Amazing Spider-Man #93 ends the five-month-long Beyond era with fewer conclusions and more new threads to develop. That's not a bad thing, but it does make this more of a transition issue than a satisfying conclusion. There are a lot of good pieces that came out of this story and Ben Reilly ends up being a far more tragic character than even Peter Parker. For that reason, this issue and its ending are about as close to what Spider-Man comics are about as you can get, right down to an accidental transformation. Read Full Review

The curtain comes down on what will be a long-remembered era in Spider-Man history. These were the efforts of a creative TEAM. On behalf of web-heads all over the world, a huge thanks to all of them for keeping us so invested over the last three months. Read Full Review

The Amazing Spider-Man #93 successfully closes the 'Beyond' era of Spidey and starts to hype upcoming plot beats with grace. Read Full Review

Amazing Spider-Man #93 wraps up the Beyond Saga while teasing the future of both Peter Parker and Ben Reilly. With Wells slated to team up with legendary Spider-Man artist John Romita Jr. in April, I hope he has a good story in mind for Spidey's 60th anniversary. The web-slinger deserves nothing less than the best. Read Full Review

When all was said and done while Ben Reilly's arc in Spider-Man Beyond left a lot to be desired the writing for Peter Parker and all other characters involved in the story lifted the ending to this era up. Zeb Wells, Patrick Gleason, Sara Pichelli, Mark Bagley, and Tim Townsend all worked together to keep the reader invested in what happens next in this series after Amazing Spider-Man #93. Read Full Review

While The Amazing Spider-Man #93 isn't a highlight, it provides a fitting capstone for a consistently entertaining and interesting era of Spider-Man comics. Read Full Review

Amazing Spider-Man #93 concludes the Beyond Saga. The whole fight between Ben Reilly and Peter Parker feels a little forced, and the conclusion to Ben's story will certainly leave his fans wanting better for him. However, the art and colors were excellent throughout the issue, the art team did a spectacular job with this comic's artwork. Read Full Review

This issue makes for a satisfying ending to the whole Beyond story arc, ending in a cool fight with some strong character moments. A few bites and pieces didn't sit exactly right with me, but I'm open-minded to see where it all goes from here. Read Full Review

This is probably best to read if you are a fan of this series but would also be a good point to jump into the new storyline so you know what happened before. Read Full Review

This hurt. But only in such a way that can when a character you care about has gone through a change, a loss, a trauma. I'm thankful to Zeb Wells, Jed MacKay, Patrick Gleason and the rest of the Beyond Brain Trust for crafting this story. As much as I have issues with its execution, they did tell a compelling story. Its biggest flaw is that it took too long to tell that story. But that may be more an issue with the current industry and writing for the trade, building out that catalogue to fill more volumes to sell instead of telling that same story in a more truncated and focused experience. All of that is essentially irrelevant as this final issue is the true ending to Ben Reilly and his Beyond story as we know it and that has me devastated.
Ben Reilly has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters. His design, his attitude and his perpetual sense of not belonging and longing for memories, family and friends that aren't his is a very human experience that I feel Peter hasn't seen much of in decades. I wish more than anything that this arc dealt more with Ben and gave him more heroic heights to hit before his tremendous fall into the a Chasm.
Pat Gleason does no wrong with his art. It's also such a difference than his DC outings that at first I was skeptical but it was immediately washed away as his expressions, his body language and emotion is pulled to the front of every character. He's a master artist and woefully underused in this series. It was a blessing having him on this issue.
Overall, Beyond was fairly middling, I'd give it 7/10 but this issue in itself brings out all of the runs best qualities. more

Finally finished this run.

Yea Ben stans will be upset but honestly... this was a solid arc all around. The characters were used well. The action was great. The art while inconsistently styled was consistently good. Kudos to the team for this.

I'm excited to see what they do to Peter next.

