YMMV / The Amazing Spider-Man (2018)

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Boomerang of all people falls into this after his actions in the 7th issue. He's either making an honest attempt to change for the better despite not giving up a few habits and actually wants to make friends with Peter which is supported by him playing cards with LMD's and going out of his way to selflessly protect him a large group of villains at a bar when he could have just left Peter to fend for himself. Or he's trying to win Peter's trust to use him for his hidden plan which is supported by his talk with Kingpin that clearly shows he hasn't changed his ways yet, not to mention the stolen item he took for a museum that is yet to be explained why he stole it.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • The "Hunted" storyline, although reasonably well-liked for further redeeming Black Cat's characterization and giving focus to the lizard family, is also viewed by many as a fairly simple homage to Kraven's Last Hunt that carries on for far too long.
  • The identity of Kindred, which has been the major hook for the series and didn't get confirmed until issue #50, was teased and went on for two years.
  • Related to that, Kindred's big plan, which lasts up until the very last issue of the run, by which point it becomes such a tangled web (har) of retcons and red herrings and twists that it can be very hard to care at all.
  • The subplot of Boomerang, The Kingpin, and the Lifeline Tablet played in the background and got dragged out for over 60 issues, frequently popping back up between each major arc to remind readers of this ongoing plot before phasing into the background again. The fact that Boomerang is a very contentious character in the run proved this to be one of the major breaking points for detractors.
• Ass Pull:
  • No one in the bar with no name including Boomerang not recognizing who Peter was. Not only was he a CEO of a company not too long ago, for a while Spider-Man was his company's mascot and everyone most certainly should've known that instead of thinking he was just some stranger at the bar.
  • Issue #27 gives us that Randy's secret date is none other than Beetle. Not only were there next to no hints of this, the romance between them comes out of nowhere given the circumstances. It's especially out of character for Randy since he's generally Peter's most responsible roommate.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Kraven the Big Bad of the Hunted storyline. Despite his massive built up since the this run started, he's defeated rather quickly by Spider-Man, and ends up giving up after Spider-Man helps him realize the difference between the both of them. He later ends up dying yet again after disguising himself as Spider-Man and getting killed by his son.
• Base-Breaking Character: Boomerang. Following from being the main character of Nick Spencer's popular The Superior Foes of Spider-Man book, Boomerang becomes a main character in this run as well, now turning straight and becoming a roommate of Peter. Because Boomerang is the primary focus of the second Myth Arc of the series, where Boomerang screwed Mayor Fisk over on getting the lifeline tablet and now the latter is trying to have him killed. This naturally has produced a mixed reaction from readers, some who feel Boomerang offers some nice brevity to the series and love his chemistry with Peter, and others who feel he's a Spotlight-Stealing Squad who has overstayed his welcome.
• Continuity Lock-Out: In general the series makes so many references to old stories and uses so many lesser known characters that it can be kind of dense for a new reader. After all, who but the most hardcore of Spidey fans are going to have any knowledge of characters like Chance or objects like the Lifeline Tablet? This is kicked into overdrive during Sinister War. The big revelations and retcons in that story assumes the reader has familiarity with wide range of stories from the infamous "Sins Past", "Lifetheft", and "One More Day" to the obscure one shot "Legacy of Evil".
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Minor Spider-Man villain Gibbon, of all people, has received this thanks to his surprisingly and utterly tear-jerking one shot comic in the Hunted storyline detailing his entire life and concluding with him dying in Spider-Man's arms.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • There are some people who are not happy with Peter losing his doctorate and job as science editor because of plagiarism, and having to go back to school again, as people want to see Peter progress in life instead of keeping him a college student forever. Mitigating somewhat is the fact his teacher is Doctor Connors, who's generally a well-liked supporting character, with the twist being that he can control his Lizard transformation now, so there's some potential for something different to be done with it, at least.
  • As Spencer's run started wrapping up, many (but by no means all) critics and fans believe that almost the entire run falls into this category. Even fans who liked the "Back to Basics" approach of the first couple of arcs found the run as a whole lacking owing to devoting most of its run time to either undoing contentious changes (and, even in the case of the comic's popular decision to retcon "Sins Past", unreasonably complicating the narrative to do so) or redoing classic storylines with not enough done to meaningfully justify retreading the stories.
• Pandering to the Base:
  • The first issue plays with it. A large part of the fandom wants Peter and Mary Jane to be a couple. The comic begins with them having a romantic moment... that turns out to be All Just a Dream. But don't worry, true believers, because they shared a real kiss by the end of the issue!
  • Before The Big Damn Kiss mentioned before, Peter goes on a somewhat lengthy speech where he pretty much sums up a lot of people's issues with Spider-Man's direction since "One More Day", even saying that 'nothing's gone right' since he and MJ broke up. It'd almost be a Take That, Scrappy! moment if not directed at a period of time rather than a person.
  • The first issue also saw Pete get stripped of the doctorate that Doc Ock earned during the Superior Spider-Man run, while being offered a second chance to earn the doctorate the "right way" by Curt Connors. This has long since been a sticking point with a lot of fans.
  • Peter's reconciliation with Black Cat. Her turn as the "Queenpin of Crime" was very unpopular, so Peter finally sharing his secret identity with her again and repairing their relationship was a long time coming.
  • Kraven's Last Hunt is something of a Sacred Cow storyline, often lauded as one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever written. Suffice to say, the news that Kraven would be resurrected over 2 decades later for the Grim Hunt storyline was extremely divisive. With detractors lamenting that this status quo change undermined an iconic storyline in Spider-Man's mythos. Apparently, Spencer felt the same way as Hunted, his first major event his run, saw him kill off Kraven once more while making numerous nods to the original Last Hunt story.
• Memetic Mutation: Green Goblin fucked Mysterio^{Explanation (spoilers)} The infamous Sins Past storyline was retconned into being false memories implanted into MJ and Green Goblin by Mysterio. Many fans have interpreted this as Mysterio getting pegged by Norman in the place of Gwen.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Carlie Cooper, quite possibly the most controversial introduction of the Slott era, whose existence as a Replacement Scrappy for MJ, a Creator's Pet for Slott and Joe Quesada, and suffering major Strangled by the Red String to prop her as Peter's love interest, surprisingly manages this. Thanks to having been out of the picture since the end of Superior Spider-Man (2013), she's able to return with different characterisation, being re-characterised as Mary Jane's somewhat nerdy civilian friend and someone she's able to confide in regarding what its like dating Peter. She also owns up to her flaws as a character and is subject to some Funny Moments when she helps Mary Jane fight Electro.
• Salvaged Story:
  • One of the biggest in Spider-Man's recent memory. After one of the most infamous comic book stories ever written and dozens upon dozens of moments of Ship Tease and attempted Ship Sinking, with many attempts at keeping such a thing happening, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are officially back together as a couple within the end of the first issue. For bonus points, the dialogue takes extra time to point out why they work so well as a couple, in complete defiance of the past decade of stories.
  • Though some have a few issues with it, Peter's characterization and new status is overall a definite attempt to get the character back to the core of his values, as many felt that the past decade had tried too hard at reaching a different appeal to the point that Peter no longer felt like the same character, let alone same person, that he had for the entirety of his previous history.
  • Mary Jane gets returned to being much closer to her pre-OMD characterisation as well. Under the pen of Dan Slott and other writers from the past decade, Mary Jane was either diminished, not herself, used as a tool to prop up the new love interests, or written to be unlikable. This run returns her to her characterisation of knowing that life with a superhero as a partner is often difficult and frustrating, but also emphasizing that she is strong enough to handle it, and keeps coming back because she loves Peter above anything else.
