Since ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #677 was the first half of a crossover arc that ends over in ‘Daredevil’ #8 this week, this issue doesn’t pick up where last issue ended. Instead, it’s the beginning of a new two-issue arc called ‘I Killed Tomorrow’… and boy is this one a doozy!
Writer Dan Slott must have been watching a lot of ‘Doctor Who’ episodes. In this tale, aptly subtitled ‘Schrodinger’s Catastrophe’, Peter Parker is actually enjoying his life for a change. There’s no villains on the loose, no squables with the media, or any of the other usual Spider-troubles. Nope. Good ol’ Peter Parker is just a normal guy working at Horizon Labs. On this particular day, Peter is helping his partner Grady on his latest invention. The invention is called “The Door of Tomorrow” and it does exactly what it says on the label. It’s a door that is actually a gateway to 24 hours into the future.
When Peter steps through the door to see what tomorrow holds, he sees that all of New York City has been leveled to the ground. Grady explains that that is because, when someone steps through the door, they go into a tomorrow where they haven’t existed for 24 hours. The trouble comes when Peter comes back through the door and the future doesn’t change back to normal. That means that Spidey now has less than a day to discover what it was that he is supposed to have done to prevent the destruction of his beloved NYC. To aid in this task, he has simply Grady and a newspaper for the correct tomorrow. So it falls to Grady to use the newspaper to help walk Spidey through the proper sequence of events or all is lost!
See what I mean? With this issue’s time-travelling hero, quirky companion, and huge timey-wimey dilemma, it feels like a ‘Doctor Who’ story with Spidey filling in for the Time Lord. Whether it’s inspired by Who or not, Dan Slott provides a wonderfully fun tale that kept me grinning and excited from start to finish. If it weren’t for the wonderfully superb issue of ‘Batman’ this week, this issue of ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ would be my pick for comic of the week. It’s really just that fun.
Artist Humberto Ramos (‘Spider-Island’) returns this issue so the fun element is right back where it should be. Spider-Man stories can often go dark places but, because of Spidey’s personality, they always have that splash of humor and fun to keep them balanced. Humberto Ramos’ pencils are fun, slightly cartoony, and just right when it comes to a Spider-Man book. Ramos is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Spider-Man artists of all time.
Verdict: Buy
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #678
Written by DAN SLOTT
Art by HUMBERTO RAMOS and VICTOR OLAZABA
Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO
