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X-Men and Spider-Man: Time's Arrow #3
X-Men and Spider-Man: The Future
The X-Men and Spider-Man must join forces to stop the time-travelling madman Kang the Conqueror from destroying the multiverse in an adventure through the past, present, and future. Dinosaurs, knights, gunslingers, World War II heroes, old-friends-turned-enemies, and future versions of themselves await them... Based on the Marvel Comics
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
206 people want to read
About the author
Tom DeFalco
2,476 books106 followersTom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well-known for his association with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 15, 2022
Tom DeFalco writing about the classic 90s X-Men and classic 90s Spider-man? And then going so far as to write about their future children, including the daughter of Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards?
*Swoon*
This blast-from-the-past 90s novelization from one of my favorite comic book writers is better than candy. It's like my favorite meal, followed by a really satisfying, cold glass of milk. It's comfort and creativity.
Sure, it is a little ridiculous that two of the future time periods that the team travels to are 2020 and 2035. In their defense, this book came out in the 90s, and there really was an alternate reality miniseries in Marvel comics set in 2020 a few decades ago. We just recently lapped that year. Marvel was aware of this and put out some more comics with Arno Stark, that damn Iron Man with the big gears on his shoulders.
It's also a little disappointing that this hypothetical child of Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards was so weak. Dream Summers is the least impressive of all the hypothetical children those two have had. Dream makes an appearance as the teenage leader of the resistance in a dystopian future, displaying only some telepathy, maybe weak precognition. Rachel and Franklin's son Hyperstorm is possibly the most powerful mutant ever born, with powers usually calculated on the cosmic level on par with cosmic beings.
*shrugs* But I am grateful for the writer to acknowledge the Rachel-Franklin romance at all. Those two have always belonged together. They were in love in Rachel's time, and they were such a perfect match with great symbolic symmetry.
There was a great scene of romance and self sacrifice by the end of this book, and quite a few other tear-jerker moments where characters interact with their future descendants. It just warms my heart, I swear.
Oh, yeah. And the team fought Kang. (The villain really was more of an afterthought with this trilogy.)
*Swoon*
This blast-from-the-past 90s novelization from one of my favorite comic book writers is better than candy. It's like my favorite meal, followed by a really satisfying, cold glass of milk. It's comfort and creativity.
Sure, it is a little ridiculous that two of the future time periods that the team travels to are 2020 and 2035. In their defense, this book came out in the 90s, and there really was an alternate reality miniseries in Marvel comics set in 2020 a few decades ago. We just recently lapped that year. Marvel was aware of this and put out some more comics with Arno Stark, that damn Iron Man with the big gears on his shoulders.
It's also a little disappointing that this hypothetical child of Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards was so weak. Dream Summers is the least impressive of all the hypothetical children those two have had. Dream makes an appearance as the teenage leader of the resistance in a dystopian future, displaying only some telepathy, maybe weak precognition. Rachel and Franklin's son Hyperstorm is possibly the most powerful mutant ever born, with powers usually calculated on the cosmic level on par with cosmic beings.
*shrugs* But I am grateful for the writer to acknowledge the Rachel-Franklin romance at all. Those two have always belonged together. They were in love in Rachel's time, and they were such a perfect match with great symbolic symmetry.
There was a great scene of romance and self sacrifice by the end of this book, and quite a few other tear-jerker moments where characters interact with their future descendants. It just warms my heart, I swear.
Oh, yeah. And the team fought Kang. (The villain really was more of an afterthought with this trilogy.)
June 2, 2025
Probably the weakest of the three parts as we are taken on a madcap tour of a number of Marvel’s possible futures including 2020 and 2099 among others as well as a final showdown with Kang in which (sorry if it comes as a spoiler) the villain’s own hubris leads to the failure of his multitudinous multidimensional schemes.
July 23, 2024
This review is for the trilogy as a whole. It's a fun series that translates chaotic superhero action to a prose format better than I expected it to. This is the kind of straightforward crossover fun that was sorely missing from Marvel's comic book line and its rat's nest of continuity when it came out in the late 90s.
