Issue(s): Spectacular Spider-Man annual #8
Cover Date: 1988
Title: "Return to sender"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Mark Bagley - Penciler
Keith Williams - Inker
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
Coming up with three separate reasons for Spider-Man to get involved in the Evolutionary War must have been difficult. Amazing Spider-Man annual #22 works directly off of the events of the previous Punisher annual (increased criminal activity due to the drug shortage) but still relies on coincidence (the drug shortage itself was incidental to the High Evolutionary's plans, and it only just so happens that the Evolutionary has a mission in New York that the Kingpin can trick Spider-Man and Daredevil into stopping). Web of Spider-Man annual #4 cheats entirely by placing Spider-Man in a generic hero role; it could have been any super-hero that happened to be in Florida while the Evolutionary was trying to close the Nexus (which, by the way, is totally fine for the occasional story, and Steve Gerber did work in some details specific to Spider-Man). So really, both Spider-Man chapters of the Evolutionary War have been incidental to Spider-Man and his motifs; he just happened to be the in the right place at the right time.

This issue does the most to find a reason why the High Evolutionary might be interested in the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel universe, but at the same time it brings in something so far out of left field it winds up feeling like the least Spidey oriented of the three annuals.

As to what is related to the Spideyverse, well, it's been a while and it's not the 90s yet, but Spider-Man has had some significant dealings with clones thanks to Gerry Conway and Dr. Miles Warren, aka the Jackal, and those stories left a clone of Gwen Stacy still up and around. It's fair enough that the High Evolutionary might be interested in clones, especially since the Handbooks had indicated that both the Jackal and the High Evolutionary got technological help from the Inhuman Phaeder. The use of the Gwen Stacy clone was not a surprise if you were following Gerry Conway's build-up to this issue in the regular Spectacular Spider-Man series, and indeed Jim Salicrup called this a revisit of the character that "ruined Gerry's reputation".

The Gwen clone was seen fleeing the High Evolutionary's troops in the regular series, and here she reaches New York, where Spider-Man rescues her from the latest wave of Gatherers.

But the Gwen clone is terrified of Spider-Man because she thinks he killed her father.

However, she still intends to go see Peter Parker, and unlike the Black Cat in Amazing Spider-Man #306 (or Venom, for that matter), she doesn't seem stymied by the fact that Peter has moved to a different apartment.

Peter is of course rattled by the return of the facsimile of his first love. In fact, he talks like Gwen is "back". He's even wishing her dead.

Wait, wait, wait. I know how to handle this, you guys! First, we contrive to separate Peter from Mary Jane for about two years, and we eventually let Peter think that MJ is dead, while she's really hanging out with Daredevil. Peter is riddled with guilt for a while and goes crazy. Then we reveal that Mary Jane is actually an evil clone, and we kill her off and let Peter get back with Gwen guilt free!

Ok, the difference between this and Cyclops/Jean/Maddie is that we already know that Gwen is the clone. In fact, even Peter knows this. Not that having a clone of your dead girlfriend resurfacing wouldn't still be traumatizing.

The thing that comes out of left field is the return of the Young Gods. The Young Gods were a really trippy concept that Gerry Conway introduced during his Thor run back in 1972 (even earlier than the Gwen Stacy clone). They were never fully developed and didn't make any sense to me, but the basic idea is that they were new Relevant gods created from real humans dealing with real world 1970s problems. Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio (possibly from a plot by Roy Thomas) got rid of them as part of a clean-up exercise that said that they were designed to prove to the Celestials that humanity deserved a positive judgement from them. So i would have never expected to see them again, and i certainly wouldn't have expected to see them on an abandoned Celestial spaceship training like a teen super-hero team.

I have been willfully neglecting to itemize the characters' names and powers, even though Conway brings them back again for a Marvel Comics Presents storyline. I'll just note that every time they appear there seem to be more of them.

The High Evolutionary's investigation of them results in the same disappointment i have: they aren't super-evolved beings that can impart any special knowledge about the Celestials. They're just super-powered kids.

So he takes his leave of them. But one of them, Daydream, detects his plans...

...and convinces half the group to go stop him.

Back on Earth, Gwen arrives at Peter and MJ's place, but he's (it's suggested perhaps subconsciously deliberately) still wearing his Spider-Man costume, so she flees again.

Spider-Man catches up with her in time for both of them to be captured by Gatherers and teleported to the High Evolutionary's base.

And that's when half the Young Gods show up.

Then the other half of the Young Gods show up to stop the first half from interfering with humanity, and so it's just chaos.

After a while the Evolutionary's troops are all messed up, Gwen is freed, and the Young Gods depart. Peter picks that moment to tell the clone that he doesn't love her.

The High Evolutionary then reveals that Gwen isn't really even a clone; she's actually another person genetically manipulated to look like and act like Gwen.

Poor original person, whoever she was. After the Evolutionary teleports Peter and "Gwen" back to New York, Daydreamer shows up again to revert the clone back to her original form.

What a weird story. It's especially weird in retrospect since we know that no matter what, Miles Warren was capable of making actual clones. So this doesn't serve to downgrade the Jackal's capabilities in an effort to make the Evolutionary look better or anything. But i guess the purpose is to remove the fact that there was basically a Gwen Stacy running around in the Marvel universe, even though we haven't thought about her since 1975.

This all remains tangential to the High Evolutionary's actual goals; this was just a point of interest for him. So it's another potentially skippable part of the Evolutionary War. The Young Gods might have added something to the plot, similar to the way the Evolutionary talked to the Eternals and tried to steal the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists, but since he dismisses them as uninteresting early into the story there's not a lot more to do with them. And there are just so many and they are all so devoid of personality that it's hard to care.

A back-up story focuses on them specifically, having half the group being drawn to Israel.

They uncover a golem thing.

And they form the Uni-Mind to defeat it.

They determine that it was an Earth god, but they can't tell what pantheon it was from.

And we're told to look for the Young Gods in future issues of Spectacular Spider-Man, but i assume reaction to this issue prevented that, hence their next appearance being in Marvel Comics Presents instead.

Alright, since i'm feeling guilty about not going into detail on the Gods, here's the full five Fact Pages about them.

In addition to the above, there is Juniper and Katos, their teachers.

At least there are some nice Mark Bagley faces in there.

I cover the Saga of the High Evolutionary back-up in a separate entry.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - revelations about the Gwen Stacy clone. Some new Young Gods.

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part ten of The Evolutionary War; Avengers annual #17 is next. I'm placing this before Web of Spider-Man #44 since that ties in with Hulk #349 which leads into Hulk #350 which leads into Avengers annual #17 which takes place after X-Factor #34, so it's better to place this prior to all of that.

References:

• The Gwen Stacy clone was seen fleeing the High Evolutionary's men in Spectacular Spider-Man #142 and Spectacular Spider-Man #143.
  
• Spider-Man recognizes the equipment of the people chasing the Gwen clone as the same as the ones used in Amazing Spider-Man annual #22. He doesn't mention seeing them again in Web of Spider-Man annual #4.
  
• It's said that Dr. Stack is "departed", and he's replaced as the head of the Gatherers with a Professor Quint. It wasn't clear, but Stack may have died in the explosion of the Savage Land base in West Coast Avengers annual #3.
  
• No footnote, but the Young Gods were introduced in Thor #202-203.
  
• The Celestials came to Earth in the Eternals mini-series, and they left when the pantheons of Earth gave them the Young Gods in Thor #300. The High Evolutionary says that the Celestials have wiped all trace of their existence from the minds of ordinary men, but he's still aware of their visit.
  
• The real Gwen Stacy died in Amazing Spider-Man #121-122. The origins of the clone were revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #148.
  
• Gwen's father Captain Stacy was killed by Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90.

Crossover: The Evolutionary War

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

According to Marvel Age 64, the Young Gods would get a series if the fans liked them in this Annual, which apparently they didn't. One of them DOES show up in later issues of Spectacular Spider-Man, though.
The Gwen clone revelation made the Carrion stories in Spectacular completely nonsensical. Hence, we'll be seeing a story to address these inconsistencies in a few months.
The High Evolutionary's "logic" is ridiculous- a face-changing virus would be just as difficult as instantaneous cloning for a mere university professor to concoct.
This issue is eventually retconned- the High Evolutionary lied to prevent people from believing that Warren could really clone people and Daydreamer innocently transformed "Gwen" into the fictional Joyce Delaney. That doesn't work- Daydreamer was absent for the Evolutionary's revelation and sensed "Gwen"'s delusions. Besides, in Spectacular 143, the High Evolutionary's goons talked amongst themselves about how there was a "double pattern"- did they really do this on the off chance "Gwen" would overhear them?

