YMMV / The Amazing Spider-Man (2022)

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• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Has Mary Jane really moved on from Peter in light of issues #21-25 reveal that her and Paul's relationship was the result of being trapped together in an alternate dimension where time moved faster and so spent years there despite only hours-days passed for Peter. When confronted about if MJ really loved Paul enough to completely cut Peter out of her life, her response was that it was a matter of responsibility rather than love. So it is really her remaining loyal to the father of her children whom she loves or is she simply trying to be "responsible" by maintain a stable home for her children? Further, neither of them are aware that MJ was cursed with 'chains she would come to accept' by Rabin aka the Scribble Man as part of his sacrificial ceremony. Are these metaphorical chains related to her death being some necessary step to his accession to godhood, or is it a literal curse that is causing her feelings for Paul to be romantic in nature?
  • Has Peter really forgotten about his actions and behavior while infected with Norman's sins, or is he aware of what he did and still wrestling with the guilt of it more than he's letting on? On that note, how much of said behavior was a direct result of the sins corrupting him and how much was him simply reaching his breaking point from his many pent-up frustrations and acting on them when given a proper excuse to do so?
• Badass Decay: In this run, Spider-Man hasn't suffered this all across the board but is decidedly less effective of a hero now at fighting different members of his Rogues Gallery and whether or not those defeats are justifiable are up for debate. He gets bear-hugged into unconsciousness by Tombstone in the confines of an enclosed room despite having solidly defeated Tombstone multiple times in the past. Against an enraged Vulture, Peter is nearly killed and has to beg Norman Osborn for aid in the form of a new suit and glider despite having defeated an angry, bloodlusted Vulture on his own before in stories like Spider-Man: Feral. And against two Hobgoblins, Spider-Man is nearly killed and has to rely on Norman coming in again to save the day in a brand new suit.
• Bile Fascination: Due to the sheer negative reception this run has received thanks to the many unpopular decisions made, mainly overturning the much more well-received The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), some have picked up the comic just to see what everyone is complaining about.
• Character Rerailment: Not Spidey, but the Fantastic Four; after acting bizarrely out of character for several issues, Issue #26 has Reed say that Peter has been "A good friend" when Pete tries to apologize for his behaviour.
• Die for Our Ship: Peter's relationship with Felicia Hardy gets the most focus in the first arc, with heavy ship teasing. Meanwhile, his relationship with Mary Jane Watson is almost immediately scuttled by the introduction of Paul, her current boyfriend. Many fans who regard Peter and MJ as the One True Pairing immediately hoped Paul would either be killed off or revealed as a surprise villain. Although some fans had already guessed that MJ's foreshadowed death was a Red Herring for another character's death, they were disappointed when Marvel's press release (prompted by a Content Leak) suggested that Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, dies - in turn suggesting that Paul himself survives.
• Epileptic Trees: The nature of Paul was hotly debated before it was revealed that he's the son of Rabin from another universe. Theories included him being Mephisto in human form, a random villain in disguise, or even an alternate-universe version of Pete who never got spider-powers, with the last one being justified with Religious and Mythological Theme Naming (Peter Parker, Paul, and Mary-Jane Watson).
• Fan Nickname: With Peter taking on Norman's sins and turning into a proper Goblin later in this run, people who read the book have taken to calling him "The Spider-Man Who Laughs" or "The Spider-Man Who Gobbles", in reference to "The Batman Who Laughs", a twisted version of Batman.
• Fountain of Memes: Paul, Mary Jane's widely-loathed apparent boyfriend who exists to deter her and Peter's love life even further, has become incredibly memetic among the fandom thanks to that hatred. Enter anything related to Spider-Man on social media and expect to see dozens of jokes surrounding him.
• I Knew It!: Even before issue #33 came out, many were predicting that removing Norman's sins from Peter would lead to them going right back to Norman due to Status Quo Is God. Sure enough, at the end of issue #35, Norman mentions that he knew his sins would "come home", with the voice of the Goblin interjecting his thoughts, and Norman briefly letting out an evil chuckle on the final page before clasping his hands over his mouth in horror.
