Fantastic conclusion, Ziglar keeps cooking.

I wish the main art of this book was as good as the art here is.

It's filler. It's well done, but still filler. Enjoyable enough (and better than most Joe Kelly issues lol)

Yeah that was pretty good. Kelly finally wrote a good issue of ASM in a loong time.

Cafu's art was the highlight tho.

Should've been a longer arc, has too much going on currently and with one issue left, it doesn't feel like Zdarsky is going out with a great ending.

I'll be honest. I liked this. A lot.

Maybe it's because of new writer who was doing something different? But damn, the writing here felt so much better.

Both Felicia and Shay were written well. I was actually invested and not just being tired of doing the same thing.

Ireland doesn't break new ground here. But she does something effective and has a great voice for Peter. Something that is more mature and not just sad miserable loser who shoots jokes from a machine gun like Kelly writes Peter.

Art was really nice too! A bit rough, but good enough.

Overall, I want Ireland to be new writer for ASM, not Kelly.
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Reading this, I'm reminded of Gauntlet from Brand New Day. And how it would've been much worse, had each foe only gotten one issue and all issues followed the same structure.

That is the problem with 8 Deaths. As a standalone issue, this is what I call perfectly fine. Everything is in place, plot moves forward, we see some personal life of Peter and Spidey action and have pretty good art.

But forgettable villain, the same structure for each issue and bland overall plot makes this worse. I don't really care about this storyline, and while Ireland does her best to make this more interesting (much more than Kelly did), this is just eh. There aren't any unique twists, foes don't look anything special and their gimmick isn't anything to discuss about.

This is just safe and bland overall story that I can't think will be remembered after Kelly's run starts. There isn't anything special here (at least yet) to remember it by. more

Like last issue, I liked this more than Kelly's first two. The problem here is that we keep being told how important it is that Spider-Man is the champion but everyone, including Strange aren't telling Peter, much less us, WHY that matters. It doesn't feel like there is weight, purpose or tangible stakes to fighting the Scions other than it being what the story is about. It comes off as incredibly contrived. Couple that with the lack of impact from dying (hey he managed to not die!) and we're left with a story that doesn't feel much like it fits in Amazing Spider-Man and he's just going through the motions.

I called him a reactive character last time but we're not really getting anything for him to react to except for the Scions and we know what is going to happen with them. Everything is happening around him, people talk at him. One pops up, Peter fights them in an anticlimactic, truncated fight, he dies, rinse and repeat. The conflicts in these issues don't even last more than a few pages. We have to keep building up to the next Scion deciding, "Okay NOW I'm going to fight him", when having a back to back gauntlet where Peter gets continually beaten only to be pulled back at the end by the reeds, the deaths taking more of a toll on him because he has no time to breath may not solve the issue of the story being contrived but that it would have more impact and add depth to his situation. Like I said, it's better than the first few issues but I still don't really care.

So as not to be a complete downer, once again, the women here are written very well, (with the few scenes they are in), and the art is really good. Melnikov got the first issue jitters out of the way. more

What an issue. I like it a lot. But I also have multiple problems.

There is a lot to like here. Art is fantastic and how characters are written is great. I am more invested in MJ now, it feels like the criticism I had for her after #6 is finally being answered. The final pages are fantastic and family dynamic is great.

But what problems do I have with this then?

Titular character.

Normally I wouldn't mind if it was another issue of very little Peter. But it's like every other issue in this series. Hickman seems to like writing every other character besides Peter. Because he is sidelined again and it does hurt the experience.

What hurts it the most is the 12 month structure. Peter has been Spider-Man for almost a year now. And I have seen so little of it. I have no idea how much he has matured, how much experience he now has, because Hickman shows Spider-Man being Spider-Man so little. After reading Gabe's review (that many dislike for the lowscore), I get why he is disappointed. For a book called Spider-Man, it focuses very little on Spider-Man.

So as a standalone issue, this is fantastic and focus on MJ is amazing. You love to see it. But as issue 12 of an ongoing series that spans one issue per month in timeline of the comic as well, it does hurt the experience a lot. There is so little I know about this Peter and it does annoy me while I read it. more

It's... fine? Nothing special about it. The hook "who is the host" isn't that interesting, so don't know how long that will last.

