Modern high-concept events have largely bored me, mainly because, for all the hard work of some great writers, they’re an excuse to see beloved characters beating seven shades of brown stuff out of each other. They’re essentially products of the way movies have influenced comics for a couple of decades now; summer blockbusters designed to bathe the big companies in a money shower, gold coins pouring down from an empty sky. Cumulatively they make it harder to believe in this big consistent fictional universe – the inhabitants of this place would all be traumatised by such regular apocalypses.

Occasionally though the high concepts have a heart. Civil War being an exploration of the issues around the Dubya era War on Terror and how America was still responding to 9/11. Hey, I never claimed it wasn’t obvious stuff. Spider-Island doesn’t take similarly contemporary inspiration (and therefore doesn’t date itself in a similar way) but instead inverts the whole superhero concept in a way even big budget movies might struggle to portray. What if Spider-Man wasn’t remarkable? What if *everyone* had the same superpowers and had to make the same decisions about power and responsibility? That’s a pretty potent storytelling idea and one that’s got huge potential for getting to the heart of the character of Peter Parker, to remind us of what makes him unique. Slott and Ramos, the writer and artist of the main storyline, know that this is essentially superhero comics gold dust and wheel out plenty of dynamic imagery and wit to support the central idea the title page of what was issue 667 of the comic series is a perfect example of what they’re doing in terms of both theme and style. It’s finely paced too, with Slott expertly dropping plot twists in to keep the tension ramping up. Half a story, but a tremendous half a story and a reminder that superhero comics are at their best when they’re more than an excuse for a spectacular punch-up. ( )