It's a delight to see Rek-Rap back in action in The Amazing Spider-Man #36 in a story that feels significant to the series' ongoing concerns and plays off its creative teams' best qualities to tremendous effect. Read Full Review

I love Ed McGuiness art a lot and this issue doesnt disappoint one bit. The visuals are dynamic and beautifully detailed. The art has a wonderful sense of style and detail that beautifully showcases the characters and the action. Read Full Review

I had a ton of fun with Amazing Spider-Man #36. There's a nice Halloween vibe to it all, from the villains to the night setting to the plentiful monsters. This is super fun, visually stunning, and a nice ode to weirdos. Read Full Review

It's more of the same from this run at a technical level, and no matter how fun and well-written Rek-Rap is, can't distract from the fact that this series is spiraling down a drain of disjointed and unsubstantiated storytelling that can't focus on a theme, tie up an arc, or tell a story that feels natural. Read Full Review

Amazing Spider-Man #36 forgets everything that happened in the last arc and kicks off a silly, jokey team-up adventure with Spider-Man and Rek-Rap to stop a big threat only Rek-Rap can find. The humor only works in one or two spots, the lack of follow-up (especially for Norman) is bizarre, and the brief scene between Silvermane and Hammerhead to set up the coming Gang War event leads you to believe Gang War is going to turn out as well as Dark Web. Read Full Review

I'll start this review by saying that, much like a few other people I've seen reviews from, the placement of this feels kind of odd. This is supposed to follow up on events from Dark Web, which we haven't really gotten much on since the initial storyline ended with Issue #18 (AKA late-January of this year). With that in mind, I don't necessarily have a big problem with it. I just think it's a bit weird. Moving on, while not the best issue this series has seen, it's still a fun, solid read. I don't love the character, but I think I enjoy Rek-Rap more than most. I also am interested by the Repossesor's role in this story, especially after realizing who he actually is (The debt collector, Gus, first seen in the opening arc of this series). Plus, while I'll always miss Patrick Gleason doing interiors, I enjoy McGuinness' art here and I completely agree with what Derby stated in their review, in that his art is a great fit for this story. more

Fun book, on theme for Halloween.

It’s almost like if Wells doesn’t touch MJ he does a decent job. Crazy thing here is we’re just ignoring the previous arc, what? Did Peter not just go through one hell of a time? As a standalone it was fine but definitely didn’t flow.

Zeb Wells takes a sharp turn from the previous arc that ended in the last issue, following up on the events from “Dark Web” without any transition. It was a hard pivot that took some easing into, but became a fun and enjoyable ride once it was apparent what was happening. Well’s reintroduces Rek-Rap without making him a complete caricature right off-the bat. I do miss Patrick Gleason’s moody artwork, but Ed McGuinness’s cartoonish style is the perfect fit for this type of story.

Dark Web is definitely the most uninteresting modern Spider-Thing I've ever read

Amazing Spider-Man #36 is kind of fun in a goofy Dark Web way, but it feels like an unwelcome interruption to the main story. More like an afterthought to a story that concluded EIGHTEEN issues ago. Despite the bright cartoony art by Ed McGuinness, I was left unsatisfied by the lack of follow-up to events in the last few issues of ASM. Why drop this story now? It feels like they are buying time for the artists working on GANG WAR to keep the ridiculous twice monthly release schedule.

Okay this wasn't what I expected at all. I thought this would be an epilogue to Spider-Man's Last Hunt and not Part One of this Rek-Rap adventure. I have no idea why the synopsis is so misleading.

As a singular comic, it's fine? I'm not the biggest Rek-Rap fan, but I don't hate him.

But what is this placement? The tonal inconsistency is once again hurting Wells' run, and once again it happens when McGuinness is doing art. Like this isn't an epilogue to Spider-Man's Last Hunt, nor does it feel like a follow-up issue. It feels like the follow-up issue to Dark Web, that happened 6 months and 18 issues ago.

I don't know what is it with Wells and continuing his plotlines ~20 issues after.

But if anything else, this retroactively made Spider-Man's Last Hunt worse, so there is that.
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The Dark Web crossover was atrocious and completely ruined Limbo just making it a complete joke. Now bringing that awful story and characters back into the series just continues to drag this series down after being on a decent pace of late. Zeb Wells thinks his "clever" Bizarro Spider-Man character Rek-Rap is a hilarious hit, but is proving he should not be given the chance to write series for Marvel's top characters and should be kept for books like Deadpool.

Intrigued by the ending a little bit, but it's really just not a good issue. Dark Web kind of felt bland and I don't like that this issue's focus is one of the most annoying characters to come out of that event.

The 90s had the Clone Saga, the 2000s had One More Day, 2010s, Clone Conspiracy I guess? But the 2020s currently have Dark Web. Say what you will about the Clone Saga, OMD and Clone Conspiracy. All divisive and pretty much hated or disregarded by most of the Spider-Man fanbase but they were all trying to do... SOMETHING. Whether or not they succeeded in their goal is up to debate but Dark Web is managing to be a much smaller scale disappointment because it doesn't DO anything. And we keep being reminded. For some reason. Interrupting the story that we were previously being told.
An epilogue to a decent story regarding Kraven and Norman's sins returning? Nope, here's Rek-Rap. Want to see more about Peter's relationship with Black Cat or MJ? Nope, here's Madelyne Pryor having some beast round up all of the Limbo problem children. Why though? Who asked for this?
I have no problem with telling fun stories and occasionally diverting from the main story but the crumbs we are left to carry the overall narrative with two pages to hype up Gang War are not enough to satisfy the tonal whiplash I get every time an arc is wrapped up because it never feels wrapped up until 10 or more issues down the line. You can have closure at the end. Not everything needs to be open ended. If you had the ending already, use it! Why now do you return back to such a useless and forgettable event?
I have nothing to positive to say about this issue because as much as I try to defend this run, when the highs are high, things are going pretty good but the lows don't make me angry. They make me want to stop reading Spider-Man. I am okay with being angry and reading Spider-Man. I can disagree with what is being told but still interested. I am no longer interested. I no longer want to see how things will eventually be tied up later down the road when I've already been given an 'ending'. This is just disappointing.
I am not excited for Gang War because I really don't think there has been enough given to us to warrant excitement. Sure we know it's been coming for a while, we know Marvel is hyping it up as a big to do but the scraps we've been given don't fill me with confidence. The confidence that I've always had in the title even when I was worried about the direction it was taking. There really doesn't feel like there is anyone giving this book direction. Right the ship. Give us a consistent tone or at least don't shift it so suddenly when you're trying to tell a lighter story then bog it down IMMEDIATELY with a half-hearted telling-not-showing display to cover your asses because you did something that pissed on the fans.
I really don't consider myself a Spider-Man purist. I don't NEED One More Day to be undone. I didn't need Sins Past to be retconned. I didn't need Clone Conspiracy to bring Ben Reilly back to life, yada yada yada. At the end of the day I just want interesting Spider-Man stories that either have a meaning and a message, are compelling because of a villain or relationship, or are just funny down to earth ongoing of Peter or those in his life. This fills none of those. This run as a whole gives me whiplash because right when I want to sing it's praises something like this follows immediately. I will be continuing to read because despite not being a purist I will always be a Spider-Man shill. I love the guy too much. I've got my fingers crossed but my hopes are not up. more