Visit BDG Comics for full review
9.0/10

So this is it. The big finale to this undeniable filler story, meant to fill the gap left by Nick Spencer's run being cut short. To say this run was an editorially mandated construct would not be wrong. With that in mind, this run was a moderate success. I know that this ending will wash away the good that came from this run in the minds of many readers, but I'm not quite so shallow. And this issue wasn't bad at all. I feel like a lot of people forget how much of an asshole that Peter Parker can be. He's extremely impulsive. Maybe go back and read... any era of Spider-Man. He's especially impulsive when being threatened. Most people are, but him especially. The reason to like Peter is for his lesser elements, and his ability to overcome them. So... all that is to say that Peter's actions here, and his regrets after it, are totally in-keeping with Spider-Man. And so are Ben's actions, as he is Peter as well. So nothing about this climax and the tragedy of it is out of left field. As long as I can reasonably understand why these characters are acting the way they are, then I have no issue with where their actions lead them. I think that covers the general backlash this issue is getting. And why I disagree.

There is one review in particular that I found disagreeable, and I'm only mentioning it specifically because I've seen it multiple times now in my feed, and I think it takes a slightly different tact than the rest of the criticism I've seen. Julhin's review has some points in it that I disagree with. I will start with the least important part, which is the weird claim that Wells doesn't like MJ. I'm mostly just curious where this comes from. I assume this is because of the solicitations for the upcoming run, in which case... as Julhin themself implies at the beginning of their review, you can never trust solicitations. The only other thing I can think of is his previous work on Spider-Man. Nothing from this run implied to me that he didn't care for the character. And I can't think of anything much from his past work on the title beyond one time slightly white-washing the Kraven's Last Hunt grave scene to be more about Uncle Ben than MJ, which is arguable at best. Unless he's said something in interviews or on twitter, I'm not sure where this claim comes from, but I'd genuinely like to know. This is less a contention and more just me being curious. More importantly, the main problem Julhin seems to have is with Nick Lowe's reasoning in his letter about this run, and I've got no love for Nick Lowe, but I take issue with Julhin's criticisms here. Nick Lowe claims that Ben Reilly doesn't really have a place in the spider-landscape anymore. Julhin takes issue with this and points out that Ben Reilly was super popular and had plenty of great stories from the 90s, with loads of potential. I feel like they're forgetting the ending to the clone saga here. Ben was never meant to go beyond, no pun intended, that era of Spider-Man. That's why they killed him. And then Julhin lists so many other spider-characters. They say we all know Peter, Miles and Jessica Drew won't go anywhere, which is funny considering Spider-Woman was just cancelled. Also, Jessica is not even a real spider-character. Then Julhin lists other spider-characters that also don't really have a place in the spider-landscape. Spider-Gwen's titles never last, even as they try to force her into the 616. Spider-Punk is getting a miniseries but that's all it'll be. Silk has just gotten two miniseries back to back after essentially disappearing, because she can't hold a title either. Noir got a miniseries way too late after the movie, and that was that. Spider-Man 2099 can't even hold a title regularly past his 90s roots. So, Julhin points to all these characters saying, "Well, look at them, they're allowed to exist" When all of them, minus Silk, are usually kept to their own universes, and none of them sell enough to consistently be published. And there's the hard truth about all of this. Ben Reilly, even with a great creative team behind him, wouldn't last. He'd just disappear like he did after his last series, only to be picked up by a writer that likes him on occasion. So, Nick Lowe decided to give him an ending, which he should've never needed as he should've stayed dead. Julhin continues but what I most want to harp on is this bit:

"I hope that Ben Reilly fans get something better in the future, he's not one my favorites, but he's important to so many fans out there and i can't even imagine how most of them are feeling right now, seeing a character that is so important to them going in such a tragic direction because of such a ridiculous excuse from Marvel."

