The Clone Conspiracy was the central storyline of the Spider-Man family of comics from October 2016 to March 2017. The event was conceived and written by Dan Slott, who had been the chief architect of Spider-Man's narrative for nearly a decade, with primary artwork for the main series provided by the highly acclaimed artist Jim Cheung and colorist Justin Ponsor. The seeds for the event were planted months in advance during the “All-New, All-Different Marvel” relaunch. A mysterious man in a red suit, associated with a company called New U Technologies, was seen approaching various villains with an offer they couldn't refuse: a second chance at life. This slow-burn buildup created significant fan speculation. The storyline was officially announced under the title Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy, directly referencing its theme of resurrection and its connection to Spider-Man's most controversial era. The core story was told in the five-issue miniseries The Clone Conspiracy. However, the narrative was deeply interwoven with the ongoing Amazing Spider-Man series (vol. 4, issues #19-24), which served as essential reading. The event also spawned several tie-in miniseries, including Prowler, Silk, and The Clone Conspiracy: Omega, an epilogue issue that established the new status quo for key characters. The event was a deliberate attempt by Marvel to revisit the charged and often-maligned concepts of the 1990s Clone Saga with a modern sensibility, aiming to provide a definitive and emotionally resonant return for one of its most beloved and tragic characters, Ben Reilly.
The in-universe origin of The Clone Conspiracy begins with the secret suffering of Ben Reilly. After his heroic death dissolving in Peter Parker's arms at the end of the Clone Saga, his story did not end. His creator, Professor Miles Warren, collected his remains and successfully resurrected him. Warren's goal was to perfect his cloning process by killing and resurrecting Ben repeatedly, refining the technique with each agonizing trial. Ben endured this cycle of death and rebirth a horrifying 27 times, with each resurrection retaining the full memory and trauma of the previous deaths. Eventually, Ben broke free, overpowered Warren, and imprisoned him. Driven mad by his suffering and twisted by a newfound messiah complex, Ben believed that the gift of resurrection—what he called his “enlightenment”—should not be his alone. He felt that no one should ever have to suffer the finality of death. He adopted his creator's villainous persona, becoming the new Jackal, and founded New U Technologies as a front. He wore a sharp red suit and an elegant Anubis mask, a stark departure from Warren's green costume. Ben refined Warren's cloning technology, creating a new process that produced “reanimates”—clones with the complete memories and consciousness of the original person up to the moment of their death. His process required the reanimates to take a daily pill to maintain cellular stability, ensuring their loyalty. He began by resurrecting Spider-Man's greatest foes, like Doctor Octopus (whose mind was implanted into a clone body) and a new Electro, using them to build his organization. He then expanded his reach, bringing back Peter Parker's lost loved ones, including Captain George Stacy, Jean DeWolff, and most significantly, the love of both his and Peter's life, Gwen Stacy. His ultimate goal was to convince Peter Parker to join him, believing that with the resources of Parker Industries, they could share their “gift” with the entire world, ending death forever.
The Clone Conspiracy storyline has not been adapted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there are currently no indications of a direct adaptation. The concept of cloning itself has been largely absent from the MCU, which has favored other forms of advanced science and “resurrection.” There are several key reasons for its absence:
While the MCU has explored themes of bringing back the dead, it has done so through different means. “The Blip,” caused by the Infinity Stones, reversed the deaths of half the universe's population but was a restoration, not a recreation. Characters like Loki and Gamora have returned via time travel and multiversal variants, not cloning. If the MCU were ever to touch upon Spider-Man-related cloning, it would likely be a heavily reimagined and streamlined version, disconnected from the specific plot and emotional stakes of The Clone Conspiracy.
The story begins with Peter Parker balancing his life as Spider-Man with his new role as the CEO of the global tech giant, Parker Industries. A mysterious new healthcare company, New U Technologies, emerges, offering cutting-edge organ replacement and a revolutionary procedure that seems to bring people back from the brink of death. J. Jonah Jameson is an early client after his father, Jay Jameson, falls ill. When Jay makes a miraculous recovery, Peter's spider-sense tingles in his presence, an early clue that something is wrong. Simultaneously, several of Spider-Man's supposedly dead villains reappear, seemingly restored to life and more powerful than before, including a new female Electro and a revitalized Rhino. During a confrontation, the Rhino refuses to fight Spider-Man, stating that his resurrected wife, Oksana, is waiting for him and that he won't risk losing her again. This encounter deeply confuses Peter. His investigation into New U is stonewalled, but his clone-brother, Kaine Parker, begins his own investigation after discovering that several of their enemies' corpses have been exhumed. Kaine's journey leads him to a parallel Earth devastated by a zombie-like plague, which he learns is a failed version of the New U cloning process—a dark foreshadowing of the event's climax.
The conflict escalates when Peter is personally invited to tour the New U facility by the man in the red suit. To his astonishment, the facility, called “Haven,” is populated by dozens of his resurrected friends and foes living in apparent harmony. He is reunited with a cloned Captain Stacy and, most shockingly, Gwen Stacy. The man in the red suit then reveals his true identity: he is Ben Reilly, the original Scarlet Spider, now calling himself the Jackal. Ben explains his twisted origin story of repeated death and resurrection and presents his grand vision to Peter: a world with no death. He offers Peter the ultimate temptation: the power to resurrect their beloved Uncle Ben Parker. This is the story's central moral test. Peter is horrified and adamantly refuses, arguing that they don't have the right to play God and that Uncle Ben would not want to be brought back this way. Peter's refusal marks him as an enemy in Ben's eyes. Meanwhile, Doctor Octopus, who has been allied with the Jackal, reveals his own agenda. He has been secretly working to find a permanent solution to the cellular decay that plagues the clones, as he has no intention of being subservient to Reilly. He develops a “proto-clone,” a perfect genetic original with no memory imprints, which he plans to use for himself.
