Gang War pauses, letting heroes and villains regroup before a final battle for Harlem. As revelations provide insights into the conflict's origins, Amazing Spider-Man #42 asks what matters most: what you do or who you're with. Read Full Review

The drive to emerge from a fathers shadow leads this chapter into a showdown for the ages. Wells takes readers into the battle with an emotionally driven tale. Romita and the creative team bring out the determination and unbreakable will for victory that will push the war into a dangerous direction. Read Full Review

Amazing Spider-Man #42 delivers an action-less setup issue that clears out the lesser gangs to move into the Gang War semi-finals, culminating in a showdown in Central Park. The dialog-only issue is interesting enough, and the story is finally picking up steam, but the big battle ahead is led by two C-tier villains that nobody cares about, making it difficult to care about the outcome either way. Read Full Review

"Gang War" still possesses plenty of energy from the characters and style on the page, but the middle chapters have lost a lot of the early momentum. Readers can hope that with the end now in sight that things pick up in Amazing Spider-Man #43. Read Full Review

Gang War is kind of a bust for me. I don't think anything I've read has been outright bad, I just really couldn't care less. The difference between this arc and that first Tombstone arc is the intensity and focus. This doesn't have that.

I thought this was a pretty solid issue with some not great art. The story from Wells remains fairly interesting, though I also feel it's not at the heights it was when this storyline first started. As for Romita Jr.'s art, I just really wasn't feeling it this time around. I haven't been the biggest fan of this art in this run in general, but this was especially not good in certain spots for me, with one particular example being when Spider-Man and She-Hulk go off the top of the building. I think I may have rated this a 7.5/10 had it not been for the art we got here.

Art: 3/5
Story: 3.5/5
Total: 6.5/10

It's a breezy read, but the whole gang war premise isn't working for me. I know we have to accept comic book logic to a point, but the aggressive level of fundamental silliness combined with this deeply unlikable take on Peter just is not clicking. I think it might be down to how bonkers dumb the gang war itself is next to how seriously the C-list bad guys are taking it and then we're doing West Side Story in Central Park? Tone is all over the place. This story could've worked as a comedy or as a serious comic, but it's not either of those things.

The art was better, the story was more focused but now I just want it to be over. Kind of a shame that. Had the pacing in the second and third issues gotten us here faster I might me more invested. I wanted to see more from Madame Masque and we did. I wanted to see JRJR do better and we kind of did. Peter still has next to nothing to do but that's fine. I think my problem now is that my interest in Gang War and half of Wells' run so far has been Tombstone and now he isn't getting much of the spotlight either. I get switching to Janice but there isn't really much to go on for her in terms of history. Her and Masque trading trauma is only slightly effective at understanding their character motivations but it feels kind of forced. Masque at least has a history we can draw from, I'm personally less familiar with Janice. I could be wrong but her as a whole just feels like an insert when Lonnie could fill that role. I don't know. Two issues left. Hopefully it ends with a bang. more

Is the Gang War event starting to go on too long? We’ve had a bumpy road over the past few issues in the event across the various titles and that trends seems to have also hit this week’s Amazing Spider-Man. We see what Wilson Fisk had planned for The Rose and Beetle, which was basically to just extract his son from the violence. Felt like a major copout after the cliffhanger from the previous issue. Spider-Man continues to serve as a minor character in his own series and this is the first issue where it felt like a detriment. I’m not invested enough in Beetle or Madame Masque enough to care about an issue where their face-to-face meeting is the main plot. We’ve still got a month and change worth of issues left in the Gang War event and we need some fresh angles to the storyline or these last few weeks are going to feel like a slog. more

Gotta start this by saying that the recently released USM has no impact on my view on this issue or series in general. I think it's pretty unnecessary and a bit pointless to even compare these two runs, as they are from completely different backgrounds. Wells could've never done something like Hickman did, not because he isn't good enough writer, but because he is writing with a well established character in a tight playground and not in a completely new universe.

But this issue just didn't work for me as much as I hoped. Gang War is losing my interest, despite the strong start. Peter is even more of a side character now, Masque as the main antagonist doesn't work at all. She has had very little setup before this, and she isn't a Spidey-related character, so she can be very unknown to most of the readers. The stuff with Lincolns is nice, but not enough.

Art is okay. The twist at the start from Fisk was a nice surprise. more

I’m sorry but the art is not good, that first panel… geez. It gets better as the book continues, but that’s like saying a turd doesn’t smell as bad the longer it sits.

The first few panels makes all of the intensity from the prior issue a joke. I am moderately intrigued to see what happens with Janice.

If this was any other book than ASM I would’ve dropped it 30+ issues ago.

Someone tell me why JRJR is still working in comics???