There isn’t much to say about Spider Island in general that I haven’t said in past reviews. Dan Slott is one of the most brilliant Spider-scribes in a long time and I hope he sticks around for as long as he has ideas to put to the page. Humberto Ramos’ art is the perfectly chaotic cartoon accompaniment to Slott’s tale of NYC plunged into a literal spiders’ nest.

As I’ve found over the past few weeks, there’s no way to write a review of Spider-Island without being spoilery so I won’t even try. My full review below will contain spoilers so I recommend that you read the issue first so that you can get the full effect. In case you decide to ignore my warning and read it anyway, I’ll still refrain from revealing a couple of the major spoilers. And of course, if you aren’t reading Spider-Island at all yet, go out and pick it up. If you’re a fan of comics… no… if you’re a fan of wonderful stories, you’ll thank me. Now onto the spoiler-ful review…

After the reveal of The Queen as the mastermind behind Spider-Island in ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #669, Dan Slott’s epic tale has become much more focused with this issue as all of the key players begin to fall into place. The issue begins at Horizon Labs where Reed Richards and the Horizon scientists have created a makeshift headquarters to try and find a cure for the Spider-menace. Around the city, and in the lab, people infected by the Spider-virus are mutating into actual spiders. They’re growing hair, extra arms, and spider features.

After a brief interlude where The Queen recounts her origin for those who may not remember her, Venom arrives on the scene disguised as Spider-King. (For more on Venom and Spider-King, check out ‘Venom’ #6.)  Meanwhile Anti-Venom (Eddie Brock) continues his crusade to use his anti-powers to cure people infected with spider-powers. Now that people are starting to transform, though, they are coming to Brock for a cure rather than him chasing them down. While these two separate searches for a cure continue, Spider-Man is trying to track down his girlfriend Carlie who has been fully transformed into a spider, Mayor J. Jonah Jameson is trying to find his own way to battle the spider-menace, and Mary Jane Watson finally develops spider-powers. As the issue comes to a close, ol’ J.J. Jameson’s search for a cure takes a dire turn and Reed Richards finally discovers that Anti-Venom’s powers may be the cure for all of the spider-problems. However, the cure comes at a great cost to Brock that he may not be willing to pay.

Like the rest of Spider-Island, this is a great issue and I’m only sad that there are just two more issue remaining in this arc (if you don’t count the epilogue). But I definitely can’t wait to see how this ends and what Slott will throw at the wallcrawler next!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #670
Written by DAN SLOTT
Art by HUMBERTO RAMOS and VICTOR OLAZABA
Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS and EDGAR DELGADO