• Informed Wrongness: Peter is constantly presented as being in the wrong for his actions during the series, what with seemingly obsessing over MJ and leaving town which nets him an earful from Miles Morales. This ignores how Peter blew up his entire life over the course of a month to rescue MJ only for her to essentially leave him for a man who killed a planet, and the resulting emotional trauma that came with it. Essentially, Peter is being punished for being human.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Even before the first issue released people were already groaning in annoyance that Peter was going back to the status quo of being down on his luck, distant from his family and friends and separated from Mary Jane. That this happened less than a year since the ending of Nick Spencer's run that was dedicated to bringing back together Peter and MJ only made the dislike worse.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Nobody believed that Marvel would truly kill off Kamala Khan, especially given her massive popularity and the fact that a movie heavily starring her was getting released the same year her death happened. In fact, several people predicted that Kamala Khan was only killed off so she could be brought back as a Mutant for MCU synergy. This was confirmed with the announcement that Kamala's post-resurrection book would be titled "Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant".
• Memetic Badass: Despite being The Scrappy among Spider-Man fans, Paul has garnered this status, albeit in an ironic fashion with many considering him to be a wholesome gigachad who was able to steal Mary Jane from Peter. A flashback in issue #25, in which he's still trapped with Mary Jane in an alternate dimension, shows him to be absolutely ripped, which only reinforced his status.
• Memetic Loser: Zeb Wells' run has cemented Peter Parker's status as this due to how much Peter has been put through the wringer, from his Offscreen Breakup with Mary Jane who ends up dating Paul to him begging Norman Osborn, his former archenemy, to save him from the Vulture of all people.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Paul ^Explanation The man that Mary Jane seems to have suddenly gotten together with, shafting Peter yet again. A lot of people hate him for essentially being the human personification of all the pointless suffering that Peter has faced time and time again, but a lot of people think he's hilarious for the exact same reason. This, coupled with the fact that he's a genuine Nice Guy has lead to people ironically praising him as a Memetic Badass, either as Mephisto in human form or a perfect Ideal Hero who Peter is a pathetic, snivelling Unknown Rival to.
  • X came back ^ExplanationIn the preview of issue #21, MJ flips out as a villain known as The Scribble Man appears before her. Despite the confusion over who this obscure, Brand New Day-era villain was, others made fun of this because of the absurdity of it all, suggesting it’s actually other people.
  • Bendis warned us! ^ExplanationAll the way back in Ultimate Spider-Man #67, there was a three-panel strip where Brian Michael Bendis strangles Ultimate Marvel assistant editor Nick Lowe, forcing him to apologize for the idea of a "Freaky Friday" Flip between Peter and Wolverine. With how heavily disliked the run is, fans are quickly calling back to this moment, seemingly realizing that Lowe, now the editor of the Spidey titles, shouldn’t be trusted at all.
  • Calling Paul and MJ's kids by the wrong name. ^ExplanationThe girl is called two different names in the book, Stephanie and Romy, the latter being retconned into being a nickname.
  • "Fuck them kids." ^ExplanationWhen it was revealed in issue #26 that Paul and MJ's two children were actually Artificial Humans created by Rabin who promptly wiped them both out of existence after they had fulfilled their purpose in secretly providing a tether for him to return to Earth-616, many readers actually celebrated over this, partly because this meant the greatest hurdle to MJ ever getting back with Peter was now removed and mostly out of the pure schadenfreude of seeing Paul finally suffer a loss. This has lead to many fans posting the Michael Jordan "fuck them kids." meme in response to the news while other people humorously point out the irony of how the mainline Spider-Man comic has officially reached such a low point that the Death of a Child is now considered a positive by its fandom.
  • Paul is a Canon Event ^Explanation following the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse where it is explained that every single bad thing that happens to Spider-Man is classified as a “Canon Event”, many joked on how Paul stealing Mary Jane from Peter counts as one of these, in which every Spider-Person now must have a Paul equivalent of their own.
  • The Spider-Man Who Gobbles ^ExplanationPreviews for Issue #35 hinted that Peter would become a Goblin, thus raising comparisons to the Batman Who Laughs. Some have joked that after all the constant misery he's had to endure, Peter will finally snap and become a villain. True to predictions, in #32 Peter is taken over by the Green Goblin's sins and promptly starts laughing maniacally.
• Narm:
  • Peter desperately begging Norman Osborn to save him...from the Vulture, a villain Peter has defeated numerous times without assistance. In case you're wondering, no, Vulture didn't get any special power-up that's letting him beat Peter, he's regular old Vulture, just fired up by Unstoppable Rage.
  • In issue #21, a flashback shows Peter being attacked by Scribble Man, which ends up looking more like Scribble Man is grabbing Peter's glowing boobs than an actual attack.
  • The fact that one of the most threatening villains in the book is named SCRIBBLE MAN is too ridiculous to take seriously.