The Spider-Man and Bishop team-up segments were the best bits – their interplay was charming and genuine and there was a satisfying arc of growth to their mutual understanding of one another. Spider-man's storyline in the middle book also dealt insightfully with weighty moral questions, moreso than I expected.
The weakest part of the series was Kang, who I have always found to be a dull villain with little in the way of personality and thoroughly boilerplate motivations. He was not any more interesting here than he is anywhere else, but he's also not present for much of the action until the climax of the third book, so he doesn't get a chance to be too much of a drag on the proceedings.
Overall, this series X-ceeded my X-pectations.
The Spider-Man and Bishop team-up segments were the best bits – their interplay was charming and genuine and there was a satisfying arc of growth to their mutual understanding of one another. Spider-man's storyline in the middle book also dealt insightfully with weighty moral questions, moreso than I expected.
The weakest part of the series was Kang, who I have always found to be a dull villain with little in the way of personality and thoroughly boilerplate motivations. He was not any more interesting here than he is anywhere else, but he's also not present for much of the action until the climax of the third book, so he doesn't get a chance to be too much of a drag on the proceedings.
Overall, this series X-ceeded my X-pectations.
October 15, 2023
As a whole I’ve always absolutely loved this trilogy but after 10 years or so since my last read through I can see that it ends with something of an anticlimactic whimper.
April 28, 2024
After the second book, this one was a letdown. I’m glad I read it but doubt I’ll reread it.
June 29, 2023
The conclusion to the Time’s Arrow trilogy brings the X-Men and Spiderman to several different futures where they continue to fight to destroy Kang’s plan to destroy timelines. I found this to be the weakest of the three books. Kang’s ultimate defeat felt anticlimactic. Perhaps the problem was that the second book was so strong and this one, by splitting the action among multiple futures, didn’t build the same level of tension and excitement. Overall, I enjoyed the series.
June 15, 2025
It didn't hold my attention as well as its predecessors, possibly on account of a little action burnout. The stakes were always up there and the end result was all in all good. As a whole, the trilogy was fun, but I was super bummed that they split the Spidey/Bishop duo for the last installment.
June 1, 2021
A solid finish. If you’ve made it this far, you’ll enjoy this book.
April 5, 2022
Weakest of the series. They set up a lot of good interactions, but wasted it by recounting a lot from the previous books. Had a lot of potential. Fun popcorn read though.
October 18, 2022
This was definitely a recommended novel series if you enjoy a different x-men/spiderman story. I really enjoyed the different 'times' and heroes.
June 13, 2023
Superhero personalities are on point with a compelling storyline. The book as a whole and ending seemed a bit rushed though.
December 15, 2023
Great Marvel Crossover. The thrid book in this trilogy up's all the stakes.
December 18, 2023
A satisfying end to the series, though I do feel bad for Cable.
August 29, 2024
Slightly better than part 2, but overall just meh. This trilogy was a nice introduction to Kang as I've never read anything with him, but over all it falls flat.
October 7, 2024
Full of tangents that go nowhere, a boring climax, but still better than a lot of modern comics.
November 18, 2024
[3.5*]
September 22, 2023
This was an fun adventure starring our Web crawler and the Xmen. Spiderman was often able to bring a smile to face with he his little quips and his character is so understandable. I listened to a omnibus which included all three titles and the narration is top notch and the narrator brings all the characters to life even the big bad!
If you like Marvel and like audiobooks this is a winner!
If you like Marvel and like audiobooks this is a winner!
April 21, 2015
Times Arrow Book 3: The Future is the conclusion to the Spiderman / XMen series that ran from DATE TO DATE. The series features a plot by Kang to eradicate sections of the multiverse in order to help narrow his search for his deceased lover, Ravonna.
The novel opens with an entire timeline being destroyed. Though it's obviously not any bandanna timeline within the Marvel U, it's close enough to the 616 reality to remind us that there are very real consequences to the threats our heroes face. We're also faced with a revelation: Kang had INTENDED for the heroes to destroy his time bombs, and has been using the energy the heroes expend to power his reality-destroying device.
