The Clone Conspiracy #4 Review

After last month’s shocking reveal, The Clone Conspiracy #4 shows us how Spidey will react to the newfound knowledge that his “brother” is still alive…and maybe not as evil/crazy as he first seemed.

The Clone Conspiracy #4 (Marvel Comics)

Observations

• Of COURSE Curt Conners suggests they turn everyone into lizards.
• Weird moment: Doctor Octopus successfully addressing a major plot/continuity issue for the readers.
• Oh, this is all types of awkward…
• I sort of hated this new version of Electro at first, but she’s definitely growing on me.
• Whether this turns out well or not, it’s great seeing Ben and Peter have some dialogue together again.

To be fair, driving around with the remains of your dead uncle/father would make any conversation at least somewhat interesting.

• Not sure if the town of Haven appears to be more hopeful or creepy.
• Things you aren’t prepared to see: The Lizard playing soccer with his formerly dead wife and son.
• Anna Maria and Peter Parker dropping some serious simultaneous truth bombs.
• Oh $#%&!
• Someone should tell Ben Reilly that insulting the woman Doc Ock is obsessed with might not be the best way to keep things calm.
• …and now we see how it happens in this universe.

Is It Good?

Dear Marvel,

From now on, can we PLEASE have less bloated mega events like Civil War II and more wonderful character/story driven events like this one?

Yes, yes…Civil War II technically had characters and a story, as well. It’s just that they weren’t very good. When you cross over a ton of different characters from different character “families” to face a conflict that feels forced (or created in a vacuum to satisfy the need for the event’s existence), things don’t tend to turn out well.

Sure, every once in a while you may have a great one like the original Civil War series. But aside from obsessive variant cover collectors, I’d say that most Marvel fans/buyers are pretty burnt out on reading whatever the yearly ALL NEW ULTIMATE THREAT this.

But much like Spider-Verse before it, The Clone Conspiracy is proving just how great a contained event series can be.

For starters, you’ve got Dan Slott guiding things for a group of characters that he probably knows better than his own family by this point. He does a masterful job of not only utilizing many of his own plot lines, but also picks up some of the dangling narrative threads from Spidey’s history.

Slott also keeps everyone in character even in the most bizarre or disorienting of circumstances. Whether its Anna Maria meeting the “real” Doc Ock for the first time or Ben Reilly explaining his transformation into a benevolent super villain, everything still manages to feel organic and authentic. Aside from a weird moment or two during the whole Anna Maria/Doc Ock thing (which was plenty weird already), the character work in this surprisingly packed issue is superb. Despite the enormous cast, everyone somehow gets plenty of time to shine.

And then you have the action in this issue, which artist Jim Cheung completely knocks out of the park. In addition to a couple of massive fight sequences, he also makes the wonderfully chaotic final scenes look even more gruesome and impactful.

• To be honest, I was initially worried that The Clone Conspiracy would be yet another rehash of one of Spidey’s most infamous (and aggravating) stories. Instead, Slott and Cheung have turned it into a dynamic and thrilling story that every Spider fan—even the ones who hated the original Clone Saga—will love.