Amazing Spider-Man #671

It's Spidey time! Um, that's about as in depth an introduction as I have... What, they can't ALL be gold!

Amazing Spider-Man #671:

Summary: This issue gets started with the Amazing Spider-Mary Jane saving a mess of people from the mutated giant spiders overrunning Manhattan. Meanwhile, Spider-Man manages to get giant Spider-J. Jonah Jameson away from Alistair Smythe, although Jameson manages to bite Spider-Man in a true “HA!” moment. With Spider-Jameson webbed up Spidey decides to head to Horizon Labs so he could try to rig up something to help him better combat the spider-plague, or at least assist Reed Richards with the creation of the cure. The Queen hears that through Spider-Jameson and Jackal offers to send Tarantula(actually a mutated Kaine) to Horizon to find and destroy the cure. Meanwhile, Madame Web goes to Horizon Labs to complain about the spider-sense dampeners that had been built around Manhattan to help deal with the spidery population. Web tells the scientists that the dampeners were interfering with her ability to see into the future, so Reed and the scientists decide to alter the dampeners to assist people who already had spider-powers before the plague, figuring that would help get Spidey his spider-sense back. By now Spidey has returned to his lab and is blindsided by Kaine. Spidey tries his best moves against Kaine but without a spider-sense he can't anticipate Kaine's moves, while Kaine CAN anticipate Spidey's. Kaine manages to put Spidey down and locates the source of the spider-plague cure, Eddie Brock, who was in the next room. Kaine enters intent on throwing a toxin that would contaminate the cure, but Spidey manages to stagger in and web the toxin over to himself. Kaine attacks Spidey again, but Reed and the scientists have managed to fix Spidey's spider-sense, at which time Spidey is able to use his technique, speed and skill to toss Kaine into the vat holding the cure. Kaine climbs out not only cured of Jackal's genetic tampering, but with his messed up face apparently healed as well. Jackal is dumbfounded by this turn of events, and the Queen is infuriated by yet another failure on Jackal's behalf. Having had enough she unleashed a scream at Jackal that flays the skin from his bones. It's then that the Queen realizes that whatever they did at Horizon to give Spidey his spider-sense back it amplified her powers to the nth degree, turning her godlike.

Thoughts: Good stuff here. The next issue is the conclusion to Spider-Island, and I've got to say, I've been pretty impressed by it thus far. Now I'm sure those of you who have been following my reviews for a while are probably thinking, “Wow, I bet X is pissed by Jackal's death!!” but no, to the contrary in fact. Jackal is one of those characters who can die 100 times and STILL come back due to his knowledge of cloning. So I'm quite confident that the awesomely hilarious Jackal will be back sometime soon. I'm REALLY intrigued to see what becomes of Kaine now... I mean he basically COULD become the new Ben Reilly, which is something certain Spidey fans have been clamoring for(and yes, I'm one of them.). Or he'll get killed off next issue by the Queen to hammer home the point that she's evil and a major threat. But fingers crossed, Kaine makes it out of the next issue unscathed and gets to start a life for himself. So while Spider-Island hasn't been my favorite Dan Slott Spidey story, it's still been quite good, and it has me interested on seeing how everything ends.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Who knew Jackal was so funny?