Let's pretend that makes sense. It's Scifi, we've gotta give them a little.
From here is where the novel kind of falls short, which is sad. It's not bad by any means, but it falls back on the same formula of the first novel, with different squads of XMen (and Spiderman) going to different time periods in the future to try and stop Kang and his men. Not only is this repetitive by this point, but it destroys some of what made the first two books great. The tension in the first two books revolved around if Spidey and Bishop would make it home, now they've just joined the rest of the cast. Their unique interaction is gone too. The novel makes the mistake of thinking we gave a crap about the "time bomb" parts of the plot from before. We didn't. We cared about the A plot, the human plot featuring Spidey and Bishop, and that basically ended in the last book.
On the plus we do visit several Marvel future timelines, but my this time that's getting old. I think maybe this should have been a two book storyline. That maybe in the first book they should have foiled Kang and that in the second book we focus on getting Spidey and Bishop back, and that was it.
Anyway, that's it. It's the same thing as before, but it doesn't continue to entertain. The highlight is the conclusion of the Cable / Alyah plot (which could definitely have been called the B plot before, but I guess now becomes the A plot by default). This comes to a satisfying and emotional conclusion, while still bringing back everything to the way it was when the story began, as are these novel's mandate.
Run of the mill, phoned in work. 3/5.
The novel opens with an entire timeline being destroyed. Though it's obviously not any bandanna timeline within the Marvel U, it's close enough to the 616 reality to remind us that there are very real consequences to the threats our heroes face. We're also faced with a revelation: Kang had INTENDED for the heroes to destroy his time bombs, and has been using the energy the heroes expend to power his reality-destroying device.
Let's pretend that makes sense. It's Scifi, we've gotta give them a little.
From here is where the novel kind of falls short, which is sad. It's not bad by any means, but it falls back on the same formula of the first novel, with different squads of XMen (and Spiderman) going to different time periods in the future to try and stop Kang and his men. Not only is this repetitive by this point, but it destroys some of what made the first two books great. The tension in the first two books revolved around if Spidey and Bishop would make it home, now they've just joined the rest of the cast. Their unique interaction is gone too. The novel makes the mistake of thinking we gave a crap about the "time bomb" parts of the plot from before. We didn't. We cared about the A plot, the human plot featuring Spidey and Bishop, and that basically ended in the last book.
On the plus we do visit several Marvel future timelines, but my this time that's getting old. I think maybe this should have been a two book storyline. That maybe in the first book they should have foiled Kang and that in the second book we focus on getting Spidey and Bishop back, and that was it.
Anyway, that's it. It's the same thing as before, but it doesn't continue to entertain. The highlight is the conclusion of the Cable / Alyah plot (which could definitely have been called the B plot before, but I guess now becomes the A plot by default). This comes to a satisfying and emotional conclusion, while still bringing back everything to the way it was when the story began, as are these novel's mandate.
Run of the mill, phoned in work. 3/5.
February 9, 2025
80% of the book was nonstop, boring fight scenes. If there ever was a pause from the fight scenes, it felt like it lasted just 5 pages.
And man, this book reminds me why Marvel novels and comics both gets me hooked and draws me away. We get tantalizing glimpses of interesting character dynamics, storylines, etc. etc. And then they get cut short. Since the first book, I found Spider-Man's and Bishop's banter entertaining and their conversations regarding their pasts and their different outlooks in life super interesting, and in the second book it actually felt like they were developing their relationship into an actual friendship (the scene in the second book where they are stranded in a reality not their own, dressed like homeless men, and drinking coffee together was my favorite). I expected them to be teamed up in this book as well since they've been teamed up since the first book, and we would get further interesting moments and hopefully a culmination of their friendship. Instead, they get split up right away, Bishop is stuck fighting acid slugs 90% of his 'screentime', and I don't think he gets mentioned at all in the final chapter. Yay. Woohoo.