  • Black Cat becomes yet another example. The previous decade regressed Felicia to being more overtly amoral like some of her earlier appearances (and that's without including her turn as a crime lord willing to kill) when prior to that she'd become good friends with both Peter and MJ, as well as a significant number of other heroes/heroines. Like MJ above, this run doesn't ignore that but points to her shift in behaviour as a result of the Cosmic Retcon of One More Day. With that event taking away her knowledge of Peter's Secret Identity, Felicia subconsciously knew that she lost something in regards to Peter and that has plagued her ever since, causing her to behave differently to him, especially given how close she knows they were. Peter unmasks himself in front of her at seeing her distress and the two tearfully reconcile as friends.
  • Carlie Cooper makes a return, and in the past two of the biggest complaints about the character were her It's All About Me tendencies, as well as using other characters like Mary Jane to praise her as Peter's love interest. Here, she admits her relationship with Peter falling apart wasn't all his fault and acknowledges her own flaws and shortcomings regarding it, whilst telling Mary Jane how strong-willed she is and giving her blessing towards the two being back together.
  • Peter getting "exposed" as a plagiarist concerning his Doctorate addressed a long-time fan criticism of the Superior Spider-Man (2013) run. In that storyline, Doc Ock, while in control of Peter's body, goes back to school to get a PhD and later starts up a new company through his academic success. When Peter eventually got his body back, he never addressed the elephant in the room and just went along with being the CEO of a company he didn't actually put the work in to achieve. The first issue of Spencer's run finally addresses the Elephant in the Room and strips Pete of the PhD, with Pete even internally acknowledging that he had no one to blame but himself for letting the lie drag out for so long.
  • Spidey often relies more on his wits and creative use of his powers like he used to, which seems to address that Slott had been criticized for having Spidey rely too much on brute power to win each fight more than anything else.
  • As an extra 'sorry' for the above-mentioned past mistreatment, the book has also supported the launch of two spin-off titles, Black Cat and The Amazing Mary Jane. Both are following plot-threads set up for them in the main book (Black Cat taking on the Thieves Guild while Mary Jane is working on a movie she discovers is actually being set up by Mysterio), showing actual support for the two characters to get equal focus and attention.
  • In-general, many side-books tend to be dubiously canon at best during their publication, with the primary Spider-Man book rarely referencing them or developments during. Tom Taylor's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man book is directly tied-in with Nick Spencer's, with the two regularly referencing each other's developments as soon as they happen, showing things largely concurrently. Aunt May's cancer is referenced in ASM almost right after it was first revealed in FNSM, as was her re-opening the FEAST centre. They even go as far as to reference the previous run's side-book by bringing back Teresa Parker, Peter's separated-at-birth younger sister and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
    • Issue #37 even has Peter trying to be on time for a Skype date that they arranged in The Amazing Mary Jane #1.
  • Though everyone agrees Ryan Ottley is a talented artist, there have been some complaints that he draws Peter and MJ almost identically to Mark and Eve in his Invincible series. Later issues draw them a bit more distinctly, even changing MJ's hairstyle to include her traditional bangs.
  • "Sins Past" was heavily criticized for revealing that Norman Osborn had a consensual affair with Gwen Stacy. The story is considered one of the worst in Spider-Man history and was never officially retconned due to how nobody wanted to bring it back up... Until now. It's eventually revealed during Sinister War that Gwen never had an affair and her "kids" are just clones made by Harry and Mendel Stromm.
  • Despite fan hopes, the conclusion of Sinister War (and the run as a whole) does not fully retcon "One More Day", but it does do two things — reuniting Mary Jane and Peter Parker as a couple for good, and revealing that Mephisto's plan wasn't the absurd notion of breaking a pure marriage and instead trying to ensure that their daughter, who is Spider-Girl in alternate timelines and is crucial to his defeat, is never born. It also ends on a note suggesting that OMD could still be retconned, via Mephisto's visions of possible futures and one of them still involving Peter and MJ's daughter.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Issue #29 features a familiar scenario: Peter trying to meet up with a love interest but getting sidetracked by his Spider-Man life, but that twists the knife at the end. Mary Jane is flying to the other side of the country for two months to pursue her acting career again, and despite his plans to meet her at the airport he drops everything to help his estranged sister Teresa with a rescue mission that turns out to be All for Nothing. MJ and Peter both admit later that they knew he'd get delayed and miss her, but MJ assures him that he had nothing to worry about. Then she hangs up, and it's revealed Peter was going to propose to her.
