Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #4 plumbs Peter Parker's soul. The issue leaves our hero with no easy answers. Will Peter hesitate the next time danger threatens? Will he overreact to a threatening villain? Peter survives this harrowing ordeal. But does he emerge the victor or the victim? Read Full Review

This is readable enough, but I didn't feel like it worked, especially as its own mini. If it's a story taking place apart from the continuity, it didn't bring enough to the table to be an effective study of the character. It wasn't spooky or scary enough despite some solid imagery, and while "Villain does hilariously elaborate cruel thing for cruelty's sake" is an acceptable motivation for a comic book, that inherent silliness doesn't mesh well with the seriousness of the material that the author is trying to have a conversation with. Meanwhile, had this been an arc in ASM it might have worked to set up a further story in which Peter grappled with his new trauma material to grow the character in some way, but that too would have been tiresome because who's asking for more PTSD stories in 2024? Most of this book isn't egregiously bad; it just didn't really come together. more