The art looks so phoned in if Spider-Man or anything without any action isn't on panel. It's so disappointing. The only thing saving the art is the amazing coloring that really doesn't seem to hit until page 6. As for the story, for someone who isn't diving into Blood Hunt yet this was an engaging and pretty harmless tie-in. Its nice to see Peter getting upset about the world around him constantly turning to crap instead of being so conditioned by it that he's lost his empathy for the city. more

Plot
This comic supports the Blood Hunt event, Spider-man tries to stop the Vampire massacre in New York, when Katreem contacts him to help him save his friend Rabbit, who works for Tombstone but is now a vampire.

In the Marvel Universe the rule applies that if you kill the vampire who turned you, you are cured, so Peter helps stop the person who turned Rabbit into a vampire, but he is a victim of the situation who even chained himself up so as not to harm others. Nobody, however Kareem stakes him and kills him.

Spider-man doesn't know how to deal with this situation, but he doesn't want to kill vampires who can be cured and who are ultimately innocent.

Dark episode full of action and terror.

Art
John Romita Jr achieves that gloomy, gloomy tone of this situation and incorporates it into the unique body language he gives to Spider-man with his art. It is a privilege to read comics illustrated by this legend who always evolves in using you.

Summary
Spider-man must deal with the war against the vampires and try to stop them and save those people who were infected.This comic highlights the drama of this vampire attack. more

Random fill in issue for a big event. It was fine for what it was.

I dislike JRJRs art, but I will give credit when it’s due. There were actually some nice panels in this one. The cover is mediocre though.

Retcon or reveal, not sure. As a stand-alone book it was good, but a “this character has been there the whole time” angle is almost never good. I appreciate Taylor trying to redeem the good parts of the Ric era, but I’d be even happier if Ric is never mentioned again.

Another great book. Awesome art in the book and an awesome cover by Alex Ross.

That last page is nasty, gross nasty. I feel like the church of blood is a little over used but I’m glad he’s doing something which, right now, appears to be different. Stills interested to see where this is going.

Love the art.

It was fine. Start of a new arc, I’d be more excited if I knew anything about the Ric era since we’re surprisingly going back there, but I dropped the book during it.

Here we are again with a bunch of people over-hating on Tini Howard for whatever reason. That's all I'll say about that. As for the issue itself, I must say that I felt as though it was the weakest issue of the Gotham War crossover so far. I might have given this a 6.5 initially, but I really enjoyed how Howard wrote Nightwing and I also liked the twist at the end of the issue. Hopefully this is just a minor bump in the road for Gotham War, as I've enjoyed it as a whole thus far. more

Solid issue, the art was done very well and fit the vibe.

Biggest downside is Paul’s stupid face is in it.

Sets up status quo for the arc with a new zone and interesting twist at the end.

If you’ve been on the fence on staying on, back off the book says issue 36 will be the end.

Fun/goofy Silk run.

Still curious to see how this plays out. Feels a little rushed overall, makes the train if thought of everyone less believable.

Alright folks, I’m going to give this the benefit of the doubt, mostly because I think Zdarsky is doing some interesting things with Batman. Bruce’s desperate belief that he needs to maintain the persona of “Batman”—that of a relentless crime fighter who cannot show any display of humanity—has been a really good deconstruction of the character, and the fact that crime has gone down in his absence only adds to the doubts about his abilities that have been plaguing him.

Unfortunately, Catwoman’s plan is pretty stupid, but I am willing to accept that what she has been doing has worked so far. Many people have complained that her scheme would not actually work, and I feel like there’s a good chance that as this story progresses, we’ll see that the book is fully aware that the plan is not sustainable. This is one of the problems rating storylines based on a single issue—we don’t have the full picture yet, so it’s easy to point to what currently looks like inconsistencies, when they may be acknowledged in the end.

The writing for Catwoman is really bad, though. I haven’t read any of Tini Howard’s work, but is this how the Catwoman book is written? Because it’s not good. I don’t have an issue with the premise of this book like many others seem to, but I do have a problem with the way Catwoman interacts with the characters around her. The artwork is pretty dull throughout, as well. I enjoyed Hawthorne’s work on the second arc of Zdarsky’s run, but it seemed rushed and uninspired here.