Of course whatever revelations that do emerge here really just get reverted away the moment we get to the Clone Saga. (and now Linkara's Jackal is in my head thanks to saying that...boy is this page going to get nutty once we get to that mess)

I first read this issue when the 90s Clone Saga had just ended, so I was left thinking that Warren was both capable of cloning and of altering human DNA.

The Daydreamer scene at the end really is the hardest thing to reconcile with the future retcon of this retcon. Conway's views on the difficulties of cloning had evolved, and so he wanted to expand on his past stories to match that. But, in the context of the comics, I was perfectly fine with believing Warren had made actual clones; there really was no need to muddy things further.

The re-retcon makes an even bigger mess of the upcoming Carrion plotline, since it means that Warren invented both cloning *and* a virus that can turn one person into another.

Half the Young Gods are blatant national stereotypes.

First, we contrive to separate Peter from Mary Jane for about two years, and we eventually let Peter think that MJ is dead, while she's really hanging out with Daredevil. Peter is riddled with guilt for a while and goes crazy. Then we reveal that Mary Jane is actually an evil clone, and we kill her off and let Peter get back with Gwen guilt free!

You laugh, but a chunk of this describes how the 90s Spider-man cartoon ended.

Young Gods were awful, I certainly never wanted to see them again.

Well, Bright Sword rapped all night about his self-deicide,
How he'd kick Demogorge in the head since he was Z-list,
MCU nixed, not picked for those pix,
When you're this Z-list.

And Sea Witch's stealing clothes from Marrina,
And Varua gets knocked for ripping off Thena
From her psi's
Funky merger embrace

Shapeshifter man is crazy
Saying they're juvenile character finds
Oh man, who needs this when I got Kirby's Uni-Mind
Oh, brother, you've guessed, they're all gods, dad

All the young gods (hey, gods!)
Z-lister squads (No one likes Caber!)
Stereotyped gods (Sit down, come on!)
Z-lister squads

All the young gods (I don't want to read you!)
Z-lister squads (Where's Blitziana?)
Stereotyped gods (Or, uh...Nobilus?)
Z-lister squads

Now Daydreamer looks cool cause she manipulates trees
But she's so derivative, it's a Plantman reprise
So we can yawn
Oh yes, how we yawn

And Gerry Conway's more at home with his Gwen and his Spidey
He doesn't make it work with this ensemble stuff
What a bore
How many more?

Now I've read a lot 'bout clones and I'm leaving that alone
Got to mock some backup plot
Oh, is there nonsense all around or am I just a snot?
Yeah, they're all gods, dad

All the young gods (hey, gods!)
Z-lister squads (Who cares about you?)
Stereotyped gods (Sit down, come on!)
Z-lister squads

All the young gods (I don't want to read you!)
Z-lister squads (The guys from the Nest?)
Stereotyped gods (Or Narcisson?)
Z-lister squads

[repeat chorus two more times]

[standing ovation for Omar] Dude, that took some dedication.

If anyone is curious, Omar is paying homage to Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes," written for them by David Bowie.

"Chi Lo" is not a Japanese name.

Juniper should team up with Hepzibah and Squirrel Girl to form the Bushy-Tailed Babes Brigade. I'd buy that book.

I'm not going to get into it here, but I'll just say that I think Gerry Conway is one of my favorite Spider-Man writers insofar as Peter and his supporting cast go, but here he tries to be too clever by dragging back the Gwen Stacy clone and, even if this didn't help to lead into the upcoming Spider-Clone Saga, it turns his big wrap-up story arc into an even bigger mess than it was in the mid-70s.

I was quite pleased to see this ret-con. It had always bothered me that Spidey spent so much time agonising over Gwen Stacey's death when for all intents and purposes she was still alive.

The original Clone Saga had made Peter appear very callous, he gives the impression that now he has something going with Mary Jane he doesn't want Gwen coming back and cramping his style. And I found it hard to believe that Gwen would so conveniently disappear at the end of #149. If she had Gwen's memories and personality, then surely she would want to plug back into the life she knew?

This ret-con subtly answers those questions. If on a subliminal level, Peter & Clone-Gwen knew that she wasn't an exact duplicate of Gwen Stacy, then that helps explain their actions.