Spider-Man Clone Saga #1

After 15 years, Marvel Comics is rehashing its infamous clone saga from the ‘90s, and I honestly don’t know how I feel about it.

It started out wonderfully. A web of complications arose as Peter Parker befriended his clone, Ben Reilly, and began to believe that he himself was the clone and Ben, the real Spider-Man.

Sounds interesting, right? Unfortunately, this is where things start to get bad. Marvel decided to shamelessly stretch the story for three years, which killed it.

Despite this disappointing turn of events, clone stories were not doomed forever. A few years back, Brian Michael Bendis wrote a magnificent clone saga in “Ultimate Spider-Man,” which did a great job of redeeming the mainstream clone saga. I’d definitely recommend Bendis’ version to anyone who felt the original was garbage. The clone saga is known as one of the darkest clouds over Spider-Man’s history on print, and the fact that Marvel is doing a six-issue series seems unnecessary after Bendis’ wonderful run.

Batman Widening Gyre #2

The new issue of filmmaker Kevin Smith’s second “Batman” story comes out today, and, as with all things Kevin Smith, I’m very excited. In “Batman Cacophony,” Smith was able to juggle both mundane, plot-furthering dialogue and witty banter with careful insight into the relationship between Batman and the Joker while respecting what other key “Batman” writers have carefully crafted into “Batman” canon. In “Widening Gyre” there is a new mysterious vigilante in Gotham, and after he saves Batman from being killed by the demon Etrigan, this vigilante proves that he is “better” than the Dark Knight, which of course piques our caped crusader’s interest.

Kevin Smith might be known as a writer who just riffs on pop culture references especially, but he knows his literature. His iconic film “Clerks” takes its structure from Dante’s levels of hell in “The Divine Comedy.” Following this he boldly takes a quote from W.B. Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” as the title for his newest comic work, which gives this book pretty big shoes to fill.

My current theory is because “The Second Coming” is a poem that’s very hard to understand, Smith might just want to confuse readers. Whatever his reasons, it should be a very interesting read for both Batman and Kevin Smith fans, and I suggest you pick it up.