    Peter's thoughts: MJ knows. I already know. But we both know. The fact is... there's nothing else I can do. I'll try to do the right thing, and she'll pay the price for it. Rinse, lather, repeat. Nothing else really changes, not for Spider-Man and Mary Jane. [...] I'll dream of the day this goes a different way. I wanted to change the way our story always ends. I even figured out how. I wanted to finally get things right. Set things right. For once... I wanted to surprise you. Maybe some other day.
  • Issue #60 has Mary Jane take Peter to an old theater so Peter can try and get off his chest what is bothering him with Harry. The issue takes a somber turn as Peter lays bare everything, admitting that he's a flawed guy that seems to self-sabotage his own life, but he doesn't understand what he's doing wrong and begging Harry what he needs to do to fix things before collapsing in Mary Jane's arms in tears.
  • Sinister War #4 has Boomerang saving Peter from Morlun only to be immediately killed right afterwards. Even the rest of the Superior Foes, Beetle included, are left dumbstruck but realizing that Fred went out on his own terms is enough for them to say "screw this", reunite and turn on the rest of the assembled villains and Kindred.
  • The finale ends with Harry Osborn dead at Kindred’s hands, Kindred revealed to be the Stacy Twins and them dying once Dr. Strange wins his game against Mephisto and Norman Osborn left to grieve at the fact that he had his son all along and he lost him because of his ambitions.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Peter losing his doctorate and his job as science editor at the Daily Bugle has been criticized as regressing Peter and losing the progress he developed under the tenure of Dan Slott. It's mitigated by the fact that the first issue addresses a major problem with Peter's doctorate, in that he didn't legitimately earn the degree, which was a point of contention amongst many fans, and likewise more than a few predicted this reversal of status-quo and disliked Slott's run for setting up Peter's eventual failure and comedown to start with by giving him unearned success.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: By having Peter lose his doctorate and be fired from his role as the Daily Bugle's science editor, they missed out on actually showing this new role. It was only a recent development towards the end of Slott's run and didn't get much focus (introduced right before Venom Inc, the second-to-last major arc before Slott left), but had a lot of potential they never explored. Besides showing off Peter's growth since being a photographer, it would help to both invoke his science geek nature while still involving his traditional role with the Daily Bugle, combining both career paths into one. Instead, he's back to school... again.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • The entire first issue seems to be a major rebuttal towards Dan Slott's run by stating how stupid it was for Peter to keep everything Otto built in Superior, then proceeding to get him and Mary Jane back together again. The first issue did a lot to garner a lot of positive attention towards the title and Spencer's run. The reunion of Peter and MJ, a fan favorite pair that had been separated for the better part of a decade, set a lot of minds at ease regarding the run. Further developments, such as losing the controversial doctorate and the unpopular position of science editor at the Bugle, and sending Peter back to college where he could earn his degree honestly, feel more true and keeping in line with what Spider-Man is supposed to be.
  • Amazing Spider-Man #73 attempts to win back crowds from well over 15 years ago with the complete undoing of the controversial 2004 storyline "Sins Past", revealing it all to have been an elaborate revenge scheme set in motion by an insane Harry Osborn, his A.I back-up, the Chameleon, Mendell Stromm and Mysterio (whew), with Mysterio modifying Norman Osborn and Mary Jane's memories so they believed Norman and Gwen had an affair and had twin children, the twins themselves being revealed as clones and husk avatars that Mephisto controls, in the end Doctor Strange saves the day by winning his game against Mephisto, liberating Harry's soul and exorcising Mephisto's influence from Gabriel and Sarah, enabling them to degenerate one final time and die in peace