I enjoy Zdarsky’s voice for Batman and his approach to the character so much that it outweighs what I dislike, though, and I’m looking forward to him getting back to writing solo. more

I thought this setup nicely, putting Bruce in a position where he has to question what he’s doing. Apparently I’m disagreed with but I’m curious to see where this goes.

Another great one by Wells? Keep MJ away and he does good work?

This is likely the best #1 I have ever read, I’m very excited to see where this goes.

“For every storyteller is a liar, trickster, and traitor. Our first allegiance is always to the tale. To trust us is to risk your very heart. Understand ye yet? You will.”

When I heard Al Ewing was writing the next Thor book, and giving it the Immortal tag, I couldn’t be more hype for anything else this year. Thor is my favorite character in fiction, and what Ewing has done here in the first issue is nothing less than a masterpiece. The art is stellar, and the story immediately feels epic and big. Jaw dropping, page turning goodness, easy 10/10.

HATED the prior story arc and everything they’re doing with MJ. This book? This was great. The art on the Kraven pages? Stupendous.

*feel that it’s worth mentioning someone who hated the prior arc enjoyed this issue.

I don’t love the sidekick idea, but Spider-Boy is a fun character. Nice story.

Good action, Miles going through it at the end, and I love how Vicentini draws Hobgoblin.

Still fun, will tune in to see the ending in #5.

I’m enjoying the adventure. Nothing ground breaking but pretty fun.

There’s a lot to like in the story, really. But how they ended the primary story was beyond frustrating. Again Marvel billing something big for sales, and it’s not. More stuff that was previously setup potentially thrown down the drain - emphasis on potentially. This could be a drama turn that leads somewhere. Billing/marketing something for something it’s not will always bring down scores for me, especially when it’s a more expensive issue.

If you like JRJR, more of the same. If you hate his work, he doesn’t do all of the pages so you get a break from it.

As for the side stories, as much as I hate Paul the MJ story was almost amazing. My issue is *spoiler the rest of the way* MJ does not need to be a super hero. She has stood on her own for decades because of who she is. I don’t know who pushed to idea forward but IMO they don’t fully understand what makes MJ great. I will admit, clever with the name.

Other side stories are typical things you find in these thick issues. more

in all complete brutal honesty, its not bad. but its not good either. This comic book is just plain old okay.

art was inconsistent, and I do like how we see Mary Jane and Paul grow closer together. Kaare Andrews is a great artist, I wish that person was doing the run. I get why Peter Parker is lashing out, but it still doesnt change the fact that Fantastic Four was the one acting out of character to Peter Parker in the first place.

It's honestly very sad that I'm only excited for this book not because of Spider-Man and the "writing" but because it's funny seeing the huge backlash the fans have. This isnt how you should market or write a comic run. You should make people anticipate the next issue because of the good story. Not because the fans will get pissed. more

This could have been an OK issue if I cared even a little bit about Paul and Rabin, but they're both really just ciphers to make the plot go where it needs to, and the plot isn't interesting or meaningful enough to bear the weight alone. It's not a bad explanation of where MJ's new family came from, but it's not a terribly involving one either

Since when was issue #25 of any series a "Landmark issue?" Soon Marvel will be celebrating issue #5.

It isn't terrible but it isn't very good either. A very average 5 out of 10 and that's mostly for the art. Nothing much happens in this hyped-up and oversized issue. We learn where the kids came from. And that's about all. Disappointing.

I enjoyed the art, especially Kaare Andrews's pages. He draws the first part of the story which is set in the alternate New York where MJ is trapped with Paul. Andrews's art is refreshing. It's vibrant and suits the story well. He draws MJ looking like a shapely woman, obviously remembering that she is a supermodel. Some artists seem to have forgotten this.

John Romita Jr. does the art for the second part of the main story from when Peter reappears through the portal to rescue Mary Jane. It's a bit jarring after getting used to Kaare Andrews's style, but to be fair to Romita Jr., he draws a decent Fantastic Four and Captain America. I was surprised to see Marvel reuse some of Romita Jr.'s art from a couple of the earlier issues. I counted 4 or 5 pages of recycled art!

It's been made very clear that editorial want Peter to remain single. I understand the backlash to this by a lot of Spidey fans. What I don't undersand is why ASM is the top-selling monthly comic book, if you can believe the "figures." It has knocked Batman off the top spot. Bizarre.
more