Amazing Spider-Man Writer Urges Retailers To Check Orders On Clone Conspiracy

09/19/2016 06:29 pm EDT

In a message posted to his Twitter feed, The Clone Conspiracy writer Dan Slott urged comics retailers to "check" their orders -- typically code for "increase them, becuase you will need more than you think" -- on the series.

Slott, who has been writing for Spider-Man since the Brand New Day publishing initiative rolled out in 2008, noted that he has a pretty good track record of guessing when the title is going to blow up. Among his "check your orders" warnings were The Amazing Spider-Man #698 in 2013, which kicked off the Superior Spider-Man title and storyline.

Today is the final order cutoff for the title, which Slott says he is confident will sell out and go to additional printings "at its current numbers." He also wrote that lapsed fans would likely check back in when they hear through the press and social media what's goign on in the book.

"Clone Conspiracy is the CORE Spider-Man title," Slott wrote. "It's not a mini-series. It IS the SPIDER-MAN EVENT this year.
When you think Clone Conspiracy think Spider-Island, Ends of the Earth, and Spider-Verse. It's THAT big. It will have ramifications that will affect a number of titles: mainly Amazing Spider-Man, Prowler, and Silk (which all tie into Clone Conspiracy)."

Elements of The Clone Conspiracy were introduced in last month's issue of The Amazing Spider-Man which, even with Civil War II tie-ins floating around, was the only Marvel title to crack the DC Rebirth-dominated Top 10 in sales in August.

The Clone Conspiracy will be a five-issue miniseries that reintroduces The Jackal, a character who has a long history with cloning, dating from the '70s and running through a major storyline -- The Clone Saga -- in the '90s. The story, which started out as a sales juggernaut, became synonymous with the excesses, critical failures, and relentless publicity stunts of that decade.

The Clone Saga has been a relative success in trade paperback, though, with both a multi-volume collection and as "Spider-Man: the Real Clone Saga," a 2010 collection which purported to tell a more abbreviated, coherent story than what ultimately saw print. It was also riffed on in Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man, in a storyline that was fairly well-received.

"The Jackal has always seemed to be obsessed with cloning Spider Man and Gwen. He's had a very narrow focus," Slott said back when the series was first announced. "That's led to very interesting stories in the past, but you have to stop and think, if you're The Jackal and you take science to the next level, what's more important to you than just cloning Gwens and Peters? What does this character want, and what's he going to do with this awesome science?"

The Clone Conspiracy #1 hits the stands on

Source: Dan Slott (Twitter)

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