The Life of Reilly- the behind the scenes story of the spider-clone saga
 

http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot...max-results=36

I remember reading this years ago and started skimming through it again. Even if you don't like Spider-Man or Marvel it's still a good look at how editorial and maketing can screw up a simple storyline.

This is really cool. I'm only about 1/3 of the way done but really interesting, since I only know of the saga and not all the details.

:p I like some of the writers responses to when Mesphisto is brought up as a way to resolve the story line.

Boy, that was a big read! It took me three days at work to get through it all. ;) As someone who didn't read Spider-Man after "Maximum Carnage" (that being total crap in my eyes, and what made me decide to drop the series.. then I hear about the clone stuff and I wasn't upset I dropped it one bit), I found the article interesting. It's neat to see a little behind-the-scenes on the story and it's journey. Thanks for pointing this out!

Re: The Life of Reilly- the behind the scenes story of the spider-clone saga
 

Finally got to that part too. The funny thing is that that proposed storyline way back then was seen as a way to reset Spidey: not just get rid of the clone, but get rid of the baby and the marriage to Mary Jane. Which is, of course, pretty much what they did many years later.

It also makes you really jaded as a mainstream superhero comic book fan, realizing that the stories you're reading really don't matter... someone else will just come along, take the character in a new direction, and totally disregard the past. I mean, we have always known this, but the many notes chronicled in this article, including the one that said that it's better off to leave storylines dangling so as not to tick off the reader, really drives it home.