I think this is ridiculous. Your favorite characters are never immune from getting hurt and beaten, and shifted from what they once were. What does a more valid excuse look like anyway? The only excuse you truly need to tell a story is having the idea for it. As far as I'm concerned, Nick Lowe could've said that they did the story because he personally has it out for Ben Reilly fans. The reaction to this issue would've probably been the same. I don't think stories need to play it safe just because the feelings of the fans of this or that character may be hurt. That's absolutely ridiculous. Marvel doesn't need an excuse to do what they do with their characters, and as far as I'm concerned, Nick Lowe's excuse wasn't actually that bad when you consider the spider-line as it has been for the past... 10 years. My biggest criticism of it is that they didn't just kill Ben off. If Nick Lowe wanted to have a hero befall a tragedy in a way that popular heroes can't, due to the status quo enabling cycle they're all in, he shouldn't have given Ben an out. But I guess he doesn't have it out for Ben Reilly fans actually. I'm not a fan of Nick Lowe's time as editor on the Amazing Spider-Man title, but I feel like if we're going to criticize him, criticize him for the bad things he does, not for the things you don't like on a subjective level. Criticize him for that Abrams' Spider-Man miniseries. Criticize him for his poor management skills leading to multiple creator fill-ins throughout the last few years. Criticize him for his inability to follow through the way he should, leading to things like Nick Spencer's run being cut short. Don't criticize him for an honest look at the state of the comics landscape, and one mostly forgotten character's place in it, and trying to do something interesting with it. more

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Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

Hello sir! What a surprise your review was when i was scrolling here, never imagined something i wrote here would lead to someone disagreeing to the point of writing 2 whole paragrafs of counterpoints lul. I don't wanna start an argument or something since i only use this site to comment my thoughts on the comics that i read and nothing more than that, but seeing that my review apparently bothered you to the point of writing so much i think i at least owe you to say a few things back.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

Pardon me if i say something wrong or incomprehensible, English is not my first language. Regarding Wells doesn't like MJ, i said "which is an surprise cause Wells doesn't seen to be a fan of her" i didn't say "Wells doesn't like MJ", i've read his body of work on Spider-Man(Peter Parker: Spider-Man, Spider-Man and ASM) and just like you the only moment i remenbered that could "confirm" that he hates her is the repurposed grave scene from KLH with the little twist between MJ and Uncle Ben.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

I said that simply because lots of close friends of mine said this to me when they learned he's now the main writter, i didn't know that he "hates mj" so i was a little surprised cause i think he did a really good job writting her in Beyond, that's why i said "Which is an surprise". I saw the solicits for #2 of the new volume but i don't care, it's just a cover, i will still read it, the only thing i complain about the solicits is the misleading texts that comes with it.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

Regarding the main bit you said that it seens to have bothered you which is the fact that i said that the excuse for getting rid of Ben as Spider-Man was ridiculous,well,Ben is a villain again for what, the third time already since he came back? i don't know about you but that doesn't seen like a big shift in direction, i think he could perfectly coexist being a Spider-Man with every other spider character in 616 since they decided to bring him back.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

I actually thought that this was what they were going when Beyond started, cause if Silk can have a miniseries now and than to keep developing herself, so can Ben. If Spider-Gwen can have an ongoing or a mini series every once in a while, so can Ben, the same applies to the other Spider characters who are not in 616.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

Regarding Jessica, well, she is part of the Order of The Web, and she was part of the 1rst Spider-Verse and she is close to Peter and other Spider folks to some extent, so i think she can be considered a real spider-character at this point(didn't know that the Pacheco and Perez series got cancelled though, bummer, i'm still waiting for Vol.03 to be released on my country) even if she rarely keeps an ongoing for more than 15+ issues she is one of the main ones.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

I also don't want characters to be immune to change, if it was that way i would be one of the folks who absolutely despised Superior Spider-Man, which is my favorite era of Slott's run, but that doesn't mean every change is going in a good direction and it seens like a consensus among Ben Reilly fans that this wasn't a good change, that's why i said "i hope that Ben Reilly fans can get something better in the future", nothing more than that.

Julhin - Apr 3, 2022

You wrote a lot and unfortunately i'm running a little short on time, but if in any way you were bothered by something that i said than I'm sorry cause it wasn't my intention, but i don't see why you needed to dedicate a huge chunk of your review to say how wrong i am, you could have just leave a comment on my review or something. Anyway, hope i could clarify a few things to you, sorry if i couldn't talk about everything.

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Beyond featured lots of roads not taken, as well as some stumbles on the safe path it chose. But at some point, the writing team clearly said, "We need to finish this with Ben Reilly vs. Peter Parker. How do we make that happen?"

I really like the answer they come up with here.

The prose is nothing special, but the script's structure and pace are great. The art is clean and simple, but also really powerful -- an excellent vehicle for taking the story along a sudden dark turn.

I'm rating Beyond as a whole as "good, not great", including this finale. But this is as close to greatness as the arc gets.

This is more or less a review for the entire Beyond arc.

Pretty darn enjoyable story, some things I wanted to go into detail on:

- Nearly everything related to Ben was handled really well. From his early interaction with Miles to the descent into anger and rage over the loss of his memories, it all worked. The way the lost memories were depicted from an artistic standpoint was chilling and gave a nice tinge of horror. I also thought the gadgets and costume enhancements were creative and a lot of fun. Overall, I think what they've done with Ben has the potential to be additive to the character. He's completely stepping out of Peter's shadow, for better or worse. Living in Peter's shadow, with his memories and the messiness that comes with not having your own niche is something this arc spent a lot of time grappling with, and I'm hoping the writers can carve something unique out for Ben.

- Maxine Danger and Beyond worked really well as the overarching villain, despite it being telegraphed right from the first issue. The writing team imbued her with the right amount of gravitas, and contrasting her demanding, unforgiving personality with the much more kind and sympathetic Marcus Momplaisir wound up producing a lot of great tension.

- The BEY issues were fine although a few felt like padding (looking at you Spider Slingers). The standout was clearly the MJ/Black Cat issue, and that feels like a team-up we definitely need more of. I also needed a shower after the Doc Ock/Aunt May issue. Forever unclean!!!!

- I have no idea what Marvel has ahead for Peter, but this arc admittedly didn't push him forward much and (justifiably) left him riding passenger to Ben. I'm not here for the criticisms over Peter's actions at the end either. Beyond is so very clearly not a good corporation and blindly trusting that helmet to restore Ben without ruining Peter was a terrible solution. All Peter could do was offer Ben his help, and Ben made his own choice from there.

- It does appear Peter's going back on the outs with Mary Jane in literally the next issue, so the choice to tease a full reunion at the end of #93 is odd and a bit mean.

- As is usually the case with such a large creative team, the art ranged from uh, not great to fantastic. Gleason's work was the standout, with my one of my favorite's, Jorge Fornes, and Paco Medina running silver and bronze. I do wish Fornes had been given a little more to do. Feels like we were robbed of seeing him draw Pete in the red and blues. more

haha looks like I'm on the side that liked the Beyond arc...I love Ben, and while I understand this conclusion is conflicting for many, I do look forward to whatever comes next for everyone's favorite Spider-Clone.

The fight between Peter and Ben was interesting and the best part. Other than that it kind of fell short of being a great conclusion to Beyond.

It is a tale of many threads that really didn't connect well at the end. They said they wanted to do some drama and something new with Ben Reilly and created Chasm after all this although this was done before in the clone conspiracy where Ben Reilly becomes the "Jackal" after all the shenanigans he went through from being killed over and over again by Miles Warren having his mind become corrupted. The dude will never get a proper treatment because as they said in the issue that Peter Parker and Miles Morales are untouchable so we have to mess with Ben Reilly. He is slowly becoming the new Hank Pym. I'm a big fan of Zeb Wells so I enjoyed his issues the most but this was not a true end but rather a link to his ASM era. So I have high hopes for that. We'll see.
All of the artists did great, Gleason and Pichelli were outstanding and Bagley is always welcome on ASM because it just feels right. Valenza on colors was spot on, fresh and bright or gloomy and moody when it needs to be. more

It's an odd one.