The cast feels... odd? MJ, Paul, Rick Jones, Luke Cage, Robbie and Madame Masque all feel very random choices for a Venom cast.

It's not really a continuation to Venom War that I wished it would be. Granted, this is a first issue of a new series, but I wasn't that impressed by anything. more

I have to drop this. Nic Klein's phenomenal art is wasted on this. Nothing worthwhile happens. 19 issues in and there has been no plot development, or anything really. There is nothing worthwhile in this book besides the art. But this book tries too hard to be Immortal Hulk without understanding what made it so good.

19 issues of Hulk and Banner being at odds. And nothing has happened. There has been no character development either for the main character. Charlie is fine, but Hulk is in literal stasis and every month it's just another issue of Banner being scared, Hulk being angry and no development of this massive book. This tries way too hard to make Eldest threatening, but it's kinda laughable how little of substance Eldest or anything has.

Backups were okay I guess.
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I disliked the writing and art in this more than last time. This whole plot is incredibly contrived just to serve as a vessel to bridge the gap to the next big writer where this feels like a place holder. It doesn't feel like a good Spider-Man story. He just doesn't fit in this. It could have been a more seamless transition into this arc but there was no lead up, nothing building to his team-up with Strange and Doom until all of a sudden, BOOM! Spider-Man is throwing magic around. It's like the story of an annual extended over a series of issues.

Peter isn't terrible with women. He's usually pretty great with women DESPITE his idiosyncrasies and overall dorkiness. He can be oblivious but he's not that dumb to just have Felicia blatantly telling him she's single go right over his head. It makes it worse that there is near zero consistency to McGuiness' portrayal of Felicia. She changes in every panel she's in. It's very jarring.

While Norman saying he doesn't believe in magic completely stone faced is genuinely funny, it makes absolutely no sense. He's lived in a world where magic has existed for years. There is no denying it and those who were skeptics have been shown to have no way to quantify it. If Tony Stark believes in magic, Norman Osborn even in all his pride would have no reason to deny it's existence. I do enjoy this change for Norman though. I hold absolutely zero hope that it will be followed up on well at least not in this... run? Series? Not sure what to call this Kelly section of ASM. I think what would be a great way to get Spider-Man and Peter back to what people want is to focus back on his supporting cast. Have him do more with Norman, with Felicia and May. They're there but like the audience, they're just waiting for Peter to remember who they are and what they mean to him.

The ending is a masterclass in rushed pacing. The climax has no real resolution. Largely no buildup or anticipation during the new Scion conflict and as fast as you can blink, it's over. No reverence or weight to add to another death for Peter Parker. Hell there's barely an explanation as to HOW he died. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. There needs to be more impact shown to the reader for it to feel meaningful. I know death means nothing in comics but this is set up to convey how it can impact a character for those readers who might not have read anything off the most popular lines that have had to deal with death. It makes it feel so shallow.

I'm genuinely not trying to be a downer or a hater. I just want more than this book and this editor are giving me. There are good/interesting ideas here but they are not given enough time to shine or be meaningfully fleshed out. Like Kevin. Or Peter's thousand yard state after his "rebirth". He's just casually back to it like he was at the beginning of this issue completely eradicating all of the impact of the end of the last.

I'm rating this higher simply because it manages to continue the story that was established. A story I might not like but at least as opposed to the previous issue, flows into this newly established direction. Whiplash inducing as it may be. more

It's not as bad as the previous issue was for me. How Felicia was handled is awful, but not surprising. I have zero hopes for Spidey office to write her well now that Jed isn't there and so best I can wish is that they just skip her character entirely from now on. And how Peter speaks to her is just... bad. That's his ex, and he has acted way more mature in even previous volume, during Spencer run, Beyond and even WWL. Here he acts like flustered teenager who don't know how to respond when his crush speaks to him and it's so bad.

Otherwise it's ok I guess. Mediocre, but so wordy with so much mumbo jumbo that Kelly is known for. And it just doesn't work for me most of the time, but art does. The pacing is kinda awful how the second Scion is defeated. It's too sudden and having this happend 4-6 times more is not something I'm looking forward. Norman scenes were nice. And so was Shay at the end of comic.

But yeah, this just feels like Spidey office has zero idea what to do and are just spinning the wheels until something happens.

I wish it's not Kelly who is the next writer. more