Turmoils In Time!

The world of fiction is replete with the concept of time travel, though that particular method of travel is especially epitomized in the more visual fiction of comic books where fantasy and adventure reign and provide it with ample conditions in which to take place, depending on the pooling of imagination between writer and artist. We've seen it grow more complicated over the years, to where one never knows if the future a time traveler may witness is set in stone, whereas the past is generally immutable; in fact the biggest concern used to be in taking care not to change the past, for fear of changing the future. In comics, however, more adventures in time are feasible because the traveler is often given the option of seeing a horrid future as one possible future, depending on the choices made in the past; and if such choices are made, one theory pulled out of a hat proposed that those choices resulted in the creation of a separate future parallel to our own. Consequently, characters tend to travel through time without any repercussions to speak of, with the dismay and anguish one may have experienced at witnessing the tragic panorama of another time vanishing with their return to the present.

The amazing Spider-Man, like many of his fellow heroes, has done his share of time traveling--though I couldn't begin to tell you how often, much less recall the circumstances of those jaunts. Three instances stand out for me, however: One, where he traveled to the past (to meet up with the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Dr. Doom, and Moondragon--there might as well be a turnstile installed for time travelers)... and on the heels of that trip, Spidey returns to the present by way of misarrivals in two decidedly different futures, first in the year 2019, and then backward nearly twenty years to 1990. And there are two decidedly different individuals in each setting to give him the lay of the land--or what's left of it.

Writer Bill Mantlo continues his well-received run on Marvel Team-Up with this trifecta of time travel tales featuring Spider-Man, who attempts to use the same time platform which brought him to the past to return to his own time in 1975. Yet a storm breaking out just as the platform engages causes it to deposit him in separate futures, both of which represent apparent disasters which befell the world and paint a bleak outlook for Spidey that makes him doubt his reasons for living.

The scenarios which Mantlo offers in the final two stories are similar in their presentation but differ of course in the nature of the threat to the human race, the material drawn from ongoing series published concurrently in both Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales. In each instance, Spider-Man almost immediately comes into contact with the principle character from each book (Killraven and Deathlok, respectively); they team up in skirmishes with the forces at large; Spidey reacts in shock and even despair when learning of the time period he's materialized in; more skirmishes occur; and finally, grim resolve on Spidey's part to attempt to return to where he belongs.

It's a formula that works well for Mantlo, with each story limited to a single issue and Spider-Man limited to being a "visitor" who can interact with these future events to a brief extent but cannot otherwise be allowed to effect any meaningful change that would conflict with the plots already in progress in the other series. Yet readers new to those series may enjoy having a taste here of what they offer (and, it goes without saying, hopefully being tempted to pick up a copy of each)--while those readers who currently enjoy those series will likely appreciate the what-might-have-been aspect at seeing a hero from the past injected into conflicts that the human race had long since lost.

For instance, someone with the power of Spider-Man being an effective force against Martian tripods is bound to get the attention of a reader who had already seen the results of a war fought and lost.

Curiously, Spider-Man, like Mantlo, turns a blind eye to Killraven's slaughter of the men who've attacked them, when ordinarily he would never countenance such an act from those he allies himself with. But there are other shocks awaiting him, such as learning of the details of mankind's fall.

"...neither of us really knowing if one relates to the other." How simple it was--and how much more potential there was for drama--when there was no room for doubt about that. In this case, however, it allows Spider-Man to make a clean getaway and not give too much thought to what he's seen--and more importantly, not to let it weigh on him once he's back in 1975, so that his worries can return to more mundane matters like his money situation or his secret identity.

In the case of Deathlok, the devastation of that time period occurred from within, wrought by unscrupulous individuals and a like-minded government/military. But Spider-Man is no less shaken by what he finds there--especially when learning that it all takes place just fifteen years from his own time.

Here, Mantlo has practically gone out of his way to give Spider-Man the all-clear to return to 1975 without being consumed with the thought that everything around him will soon come to an end, having practically convinced himself that this timeline is 99.9% separate from his own. There is still room for doubt in his mind when the story concludes--enough to hopefully spur Deathlok into taking his fight to the source of the problems plaguing his world.

Yet what Spider-Man cannot know is that, in 1983, writer J.M. DeMatteis will find cause to bind Deathlok's timeline to our own.

COMING UP:

Captain America joins Deathlok in the future, to save the past!