The good thing about this Civil War delay and 1 comic a week is i can do a more detailed analysis. The bad thing is... 1 comic book a week.

Issue(s): Beyond #3
Published Date: Nov 06
Title: Dead Man Walking
Credits:
Dwayne McDuffie - Writer
Scott Kolins - Penciler
None - Inker (see interview link below)
Tom Brevoort - Editor
Joe Quesada - EIC

Review/plot: Starts out with an awesome extended fight against Dragon Man. I always like it when these classic characters are shown as the real bad-asses they ought to be. Deathlok's internal diaglogue with his computer is always enjoyable. Medusa has been shown to be really powerful throughout this series. Here she takes out Dragon Man's knee with a giant boulder. It's funny that i just read this in an old FF issue when Medusa was a member:

Dear Marvel, Did you know that a single strand of a woman's hair can support about a quarter of a pound, and that her whole shock of hair should be able to support 12.5 tons? So why is it that you are always showing Medusa lifting only feather weight stuff compared to her potential? An ordinary woman's scalp probably couldn't take that sort of pressure, but Medusa is an Inhuman. How about it?

Tom Melichiorre from Chester, PA, i guess Dwayne McDuffie has heard you.

Then after some great dialogue with dead-on characterization, there's the big reveal that potentially solves any issues around how this story fits into the current MU situation re: Civil War and Spider-Man. What's funny (again) is that just last week Wayne read Avengers #2 and we were talking about the Space Phantom. And now here he is. I think Marvel's got our living room bugged.

So, great story, and i really like the art. The storytelling is great (the fight scene with Dragon Man is totally clear, very specific, and action packed, for example), the facial expressions are really good (there's some interesting close-ups of Firebird reacting to overhearing Jan and Hank discussing their relationship which is really good), and there's a lot of detail in terms of backgrounds. There's a sketchy quality to it as well, but i like the style. Wayne has some issues with the coloring, but i think it works. Here's a good interview with the artist. No spoilers beyond issue 3. Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: Too soon to rate. Could be a 1 if it ends in a mind-wipe. Could be higher if there are important revelations about the Beyonder or the original Secret Wars story.

Chronological Placement Considerations:

• Taking Spider-Man out of the picture removes any serious continuity concerns (Slight issue with the Space Phantom as a continuity save: when he takes over a person, he's supposed to actually displace them into Limbo. Which means if he's been posing as Spider-Man, Spider-Man should have been in Limbo at the time. So technically that means that this story has to take place at a time where Spider-Man looks and acts like the Space Phantom's version. But that's not a big deal. What's a slightly bigger deal is that i still have to go back and determine if at this point everyone knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. Even then certain characters (Kraven, Venom) already know, and others (Medusa, Firebird) probably don't care and wouldn't react if, for example, Venom referred to Spider-Man as "Parker" in issue 1, but it's worth a re-read before placement.)
  
• Jan and Hank refer to not having talked "since London" but that may be an 'off camera' reference.
  
• This will have to be placed some time after the last Deathlok (and possibly Dragon Man) appearances, but that shouldn't be a problem.

  Characters Appearing: Gravity, Firebird, Henry Pym, Wasp, Medusa, Kraven The Hunter II, The Hood, Deathlok, Dragon Man, The Space Phantom

  References: Comics from this time period do not make explicit references.

  Cross-over: N/A

  Continuity Implant? N

  Reprinted In: N/A
  

Know what I like about this comic is the totally non-gratuitous use of characters. And just great fun in that regard. First you get the choice of characters with only spider-man a real a-lister, and then "hey Deathlok, hey dragon man, hey space phantom!" all great reveals and just really bad-assed stuff. All killer, no filler!