Like him or not, Dan Slott is here to stay. A confirmed Spider-Man geek who managed to get himself into the plumb position of writing the headline title, Amazing Spider-Man, Slott has presided over a number of controversial changes to the character: his future self, Spider-Man 2099, slipped through into our time; another victim of the radioactive spider that imbued Peter Parker with his powers has shown up, under the name Silk; oh, and there was that year where Doctor Octopus was in control of Spider-Man's brain, with Peter presumed dead. That was fun. That whole time, however, it never seemed like Slott messing with a good thing it was a super-fan revelling in the opportunity of having full access to his favourite toy box. If you want that same enthusiasm without the continuity changes then you should definitely check out Spider-Man And The Human Torch, a five issue miniseries written by Slott and drawn in a charmingly cartoonish style by Ty Templeton. Each issue takes place in a different era of the pair's storied superhero careers, which means that we get to peek in at expanded versions of classic scenes as well as some brilliant in-jokes about the Spider-Mobile and those goofy Hostess Fruit Pie ads where Marvel characters defeated evil using baked goods. The whole thing is a love letter to Spidery-Man and the Fantastic Four - but you can see that Slott's heart really belongs to the wall crawler, as he revels in rifling through the character's past and digging up some hilarious, heart-warming nuggets.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
