Earlier this week, I wrote about my disappointment with the clunky conclusion to the otherwise enjoyable Marvel Zombies Return. Meanwhile, on the happy side of review town, Green Lantern #46 and Batman: The Widening Gyre #2 were both solid offerings from the Distinguished Competition. GL, especially, was a tight, exciting issue that more than made up for #45, which I thought felt like a filler issue. In #46, Geoff Johns seems to finally actually move the Blackest Night plot forward a bit, with the rainbow coalition of Green, Yellow, Purple, and Indigo figuring out the technique for killing the undead Black Lanterns. And the second issue of Kevin Smith’s Widening Gyre was interesting, clever, and creepy–though slightly less so than the first issue, which offered a slightly bigger, broader look at Batland. This ish certainly goes darker, though, so all signs point to this series being a win.

The real champ this week was Spider-Man, who managed to star in both my favorite and least favorite books in the pull.

So we can end on a positive note, let’s talk about the stinker first. Spider-Man: Clone Saga #1 kicks off a six-part retelling of the original Spider-Man disasterpiece. Long before Peter Parker was an organic-web-having spider totem, Norman Osbourne making evil secret Euro-bastards with Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane was showing sympathy for the devil, Marvel Editorial was trying to ruin your friendly neighborhood hero. The original clone saga was an intriguing concept–resurrect an old plotline where Spidey was cloned by the Jackyl, with the clone come back claiming to be the real thing–but everyone involved lost control of it. Anyone following–or, let’s be honest, trying to follow–the story in its initial offering assumed that the creators had an ending in mind, that there was some sort of guiding vision driving the narrative…but as the legend goes, whatever ending had been pitched (if any true ending had ever really been pitched) was thrown out the window by editors trying to squeeze as much cash from the convolution as they could. A few issues of clever storytelling with an unexpected twist ending would have been fine, but we got a sloppy epic built around new characters, tossed out continuity, confusion over controversy, and a non-ending that took too long to arrive at and pretty much negated the whole experience. The mess was ultimately a frustrating uneventful event. Marvel had a great opportunity to revisit past mistakes when it launched the Ultimate line of comics–and Ultimate Spider-Man writer Brian Bendis definitely managed to reimagine the clone saga in a way that was convincing and entertaining and satisfying to Spider-fans. Bendis made it work.

So why does Marvel think we need yet another revisionist take on a bad storyline, only this time with no chance for a happy (different) ending? Bendis had the freedom of a new continuity, an alternate-universe Spider-Man, and the ability to change both the journey and the destination. The creators behind this new apologist version of the clone saga may have figured out a way to clean up the path, but it is still going to lead to the same place. Do we need this comic? Did anyone ask for it? I’d much rather see Steve Wacker and the Amazing Spider-Men take their crack at cleaning up this old mess. And they’d have ever right to want to make sense out of how the Scarlet Spider Ben Reilly, Kaine, and MJ’s pregnancy scare fit into the post-One More Day continuity. I don’t want to know how the clone saga was “originally meant to be told.” I want to know how it fits today.

Wacker’s crew of weekly Spidey creators are doing fine work tugging on old plot threads in Amazing Spider-Man, with #607 winning me over for favorite book of the pull. Because I’m overdue for a corny plun, let’s just say that Joe Kelly and Mike McKone’s Black Cat really purrs, making the best argument for why Marvel Editorial felt a need to abolish the Peter/MJ nuptuals. When it comes to male power fantasies, there’s nothing quite like a little guilt-free costumed shagging between villain fights. I can take or leave Peter Parker’s love life dramatics, and I would have preferred a simple divorce plot to write him out of the MJ marriage…but now that “Brand New Day” MJ is back in Parker’s life and he is torn between rekindling a spark with her, moving on to one of the all-new all-different ladies in his supporting cast, or just petting the kitty in a no-strings-attached fling with Black Cat. This two-part Black Cat arc has finally bumped me off the fence on this series. ASM has become a romantic comedy with face kicks and explosions–and I like it.