I get what they were trying to do but the execution wasn’t there. This one was kind of just all over the place.

I’m enjoying this a lot, but if this was main continuity Batman I’m sure I’d feel differently. I like that it’s a separate universe story.

It's average...nothing more to add.
Why though do 'critics' give it marks of 9.5 or laughably 10? The 'Death of Gwen Stacy' is a 9.5, how can a critic give this the same? Please, explain and let me understand the logic.

It’s nice to have unique looking faces again.

This feels like it’s going to be a filler arc, so I’m rating it as such. Fun little jaunt.

I’m shockingly a fan of these absolute books

This was quite an interesting take, excited to see where this goes.

Great start! Taylor’s run was going to be hard to follow and I’m glad it wasn’t thrown in the trash and there seems to be some continuity going on here.

Art and colors were solid, but the scenes in the dark were outstanding. I’m looking forward to seeing where this run goes.

Certainly the best thing about Wells's finale is the same thing as what was best about his run: the small character moments, like Tombstone's chat with Peter outside the courthouse that emphasizes the weaknesses of being a good man in a bad world. But the worst thing is what was worst about his run: the general lack of direction. The scenes with May are touching and well-wrought and could be a great capstone to a run that focused heavily on Aunt May — except that this isn't that run, it's been over a year since she's shown up in the pages of this book at all and she was hardly a regular before that.

Ultimately, Wells & JRJR simply tried to do more than they could handle with this series, and Nick Lowe failed to exercise the editorial wisdom to force them to kill a few darlings and focus their attention on the best stuff — with the result being a tangle of characters, plots and subplots that appear and disappear at random, rarely getting any meaningful resolution. As everyone else has already mentioned, most of the plots end in no identifiable change to the characters or their place in the world, with the only real movement forward in this issue is for Aunt May, a character who's barely been in the book. [EDIT: Also I misunderstood the ending and it doesn't even really move May forward, so I'm not sure why we're doing this story for a finale at all now.]

I won't damn this run outright. I think hate-reading comics is a waste of your one wild and precious life, and that reading a favorite character out of addiction alone is no better, so if I thought this run was irredeemable I'd have walked away long ago. I read it to the end because it kept drawing me back in every time I gave up on it, it was full of promise in its best moments: the Judgment Day and Blood Hunt issues or the best parts of the Tombstone plot, for instance. I absolutely believe there was a great run in there somewhere, if only they could have focused on it.

(As regards the prelude to 8 Deaths, obviously I can't judge a run on a three-page teaser but my first impression is that I'm going to have the opposite problem with the art that I had with this run: while JRJR's unreliable pencils were beautifully propped up by Menyz's gorgeous color work, it looks like next Mark Buckingham's wonderful draftsmanship will be muddied by murky-yet-overlit coloring that looks like it rose from the grave of the early oughts.) more

Issue was enjoyable enough. I like the ending to the main story, that convo with May. Figured Tombstone was either going to get off or confess. Mays presence was i think definitely missed this run. He handled Sandman pretty handily which is good.

The Jackpot story was just kinda there. But the moment between him and MJ was nice.

Im not a Ben Reilly die hard so I'm not very bothered by Chasm existing. I enjoyed the short dialogue between them but felt like they trased some growth for Ben but then didn't really commit. Itd be interesting to see him actually move on from what he's lost. Maybe they see Ben is supposed to be a lot of stand ins for many spodey readers and thats the angle they are going with? Time will tell.

The rek rap story was just there. Great art as usual and the editors note gag was fun.

I really liked the art in the last sorry and Peter beating Overdrive in the doom bit, working out a high level machine. I'll give the story a shot.

After everything I still love how Zeb writes Peter as a character. The Wolverine story was a great insight into it. I can root for Zeb wells Peter very easily. Hes a good, decent guy. Ill miss that overall, but I think a new writer is welcome too.
more

I’d give this a higher score if it wasn’t an $8 comic with a whole bunch of short stories to round out the back. I did appreciate that it was the same writer and some of them tied together, but the extra money books with multiple stories rarely sit well with me.

The main story turned the entire previous arc into a nothing burger. The section with aunt May later was nice, but all the Tombstone court stuff means nothing now. Other than being genuinely disappointed with how the story worked, this was some of Wells better work on ASM. It seems like he’s been able to run free some in the later issues and before in the behind book, and that’s when he was at his best.

As a whole run goes, I think this was a failure. I like Zeb Wells as a writer, but this whole run was just not for me. I still think the creation of Jackpot shows Wells/Lowe don’t understand what makes MJ special as a character. I don’t care for Rek-Rap, of the Miles equivalent for that matter. And I’m not going to get started on MJ and the guy who I honestly cannot remember the name of that she’s with now.

There was a letter in the back where someone wrote in basically calling out Lowe on how stagnant ASM has been as a whole, and I agreed with damn near every word. Thank you Dapper Dan from MD, I hope somehow you see this.

I’d say I’m looking forward to the fresh start, but I honestly don’t know. If I wasn’t trying to collect the entirety of the run I would’ve dropped this 50 issues ago. more

I’m not huge on the vampire thing but this issue was cool.

While the ending was not as intense as expected, but I am glad Tom Taylor ended this run on a high note. It was very satisfying, and this is the best rightwing run in my opinion. any fan should try reading this, even though it feels very cotton candy.

