GANG WAR: FIRST STRIKE!
Can Spider-Man and Rek-Rap both survive the repulsive REPO?! THE LAST ISSUE BEFORE GANG WAR!
Rated T
As Rip-Rap's relentless positivity wins new converts and the Gangs Of New York go to war, Re-Po and Madelaine remind us how results often oppose ethics in Amazing Spider-Man #38. Read Full Review
Amazing Spider-Man #38 wraps up a Limbo tale, a major highlight in Wells' run. The super silly nature of it all works very well, with McGuinness' art supplying plenty of weirdness and humor. Read Full Review
McGuinness delivers some bright, engaging and visually entertaining art throughout the issue. The imagery is fun and filled with great details. Read Full Review
Rek-Rap's adventures wrap up just in time for "Gang War" to begin and readers of Amazing Spider-Man have a lot to appreciate in this ludicrous, streamlined adventure through the halls of Limbo before excessive crossovers and a dour mood take hold. Read Full Review
Amazing Spider-Man #38 mercifully puts an end to Rek-Rap's adventure against Re-Po. The story is silly (not in a positive way) and relegates Spider-Man to a sidekick in his comic. Meanwhile, the prelude scenes meant to generate hype for the forthcoming Gang War event are as energetic as a news report about the weather. Read Full Review
I really enjoyed this one, and I won't apologize for it. Rek-Rap is a genuinely fun character. It was an odd choice to make the debt collector into a murderer. I went back and looked through the older issues, and... it works, but man, very different vibes than what I expected. Kinda creepy, even. This is also the first time Gang War has looked interesting, to me.
Dumb fun story and it makes REK-RAP a great 60s/70s type comic book sidekick and narrator for his dumb yet very logical storytelling. Again this works because of the amazing art from McGuiness. Any other artist and it falls flat. Gang War seems forced but what else is new? This whole run is a forced existence that's dragging me along.
Red-Rap is genuinely becoming one of my favorite characters and I can’t believe it. Aside from that, this was a pretty solid issue, though I didn’t like the sort of sudden switch we got from the Rek-Rap stuff to the Gang War “prologue.' Both sides of the issue were cool, but it just felt like too sudden of a switch, in my opinion. Either way, I'm looking forward to Gang War and I just really hope it delivers.
Art: 4/5
Story: 3.5/5
Total: 7.5/10
Spider-Man and Rek-Rap’s team-up adventure concludes here as the Gang War crossover event awaits us and this was another fun and exciting entry from Zeb Wells, even if it was more silly than serious. Rek-Rap Storytime Adventures were a fun plot tool used throughout this arc and I loved the Insidious Six’s desire to rid themselves of Rek-Rap’s stories even if it meant helping the good guys. Just a great bit of fun all around, including the interactins between Rek-Rap and Peter Parker as they made their escape by crawling through Re-Po’s insides. The Gang War backstories continue to feel completely out of place within these issues, but perhaps we’ll be looking back on them as helpful set up once we get into the main crux of the evenmore
McGuinness’s art was spectacular, bumps up the score some for me.
Story was fun, but still don’t see why we jumped straight into this after everything we left behind in the prior arc.
I didn't absolutely hate it. Which is something to praise when anything involving Dark Web or Rek-Rap are concerned at least for me. He actually made me chuckle.
Things happened in the issue. While I doubt the Limbo story is truly wrapped up, I'm content with where it is. I actually had to go back to issue 908 just to remember what even happened to the collections guy to refresh and put the whole Re-Po thing together in my head which is horrible for pacing.
Still though, the only thing worth reading is everything AFTER the Rek-Rap adventure leading into Gang War and we get left with the least interesting cliff hanger ever while also being incredibly cliche. I would have liked to see the Maggia heads DO something before being uncer more
A very readable-ish issue.
But it really didn't need to exist. Rek-Rap is fun and all, but nothing here made it feel like this was needed besides the Gang War setup. Tonally, this placement was so off, especially if Gang War is setup to be more darker and street-heavy storyline. Once again, in a vacuum these 3 issues were fine, but as part of ongoing TASM, they were very misplaced. Rek-Rap doesn't seem to be returning soon in ASM, so that's nice. The less we are reminded of Dark Web, the better.
I didn't absolutely hate it like last issue. I wouldn't say I really liked it, but I made it through without being totally frustrated. That's a win I guess.