The key turning point occurs when Kaine Parker and the visiting Spider-Gwen of Earth-65 discover the fatal flaw in Ben's process. The reanimated clones are unstable and prone to cellular breakdown. When this decay begins, they degenerate into mindless, infectious creatures known as Carrions, and the condition is transmissible by touch. A broadcast signal, designed by the Jackal to initiate mass cellular stabilization, is hijacked. The signal is reversed, triggering a rapid, worldwide decay of every single reanimate. Haven descends into chaos as friends and foes alike begin to transform into ravenous Carrion monsters. The potential for a global pandemic—the Carrion Virus—becomes imminent. Realizing his utopian dream has become a nightmare, a panicked Ben Reilly is unable to stop it. Spider-Man is forced into a desperate alliance with the remaining stable reanimates, including Doctor Octopus, to contain the outbreak. He uses his company's global communications network to broadcast a counter-frequency that neutralizes and dissolves all cloned matter—both the decaying Carrions and the stable reanimates. Peter is forced to make the heart-wrenching choice to effectively kill Gwen Stacy and all the others a second time to save the world.
In the final moments of the crisis, Ben Reilly battles Doctor Octopus for the proto-clone. Ben is seemingly killed in the ensuing fire, allowing Peter to believe his tormented brother is finally at peace. However, Ben survives, taking the proto-clone technology with him and escaping to start a new life in Las Vegas, which kicks off the Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider series. Doctor Octopus successfully transfers his consciousness into the perfected proto-clone, creating a superior version of Peter Parker's body. He escapes and rebrands himself as the Superior Octopus, eventually forming his own team of Hydra's Avengers. The world is saved, but at a great cost. Parker Industries is ruined by the scandal of its involvement, setting the stage for the company's eventual downfall. Peter is left to mourn his loved ones all over again, reinforcing his core belief that “no one dies” on his watch, but also solidifying his stance against artificial resurrection. The event leaves deep psychological scars on Peter and permanently alters the trajectories of both Ben Reilly and Doctor Octopus, making them major players in the Marvel Universe for years to come.
The main ongoing title was inextricably linked to the event. Issues #19-24 served as the primary narrative engine, delving deeper into Peter's emotional state, his investigation, and the direct confrontations with the Jackal. The book also handled the critical subplots involving Doctor Octopus and Anna Maria Marconi, as well as the eventual downfall of Parker Industries. Reading the main miniseries without these issues would leave significant gaps in the story.
This tie-in series was perhaps the most intimately connected to the event's core plot. Hobie Brown, working as Spider-Man's chief of security, is sent to infiltrate New U. He is discovered and seemingly killed by the new Electro, only to be resurrected by the Jackal as a reanimate. The series follows Hobie's conflicted loyalties as he must decide whether to side with his boss, Peter Parker, or the man who gave him his life back.
The Silk tie-in followed Cindy Moon as she discovered that J. Jonah Jameson had been visiting New U. This led her to investigate the company, where she encountered a resurrected Mattie Franklin, a former Spider-Woman who had been killed years prior. The arc focused on Cindy's personal connection to the victims and the moral horror of the Jackal's operation from a different street-level perspective.
This one-shot served as the official epilogue and was crucial for understanding the event's long-term impact. It detailed the immediate aftermath, showing the public fallout for Parker Industries and setting up several future plotlines. Key scenes included Ben Reilly's survival and escape, Doctor Octopus's embrace of his new Superior Octopus identity, and the tragic resolution for the Rhino, who briefly finds peace with his dissolved reanimate wife before being taken into custody.
Reception for The Clone Conspiracy was largely mixed, though it leaned more positive than the 1990s saga it drew from. Jim Cheung's detailed, expressive artwork was almost universally praised, lending a cinematic and emotional weight to the story. The central mystery and the shocking reveal of Ben Reilly as the new Jackal were lauded as a brilliant twist that honored the character's history while taking him in a bold new direction. However, some critics and fans felt the storyline was derivative of its infamous predecessor, expressing “clone fatigue.” The high number of tie-ins required to get the full story was also a point of contention for some readers. Despite these criticisms, the event was a commercial success and is generally regarded as one of the more significant Spider-Man stories of the 2010s for its lasting impact on the characters of Ben Reilly and Doctor Octopus.
The core theme of the entire event is an exploration of grief and the morality of cheating death. Ben Reilly, twisted by his own horrific experience, genuinely believes he is eliminating the world's greatest source of pain. The story forces Peter Parker, a man defined by loss, to argue for the natural order of life and death. The most powerful scene is Ben's offer to resurrect Uncle Ben. Peter's immediate and visceral rejection of this offer serves as the story's moral thesis: true love and respect for the dead means honoring their life and memory, not violating their rest for one's own selfish need to assuage guilt or sorrow. The story posits that resurrection without consent is the ultimate violation.
The Clone Conspiracy functions as a direct thematic and narrative sequel to the 1990s Clone Saga. It deliberately re-engages with the elements that made the original so controversial—the return of Gwen Stacy, the questioning of identity, and the proliferation of clones—but reframes them through a modern lens. Where the original saga was about a crisis of identity (“Who is the real Peter Parker?”), this story is about a crisis of morality. It successfully rehabilitates Ben Reilly as a major character, not by retconning his death, but by making his death and subsequent trauma the foundational elements of his new, complex personality. It transforms him from a symbol of editorial confusion into one of Marvel's most tragic figures.