Set in the misty, uncertain future of Marvel's Spider-Girl and Fantastic Five titles, Last Hero Standing is an attempt to recapture the climactic, end-game potency of past tales like The Last Avengers Story or DC Comics' Kingdom Come. But Last Hero Standing just doesn't have the juice needed to bring it home.

Loki, the Asgardian god of mischief, has been sulking for years because it was his misdeeds that first brought the mighty Avengers together as Marvel's top-tiered supergroup. So he decides to sow dissent by means of a needlessly complicated plot; he captures various heroes of the past and present age by sending minions to tunnel underground and snatch them from below, then he encases them in amber while sorcererously toying with their moral compasses and making them into mean heroes who are willing to act like, well, Marvel's own Punisher.

Soon, the good heroes and the mean heroes are facing off against one another, and lots of people get beaten up really badly. The aging Spider-Man even has his artificial leg ripped off by the Hulk, although the leg seems to have grown back in later panels. Thor comes down from Asgard to chastise his brother, everyone pontificates and rattles on too much, and a maudlin Captain America whinges about growing old while proving that, once again, he's got this really big heart and lots of courage and the undying power of his convictions.

The shame of it all is, this could have been a mighty fine book. It's not, though, because it feels rushed, because there's more talking than action, and the fights are pretty aimless, never really going anywhere. It's just superhero salad; I guess writer Tom DeFalco figured if he threw enough characters into the bowl, we wouldn't notice that it's all empty calories.