There's a lot to like inAmazing Spider-Man #56, which celebrates the 950 issues of the series. Wells writes great dialogue throughout, grounding Peter and the rest of the characters in a human way. It's also a fitting start to the final arc for Wells as it bookends how this all began. Read Full Review

Romita Jr. delivers some wonderful art in the issue. Not only did I enjoy the character moments, but the action was visually exciting and beautifully detailed. Read Full Review

Overall, this issue is a nice 180 degree turn from the debacle that was the last issue. It's a great start to the final story in the Zeb Wells run. And while most of the run has been incredibly suspect, this seems to have some promise. Time will tell if the story will be worth remembering, or best forgotten ASAP. But for right now, it's an incredibly strong issue. Read Full Review

Amazing Spider-Man #56 is a tentative return to form when Tombstone decides to reassert his dominance in NYC by killing Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Zeb Wells creates a tense, dramatic main story, but the backups are not much more than irritating filler. Is this issue worth the bloated cover price as a "milestone? No, but it's better than most of Wells's run, so take the crumbs that you can. Read Full Review

Plot
This comic has three stories, the review only refers to the first one:

Spider-man has been making rival gangs believe that he works for Tombstone for some time, but he does it to make him look bad as the new Kingpin.

Tombstone is tired of this situation and decides that he must beat Spider-man to death in front of everyone to prove that they do not work together and to clear his name, to achieve this he kidnaps Peter Parker, to kill him and thus attract Spider-man.

Peter endures the beating hiding his powers, but this time Spider-man is one step ahead. Peter had warned his lawyer She-Hulk what was going to happen, who arrived with Mayor Luke Cage and Tombstone is caught.

The trial begins and Tombstone's defense is prepared but he does not count on Peter with the help of Randy, who will bring Janice, Tombstone's daughter as a witness.

Intense episode full of action and many spectacular fight sequences, with powerful twists and an open ending.

Art
John Romita Jr. achieves that gloomy and gloomy tone of this situation and incorporates it into the unique body language he gives to Spider-man with his art. It is a privilege to read comics illustrated by this legend who always evolves to use you.

Summary
Spider-man is in the sights of Tombstone, who is ready to unleash his wrath, but Peter is not alone.
Exciting episode full of fast-paced action and many fights more

The Tombstone story that opened this volume was the best storyline of Wells & JRJR's run, and the opening shot of their finale (unlike the Gang War crossover that made up the middle chapter of the Tombstone plot) promises a return to that original promise. Even JRJR is firing on all cylinders here. May this wildly uneven run go out as strong as it came in!

(Rating is for the main story only; the extra material is "the story of how Peter got She Hulk's business card", a Paul solo story (yes really), and a cute Lee Gatlin one-pager. Plus the obligatory five pages of tiny thumbnails of ASM covers, of course)

I originally had this whole thing written about how frustrated I was after just the first 3 pages after the Kingpin/Tombstone flashback. I was disappointed in the art and hanging plot threads but honestly, those aren't enough to make this a bad issue at all. What I felt in the first arc is back here. Everything I praised Wells for, his ability to channel that JMS era of Peter relying on others to help him, expanding his supporting cast and making him feel a little more down to earth is very present. That's what I, and I feel most people want from Peter Parker. I think that's why people want him to be married or at least in a committed long term relationship. It makes him feel more relatable, realistic. Someone having real world problems. Not fantastic superhero problems that make his personal life harder. He's supposed to be an insert for the reader. Escapism through his heroics but similar in his personal problems. It's what makes him so endearing and Wells channels that here. He makes Spider-Man feel like Spider-Man, messing with his enemies, being a nuisance and it comes back to bite him but Peter being Peter, he has a good support system, this time in the form of Luke Cage and She-Hulk. I wish we had been able to see more of them outside of a Dark Web epilogue and Gang War but it's still nice to see heroes coming to Peter/Spider-Man's aid. Shows the readers why he's so well loved.

I've not been the biggest fan of this run but I would always give issues their due when they deserved it and there were a lot of hits. A lot of misses too but as long as this final arc actually finishes off well, I wouldn't rate this overall as bad as a lot of people around the internet have said it is. It's just not. I will however say that most of the missteps here were likely the fault of editorial and their awful event mandates. I don't fault Wells entirely for Dark Web or Gang War. We have to have them because Marvel wants to sell more books. Take those out and this run becomes much better and more cohesive. It will flow a bit better and maybe some of those hanging plot threads aren't left as hanging. Keep up the work Spider-Team. End on a bang.

Oh yeah and I even enjoyed the Paul backup. I think that they really chickened out catering to that part of the "fanbase" that was complaining about him. Abandoning him entirely when all of the Paul haters had already dropped off the book. It still sold well even when he was in it. Should have just kept him in. It was a chance to flesh out his character more and make him less hated or just kill/send him off if you were actually done with him. It feels like a waste in hindsight and I never hated him. It was a really interesting position for Peter to be in. We've seen MJ in relationships away from Peter before but this was different. It's still different. They have a bond, they've never really been lovers. And there is security for both of them in that bond. Paul has a home and someone to trust in a dimension he doesn't know and MJ has someone who isn't constantly in danger. It honestly has always made sense. Either commit to Paul or don't. more

I think this issue is the perfect showcase on why Spidey editorial needs massive changes.