It’s hard to finish a run right and tie everything together. This wasn’t perfect, but it did a really good job. It was a page turner for me, for the right reasons.

Hopefully the next run doesn’t take a lead from the Wells run on ASM.

Decent read, clearly a buildup for the next arc.

Zero action scenes in this book, all drama. It was outstanding and I loved every page.

It’s basically a setup issue for whatever is coming.

Thor vs Zues? Yes please.

I know this reaction can sound very off to a lot of the praise this comic has gotten. I try to explain my thoughts in this long ramble:

We can start with Shay. It's her fifth appearance and gotta say, I like her. I don't get why MJ and Peter can't be a thing and how them being together makes Peter seem old and unrelatable and then have Peter date someone else. It just showcases that the problem editorial has is not Peter in a relationship, it's just Peter with MJ that is still a very annoying status quo to have.

But, this comic is not about MJ. And as much as I love her and want her to be with Peter, her being on the date with Peter right now would not fit with themes and ideas Wells tries to convey in this run.

And like I said, I really like Shay. I appreciate a lot her speech on "responsibility to yourself" and she seems like a character that would work with Peter. I hope to see more of her. I am just worried we will get the same old tired story with Shay inevitably learning Peter's identity.

So why am I so annoyed by this comic? Isn't it a charming date that many of us have wanted to see Peter have? And isn't it a comic where we finally see Peter being himself and not just swinging as Spider-Man? Answer to both of those questions is yes, but it just makes me annoyed more, because while this works really well as a one-off comic mostly, it really is hard to like as sixth-before-last issue.

It's... hard to explain, but I dislike how little we see what Wells tries to say in this run. This is the first issue in months where we finally see some growth in Peter, some change. And... it's the sixth issue before final one. Like... isn't this a bit too late?

With Wells run, we always get these very tiny small snippets of Peter going forward. We saw it with his A World Without Love, Luke's speech to him in Rek-Rap adventure, Ravencroft adventure, etc... And then we get nothing in bigger and longer stories. It gets tiring, when he really doesn't seem to go forward. Within Wells run, it's really hard to get in the headspace of Peter Parker, mostly because this comic rarely focuses on him as a character.

But like I said, I mostly enjoyed this comic. The date was charming, but what annoys me the most in this one-off story is Peter stopping Rhino and Screwball. Even if we ignore Rhino for a sec (Spidey editorial seems to have no idea what kind of character he is nowadays), that whole speech to them feels... kinda selfish from Peter? And very naive from him to presume they won't just continue that in another part of the city? It's like the only way he can relax on that date now is because Wells broke fourth wall and informed him the villains stopped and did not lie to Peter. I know, lying from super villains? Never seen before.

It's not like I hate the idea of Peter being tired of being Spider-Man. On the contrary, I think that is a very interesting thing to explore and instead of going punching the foes, he tries to talk to them first, maybe even get them to quit. Maybe being sympathetic to them and understanding their struggles?

But... that is not a thing that is explored in this run. Not really. We first see it in the excellent opening arc, then get a little snippet in issue 10 and then... not really anything. I don't really know what is going on with Peter. Why is he now ready to date Shay? What makes her special and why does her work with Peter better than say... Felicia? Whose romance story in here was so awful, and barely a plot even. It was just there until it wasn't. Such a wasted story.

Like I said, I am not opposed to Peter dating Shay. I think it's interesting to see and perfect way to move Peter forward and not just keep him in a stale place (like dating Felicia again as a rebound). But Peter's date life has not been a plot line really, nor do we see how has he gone to this mindset, after his breakup from Felicia. Why is he ready now, or is he just giving life a chance? Is it because GG seems to be gone from his life (once again showing that we have a comic where it has no continuity to previous issue or storyline).

Because this book so rarely focuses on Peter and his mindset, these kind of stories don't feel earned. Like Peter's friendship with Norman and now his date with Shay

And I kinda laughed when Nick Lowe posted he likes doing these kind of stories. Would be nice if we saw more of them.

Instead of "THE BIGGEST BADDEST STORY YOU HAVE EVER SEEN! THE ONE COMIC THAT IS BETTER THAN ANY SINGLE COMIC RELEASED PAST 60 YEARS. A COMIC THAT WILL HAVE MAGNIFICIENT CONSEQUENCES TO PETER PARKER AND SPIDER-MAN AND WILL FEATURE THE LARGEST, BLOODIEST, MOST BRUTAL BATTLE OF SPIDER-MAN EVER!!!"

It's hard for me to be invested in these stories and characters, if Wells acts like they never happened whenever there is a new artist.

TLDR: Shay seems nice. Date mostly charming. Peter leaving Rhino and Screwball alone felt a bit ooc. Art nice. But the whole thing doesn't feel earned. more

I liked the sentiment of this issue, even though it's frustrating to see Peter Parker in the same hopeless scenarios over and over again. I liked it, but in all reality nothing really happened.

I really expect this issue's strengths to be overshadowed by the fact that Peter is on a date in this issue, and it's not with MJ. Wells' strengths legitimately come from the smaller character moments that are so often ignored by this series' constant motion. We get those strengths in spades here. If Wells' run was just this for 60 issues, I'd be a much more ardent defender of it.

It was a sweet story. Maybe if he did stuff like this from the get go instead of blowing it all up at the start he wouldn’t have gotten all the hate he received.