Maximum Cloneage Alpha: When your event is a pun based on a previous event, that’s not a good sign.

Credits: Plotted by Tom DeFalco, scripted by Todd DeZago, pencilled by Ron Lim, inked by Al Milgrom and edited by Danny Fingeroth.

Cast: Peter ‘Spider-Man’ Parker, Ben ‘Scarlet Spider’ Reilly, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Spidercide/3Pete, Kaine, Frank ‘The Punisher’ Castle, Dr Miles ‘The Jackal’ Warren, Dr. Walter Rosen., Vance ‘Justice’ Astrovik, Robbie ‘Speedball’ Baldwin, Anjelica ‘Firestar’ Jones, Alex ‘Powerhouse’ Power and Mickey ‘Turbo’ Mushashi.

Plot: In Springville, a small town in Pennsylvania, a lone man sits on a bench and opens a cannister resting on his lap. One by one all of the people in the town start dying of a new variation of the Carrion virus. When the entirety of the 3,600 people are dead, this man is joined by The Jackal, who reveals that the lone survivor is a clone of Spider-Man (formally 3Pete) and these deaths are at his design.

In Manhattan, a distraught Peter Parker sits on a rooftop in the rain, between two gargoyles as he goes over the events of the last several months, from the return of his ‘parents’ to Ben’s return, the death of May and the recent revelation that it’s him and not Ben who is the clone. His pain comes not from disbelief, but from the profound realisation that it’s true.

Elsewhere Ben ‘Scarlet Spider’ Reilly is searching for Peter, the closest thing he has to a brother. He too is rocked by the revelation, he has to deal with the fact that his 5 year exile from his life was unnecessary. Recognising that his search is fruitless, he returns to MJ, who blows up at him, equally distraught over recent events. Ben convinces her that no matter what they’ve learned, he has no desire to reclaim his life, he envies Peter, but does intend to take anything from him. All Ben wants is Peter’s safe return and a shot at the Jackal.

In Springville, scientists from Genetech are investigating the deaths, they find a lone survivor. This is overheard by the Jackal, who now changes his plans. At Genetech’s main offices, the head of the company Walter Rosen is being berated by Justice of the New Warriors, there along with Powerhouse, Firestar, Turbo and Speedball. They’d recently done a job for Genetech and due to being intentionally misled it had gone badly. Now Rosen has to ask for their help again, because the sole survivor has manifested superhuman powers.

Back in Manhattan, MJ finds a postcard from Springville PA and on the back it says “WISH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HERE.” Ben now knows what he has to do. In a bit of sub-plotty goodness, Kaine is being transported to prison, but an intense vision of MJ’s death pushes him to escape from the at this point rather pointless guards.

In Springville, the survivor breaks out of the Atlanta Centre for Disease Control & Research tent and starts running. This is noted by the artist formally known as 3Pete morphs into a new outfit and it about to give chase when the New Warriors arrive out of a Genetech helicopter, 3Pete hangs back and the Warriors run into the arriving Scarlet Spider. Ben sees the survivor who’s skin alters to cope with the harsh woodland he’s in. The Warriors have faced a spider-like antagonist recently, so they naturally assume Ben is a threat.

Back in Manhattan, MJ goes for a walk, just missing Peter who sneaks in, desperate to avoid anyone so he can make a run for it. He can’t take money from his wife and unborn child, but he does take his costume, no matter what else, he has earned being Spider-Man.

The Warriors battle Ben, allowing 3Pete, who now identifies himself as Spidercide to get the drop on the survivor (now exhibiting adaptive shapeshifting powers), but he is chased off, only to join the medical team from Genetech and the ACDCR. Once their melee is done, the Warriors apologise to Ben, who takes it in his stride. In Manhattan, Peter is seen as Spider-Man crawling up the Empire State Building, a fact noted by the Jackal and also the Punisher. The Jackal reaches the Empire State Building and see’s Peter at his lowest. After a brief fight, where Peter vocalises the full depths of his pain, he is beaten and on the ground at the Jackal’s mercy. Rather than finish him off, the Jackal offers him a place at his side as he strives to perfect humanity, using the technology derived from cloning. He points out to Peter that he really doesn’t have anywhere to go, so Peter reluctantly accepts.

Notes: Okay, lets get this out the way, this even is a play on words from the Maximum Carnage event from several years ago. So we’re at the point of self-parody. No point taking this seriously. So now the Jackal and (sigh) Spidercide are upping their game and moving towards some kind of grand design. The rest of this falls into a very simple event model, we get several threads set up, Peter’s descent, the New Warriors with the survivor, Ben’s path towards the Jackal, the Jackal and Spidercide’s plan and whatever the Punisher is doing. It sets all these threads going, hoping that you’re invested enough to go along with it.

The problem I’m having with it, is why is this an event? With the extra sized and priced book ends and all that. This wasn’t Age of Apocalypse level stuff, it just seemed like the next part of this story. So I found this particularly lack lustre. The introduction of Punisher was like most stories where he shows up, entirely unnecessary. It was nice to see the New Warriors show up, even if half of my favourite characters were no longer on the team by this point. It’s this kind of what was the point of it-ness that really soured my opinion of this book. Maybe it is more about what comes next, but when it’s part one of a mini-event, then it should feel like that something has started. This did not feel that way at all and when you add it to the weird heel turn on the last page, it made me want to just walk away a number of times.

Verdict – Writing: 2/5 Both writers can do better work than this, DeFalco is a solid plotter, who moves story along well and DeZago is a solid scripter, able to find each character their own voice, despite the ever expanding cast, but honestly they don’t have a great deal to work with.

Art: 3/5 – Ron Lim was one of the L boys that took early 90’s comics by storm, he’s just the one who stayed and became a solid pinch hitter for Marvel and here the inkers and colourists don’t flatter what he’s doing and it all seems….blah!

Overall: 5/5 This is the period where the Clone Saga started to be extended to take advantage of the sales success of the first part and it is definitely where the strain starts to show, this wasn’t good, this wasn’t fun and part two has a hell of a lot to do before it can drag me back.

Next Time: We round out the third month of Age of Apocalypse with some, mutant melodrama.