The Amazing Spider-Man #29 walks the line between big, bouncing action and tragic character twists with ease, delivering readers one of the most fun Spidey issues of the year so far. Read Full Review

McGuiness delivers beautifully detailed and action packed art that has a fluid energy to it. I love the visual style and look forward to seeing how the action ramps up in the next issue. Read Full Review

This series really needs to continue to focus on these types of stories. It's strong story telling by the entire team, and it makes me glad to continue to pick up this book. Read Full Review

With Ed McGuinness and Marcio Manyz delivering their strongest work thus far on the series, The Amazing Spider-Man #29is an undeniably fun issue that plants some interesting and potentially exciting seeds for the title. Read Full Review

Ultimately, Amazing Spider-Man #29 is a silly comic that leans on art to bring entertainment value. The story is rather simplistic. There isn't any deep psychological character work, but simply an evil villain doing evil things. It's very much a comic of another time, which should satisfy many and you can't go wrong with how dynamic and cool this art looks. Read Full Review

Amazing Spider-Man is a step in the right direction for Spidey with a few twists, stakes (for Norman Osborn), and potential. Wells can't help injecting an unnecessarily jokey tone that diminishes the dramatic atmosphere, but the plot is starting to take shape into something possibly worth reading. Read Full Review

Wells is mixing comedy and serious drama in a way that makes it kind of difficult to interface with the center of the story. A few pages before the end of the issue, its just...silly. It all kind of falls apart by the end, but there ARE some really good moments splattered throughout the issue that almost reach a kind of brilliance with some very witty dialogue by Wells.  Read Full Review

This issue employs the standard tricks of the volume to the best possible effect. The big plot developments are finally revealed, allowing the story to chug towards a confrontation. It pauses along the way for funny or cool moments; in this instance, these pay off better in the art than the words.

It's cathartic to be in motion. But even in motion, there are frustrating hints of deeper meaning that the author is neglecting in favor of a laborious, simplistic plot. Pete hesitating to interface with Otto's arms; Otto suspecting he's lost a memory of redemption--I want to see more than hints that these things exist.

Maybe the creators shy away from digging too deeply because even the hints make it clear where they're headed. Otto's heroic memories are buried deep in Peter's mind, and that Beyond helmet will wind up transferring them so that we have a quasi-heroic Otto again instead of this sneering cartoon villain.
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This was... surprisingly good (aka decent/not a dumpsterfire like usual).

Do not get me wrong, there are still a lot of janky parts to it, and why throw Rek-rap into is randomly. They even joke in the notes that he is not plot relevant. Being aware of your poor writing, doesnt make it better Zeb.

All that being said, Doc Ock is here with good reason, and I like where the arc is going. Norman possibly getting reverted back- I dont know how I feel about that. This almost feels like Zeb is putting 'the toys back in the box' to end his run, but we will see.

Honestly this arc, totally on its own isnt all that bad. Its serviceable. However, it is apart of a much larger, dumpsterfire of a run. I do look forward to the next issue... which I dont know when the last time I said that for an ASM book in this run. more

It had some fun and some interesting scenes with Norman and Otto. Still just feels short of what it could be.

Aaaaand Norman is very close to being a bad boy again, ok then marvel editorial...

The ongoing story here is good and entertaining, but I can't help but agree with the criticisms about this issue surrounding Kamala's death in Issue 26. In Issue 27, we really felt the fallout of her death and how it was impacting Peter. In the last issue and in this one, her death is completely ignored and Peter is back to normal. We don't see that more aggressive and frustrated side of him we saw two issues ago. I was reading through Afre's review and, while I do rate this higher than them, they bring up a lot of points that I agree with. Read their review for said points, as I won't bring them up directly here. Aside from all of that, I do actually enjoy the story here with Norman and Otto. I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses, especially with new Superior Spider-Man content announced for sometime in the near future. more

The art is the highlight. Could have done without the Rek-Rap tease. I really don't need to be reminded on Dark Web. I also guess we get a tease of Ock remembering and being bitter about his time as Superior Spider-Man and missing it? Would be nice if that was fleshed out more.

There is some really good stuff here. Art is nice. Otto getting his memories back from Superior era is not something I was expecting. And that it was his main driving force is a very interesting plot. So mostly, this issue should be passable or good.

If it not for some major issues.

First, the placement. It's kinda horrible to be honest. Khamala died three issues ago and we haven't seen it affect anyone here really. We are now getting a wacky Doc Ock story, when it really should be an interlude or character study.

You know, about Peter? How does he feel for a teenage hero to die under his watch? How does he feel about Kamala's law? He should be very conflicted, for he was one of the first teenagers who became super heroes. So what are his thoughts?

But no, we get none of that. Because Peter is barely a character here. On a book called "Amazing Spider-Man" it sure does focus A LOT on Norman Osborn and the villains. Kamala's death seemingly affected Norman more than Peter. And the whole storyline is about Norman and Otto with Peter being there in the sidelines. There are some interesting stuff here (return of Rek-Rap is not that tho), but it's otherwise just teasing. It's like Zeb is writing something interesting, but doesn't use it to it's full potential.

Another good example: Otto doesn't challenge Peter at all for working with Norman. Especially now that he is getting his memories back from Superior era. Otto of all people should know how much Peter hates Norman.

But that is also barely a plot point. Peter has forgiven Norman way too easily. We got like one issue of it, when we should've gotten way more. Norman killed Gwen 50 years ago and came back roughly ~25 years ago. And they have been at each other's throats since then, until Spencer's run. And Peter is so cool with Norman? There is no interesting dialogue about it, or anything really. This could've been an interesting study on Otto challenging Peter for working with Norman, while also wanting revenge on Norman. All that would be much more riveting than this. What we got is not bad, but it's lacking severely.

Peter has been very passive for years now in ASM (especially in Spencer's run). But it's starting to show how badly it affects ASM. Say what you want about Slott, at least he did SOMETHING with the character. Spencer did pretty much nothing except some retcons and Wells has been... well he does something. I don't know what, but something.

Let's not forget that MJ lost kids she has had for almost 4 years and there is nothing about that either. Whatever you feel about the Paul stuff, you have to agree that it's kind of a travesty that in no way has Peter thought about how MJ is doing. "Cuck" """jokes""" aside, it would be pretty in-character for Peter to feel responsible for MJ losing those adopted kids to a villain who wanted revenge on Peter. But no, we get none of that either. Maybe later? Like 20 issues later like this storyline happened after #900? Like happens with most plot points that this book has? They are introduced, then almost forgotten until reintroduced 20 issues later.

LOWE EVEN JOKES ABOUT THAT WITH REK-RAP. LOWE. THAT IS NOT A JOKE. THAT IS A CRITICISM THAT SHOWCASES HOW POORLY THIS RUN HAS BEEN PLANNED AND IT'S YOUR JOB TO DO BETTER AND FIX IT SO THAT IT DOESN'T HURT THIS BOOK LIKE THE POOR PLANNING HURT THE FIRST YEAR OF WELLS' ASM. BEING SELF-AWARE AND HIGHLIGHTING THE ISSUE JUST MAKES IT WORSE.

I don't hate this run. I really don't. It gets way too much crap (some deserved, some not), but I am very frustrated because it has potential that is not used. Instead we get this stories that are kinda fine at best. This story should've happened before Dead Language arc and instead of the travesty that was that garbage we call Dark Web. more