10. Stryfe
As far as clones go, Stryfe is kind of a dark horse pick for a best of list, but let’s think about it. He’s a clone of Nathan Christopher Summers, one without the techno virus, created and aged in the event that the virus killed Nathan. When the virus failed to do that, however, he was no longer needed, and was stolen by Apocalypse. Raised by the immortal mutant, Stryfe was named and his entire purpose, in the eyes of the eternal, was to provide a powerful host body in the future….which was fine until he realized Stryfe was just a clone, and therefore useless to him. All of this more or less leaves him insane, and he swears himself to be the true Nathan Summers, and swears vengeance on both his parents (Scott and Jean….even if it wasn’t Jean and it was, in fact, her clone) and Apocalypse, as well as his perceived ‘clone’ Cable. Stryfe’s biggest accomplishment was shooting, and nearly killing, Charles Xavier during X-Cutioner’s Song. He also kidnapped Scott and Jean and….well, let’s just say that for a clone, he has a lot of family issues.
9. Lex Luthor
Wait, Lex is a clone? I bet you either forgot or didn’t know in the first place, and who could blame you? DC hasn’t mentioned it in years! But during the 80’s when Superman relaunched under John Byrne with Man of Steel, Luthor was a heavyset bald man with a Kryptonite Ring that kept Superman at bay. A Kryptonite Ring that gave him terminal cancer. Faking his own death, Lex’s scientists saved his brain and implanted it in the body of a clone. Lex Luthor Jr, Luthor’s 21 year old bastard Australian son. And people believed it too! The Supergirl at the time slept with him! A lot! In fact, the information only went public when a clone deteriorating disease began to kill him, Lois found out the truth, and then Lex decided to bring Metropolis down with him. Left in a vegetative state, Luthor is saved by Neron who restores his health and youth in exchange for his soul. How does Lex get his crimes knocked off the record? By claiming that Cadmus made a violent clone of him. Oh Lexy, never change!
8. April Parker
The recently renamed “Mayhem”, April was introduced to us as the “Brand New May” in Spider-Girl. Her origin? Norman had May abducted as a baby and her parents got her back….or did they? There’s been a May of equal age in a test tube the entire time, one with the same abilities, one who believes herself to be the true May Parker, one with…..THE VENOM SYMBIOTE! Just like with Pete and Ben, May and April don’t know which is the original, but unlike Pete and Ben, it doesn’t matter which of these two girls is the original. One is the Spectacular Spider-Girl, and one is the Murderous Mayhem. And yet….they live together under one roof as cousins. Tom DeFalco is a very brilliant man, more people should read Spider-Girl.
7. Doomsday
Doomsday isn’t just a clone, he’s a clone of a clone of a clone to some exponential degree that I can’t even begin to fathom. But not just that, he’s the exponential clone of a baby who was thrown into a hostile enviroment to die, and who did so for years. Each new clone was treated with the memories recorded into it’s genes, so it grew to hate life more and more with every new body, evolving to survive until the day when it did. It was “The Ultimate”, and it killed everything on that hostile planet before killing its own creator for killing him so many thousands of times. That planet was Krypton, so it was only fitting that after over two-hundred thousand years (and plenty of other journeys, some include Green Lantern’s, another, Darkseid) Doomsday would awaken on Earth, the first son of Krypton, and strike down the Last Son, Kal-El.
6. Madelyne Pryor
A clone of Jean Grey that was created due to the event of Jean’s death, Mr. Sinister intended for her to meet and mate with Scott Summers, thereby producing the perfect offspring he had hoped for from the Summers/Grey pairing. This, of course, happened, and Nathan Christopher Summers was born. Then Jean came back from the dead and Scott up and bailed on Maddie, who sold what soul she had to demons to become the Goblin Queen. She tried to sacrifice her sons life to bring Limbo to Earth during Inferno, but was eventually stopped. This would not be enough to get her this spot, however, her resurrection several years later in the pages of X-Man does. X-Man, Nate Grey, was a test tube baby, a clone, of Scott and Jean. One of his first actions after finding his way to the main Marvel Universe was to seek out a mother, and his powers brought Maddie back from the dead to fill that purpose….and then they had sex, and that’s kinda weird.
5. X-23
For as grating and obnoxious as it was when she was brought over to the comics from the TV show, I have to say she’s grown on me. At first she was flat, like, too flat, but over time it just sorta became her character. X-23 is a clone of Wolverine, one that was used as an assassin, one who is programmed to kill anything around her if she picks up a certain scent. She killed her mother (despite being a clone, she was carried to term by a woman named Sarah Kinney, which is why X is Laura Kinney). Wolverine helped her find purpose with the X-Men, and despite the fact that she was born to be X-Force, he’s doing the right thing by her and pulling her out of that life….it probably won’t stick, but he wants this girl to at least have a chance at a life that isn’t killing until being killed.
4. Bizarro
Bizarro is the best horror movie villain ever, especially when you consider he’s a comic book character. He’s a twisted backwards copy of Superman, all of the powers with slight twists, everything in his mind backwards and inside out. Under many writers he’s almost comical, with his “Me am not Bizarro” talk, but then there are times when he beats the Human Bomb to death and says “No more pretty lights?” and you remember just how dangerous he can be.
3. Superboy
What can I say? I’m a child of the 90’s and I have always been a Kon-El fan. Half Superman and half Luthor, the Boy of Steel burst onto the scene with powers completely different from the Man of Tomorrow, and an attitude that made you wonder just how many Kal was in him. But over the years Superboy has grown into a very well rounded character, and a cornerstore of DC’s universe. Sure, he’s not big five material, but he’s an integral part of their universe….one that really needs a solo series.
2. X-Man
As mentioned before, Nate is the test tube grown clone of Scott Summer and Jean Grey, however he was grown in the Age of Apocalypse by Mr. Sinister himself. His destiny was to kill Apocalypse, but instead he found himself in the main Marvel universe sexing up a ressurected clone of his mother from that reality. I should add that I’ve been a huge Nate fan for fourteen years, and I somehow didn’t even put that together until I started writing this. Anyway, Nate was built to burn out, he was going to take out Apocalypse and be dead by 21, an insurance policy against his ridiculous powers. He spent time wandering the world, spent time as a mutant shaman, even spent some time dead! But he’s back now, and he’s more powerful then ever, and his costume is AWFUL, but HE’S BACK! Oh, and he and Cable mind fry each other if they get too close since they’re both essentially the same person. And during Onslaught he was a chief target because, again, ridiculous powers. Same thing happened with The Twelve and Apocalypse.
1. Ben Reilly
The Spider-Clone, that which strikes fear into the hearts of men! Ben was created by the Jackal, and fought Peter in his first appearance. Both were dressed as Spider-Man, both with the same memories, and when all was said and done and Pete and dumped Ben in a smokestack, presuming him dead, he only assumed that he was truly the original. Ben wasn’t dead though, and he left New York for five years as he drove around the country assuming himself to be the clone, to have no purpose. When Aunt May fell into a coma he returned, and thus the Scarlet Spider was born. Half a Clone Saga later, and Ben was swinging around in an awesome Dan Jurgens designed Spider-Man costume. Alas, it was not meant to be as Norman Osborn returned to kill him, reveal Ben as the clone, and end the Saga. Marvel just never figured out that the best way to have it go would be to just have two different Spider-Man. Everybody would have won! And we would have kept one of the best characters in comics, Ben Reilly.
