by upper management to come up with something similar in scope to DC's "Death of Superman" storyline, which at the time was breaking sales records left and right. Thus, no outrageous idea was out of bounds. Terry Kavanagh was cajoled into blurting out his clone idea, which first met with groans and indifference, until someone (to my recollection, J.M. DeMatteis) suddenly realized the radical possibilities of such a storyline." Several of the Spider-Man creators believed that the character had drifted too far from his original portrayal and sought a way to restore the Spider-Man of old, in particular jettisoning his marriage to Mary Jane. Howard Mackie revealed "When the story was begun we knew it would be controversial, and that was part of the point." He also commented "The return to the single Spider-Man did enter the conversation eventually, but it was not the intent of the story when pitched." Bernardo added that the length of the arc was initially planned to be short, "The whole arc was supposed to end in Amazing Spider-Man #400, and leave 'Ben Reilly' as the one and only 'original Peter Parker' and forge a new beginning. The whole storyline was supposed to simplify Spider-Man's mythos and ultimately bring him "back to basics." Eventually, editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco gave the final approval to begin the story. Establishing the clone Although the readers had been getting clues about a mysterious figure with links to Peter Parker in the issues leading up to the story, the starting point for the second Clone Saga was the end of Spectacular Spider-Man #216 (Sept 1994), written by Tom DeFalco and Todd Dezago, in which Spider-Man was confronted by an exact look-alike of himself. In the following issues, the writers established the clone's backstory as a frightened, homeless outcast; and introduced the character Judas Traveller. The writers set up the possibility that the clone could be the real Spider-Man. The clone was then further developed editorially, and given the name Ben Reilly. Additionally, he became known as the super-hero the Scarlet Spider, complete with a unique costume. Early development trouble According to established Spider-Man assistant editor Glenn Greenberg "No one—not the writers, not the editors—seemed to know who or what the hell Judas Traveller was. He was seemingly this immensely powerful, quasi-mystical being with amazing abilities, but what was the real deal with him? ... But to be honest, a character like