Nick Peron

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Marvel Team-Up #45

Future-Shock!

Credits

Still in the past, Spider-Man laments over the hanging of innocent people during the Salem Witch trials, however, his opponent in this time: Cotton Mather has been reduced to a catatonic state. Finding nothing left to keep him in the past, Spider-Man takes Dr. Doom's Time Machine and attempts to travel back to his own time.

However, a malfunction in the device sends Spider-Man to the year 2019 and right smack in the middle of another conflict between Killraven, and minions of the Martian Masters who have taken over Earth in this era. Initially believing that Spider-Man is another agent of the Martians, he soon changes his opinion when the wall-crawler changes when Spider-Man helps Killraven take down a number of the Martian tripod crafts.

However, when ground forces manage to get the drop on the two fast-allies, they are doused with a hallucinogenic gas which causes them to be haunted by visions. While Killraven is haunted by a vision of Volcana Ash, who chides him over his quest for freedom taking away from his capacity of love, Spider-Man is haunted by visions of the Green Goblin and his guilt for having feelings towards Mary Jane so soon after Gwen Stacy's death. The two manage to fight off their hallucinations and realize that they also manage to fight off their attackers as well.

With their foes defeated, Killraven invites Spider-Man to join his Freemen, an offer which Spider-Man declines explaining that he has too many loose ends in his own time to deal with, and jumps back aboard Dr. Doom's time machine hoping that it will bring him back to his own time.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Killraven, Martian Masters, Cotton Mather, Abraham Lincoln

Continuity Notes

  • This story suggests that Killraven's world is the future of Earth-616. Killraven’s future has been tied to the Prime Marvel Universe by virtue of its connection to Deathlok’s future of Earth-7461 and the future of the Guardians of the Galaxy of Earth-691. While this was the case when this story was published, three separate events have caused these possible futures to diverge from Earth-616

    • First, Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy went to the past an awoken the mutant powers of his younger self at an earlier point in time, deviating him from the future where he becomes an astronaut and is stuck in suspended animation for centuries. See Marvel Two-In-One #69.

    • Later, Captain America prevented Deathlok’s future from coming to pass, diverging that future from Earth-616 in Captain America #289.

    • Lastly, the Martian Invaders that created Deathlok’s future were routed before they could launch an invasion of Earth-616’s present day in Wisdom #1-6.

  • Killraven recounts his long-running battle with the Martian Masters, which began in Amazing Adventures (vol. 2) #18.

  • While hallucinating, Killraven recounts how Volcana Ash had gone looking for her sister. That happened in Amazing Adventures (vol. 2) #31.

  • Spider-Man's hallucination is focused on the tragedies in his life. Here are some of his facts: