Marvel’s “The Clone Saga” is notorious. The long-running storyline introduced Ben Reilly, the clone of Peter Parker, into the comics. Or was Peter Parker a clone of Ben? Or were they both clones? The world may never know, given how many times the overextended story twisted and turned. But Marvel may have just outdone that storyline with a wild last page twist in Amazing Spider-Man #10, the kind of bonkers soap opera storylines that make comics worth reading.
Spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #10 past this point.
Here’s how things went down, and a bit of a recap of how we got here. First thing you need to know is that in Amazing Spider-Man #8, Spidey suffered the worst beating of his life thanks to a new villain named Hellgate. We don’t know much about Hellgate’s motivations, but at least part seemed to be that Spider-Man was supposed to challenge him (it?) so he (it?) can get stronger in order to fight… Something. Point being, this may be a classic miscommunication where Hellgate isn’t a bad guy, he just ended up pummeling Spider-Man into the pavement.
When we pick up in ASM #9, some time has passed, and Peter Parker is being weird. He’s ignoring Aunt May, devoting himself to his job (even getting there on time!), and even avoiding helping people in trouble. He’s also talking to a mysterious person he calls “hon” on his earpods, who is not his sometimes girlfriend, Shay, nor is it Mary Jane. Towards the end of the issue, Spider-Man appears, but he’s near silent, and beating the crap out of criminals, far more brutally than ever before.
Pretty weird, but things get even weirder in this week’s ASM #10. Black Cat notices something is clearly wrong with both Peter and Spider-Man, and thankfully, writer Joe Kelly (and artist Michael Dowling) don’t drag this mystery out, a la The Clone Saga.
The issue ends with bookended narration, presumably from Spider-Man, since it starts with a little spider-symbol at the top of the issue. “Son… Human… Hero? Peter Parker…? Spider-Man…?” it reads. “The labels and the habits and the rules and the definition of self fall away… But the core remains. The true you. The one you keep hidden. Letting that out… Now that’s scary. I’m… I’m scared.”
We’ll loop back to that in a second, but the final pages find Spider-Man coming face to face with — get this — Peter Parker. Or rather, not, in either case. “Nice work…” Fake-Peter says, “But I think it’s time we had a talk… You’re not Spider-Man.”
“I’m aware,” says Fake-Spider-Man, “Just as I’m aware… You’re not Peter Parker.”
Bum ba BUM! So, what’s going on here? What we know is that with the double-sized Amazing Spider-Man #11, we’re going to meet another Spider-Man, this one in space with a new costume and a new crew. While it’s not clear how it happened, my best guess is that after getting defeated by Hellgate, Spider-Man — the real one — created a fake Peter Parker to lead his Peter Parker life, and a fake Spider-Man to lead his Spider-Man life, while he went off in space to figure out how to get stronger in order to take down Hellgate in Round 2. So most likely, Cosmic Spider-Man is the real guy, while the two on Earth are something else.
It’s possible we may literally be getting some of the Clone Saga, as either Kaine or Ben Reilly could be in the Spider-Man mask. Heck, Ben Reilly could be the “Peter Parker” who is on Earth, and the “hon” he’s calling on the phone could be Janine Godbe, aka Hallows’ Eve, who is Ben’s girlfriend.
Regardless, it’s a delightful final page reveal that shows this (hopefully) won’t be another Clone Saga. Instead, Kelly is continuing his ASM era in style with some big swings that seem like they shouldn’t work on the surface. But thanks to breezy writing and some stellar action from artists like Dowling, this has been a load of fun. You can find out what’s next for all three Spider-Mans when Amazing Spider-Man #12 hits stores on September 3, 2025.
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