Welcome to my Top 10 clones. While Characters like Lex Luthor, Charles Xavier and Magneto have been clones for decades, they’re actually the original psyche of the character in a cloned body, so I won’t be counting them. This list is test-tube grown clones with their own personality.
10. Bizarro – Superman’s backwards clone deserves listing just for introducing Bizarro speak and Bizarro as a term for opposite into the lexicon. My personal favorite Bizarro was in “All Star Superman” and he’d rank much higher, except that to him, #10 would be the best spot on any Top 10 list, so in the interests of keeping the “happy” Superman clone “angry,” he gets this spot.
9. X-23 – A female Wolverine to whet fanboys whistles, she has developed into a pretty good character, with an interesting backstory in her mini-series, and her own place in X-Force. She’s useful to be conflicted, since Wolverine himself so rarely is anymore.
8. April Parker – Spider-Girl’s clone, mixed with a symbiote, believes she really is the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane Parker. This conflicted character might actually be insane, despite living with Peter, Mary Jane and May (the aforementioned Spider-Girl). The twist of her being part symbiote really carries her to being interesting, as well as her always feeling neglected leading to a likely eventual villain turn.
7. Ben Reilly – The Clone Saga’s Spider-Man and original Scarlett Spider, Ben gets a lot of hate from many corners due to Marvel’s quasi-insane decision to “reveal” that he was the real Peter Parker. This was just silly, as he was a very interesting character on his own as a clone who had to find his own way and could be the single Peter that Marvel so desired. A very interesting character, fans shouldn’t blame him for Marvel editorial.
6. Stryfe – A clone of Cable raised by Apocalypse, he’s among the most powerful mutants ever… but he’s also absolutely insane and easily manipulated. Meant to the be body to house Apocalypse’s psych, he instead assaulted the past, forming the Mutant Liberation front and starting the very good “X-Tinction Agenda” crossover. He gets hate for being a 90s uber-violent creation, but his arch makes sense, even if the constant resurrections don’t.
5. Stepford Cuckoos – Clones of Emma Frost, these 5 (now down to 3) teenaged girls have had a huge affect on the Marvel Universe. From Esme’s betrayal to their constant presence in X-Men stories demanding a telepath, tot heir softening from cruel origins, the Cuckoos are an X-Men comics mainstay.
4. Kaine – An unstable Peter Parker clone, he’s actually more powerful than the original, though a bit nuts. At first he’s a villain, but he is redeemed. His place is so high due to his role in “Spider-Girl” where he helps save baby May Parker and becomes her “Uncle Kaine” while being a badass secret agent.
3. Superboy – Kon El hasn’t always been a great character- the oft annoying 90s creation didn’t really get interesting until Peter David got a hold of him in “Young Justice.” The mix of Superman and Lex Luthor’s DNA stayed good through Geoff Johns’ “Teen Titans” before falling apart in DC’s “give everyone a tragedy” edict. Since his resurrection, though, he’s been in the kind of simple stories in which he can thrive.
2. Michael Van Patrick Clones/Scarlett Spiders – MVP was the Avengers: Initiative cadet who made himself the perfect athlete. When he died in a training accident, the Initiative was not about to lose someone that talented, so they made clones and put them in Scarlett Spider suits where, because they were peak human and not Spider-Man, they ended up dying one-by-one again. This entire character arch was extremely well put-together, as these tragic characters slowly realized how alone they were, how their creator viewed them as science projects, and ultimately fell apart.
1. X-Man – Nate Grey, the clone of the Age of Apocalypse Jean Grey and Scott Summers DNA is the most powerful mutant around. When he fell to our world, he was left wandering and lost. These comics, without much direction, were quite hated upon at the time, but were also quite solid one and done comics stories. After awhile, he befriended Spider-Man, who he had a great dynamic with, and eventually became a Shaman who sacrificed himself to make the world better in some truly great comics. It was this role he returned in during the “Dark X-Men” mini-series, a series that showed the character’s potential, as he’ll hopefully return soon, as he’s illogically a favorite character of mine.