And man, all of the characters felt like such colleagues. Even when the book says they're comrades in battles, it really does feel like a scene where they just go "welp that was that, time to go home" would fit perfectly in the book. Where's the juicy scenes where where they bond, laugh, cry together since the plot has them be in mortal peril where it's unsure their reality may get erased at any time? Instead they fight acid slugs and run from one place to another. And as a sidenote, while the series from the start has had a large cast of characters, this book is utterly bloated with too many characters.
Out of the three books in the series, book 2 is my favorite, book 1 is my second favorite, and book 3 is my least favorite. While I wouldn't say book 3 is straight out bad, it felt ok with a lot of missed opportunities and entirely too much fight scenes. (And I won't forgive the non-culmination to Spider-Man's and Bishop's friendship).
And man, this book reminds me why Marvel novels and comics both gets me hooked and draws me away. We get tantalizing glimpses of interesting character dynamics, storylines, etc. etc. And then they get cut short. Since the first book, I found Spider-Man's and Bishop's banter entertaining and their conversations regarding their pasts and their different outlooks in life super interesting, and in the second book it actually felt like they were developing their relationship into an actual friendship (the scene in the second book where they are stranded in a reality not their own, dressed like homeless men, and drinking coffee together was my favorite). I expected them to be teamed up in this book as well since they've been teamed up since the first book, and we would get further interesting moments and hopefully a culmination of their friendship. Instead, they get split up right away, Bishop is stuck fighting acid slugs 90% of his 'screentime', and I don't think he gets mentioned at all in the final chapter. Yay. Woohoo.
And man, all of the characters felt like such colleagues. Even when the book says they're comrades in battles, it really does feel like a scene where they just go "welp that was that, time to go home" would fit perfectly in the book. Where's the juicy scenes where where they bond, laugh, cry together since the plot has them be in mortal peril where it's unsure their reality may get erased at any time? Instead they fight acid slugs and run from one place to another. And as a sidenote, while the series from the start has had a large cast of characters, this book is utterly bloated with too many characters.
Out of the three books in the series, book 2 is my favorite, book 1 is my second favorite, and book 3 is my least favorite. While I wouldn't say book 3 is straight out bad, it felt ok with a lot of missed opportunities and entirely too much fight scenes. (And I won't forgive the non-culmination to Spider-Man's and Bishop's friendship).
August 25, 2015
I liked the first book of the Time's Arrow Trilogy. I did not care for Books Two or Three. The authors seemed to drop as many Marvel character names as they could in the last two. This book involves Spider-Man, Wolverine, Cyclops, Gambit, Storm, Beast, Cable, and some more characters, including the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
I am not sure why each book had a different co writer, but you can tell in the writing styles, book two and three seemed more detailed, where Book One was more plot and less descriptive, which I enjoyed more. For no reason I would be reading and the author throws in Spider-Man thinks of Dr. Strange for one second and continues. Um.why? Just to throw in a name? There is another scene in this book with Spider-Man meeting Spider-Girl, which at first I thought was interesting but fell flat a few chapters later.
This is not a knock on the writers, but this book was not for me. Maybe a die hard Marvel fan would enjoy it more, but for a cheap price at a library book sale, I was willing to take a chance. However, this book was a struggle to get through, as opposed to the other two.
I am not sure why each book had a different co writer, but you can tell in the writing styles, book two and three seemed more detailed, where Book One was more plot and less descriptive, which I enjoyed more. For no reason I would be reading and the author throws in Spider-Man thinks of Dr. Strange for one second and continues. Um.why? Just to throw in a name? There is another scene in this book with Spider-Man meeting Spider-Girl, which at first I thought was interesting but fell flat a few chapters later.
This is not a knock on the writers, but this book was not for me. Maybe a die hard Marvel fan would enjoy it more, but for a cheap price at a library book sale, I was willing to take a chance. However, this book was a struggle to get through, as opposed to the other two.
