Sony seems to have given up on their cinematic universe of Spider-Man spinoff movies (that do not actually contain Spider-Man) for the time being. But it looks like they’re still trying to make Spider-Man TV shows (without the main Spider-Man) following the cancelation of their recent Spider-Noir series after just one season.
Now, per Deadline, they are working on a TV show “based on the popular Clone Saga storyline from the Marvel Comics, more specifically the second Clone Saga story arc that focuses on two Spider-Man clones, Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker.”
Like Spider-Noir, the show would stream on Amazon’s Prime Video service.
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Deadline also note that Kelvin Yu, who created the TV version of another comic book, American Born Chinese, is writing this Clone Saga series for Sony and Amazon.
It’s somewhat surprising to see Deadline refer to it as the “popular” Clone Saga, when in fact, that is maybe the most notorious storyline in the history of the Spider-Man character. It all started with a brief run of issues in The Amazing Spider-Man comic in the mid-1970s, when a villain known as the Jackal created a perfect clone of Spider-Man. (As one does when one is a mad scientist who likes to dress in a furry green costume.) After Peter Parker defeated his double (and, uh, dumped his body down a smokestack, dude, I’m pretty sure that’s murder?), the clone vanished for years, and was basically forgotten.
But then roughly two decades later, Marvel brought back the clone, who turned out not to have died (phew, Peter, you really dodged a bullet there) and instead wandered the country as a drifter, trying to carve out his own identity apart from Peter. Eventually, he settled on the name Ben Reilly (taken from Uncle Ben’s first name, and Aunt May’s maiden name).
The Clone Saga did sell well initially, but it dragged on for months and months as Marvel introduced more and more clones — including Kaine, who is an impefect clone with hideous scars and a hand that can burn people with a touch — and waffled back and forth about whether Ben Reilly was actually the real Peter Parker. Fans generally revolted until the whole thing was finally brought to a close. (There’s a really great book you can read about all this stuff, by the way.)
In subsequent years, the Ben Reilly character has returned to Amazing Spier-Man comics (at times as a villain), and in certain circles he might reasonably be called “popular.” But the Clone Saga itself … yeah, I would not have thought someone would want to make a TV show out of that.
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