I'm not sure if it's Nick Lowe, or who/whom, but something needs to happen.

But back to the issue itself.

The first story was wonderful. Like amazing, truly deserving the title. Having re-read World Without Love yesterday in preparation to this, the parallels to that are very well done.
I love how we see it in Peter. In #1, he is directionless, not knowing where to go, or what to do. Just aimlessly wondering about, not even talking to Randy. He is rusty, takes a beating and wants to do everything alone.

Here, it's the opposite. Peter is active. He knows what to do, he supports his friend and even wonders how to do it. He has a plan, he executes it well and relies on his friends to do so.
His smile during the court session was just wonderful. That is Peter.

And his inner monologue. And reflecting on what happened with Norman! Like, that is what I wanted in this run! Peter's monologue and making it feel like these stories do have some sense of order. After Easy Being Green, Peter decides to actively go after Tombstone. It only needed like two boxes! Like how hard was this!?

I'll save my rant for later, since I still want to praise this first story. It has great twists and definitely leaves me wanting more. JRJR was on fire with his art and I can't wait for the next chapter. Just cook Wells. Just cook.

The first backup is also great. At first I was wondering when did Peter interact with She-Hulk and was pleasantly surprised by the backup story. Even saying "to be continued... in a story you just read" was really funny.

Second backup... not really. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty well written, but it's way too late for this. We saw hints of this 30 issues ago (over a year) and after that... nothing. Paul desperately needed this way before and the first page still doesn't feel earned. We did not see how Peter and Paul got this friendly. We needed this story back in #25 to make this work. But the editorial got scared and decided to just keep Paul... there. As a nothing character.

But overall, this is a great landmark issue. One of the best in a long time.

And that gets me back to my rant on editorial. Like why on earth is this book so poorly managed. Zeb clearly had a vision and I think this and issue #1 showcase perfectly what he wanted to do. But editorial clearly stopped him from doing what he wanted and it has lead to a run that is really hard to recommend.

In my honest opinion, they definitely ruined this run. It did not start well, with a sudden break-up, no explanation and another mystery just after Kindred that made the first year of Zeb's ASM bad in hindsight. First 13 issues are good, but the following 13 issues just kinda ruin it.

The second year was not any better due to lack of focus on Peter that also definitely hurt the experience. There was no continuity between stories and Peter was rarely the star in his own book. It made it seem like Zeb did not care to write about Peter, when this issue specifically showcases he really does.

Paul is also a nothing character that the editorial (or higherups) clearly wanted to use to explain the breakup, but then also got scared of backclash and decided not to do anything with him. Showing once again they are not confident in their plans, if there even are any.

There are 8 landmark issues during the course of this run and I think this is the only one that actually deserves it and utilizes it well. Another mismanagement from editorial.

So all this book made me think was to ask "why isn't the whole run like this when you clearly have the capacity, skills and want to make it so???" Like I'm just angry. Because there is potential and this book is perfect showcase of it. But you just don't do it.

And this editorial mismanagement annoys me so much, because this run can have so many good stories. But they don't seen to use the potential what they have. If I thought Zeb was a hack fraud who could not write, I would not care this much. But I do not think so, I think he is a great writer who was given a really bad hand. more

+ Like • Comments (1)

• Likes (4)

• Kalaoui
• BirdmanG07
• KittyNone
• Hex

BirdmanG07 - Sep 2, 2024

YES. If only Marvel would listen…. I was excited Wells was coming to the book, I’ve liked his work in the past. There’s no way he was given the space he needed or wanted to do what he could’ve done.

Sign in to comment

I’ve hated this run, but honestly this was one of the best issues from it. I very much dislike JRJRs art but even he did really well here. I wish everyone in the story wore a mask, that’s help a lot.

+ Like • Comments (1)

• Likes (1)

• Hex

Hex - Sep 3, 2024

Straight up. This is the best Romita has done in a while but MAN his faces most of the time were hard to look at. I really wish he'd stop doing that line on his female faces to accentuate the cheekbones because it looks horrendous. He used it on Janice on the final page and made her look really weird. You remove it and she looks way better.

Sign in to comment

As the others have said, this was really, really strong. Wells on Tombstone has been a tier spidey content snd i wish the rest of the run was on the same level even as someone who hasn't hated this run.

The backups are all pretty solid as well.

The back ups were nothing special, but the main story here was probably one of the best, if not the best of Wells run so far. Where was this quality the whole time?

This all should've happened by the end of year 1 and we should have not done that nonsense of 6 months later BS. I understand we have to have crossovers and events and there will be fillers but man that diluted year 2 and the punch this would have had 12 to 15 issues in but I still enjoyed this so much when I recall those first few issues. Zeb Wells has that in his locker to play with perpetual losers and a rogue of nemeses that will bring their abilities into focus and drop twists that keep you entertained. Romita Jr. and company are very good on art and It's nice that the art team from the first confrontation with Tombstone is the same. I don't have time to do it but I want to go back and re-read those early Tombstone issues.

There are so many parallels to the first arc in this issue that show just how much Peter has changed since this run started. Positively changed. I just wish the run was better about showing that journey, because this would've hit a lot harder had it.

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

Story is one of the best of this run but I seriously can’t handle JRJRs art.