim, Mindspinner, and Shift: Clones of Miles (we’ll get to them in a minute, stay with me here).

Okay, these are the main players in this little drama, what say we get right to the synopsis of the event. In the first story, Miles has a team-up with Starling. After a successful rescue, Starling kisses Miles, leaving him the question: does he have feelings for her?

Next is a “King in Black” tie-in. Knull leads a horde of hundreds of thousands of symbiote dragons to Earth. Miles is forced to battle Miss Marvel, but is able to rescue her from Knull’s control. During the chaos, Ganke cowers in fear with Miles’ ex, Barbara, and after Knull’s assault on Earth, the two start dating.

Following that is the main story: “The Clone Saga.” Several months before, a villain called the Assessor kidnapped Miles, assessed him, and created unstable clones of Miles: Selim, the leader, an improvement on Miles; Mindspinner, with a spider form and mental powers, kind of like a psychic screech; and Shift, a gooey creature. Selim committed crimes as Miles, stealing items and kidnapping a scientist in an effort to create a cure for the clones’ instability. Miles, not knowing this, finds the clones’ lair and destroys it, and the clone stability cure. In a rage, Selim trashes Miles’ relationship with Miles’ friends, then Selim, Mindspinner and Shift attack Miles’ parents and kidnap Miles’ baby sister Billie.

I’m stopping here so I don’t spoil the ending. Now we go on to my personal thoughts. The Starling story wasn’t too bad, but I felt like the sparks between Miles and Tianna should have had some more development. “The King in Black” tie-in was my favorite story in the event. “The King in Black” was a whole other event, and I actually enjoyed that event and felt like Miles’ storyline in the whole drama was interesting and exciting, especially the drama of Ganke connecting with Miles’ ex (which actually happened to me, oddly enough) that created friction between Miles and Ganke. As far as “The Clone Saga,” I felt it was mediocre. I didn’t hate it, but if the writer had made the story an issue or two longer to develop the story a little more (such as featuring the full assault on Miles’ parents, more of the clones ruining Miles’ reputation and friendships, and extending the drama of Selim kidnapping Billie), there could have been potential for a slightly better story. As it stood, it wasn’t too bad.

Okay, let’s talk accessibility. For those of you who don’t quite know what I mean, it’s my way to tell you if this is a good jump-on point for new readers or not. I found this story to be relatively self-contained. For those with no Miles experience, I feel you can still pick up this book and be able to understand it.

Okay, now for the score. I go on a one to ten scale. One means this was awful and I only read it for continuity’s sake. Ten means this was awesome and reading it as a whole made sense and I enjoyed it more reading it a second time. Just so you know, I’m a really hard to please guy when it comes to comic scoring, as prior readers will know. Oddly enough, my score will fluctuate. Before I post, I feel like I’ll give it one score, but while a write this, my score might change, and maybe even after this post my score might change. At the moment, I give it a six. For my reasoning behind this, go back two paragraphs and read again because I literally just told you.

Now, I’ll tell you my recommendation. Do I recommend it? If you read comics regularly yet did not read this story in your perusal, I would recommend it to you. Again, the story wasn’t bad, but it could have been better. If you have never read a Miles Morales comic book before but saw the movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and liked it and wanted to find a good place to start reading a Miles Morales comic, this might be for you. If you know absolutely nothing about Miles or have never picked up a comic book before and just want a good storyline to start reading at, it’s a fairly good place to start. Now, I’ll say this: I CANNOT tell you if you’ll like this or not. I might have liked it, but I can’t guarantee you will like it because I am me and you are you. That said, this does get MY recommendation. If you read this review and are now interested in reading it, I say go for it! If you read it, feel free to let me know what you thought about it, this blog site does have a comment option, or you could just Tweet at me if you found this link on Twitter. I’d love to hear from you!

Well, now I guess I’ve gone on long enough. Your brain’s probably on overload. I just have to say, if you read this ENTIRE review, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your effort. I now ask for YOUR support. Please retweet this post, share it, follow me, contact me, whatever you can do, I’d love your input. As far as this blog goes, I’ve done plenty of work. I’ve written over a dozen reviews and will do plenty more. I also do mental health essays, an editorial series called B’ings, short stories and poetry. I’m actually a certified journalist with no job, so to pass my time I read and blog out of the goodness of my heart, getting no money for this, but I love doing this, it gives me purpose, so I just do it. There is plenty of content here and plenty more on the way, I’ll be doing this blog until I can’t do it anymore, so please feel free to check back often. I’m also working on a comparison piece involving this post and a previous post, it’ll be here in a few hours, so please hang on and come back. If you do, you are THE BEST! So I bid you farewell for now, and till next time, Tim Cubbin… out!