Wow. That was... not good.
Issue 104 was, in and of itself, a decent issue. However, it could have been (easily) half as long as it was; there was absolutely no need for all of the talking. We all know that the only reason this final issue existed was to have the fight between Spidey and Doc Ock; so, why did that take a backseat to all of the Bendisian talking? And, while we're on the subject, why, oh why, does Bendis have to end each of his arcs lazily? It's happened in EVERY SINGLE ONE of the arcs with Doc Ock- the final battle is a big letdown. This was supposed to be (according to the solits) the greatest battle of his life- and it lasted all of eleven pages. That's so little, Bendis could have kept it that length, and shortened the issue down to the normal 22 pages, with the remaining eleven pages talking. Such a letdown.
Actually, I think Bendis even realizes that it's a horrible battle, which, by the way, is mostly composed of swirling colors that make absolutely no sense. He makes Spider-Woman say, "It's lame that it took two of us," which is basically Bendis's way of saying, "Yeah, I know it was short and lame fight, but hey, it took TWO of them to beat him!"
Anyway, other than that- decent issue. But as a whole, Clone Saga has been horrible. You'd think Bendis would have thought things through a little better. You'd almost think he didn't know Peter's dad was a clone in 100, after all the useless waste of paper that was his dad's fake memories. Seriously, more than half of the "landmark" 100th issue was retconned almost instantly. This, to me, is really lazy and inconsistant writing. And don't even get me started on Doctor Octopus being Magneto's clone. Really, now, if he could just control the metal, would he have had a psychic connection to the arms? Would he have reacted at all when his previous arms were destroyed if he just "liked being called Doctor Octopus"? Bendis obviously made this little twist up just now- I'm willing to bet that if you had asked Bendis in volume three, if Doc Ock could control metal or if he had a psychic link with his tentacles, and Bendis had to tell the truth, he would have said, "Oh, he definitely has a psychic link to his tentacles. And controlling metal- are you crazy? That's just dumb."
In sum, then, Clone Saga had some good points- but they are so far outweighed by the bad, it's not even funny. The worst thing of all, though, is that this arc could have been so much better.
