5 Marvel Clones Just as Cool as the Original (& We’re Still Mad #1 Was Done So Dirty)

Marvel Comics and sci-fi have gone hand in hand since the ’60s, with various examples of super-science being a part of nearly every major (and minor) character. One of the most used is cloning. Cloning has been around in all kinds of ways in superhero comics, with duplication rays, people that create copies with their powers, and many other weird methods. Marvel’s sci-fi shenanigans brought the genetic clone into play more than anyone else, with stories like the original Spider-Man clone saga setting the stage for more clone stories. Clones are everywhere in the Marvel Universe; look at a major character and they have probably had a clone of some kind show up.

One of the problems with clones is that they are always compared to the original and found wanting. However, this isn’t always the case. Over the years, there have been some awesome Marvel clones who have proven to be just as cool as the original. These five Marvel clones were always just as amazing as their predecessors, and number one is a character that Marvel has completely sabotaged.

5) Mister Sinister

Mister Sinister is Marvel’s most deranged geneticist, working in the shadows to create the perfect mutants and fulfill whatever twisted goal comes to mind. For years, we were told that he was Nathaniel Essex, a Victorian scientist who ended up in the thrall of Apocalypse and made himself into a superpowered mutant. However, that wasn’t actually the case. Sinister was known for making clones of everyone, including himself, so it was hard to know exactly if the prime Sinister was even still around. In the Krakoa Era, the truth of Sinister was revealed – that he was a clone of Essex, meant to use mutants to try to become a Dominion, a godlike being outside of space and time. Essex himself did eventually become a Dominion, with Sinister helping defeat him. Honestly, from what we’ve seen of the original Essex, he was nowhere near as cool as the current Sinister. He’s grown into one of the coolest villains ever and laps his gene donor easily.

4) Joseph

Joseph was introduced in the mid ’90s, after the fall of Avalon in X-Men (Vol. 2) #43. Magneto had been mindwiped by Xavier in “Fatal Attractions”, so when a younger version of Mags showed up with no memory, everyone wasn’t terribly surprised; Magnus was known for surviving everything and often being de-aged. He’d eventually link up with Rogue and then join the X-Men in the days after “Onslaught”. There were a lot of questions about whether he was the original or not and Uncanny X-Men #350 revealed that he wasn’t with its return of Magneto (spoilers for a 29 year old comic). We’d learn that he was created by Astra, an all-new mutant who had known Magneto in the days before he attacked the X-Men and was meant to kill the original. He would fail, dying in battle with Magneto in “The Magneto War”. Since then, new Josephs have showed up, but none of them are as cool as the original Joe. He was the perfect mystery character, stepping into the Magneto role seamlessly.

3) Madelyne Pryor

Madelyne Pryor is Marvel’s coolest wronged woman. She was created to be a clone of Jean Grey by Mister Sinister, who wanted to get his hands on the child of Grey and Scott Summers (he thought that any baby they had would be powerful enough to destroy Apocalypse and wanted to have that on hand). They met, fell in love, got married, and had a child. Then Jean Grey came back to life and Cyclops left his family to form X-Factor with the other four original X-Men. Sinister ended up targeting her and her child, she was forced to escape and learned about her powers, ending up with the X-Men. She mind-whammied Havok, started going crazy, and became the Goblin Queen of Limbo, all in effort to sacrifice her son (like I said, crazy) and open a permanent portal to that infernal realm. She died at the end of “Inferno”, but has come back numerous times. She’s often portrayed as some kind of terrible villain, but looking at her history shows this isn’t the case. She’s the dark opposite of Jean and is just as cool as the X-Men’s patron saint of resurrection.

2) Laura Kinney

Wolverine was the best there is at what he did and the governments of the world wanted that back after he did a runner; they had paid a lot of money to make him a killing machine and wanted a return. They used DNA taken from him by Weapon X and began experimenting on it, eventually deciding to make clones of the mutant to create the ultimate living weapons. Dr. Sarah Kinney decided to use her own DNA in the mix, creating X-23, the girl known as Laura. She was enhanced and experimented on, becoming a deadly killer that they could activate with a trigger smell. She eventually broke free and escaped, eventually finding her way to New York City and the X-Men after a stint as a child prostitute (thanks for that, Joe Quesada). Since then, she’s done her best to learn how to live a more normal life, working to balance her work with being an actual person. She’s an amazing character; she gave fans of the ’00s and ’10s a new version of Logan’s journey. She was a star from the word go and has grown to a level where she’s just as much Wolverine as her father is.

1) Ben Reilly

The Clone Saga is better than it gets credit for being and one of the best parts was Ben Reilly. I was a teen when the Clone Saga started and I loved Ben right from the beginning. He had that original young Spider-Man vibe that worked so well – he wasn’t teen Spidey, he was a bit older and wiser, but there was still that young Peter Parker energy. He resonated with me immediately and he soon became my favorite part of the Spider-books because he reacted to things differently than Peter did. His past spent on the run from the Jackal and Kaine was cool (seriously, go and read Spider-Man: The Lost Years from J.M. DeMatteis and John Romita Jr.; it is fantastic). While his time as Spider-Man wasn’t sensational (anyone who was around back then will get that), he was an excellent character. His death had meaning, so when Marvel resurrected him to do basically nothing interesting with him, kill him again, bring him back again, and finally made him into some kind of villain, it was a massive disappointment. Ben is a favorite of many fans and there are some people like me who used to like him more than Peter. Maybe one day, we’ll get him back the way he was meant to be.

Who’s your favorite Marvel clone? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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