The four-part saga in Colonial Salem involving the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Doom and Moondragon battling the evil Dark Rider and Cotton Mather is now, well, history. So Spider-Man should be returning to the present, right?

Well, not so fast. Before Spidey can return to midtown Manhattan, he has a couple of additional stops to make. When the story begins, Spider-Man is still in Salem, lamenting the fact that he couldn't save a group of accused witches from being hanged in Marvel Team-Up #44. One of these falsely accused "witches" was John Proctor, a man who aided Spider-Man and his allies when they traveled back in time to Salem. A violent storm is brewing in Salem as Spider-Man steps on Doctor Doom's time platform, intending to return home. However, it doesn't quite go that smoothly. "It looks like I traded in the express trip for the local," he says. It turns out the storm played havoc with the controls of the time machine and dumped him into the future. He's in New York, all right, but it's not the Big Apple he's familiar with.

Instead, New York is in complete ruins and its almost unrecognizable. A man on a demonic horse is being chased by alien-looking tripods that look like something from an H. G. Wells science fiction story. The man is Killraven and the tripods are Martian in origin. They are responsible for the devastation. "Can you imagine what Jolly Jonah would say if his favorite photographer came in with snapshots of this? Yeah, he'd probably say -- 'Parker, you're fired!'" Spider-Man jokes. Killraven asks for Spidey's help and, not knowing what else to do, Spider-Man obliges. He topples one of the tripods with his webbing, while Killraven dispenses with its pilot. "If I had any lingering doubts about our alliance, my friend, allow me to apologize," Killraven says.

A second and then a third tripod enter the scene, but Spider-Man dispatches with the first one (unlike Killraven, he uses non-lethal tactics), while Killraven destroys the second one with a photonuclear pistol. After the battle, Killraven explains that he is the leader of the human freedom movement on this post-apocalyptic world. It is the year 2019 - 18 years after the second Martian invasion of Earth. Virtually all of mankind was killed by the Martians. Killraven was taken prisoner and forced to fight in gladiatorial combat. He escaped and organized a band of other freemen to fight for earth's liberation. Spider-Man is distraught to hear the news. "What are you saying, man -- that it's all gonna end? That nothing we do matters because in thirty years time the Martians are gonna grind it all into paste? That me, the people I love, my world -- none of it's worth beans?" Killraven comforts him by saying the future is uncertain "and if life does have any point at all, it is bound up by the living of it."

However, while they are distracted, a team of Martians subdues both Spider-Man and Killraven and takes them prisoner with a toxic gas. Killraven is confronted by a vision of Volcana Ash (gotta love that name!), the love of his life. However, she's trying to kill him. Spider-Man finds himself trapped in a spider's web facing the Green Goblin. He pulls the Goblin's mask off and who is underneath? Mary Jane Watson! "No, you're not Mary Jane!" he says. "You're something inside of me! Something I've held down since the day I stood by and let Uncle Ben get murdered!" He and Killraven both begin fighting back. They both wake up to see a bunch of unconscious Martians around them. It turns out that their visions were caused by a hallucinogen gas. When they fought back against the images in their minds, they really were fighting the Martians.

Killraven asks Spider-Man to remain and help him fight. But Spider-Man declines. "There's way too many loose ends back where I come from for me to pretend I could forget them!" he says. "I don't even know if I'll be able to get back, Killraven, but I've got to try!" Killraven understands and the two men depart as friends. Spider-Man jumps on the time machine, although we won't see where he ends up until the next issue.

This story was a major letdown after the recently concluded four-issue storyline in Colonial Salem, which was one of the most fondly remembered storylines in Marvel Team-Up history. The main difference is that in the Dark Rider storyline, Spider-Man had a clear sense of purpose. He and his allies had to both stop the Dark Rider and prevent the accused witches from being executed. Although they succeeded in the first and failed in the second, they still had a clear objective. But in this issue, Spider-Man seemingly just stumbles into the middle of someone else's battle, fights the battle, and leaves again. There's not much reason for him to be in this time period, other than Marvel clearly wanted to boost interest in Killraven by teaming him up with their most popular character. There's nothing wrong with that - promoting second-tier heroes was a clearly a goal of Marvel Team-Up. However, this team-up felt contrived.

Also, I have to take exception to the fact that Spider-Man allows Killraven to kill without as much as a comment. In the past, we've seen numerous occasions where Spider-Man prevented an ally from taking another life, particularly during the Web-Slinger's team-ups with the Punisher. It shows that perhaps Spider-Man, and superhero comics in general, aren't compatible with heroic fantasy, where heroes killing the bad guys is an accepted part of the genre. This issue feels like the proverbial case of trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

Next issue: Spider-Man is still in the future -- the future of Deathlok the Demolisher!

Reviewed by Reviewed by Bruce Buchanan.

Scarce 30¢ Cover Price Variant.