  • When the Scribble Man reabsorbs MJ and Paul’s kids, the look on Paul’s face is meant to be one of horror. However, Romita’s drawing and the uninspired Big "NO!" makes it look like The Angry Video Game Nerd being upset over a crappy video game.
  • When Kamala dies, the looks on MJ, Norman, and the Fantastic Four's faces are meant to be shock and grief. However, Romita draws them, with the exception of Norman, with dissonant faces that readers compared to getting high or being mid-orgasm, or at best being completely ambivalent to the death.

• Rooting for the Empire: Spider-Man himself has received this treatment after being infected by Norman's sins and setting out to exact cruel revenge everyone who wronged him. Although this development is meant to be treated as a bad thing and show how far Peter has fallen as a result, many fans praised it, seeing it as well-deserved catharsis for everything he had to endure over the course of the run as well as him overcoming the Badass Decay that plagued him throughout due to his more competent and menacing portrayal. It especially helps that he made plans for Paul as well.
• The Scrappy:
  • MJ's boyfriend Paul is near-universally despised as a cheap obstacle between her and Peter without much personality. It doesn't help that during the entirety of the Dead Language story arc, he's presented as being far more competent than Peter, who loses basically every fight he gets into while having to be saved by Paul. If one also pays attention to what he's saying, he basically admits to helping Rabin with his work and thus is responsible for the entire fiasco. The guy is so disliked that there's a pretty substantial ironic counter-fandom dedicated to talking instead about how he is the greatest hero of all time, far better than that loser Spider-Man, Mary Jane's true love, and perhaps the most complex and fascinating figure in all of fiction. So despised is he that, when the Goblin-infected Peter was revealed to have "plans" for him, fans cheered.
  • Likewise, Paul and MJ's kids get hit with some of the same flak as they're perceived purely as plot devices to keep MJ and Peter apart, as well as how unsettling they look in Romita's artstyle. The reveal that they were adopted (despite looking like their parents) only added to this. It got to the point where them disappearing in Paul's arms (in the same issue as Kamala's death), presumably due to being a creation of the Scribble Man all along, was met with widespread celebration across the internet, with many considering it the only positive part of the issue.
• Signature Scene: A number of scenes in the run got attention for their sheer negative responses from readers.
  • The scene at the end of the first issue of MJ greeting Paul and the two kids calling her "Mommy."
  • Peter desperately pleading Norman Osborn for help in issue 8 from the Vulture as Peter is afraid the Vulture is going to kill him.
  • The leaked (and later confirmed) death of Ms. Marvel, which was widely-derided as a cheap sales stunt that few think will stick.
  • Issue 32 which promise to set up the "darkest Spider-Man story yet" ends with Kraven accidentally stabbing Peter with a spear imbued with Norman Osborne's sins and fleeing as Peter begins Laughing Mad with a Slasher Smile.
• Squick: Many fans were disgusted by Peter's infamous comment in Issue 20 where he attempts to frame his relationship with MJ as Like Brother and Sister, given the many explicit references to their sex-life over the years making the comment reek of Incest Subtext.
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • Peter and MJ break up off panel, and then Felicia flirts with Peter a few issues later and kisses him an issue after that. Suffice to say, fans noticed how quick this situation was.
  • Mary Jane's relationship with Paul was confirmed to be a marriage in the recap page for the 19th issue, despite it never being mentioned by any character in the 18 preceding issues, the two issues of the Dark Web tie in, and the two issues of the Mary Jane/Black Cat mini series that came out prior to this issue. And then it turns out that this was apparently a mistake and they're simply cohabitating, which is only revealed in the editorial of a later issue.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • From the moment it was revealed that Peter would be separated from Mary Jane (again), people were expressing their outrage and dismay at Marvel's seeming lack of interest in keeping together one of the most popular superhero pairings that had been clamored for a long time.
