YMMV / Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow

• Broken Base: For some, Spider-Man, while under the influence of the symbiote, attacking J. Jonah Jameson and breaking his hand can be seen as Catharsis Factor due to how much J. Jonah Jameson hatefully slanders his name. For others, however, it's just Disproportionate Retribution towards a man who, while not great, is undeserving of being outright attacked (and if anything, is just proving his point about Spidey being a menace).
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin, is a crime lord who managed to run a successful criminal enterprise in spite of interference from the vigilante Spider-Man. Although fearful for his life as Spider-Man begins murdering criminals under the influence of a symbiote masquerading as his new black suit, Kingpin retains a level head and hires Shocker and Scorpion to investigate, indeed confirming that Spider-Man had become a killer. Deducing Spider-Man's identity as Peter Parker, Kingpin refuses to show fear or anger and calmly prepares to be killed at the web-slinger's hands, having prepared a contingency in the form of releasing Parker's identity to the public, ensuring that he would have a target on his back in or out of costume. Surviving Spider-Man's assault, albeit with his face badly maimed, Kingpin waits out the symbiote's attack on New York, dead set on getting his revenge on Spider-Man in spite of his ailing health and poised to do so upon acquiring a symbiote that survived the attack.
  • Kraven the Hunter is once again one of Spider-Man's most cunning and competent foes. After Spider-Man begins killing his enemies, Kraven joins forces with fellow villains and J. Jonah Jameson in a bid to defeat their common enemy once and for all. To that end, Kraven devises a battle plan, using Beetle to lure the web-slinger away from the city and avoid involving other heroes, then exploiting Mysterio's illusions to disorient their enemy. When unable to track Spider-Man through the goggles Mysterio provided him, Kraven removes them to find that his enemy avoided the illusion by hiding underground. Deducing the alien symbiote's fear of fire, Kraven turns the tables on Spider-Man and helps Jameson trap him in a burning barn, removing the organism from the wall-crawler's unconscious body. A brilliant tactician and one of the few members of the supervillain community to survive Spider-Man's bloody rampage, Kraven comes close to outright killing the hero before Jameson knocks him out cold.
• Moral Event Horizon: The symbiote driving Spider-Man to begin killing his rogues gallery and trying to infect New York with its spawn makes it a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but it goes too far upon murdering Reed Richards and trying to kill Mary Jane for undermining its attempts to corrupt Peter.
• Nightmare Fuel: Spider-Man while wearing the black suit in the main continuity is frightening enough, but this series kicks the horror factor up to eleven. Case in point, Spidey is noticeably more brutal and violent towards even common crooks, and considers killing the Hobgoblin for a moment before leaving him in the streets.
  • The design of his suit after Hobgoblin kills Aunt May is also very terrifying, as he adopts the claws, tendrils, and a bit of the added bulk typically associated with Venom and changes his mask into a more arachnoid visage, with four spider-like fangs painted on.
  • Then there's what he does when he starts killing his enemies instead of just webbing them up for the cops. He crushes Hobgoblin's head with his bare hands, chokes Scorpion to death by forcing his symbiote's biomass into his throat, then dismembers both him and Shocker, throwing their limbs at Kingpin's feet before nearly killing him with a single bloody punch to the head. The worst part is that he isn't doing this because the symbiote is controlling his body against his will like in Earth-616. Peter is willingly murdering his rogues gallery and thinks he's doing the right thing.
    • Of particular note, as Spidey approaches a terrified Shocker after killing Scorpion, the civilians he's trying to protect can only cry in fear, not of Shocker, but of Spider-Man himself.
  • His attack on J. Jonah Jameson comes across as this when not viewed as Laser-Guided Karma for slandering Spider-Man's name. For context, Spidey backs Jameson into a wall, webs up Robbie so he doesn't intervene, and breaks Jonah's hand before swinging away with a warning that he'll break the other one if Jameson keeps writing papers on him.
  • When MJ looks for Peter in his apartment, she finds him sleeping in-costume and suspended in midair by the symbiote's tendrils. Needless to say, it's very creepy.
  • His massacre of the Sinister Six is also a very frightening moment. To give a rundown, prior to this, Spider-Man killed eleven people, one of whom being the Beetle, whose corpse he leaves hanging in the trees to herald his arrival. When Mysterio tries to distract him with his illusions, Spidey No Sells them before forcing the symbiote through his helmet and killing him the same way he did Scorpion. Then he kills Rhino with a bloody punch in the face that packed enough force to break his horns, delivers a kick that hospitalizes Eddie Brock, and smothers Electro by covering his face with symbiote biomass. It takes Jameson wielding a Spider-Slayer and forcing him into a burning barn to just to get the suit off of him.
    • And just when it seems that the threat of the black suit is over, Peter senses that the symbiote survived the fire in the barn before we cut to the creature in the Baxter Building, having bonded with Mr. Fantastic and having spawned more symbiotes.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Venom symbiote apologizing to Peter for being unable to save Aunt May is meant to be interpreted as the creature showing a caring side despite having influenced him into becoming more aggressive. However, the way the symbiote shifts all the blame to Hobgoblin, however true that it is that he started the attack that killed May, does not earn many favors due to its unwillingness to risk both of their lives to save her from the fire.