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| Amazing Spider-Man #58 | |
 WRITER: J. Michael Straczynski
PENCILLER: John Romita Jr. COVER BY: Tony Harris INKER: Scott Hanna STORY TITLE: Happy Birthday Part 2 of 3 REVIEW: ACT 1: Dormammu has returned. His creatures, the Mindless Ones, have grown in numbers, and are still wreaking havoc in the city. It is up to Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, the Human Torch, the Thing, Mr. Fantastic, and Cyclops to stop them. While Doctor Strange engages into a fierce battle with his mortal enemy, Dormammu, the others take care of the Mindless Ones. However, as the battle rages on, Spider-Man decides to go help Dr. Strange defeat his enemy. Unfortunately, the Mindless Ones spot him and one of them lands a punch that sends him flying and landing at Dr. Strange's feet. His presence however changes the dynamic of the spell that Strange is using against Dormammu and a terrible mystical explosion takes place. Everything turns black. ACT 2: When Spider-Man awakens, he thinks he is dead, since everything surrounding him is pitch black. Dr. Strange uses his mystical powers and reconstitutes their physical forms. He explains to Spider-Man that he was going to sacrifice his life to protect the world from Dormammu by scattering both their energies – Dormammu and his – to the multi-dimensional winds. However, when Spider-Man showed up to help Strange, the equations changed and both superheroes were sent into the void, trapped outside time and space. ACT 3: Dr. Strange has the powers to return them to their dimension but only to an approximation thereof. He explains that he may be able to return them to the correct part of space but that they will remain outside time, moving back and forth unpredictably. And so he does. They make it back but it's too late. Times Square is destroyed. Even the mighty Thor has fallen. As our hero tries to absorb this catastrophe, time shifts and he's back in Times Square, prior to the attacks by the Mindless Ones. A cop yells at him to move it as he is holding up traffic. Again time shifts and they are back in the future after the rise of Dormammu. Suddenly, a scream for help is heard. Spider-Man rushes to the aid of the victim, which happens to be Mary Jane. However, he is not quick enough and one of the Mindless Ones snaps her neck. He leaps to grab the latter but he lands head first in a…tombstone. ACT 4: The scene takes place at the cemetery, at the tombstone of Aunt May Parker. Spider-Man watches the man standing in front of her headstone. The man speaks to May and tells her that this is his last stand, and that they are coming for him now; in the background, police cars approach the cemetery. He pulls out the mask he was holding in one hand and puts it on. He is Spider-Man, or more specifically a futuristic version of Spider-Man. The real-time Spider-Man is appalled. But then time shifts once again and he finds himself back to the beginning, at the science expo where he was bitten by the spider that gave him his superpowers. The last page of the issue shifts between the futuristic version of Spider-Man surrounded by the police and young Peter Parker, just about to be bitten by the radioactive spider.
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