  • When a Content Leak from issue #26 revealed that Kamala Khan would be killed off (and a Marvel press release swiftly confirmed that the leak was true), it was overwhelmingly poorly received by fans. Many pointed out that not only had Kamala barely been present in the series ^note Kamala has only appeared in 14 out of 646 pages and 37 out of 3204 comic panels◊ of Wells' story prior to her death, which includes The Amazing Spider-Man #1-25, Dark Web #1, and Dark Web Finale #1. Meaning that only 2.17% of Well's entire run so far had pages with her on them and that she's only in 1.15% of the panels., she isn't particularly close to Peter or his supporting cast, so her death felt shallow. Fans have also expressed outrage that Kamala's supporting cast, the Champions, and Miles Morales seem completely absent despite their closer relationship to her. All of this was aggravated by the fact that the content leak meant that Kamala's death was announced ahead of publication, during Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
  • The reveal that in issue #52, Peter will adopt a crazed Goblin persona. The fact that this plot was used and resolved last year did not endear people to the idea of it coming back, especially when the first take was largely enjoyed in a more ironic sense than intended.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: One of the many complaints raised against the revelation Mary Jane cheated on Peter with another man and had two children with him, is that it’s a regurgitation of the much hated and eventually retconned Sins Past storyline with Gwen and Norman simply traded out for Mary Jane and Paul. The only difference being the twins were adopted here. Many fans felt Marvel editorial are just rehashing the same infidelity plot line, all for the sake of keeping Peter miserable and unlucky.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Many fans were upset that Flash's reunion with Peter was in #900 consisted of Peter casually welcoming him back to the world of the living, especially since it was the first time the two interacted since his Heroic Sacrifice in Go Down Swinging.
  • While you won't find many people who are fans of them, MJ and Paul's kids Stephanie and Owen are given basically zero depth and are just used as a way to drive a wedge between MJ and Peter; even Wells seems to not care about them beyond their capacity for drama, as he seemingly forgot the name of MJ's daughter and called her 'Romy' for no reason. In hindsight, this can be taken as Foreshadowing that neither of them are real people but constructs made by Rabin as part of a Batman Gambit. The switch between names is given a bit of an Ass Pull in issue 31 by establishing the name change was because Romy/Stephanie couldn't decide which one she liked.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • How a number of fans feel about Kamala Khan dying. While that plot point might have warranted its own story, doing it in the middle of a Spider-Man story arc focused on Mary Jane and Peter Parker's relationship was heavily criticized for being totally out of left field given that the character in question was a minor player in the story arc. Notably, there wasn't even a Ms. Marvel ongoing at the time of the issue's publication. Also a point of contention is a lack of Miles Morales in the story, given his connections with her. Indeed, X-Men (2021) #23, released the very next week, already suggesting that Emma Frost is planning on resurrecting Kamala as a favor for Cyclops already shows very little care was taken for this. On top of this, cover art released in June 2023 for the wedding of Tony Stark and Emma Frost shows Kamala alive among the background characters, suggesting that she's been resurrected and adding to fan suspicions that this was a Ratings Stunt and/or meant to retcon her into being a mutant for MCU synergy. And sure enough, the Fall of X both resurrects Kamala and retcons her into being a mutant.
  • How fans reacted when Amazing Spider-Man #31 broke up Peter and Felicia after only a handful of issues in the previous year committed to highlighting their relationship, and for reasons that boil down to the couple being 'too healthy', with neither character willing to test the other. Readers were upset not just at this reasoning, but for the sheer lack of effort put into exploring a romance between Peter and Felicia at a more advanced stage in their lives together, where Felicia knew and had come to appreciate the man under the mask and Peter potentially given a true challenge to his mantra when it came to romantically associating with a known criminal.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Was anyone really expecting the Digger of all villains to make a return? Especially considering the last time he appeared was close to two decades ago (whose purpose was basically to give Spider-Man a rhyme and reason for being able to defeat/kill Hulk that he has yet to utilize to this day) and didn't really catch on as a villain enough to make any big returns in all this time. Not to mention that his personality wasn't really fleshed out beyond being your typical mobster boss character that's basically indistinguishable from Kingpin, Tombstone, Hammerhead, Mr. Negative, or Silvermane.
  • The villain responsible for Peter and MJ’s breakup is none other than Benjamin Rabin, aka Scribble Man, who had only appeared in a mostly-forgotten three-part Brand New Day storyline from 15 years prior.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Paul. The story tries to present him as just an average guy. However, when it's revealed that he was a man who helped his father kill a world- albeit accidentally- all hope for him being a likable character evaporated. Especially since his punishment for said crime was just feeling a bit guilty, and then getting to live in domestic bliss with MJ, Spider-Man's ex-girlfriend, raising a pair of children. Not helped by the fact that Paul has shown absolutely no gratitude to Peter for saving him from exile, or remorse for starting a relationship with someone he knew was romantically involved with someone else.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: John Romita Jr. was once considered one of the great Spider-Man artists, but his character art in this run has been blasted by critics due to inexpressive faces and body proportions that just look off. Especially infamous in this regard are MJ and Paul's kids, who are often sarcastically described as "demon children" due to their unsettling appearances, and the flashback to Peter burying his costume after escaping Paul's dimension, where the way Peter's injuries are drawn makes him look like a Neanderthal.

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