October 23, 2009
The climax of this series takes place in various possible futures as the heroes scramble to try and take the fight to Kang on his own turf. Cyclops and Jean Grey battle sentinels in the Days of Future Past scenario, Spider-Man, Cable, and a version of Cable’s deceased girlfriend Aliya fight a mercenary descendant of Iron Man and Spidey’s future daughter (aptly named Spider-Girl), Storm, Gambit, and the Beast vs. X-Men 2099 (fail), and Wolverine, Bishop, and Iceman team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy in a spaceship against some evil alien worms. All in all, these books’ covers were simply too cool for me not to read them.
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March 27, 2017Dylan Jantz
Mr. Mortensen
English II
15 February 2-17
X-Men/Spiderman
I do recommend this book because it takes place in the Marvel Universe and I admired the team work among the characters. Also you will definitely like this book because of the action when the superheroes fight. You might even learn some new superheroes or supervillains that you did not know of yet, because it is cool to learn new teams or matches or new rivals. The story begins when Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and Black Widow are just chillin in their base but they don't know that Kang is taking over the rest of the galaxy. Then they get word of him taking over the galaxy and then they go and try and stop him but they fail.
One reason I recommend this book is because the teamwork that the Avengers use to defeat Kang. Teamwork is displayed good when they avengers all use their most powerful move to kill Kang which is very hard to kill Kang. Also when one person takes Kang attention than the others can go behind hom and get a free shot at Kang. This team work inspired me by making me want to be a team player in sports. Also i would recommend this book because it takes place in Marvel Universe.
This would be my other reason why I would recommend this book because of where it took place that place is Marvel Universe.You might know Marvel Universe from movies like the avengers,civil war and other movies like those. This inspired me to go and watch all the Marvel movies that I have but, i also see why people may not like this book.
I also see why some people might not like this book. One reason I could think of is that you don't like X-Men more than the Avengers. A lot of people don't like the X-Men more than the avengers but I like X-Men more than the avengers. . Also if you don't like super heros this is not a good book for you to read. Also you might not like this book because it has Spider-Man team up with X-Men. Those are some of the reason that you might not like the book the future.
The book the future is a good book if you like superheroes and supervillains also the X-Men and Avengers. If you don't like those thing this is not a book that I would recommend for you to read on the other hand I would recommend this book if you like those things. That is my opinion on the book the future which as Spider-Man and the Avengers also the X-Men.
Mr. Mortensen
English II
15 February 2-17
X-Men/Spiderman
I do recommend this book because it takes place in the Marvel Universe and I admired the team work among the characters. Also you will definitely like this book because of the action when the superheroes fight. You might even learn some new superheroes or supervillains that you did not know of yet, because it is cool to learn new teams or matches or new rivals. The story begins when Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and Black Widow are just chillin in their base but they don't know that Kang is taking over the rest of the galaxy. Then they get word of him taking over the galaxy and then they go and try and stop him but they fail.
One reason I recommend this book is because the teamwork that the Avengers use to defeat Kang. Teamwork is displayed good when they avengers all use their most powerful move to kill Kang which is very hard to kill Kang. Also when one person takes Kang attention than the others can go behind hom and get a free shot at Kang. This team work inspired me by making me want to be a team player in sports. Also i would recommend this book because it takes place in Marvel Universe.
This would be my other reason why I would recommend this book because of where it took place that place is Marvel Universe.You might know Marvel Universe from movies like the avengers,civil war and other movies like those. This inspired me to go and watch all the Marvel movies that I have but, i also see why people may not like this book.
I also see why some people might not like this book. One reason I could think of is that you don't like X-Men more than the Avengers. A lot of people don't like the X-Men more than the avengers but I like X-Men more than the avengers. . Also if you don't like super heros this is not a good book for you to read. Also you might not like this book because it has Spider-Man team up with X-Men. Those are some of the reason that you might not like the book the future.
The book the future is a good book if you like superheroes and supervillains also the X-Men and Avengers. If you don't like those thing this is not a book that I would recommend for you to read on the other hand I would recommend this book if you like those things. That is my opinion on the book the future which as Spider-Man and the Avengers also the X-Men.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews