Would we still have Clone Saga if done the OMD/BND Way?

[Farmernudie]

Here's a question I hadn't thought over before...but someone got me thinking about it in another thread:

Do you think the Clone Saga would have worked if done, in hindsite, the
"Marvel OMD/BND Reboot Way?

I think it, even though i didn't like the premise of that, I think it WOULD have worked.

1.) Titled it all "Amazing Spider-Man". No other options.

2.) Put it out 3X monthly. (would have cut down on the long waits that amplified the poor direction and explanations. Muddies the numbers of if it's actually a success or not.

3.) Assigned top HOT creative staff, writers, and artists to it. McFarlane, Lee, Peter David, whomever at the time....

I think, it would have worked, if done this way! Love it or hate, backlash or not, just like with OMD/BND, i think it would have moved, enough, and we'd have a different spidey in our laps currently!??

[StoneGold]

There's a major piece missing here - you have to get rid of the option of bringing back Pete. They had too easy a story reversal lying right there.

Also, I think they would have to of pulled the trigger on Ben being Spidey much, much earlier. The biggest problem with the story wasn't the story itself, but how long it stretched out.

[Farmernudie]

Pete would have melted.

And the fact it was too drawn out and dragged on, would have not happened since it would have came out rapidly, like 3X.

[StoneGold]

Pete would have melted.

And the fact it was too drawn out and dragged on, would have not happened since it would have came out rapidly, like 3X.

Wasn't the book doing that already? I'm pretty sure they were doing that bit where one book was continued in the next one at that time.

[Farmernudie]

It was NOTHING like the well-oiled, well-hyped and advertised, properly staffed OMD/BND is.

[Steven Caldwell]

Personally, I would have enjoyed just seeing Peter and MJ getting a happy ending. Peter losing the spider powers and them moving away, then Ben taking over. Honestly, they could have kept Ben the clone, I would not have cared. It would have been ok to see Peter get the happy ending he deserves and have a new "single" character that did not completely feel like a cop out...

Then if they had used the whole 3 times a month format, that would have been great. They could have even still called it brand new day. All new characters that were interesting, a whole new spiderman for a new generation.

At the end of the day, I just feel like only so many stories can be told with one character before it starts to get stale and silly retcons are made.

Storylines should have progress made, not silly retcons to go back to a earlier time to regergitate old stories.

[Farmernudie]

^ I hadn't thought of that!

They COULD have called it Brand New Day, which would have taken the light off the clone part, and may have helped it too!

I could see Pete melting, so that they took him out of the spotlight entirely, but i can see your story as a happy retirement and happy ending for Pete and MJ as good too, IF they had gone that route and it worked.

[Mister Mets]

Here's a question I hadn't thought over before...but someone got me thinking about it in another thread:

Do you think the Clone Saga would have worked if done, in hindsite, the
"Marvel OMD/BND Reboot Way?

I think it, even though i didn't like the premise of that, I think it WOULD have worked.

1.) Titled it all "Amazing Spider-Man". No other options.

2.) Put it out 3X monthly. (would have cut down on the long waits that amplified the poor direction and explanations. Muddies the numbers of if it's actually a success or not.

3.) Assigned top HOT creative staff, writers, and artists to it. McFarlane, Lee, Peter David, whomever at the time....

I think, it would have worked, if done this way! Love it or hate, backlash or not, just like with OMD/BND, i think it would have moved, enough, and we'd have a different spidey in our laps currently!??

I don't think it would have worked. During the Clone Saga, there were four monthlies and a quarterly, all with decent sales (and that's before you consider the various mini-series), so cutting down to three books a month might have lost Marvel money, even if sales per issue had risen. And given all the crossovers, a 3 times a month schedule wouldn't have done anything to decrease long waits. The books were so intertwined that readers pretty much had to buy every title anyway, and it wasn't a situation in which Amazing Spider-Man outsold the satellite titles by a two to one margin.

As for "hot creative staff," you can hardly do better than John Romita Jr, JM Dematteis and Mark Bagley. Hell, at the time Howard Mackie was a "name" writer, for his work on Ghost Rider.

[remoteman]

I think it would have worked really well, and definitely improved the quality and popularity of a lot of the stories with Ben as Spider-Man. One thing that I felt really harmed them was that they often tended to be multi-part stories told by different creators, giving many stories quite a disjointed feel. A brain trust type set up would allow the stories to be handled by one creator each, probably improving the quality.

[ShaggyB]

And the fact it was too drawn out and dragged on, would have not happened since it would have came out rapidly, like 3X.

umm that already happened... the book was out 4 times a month (some months 5). Each story built on what happened in the other books, so they were all essential to the story. Only towards the end did that stop somewhat.

[Farmernudie]

hey Mets................i guess I've never thought of "Mackie" as a big name "Writer".

???

[Erik B]

Wasn't the book doing that already? I'm pretty sure they were doing that bit where one book was continued in the next one at that time.

Yeah the titles always had stories that ran between 4-6 issues and continued each week.
It usually started in Web of, Went into Amazing, continued in SpiderMan then concluded in Spectacular. Then they had those random books like Unlimited or "alpha/omega" where it also continued in but yes the stories came out "4 times" a month in each title, each week

[Mr. Noodle]

The Clone Saga eventually failed because people just plain like the Peter Parker character better. Unlike OMD/BND, they were switching Peter out for somebody else to be Spider-Man.

[Leocomix]

It was NOTHING like the well-oiled, well-hyped and advertised, properly staffed OMD/BND is.

I disagree, the coherence seemed bigger then than currently. You had to buy every title then while you can skip an arc now. If anything the new 3X isn't favorable to the "success" of ASM

[Leocomix]

hey Mets................i guess I've never thought of "Mackie" as a big name "Writer".

???

Weren't you there in the 90s? Mackie had made a runaway success of a new character. Ghost Rider became a three-ttile franchise faster than any other character in Marvel history.