This didn't feel like true ending, just setting things up more. Sure, Zeb Wells continues as the writer, so I'm not that against it. It just feels odd to end this volume with... such a non-conclusive ending.

Art was great. As Gleason usually is. It was nice to see thoe flashbacks to Clone Saga, to part of me wishes Bagley redraw the scenes he first did 25 years ago.

As for the story itself? I'm... conflicted.

More and more I'm just wondering, why didn't they use Kaine? He would've been a much better choice. Now Ben is just left with... something? This all felt like regression. Ben is now the same man he was before his tenure as Spider-Man, except even more confused, lost and angry.

I don't know. I liked most of the stuff here. I'm kinda interested what Wells will bring with Vol 6. But this one could've been better. more

It was okay, it's an fine ending for "OnE Of ThE MoSt SuPrIsInG SpIdEr-StOrIeS oF tHe PaSt DeCaDe" according to the solicits, it wasn't perfect but at least it's not as bad as the end of Nick Spencer's run. Wells did his best and the majority of characters are written very well, Peter is okay, MJ is okay(Which is an surprise cause Wells doesn't seen to be a fan of her), Janine was great, never cared about her before but i loved how she was handled during this arc. I think Wells will do a very good job during his run and I'm very curious to see what he will do with some of the seeds he has planted, and i don't have anything to say about Gleason that hasn't been said already, he's AMAZING, no pun intended, and if he's out of ASM i will surely miss him. I said this before, but Ben is far from being one of my favorite Spider Characters and i just wasn't so invested in his story, also i have to thank Clone Conspiracy, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider and SpiderGeddon for completely taking any little hope i had for this character when he came back, those are big reasons for why I'm not as bothered as the big majority of fans.

But then i saw the editorial note at the end...and is one of the most stupid excuses i have ever seen coming from Marvel regarding a characters fate. Are you telling me that Ben Reilly, everyone's favorite Spider Clone, the Spider-Man that a whole generation of readers grew up with when they started reading comics, the Spider-Man who has two of some of the most iconic Spider-Suits ever made, a character with so much potential from the stories of J.M Dematteis, Bagley and John Romita Jr in the 90s has no place in the Spider Landscape? Really Nick Lowe? we all know that Peter, Miles and Jessica Drew won't go anywhere, but are you saying that BEN REILLY has no space close to Spider-Gwen, Spider-Punk, Silk, Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Man 2099? with all due respect to these characters but none of them have the Potential of Ben Reilly and most of them are lacking a lot in terms of great stories, except 2099, another character which i think deserves a better treatment.

But nope, he has no space, let's make him go bad again, or better yet, lets make him into another Spider like villain/anti hero, that's original right? it's not like we have Venom, Carnage, Blood Spider, Tarantula and Kaine....speaking of Kaine, why wasn't him involved in this arc? you know what? nevermind, I'm honestly thankful that he wasn't in this story, i don't even wanna think about what they would have done with him. I hope that Ben Reilly fans get something better in the future, he's not one my favorites, but he's important to so many fans out there and i can't even imagine how most of them are feeling right now, seeing a character that is so important to them going in such a tragic direction because of such a ridiculous excuse from Marvel.
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Run kind of felt like a waste of time unfortunately. Not to say I didn’t enjoy some of it, but a lot of it felt like filler and unnecessary arcs. Won’t be reading any Spider-Man for awhile I think.

No doubt this will be "divisive" amongst Spider-Man fans, but at least its not as bad as Nick Spencer's final issue. This will have spoilers.

While this story arc is "harmless" and entertaining, I think the problem with this run has to deal with the Beyond Corporation. I did not find them interesting at all, I think the main leader (I seriously dont know their leader's name) was boring, I think they were bland people with bland personalities, and I didnt really care for them.

Next up is Ben Reily. Ben Reilly had a really interesting character arc about him thinking that he's inferior to Peter Parker because he's a clone and wants all of his memories. But the problem is that its been done a lot of times, and having Ben REily revert back to a "villainous" role called Chasm really feels like a regression. I would like Ben Reily to at least realize that he doesnt need all of his memories to be considered "equal" like Peter Parker, and he can forge his own path.

I honestly enjoyed more of Peter Parker, Mary Jane, and Black Cat's stories in this arc than Ben Reily and the Beyond Corporation, and the arc is literally called BEYOND.

Overall, the issue wasnt bad, but this entire filler arc was pretty boring. This Beyond arc gets a 6 out of 10 for me. more

Not bad, but also not an ending. Look, I'm not a huge fan of Spider-Man Beyond to being with as I think the potential was mostly wasted due to multiple writers and artists working on it at the same time. This kinda has very good moments (Peter vs Ben was interesting), but it's also rushed and I'm sure I will forget it in two weeks once ASM #1 comes out (I mean, fucking Romita Jr. is on board!). So, yeah, but also "meh".

What a frustratingly ambiguous read. Full of great moments, but less than the sum of its parts. It's hard to imagine that Peter genuinely couldn't think of the kind and wise words Ben needed to make better choices, and Ben felt more like a sulky teenager than (as he has in Wells's previous issues) a damaged and traumatized person trying to do his best; that whole scene felt forced for the sake of getting a big fight in. As regards (spoiler!) evil-or-antihero Ben, I'm willing to see where Wells is going with this, but it'd be nice to see poor Ben get a break someday and it's an unsatisfying place to finish his story. As a conclusion to Beyond this issue is rather inconclusive and underpowered, very "rocks fall, everyone dies".

Still, if the Beyond era was ultimately a misfire, at least it was an interesting and ambitious failure; those are always more fun to read than uninteresting and unambitious successes. more

I am quite conflicted on the issue.
Felt it was decent ending.
Art was quite decent throughout except one panel where Maxine face looked really wierd.

I felt that Ben and Peter fight was very much immature and forced. I didn't felt that they had legitimate reason to fight.

Thanks Zeb for reminding me why I am always so picky on Ben Reilly. It's fucking memories thing. Thanks for resolving it until next writer picks it up. Though If i remember correctly, Ben before his death during Clone Saga gave up on being Peter and memories(which were never his to begin with). But Zeb brought it back and did concluded it. That's good.

I am conflicted on what Ben is gonna be as Chasm. Villain? Conflicted. Might like it if they didn't involved Memory thing. I think Ben as Hero is lost cause. If Zeb handled it better than Slott, I might stop being picky and might change my opinion on him. I was hoping that he would atlast forge his own path by end of run. He would atlast become his own hero. But it seems like there are two path Ben as character had: cheap 2nd grade Peter or memory cliche villain.

End is definitely intriguing to check next run. But Still I am not interested in reading it since 'Peter did something', solicits, previews and most importantly art and lame idea of ASM#900.

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dumb

I was enjoying this issue right up until the end. There were several ways I saw this going and I think the outcome was the one I wanted the least. SPOILER

Making Ben a villian. Anti-hero at best but we don't even know. You can assume by the colour scheme and new name that he's not going to a hero. Marvel needs to stop crapping on Ben Reilly. They have an amazing anti-hero/villain spiderman in Kaine already. Use him for this. Kaine is an under-used and fantastic character.

I expected, and was on board with Ben not getting his memories back. I thought it a way to forge his own path, away from Peter's memories. Instead we get the old mental break down and turn to villainy cliche.

The art was great throughout. Most the issue was exciting and fun to read. That ending though... It's great when comics evoke emotion towards the characters in story. It's not great when that emotion is directed at the author. I'm the latter right now. more

Wow

What a hot fucking mess...