10 Comics Too Big To Fail (That Did Anyway)
5. Clone Saga
For fans of Spider-Man, looking back at the Clone Saga brings up feelings of resentment and disgust. The Clone Saga is one of the most reviled crossovers in Spider-Man history, but hindsight is 20:20, and before it debuted, the storyline was expected to bust sales records and reinvigorate interest in everyone's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
Between 1994 and 1996, the Clone Sage dominated every Spider-Man book in print, and while it has since become the most controversial and divisive storyline among fans, it started out well. At first, it appeared as if it would deliver on everything Marvel was promising.
The Clone Saga was originally going to last for a single year, and during that first 12 months, Spidey's books sold like crazy. The fans enjoyed the story, which was arguably written well, as it tied back to the original Clone Saga from the 1970s, which introduced the first clone of Spider-Man.
The problem arose when Marvel looked at its sales figures. A crossover that was intended to last a year was pushed to an additional 14 months, and the writers struggled to make sense of the whole thing. What came out of the House of Ideas was perverted and extended beyond its original intent, and it flopped as a result.