God I hate time travel! A review of Amazing Spider-Man #679

Peter Parker is out of time to save New York! Or is he? Peter is reminded of one thing, his hate for time travel.

Post may contain spoilers

So last week Peter Parker took a step into the world of tomorrow! Well really he just jumped ahead 24 hours. However in doing so New York go destroying. It is now up to Grady, another inventor at Horizon Labs and creator of the Door of Tomorrow, to help Spider-Man find out what blows up New York. However, they watch says the world ends at 3:10 and its 3:09…so is this really how New York goes out?

Spider-Man and Grady get ready for the end and wait for the boom but it never comes. Neither of them can figure out why until Spider-Man remembers the sad truth. They have been following an analog watch, which means if they are still alive what ever destroys New York happens at 3:10 A.M. While this is good news Grady is getting pretty fed up and can’t seem to handle his role anymore. To prove his point he walks back through the door to show Spider-Man that nothing will change. However, Grady does see one new thing, Spider-Mans uniform, torn and destroyed among the ruble. After seeing that he agrees to continue to help Spider-Man save New York. They do run into one problem, the news paper they have been following doesn’t have any other news about Spider-Man. So with no leads to follow, Spider-Man heads out on patrol and does what he normally would do hoping that he does something to save the city that didn’t make the news.

Back at the Symkarian Pride Parade, Ms. Sablinova starts to grow uneasy when she sees Spider-Man near by. She knows that he would not be there if there was not trouble near by and sends her men to find the threat. Jameson is baffled when he turns around to see she is no longer with him in the car. Turns out our buddy Flag Smasher’s bomb does play into our story. Ms. Sablinova (Silver Sable) and her men have found him and plan to disarm the bomb. Just as the fight starts to look bad for Silver Sable, Spider-Man swings in to save the day. After Spider-Man rips Flag Smasher’s fake arm off, they turn to the bomb. Again Spider-Man saves the day, preventing Silver Sable from cutting the wrong wire. Jameson shows up just at the last-minute to clean up the situation, which would explain why it never made it to the papers. Spider-Man does get a kiss from Silver Sable(I wouldn’t mind one either, again, falling for woman with white hair)

After realizing that Jameson cut his last save out of the paper, he goes to the paper to call in a favor from Joe Robertson. He tells them that they can’t leave any of his action and saves out of the paper, that way him and Grady have more to work with. Madame Web shows up to burst Spider-Man’s bubble however. Even if he changed the paper right now, it wouldn’t change the paper they have. Pretty much the whole trip to the paper was a huge waste of time which means Spider-Man really has to kick it into gear and start some major saves if he is going to save New York.

Time is running out and nothing they seem to do is changing a thing. Just as things are looking grime, Spider-Man gets a call. Grady thinks it might be the magic phone call that could save New York so Spider-Man takes it. Turns out it is just MJ asking if he wants to grab a bit to eat. It’s not until she says, “It’s not the world’s gonna end if we don’t get pie and coffee” that Peter agrees to meet her. MJ can tell something he is up and that Peter is worried. She reminds him that she has faith in tomorrow and faith in him and it has nothing to do with him being bit by a spider. It finally hits Peter, maybe it’s not something Spider-Man needs to do, maybe it is something he needs to do! With his new revelation, he races back to the lab.

Peter calls Grady and tells him to shut down the door. Grady is completely confused at this point and asks why. Peter explains that there was one thing he had to do today and didn’t, check Grady’s math. When Peter walked through the door he was never there to check the math and the door stayed on and blew up New York. The solution was in front of them the whole time. The door has the power to rip a whole in time and leaving it open blows up New York. The sit there hoping that this will save New York and as they count down to 3:10, the bad Tuesday watch disappears off Peter’s wrist and the day is saved.

I have to say, they made Time Travel seem so easy and simple in Doctor Who. It never made my head hurt like this and I am sure Peter feels the same way. But New York is saved and while Peter Parker may spend a lot of time running around as Spider-Man and saving the day with the Avengers, sometimes it matters what Peter Parker does as a civilian. Him and Grady can now rest easy and enjoy life without worrying about New York blowing up…at least for today..

I will say that Spider-Man is quickly becoming my favorite Marvel hero. I have always enjoyed Spider-Man but his character is just so likeable. I get excited whenever I get to read a book he is in.