History YMMV / DarkWeb

* TearJerker: ''Everything'' that happened to Eddie over the course of the event.

* {{Narm}}: In issues 16 and 17 of ''Amazing Spider-Man'', Peter is made to live out his personal Hell in Limbo until he relents to Chasm's demands to eat the fruit that will allow Ben to claim his soul. Said personal Hell? Working in the Daily Bugle, with demons filling in for the staff while threatening Jonah and Robbie. It's so benign compared to many of Spidey's [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied other]] [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay tragic]] [[ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan fates]] that it ends up looking more absurd than anything else.

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a vague but grandiose goal, wanting the X-Men (and Jean Grey in particular) to pay for stealing her happy life. She uses Chasm, Hallows' Eve, a brainwashed Venom, and the legions of Limbo to serve as distractions so that she can retrieve a Cerebro unit hidden in the X-Men's treehouse. Does she want it to expand her powers and make her an unstoppable force? No, she was only seeking the memories of Cable's childhood that were once given to Jean. This winds up rendering the story's conflict [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot pointless once Jean Grey and the X-Men are able to talk Madelyne down, and Jean shares the memories with her - with the only caveat being that Madelyne stop her invasion]]. The subsequent attempt of the narrative to paint Madelyne's actions in a [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathetic light]], and her sudden HeelFaceTurn, not only flies in the face of decades of needless antagonism towards the X-Men on her part, but also fails to recognize the sheer scale of collateral damage her plan caused, particularly for Eddie Brock who was blackmailed into participation just to find his son again. From here, joining the X-Men in stopping the invasion of Limbo could be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-Men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. In the end, Madelyne is reestablished as the Queen of Limbo, back on good relations with the X-Men, and even allowed to keep the new portal to Limbo open as a new embassy by effectively blackmailing the US into doing so. All in all, when you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallows' Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[AMillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], many fans think the X-Men were [[EasilyForgiven far too lenient]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].
** Chasm begins with the understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, even starting with extra sympathy points for the accident that turned him into Chasm and his stay in Limbo causing him to suffer nightmares and hallucinations, painting him as not evil for its own sake but someone who is extremely mentally ill and in need of help but pushed to extremes due to paranoia and no longer being able to trust anyone save those who he feels have suffered like he has i.e. Madelyne Pryor and Janine. However, once Chasm actually springs into action, the reader begins to find it impossible to retain their sympathies because his own plans and motives become impossible to follow. Between his first major plan to use the invasion of Limbo to draw Spider-Man into a fight for revenge and to make him give up his memories, being sidetracked to beat down the reformed Norman Osborn as revenge for killing him and antagonize members of Spider-Man's supporting cast, his second major plan to use demons to psychologically torment Peter Parker through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle into eating a demon fruit to give up his soul, his third major plan to transform random demons into Limbo-themed versions of Spier-Man's rogue's gallery to prolong his torment along with enhancing the chaos of the demon invasion, and his final off-the-cuff plan to simply take over Limbo with Hallows' Eve and destroy New York City as its new king, it becomes impossible for readers to keep track of what he's even trying to accomplish, let alone whether he still wants his memories back or if he just wants to torment Spider-Man. If it were the former goal, [[StatingTheSimpleSolution not only has he been shown using magic to steal memories before with Madelyne Pryor's help]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot fans have pointed out that the X-Men (with Peter's permission) could easily have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him like they did to help Madelyne]]. If it were the latter, then Peter himself points out that Chasm not only did not need to involve anyone else in their quarrel, but that all of his attempts to torture Peter are a massive waste of time due to hinging on a fundamental misunderstanding of Peter Parker/Spider-Man's nature as the {{Determinator}}. [[LampshadeHanging It really doesn't help that the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans ever had any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking On a lesser scale,]] compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallows' Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, Chasm still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it ambiguous whether the reader is meant to take Chasm's angst and gallows humor regarding his losses at face value or to laugh along with the dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he engages in with abundance during the story. In essence, the narrative's attempts to establish Chasm as EvilerThanThou compared to Madelyne Pryor, along with his general SanitySlippage, makes Chasm impossible to root for due to falling into StupidEvil territory right at the start and never stopping. Even Chasm's ultimate fate is confused on whether the reader is meant to pity or scorn Chasm, as he's made to take [[TheScapegoat the entirety of the blame]] for planning the invasion of Limbo, left imprisoned and alone in the new embassy in comfortable surroundings as a small concession on Madelyne's part for involving him in all of this, before the story seemingly tries to slam the door shut on any remaining sympathy points by showing Chasm giving Madelyne and Peter's offers to help him the silent treatment in favor of angrily brooding over his losses. Overall, readers are left confused on whether to consider the narrative is asking them to consider Ben a sympathetic victim of circumstance due to his clear mental illness and being an ignorant pawn in someone else's conflict until he was discarded, or an irredeemable monster due to his gleeful slide down into StupidEvil once cut loose by Madelyne and unrepentant nature. Many can't even decide if Ben would even go to such extreme measures in the first place were he not crazy-town banana-pants [[ConflictBall for the sake of having a final villain]].

* EnsembleDarkHorse: The would-be superhero demon Rek-Rap, as he's utterly hilarious and from out of left field, while also being genuinely moved by Spider-Man's example to do good.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Prior to her transformation into Hallows' Eve, Janine expressed feelings of helplessness over not being directly involved in Ben's campaign against Peter, and she was expected to be a major player in the event given how hyped-up she was by Marvel. However, Janine barely participated in the action up until the final issues, remaining on the sidelines while Ben, Maddie, and even Eddie Brock (who wanted nothing to do with their plan to begin with) took center stage as antagonists. The most she did before those issues was steal a [[MacGuffin Cerebro drive]] that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot Maddie never needed in the first place]].

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a vague but grandiose goal, wanting the X-Men (and Jean Grey in particular) to pay for stealing her happy life. She uses Chasm, Hallows' Eve, a brainwashed Venom, and the legions of Limbo to serve as distractions so that she can retrieve a Cerebro unit hidden in the X-Men's treehouse. Does she want it to expand her powers and make her unstoppable force? No, she was only seeking the memories of Cable's childhood that were once given to Jean. This winds up rendering the story's conflict [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot pointless once Jean Grey and the X-Men are able to talk Madelyne down, and Jean shares the memories with her - with the only caveat being that Madelyne stop her invasion]]. The subsequent attempt of the narrative to paint Madelyne's actions in a [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathetic light]], and her sudden HeelFaceTurn, not only flies in the face of decades of needless antagonism towards the X-Men on her part, but also fails to recognize the sheer scale of collateral damage her plan caused, particularly for Eddie Brock who was blackmailed into participation just to find his son again. From here, joining the X-Men in stopping the invasion of Limbo could be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-Men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. In the end, Madelyne is reestablished as the Queen of Limbo, back on good relations with the X-Men, and even allowed to keep the new portal to Limbo open as a new embassy by effectively blackmailing the US into doing so. All in all, when you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallows' Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[AMillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], many fans think the X-Men were [[EasilyForgiven far too lenient]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a rather vague but grandiose goal of wanting the X-Men and Jean Grey in particular to pay for stealing her happy life away from her. She uses Chasm, Hallows' Eve, a brainwashed Venom, and the legions of Limbo to serve as distractions to retrieve a Cerebro unit hidden in the X-men tree base. Does she want it to expand her psychokinetic powers exponentially and make her unstoppable force? No, she was only looking for the memories of Cable's childhood that were given to Jean hidden inside it. This winds up rendering the story's conflict [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot pointless once Jean Grey and the X-men are able to talk Madelyne down, and Jean shares the memories with her with the only caveat being that Madelyne stop her invasion]]. The subsequent attempt of the narrative to paint Madelyne's actions in a [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathetic light]], and her sudden HeelFaceTurn, not only flies in the face of decades of needless antagonism towards the X-men on her part, but also fails to recognize the sheer scale of collateral damage her plan caused, particularly for Eddie Brock who was blackmailed into participation just to find his son again. From here, joining the X-men in stopping the invasion of Limbo could be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-Men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. In the end, Madelyne is reestablished as the Queen of Limbo, back on good relations with the X-men, and even allowed to keep the new portal to Limbo open as a new embassy by effectively blackmailing the US into doing so. All in all, when you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallows' Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[AMillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], most think the X-Men were [[EasilyForgiven far too lenient]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].

* EnsembleDarkHorse: The would-be superhero demon Rek-Rap, as he's utterly ridiculous and from out of left field, while also being genuinely moved by Spider-Man's example to do good.

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a rather vague but grandiose goal of wanting the X-Men and Jean Grey in particular to pay for stealing her happy life away from her. She uses Chasm, Hallows' Eve, a brainwashed Venom, and the legions of Limbo to serve as distractions to retrieve a Cerebro unit hidden in the X-men tree base. Does she want it to expand her psychokinetic powers exponentially and make her unstoppable force? No, she was only looking for the memories of Cable's childhood that were given to Jean hidden inside it. Something that in a shocking twist, turns into a CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot once Jean Grey and the X-men are able to talk Madelyne down and shares the memories with her with no strings attached beyond stopping her invasion. The subsequent attempt of the narrative to paint all Madelyne Pryor's actions in a [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathetic light]], and her sudden HeelFaceTurn, not only flies in the face of decades of needless antagonism and pain between her and the X-men, but also fails to recognize the sheer scale of collateral damage her plan caused, particularly for Eddie Brock who was blackmailed into participation just to find his son again. From here, joining the X-men in stopping the invasion of Limbo could be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-Men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. In the end, Madelyne is reestablished as the Queen of Limbo, back on good relations with the X-men, and even allowed to keep the new portal to Limbo open as a new embassy by effectively blackmailing the US into doing so. All in all, when you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallows' Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[AMillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], most think the X-Men were [[EasilyForgiven far too lenient]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].
** Chasm begins with the pointed and understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, even starting with extra sympathy points for the accident that turned him into Chasm and his stay in Limbo causing him to suffer nightmares and hallucinations, painting him as not evil for its own sake but someone who is extremely mentally ill and in need of help but pushed to extremes due to paranoia and no longer being able to trust anyone save those who he feels have suffered like he has i.e. Madelyne Pryor and Janine. However, once Chasm actually springs into action, the reader begins to find it impossible to retain their sympathies because his own plans and motives become impossible to follow. Between his first major plan to use the invasion of Limbo to draw Spider-Man into a fight for revenge and to make him give up his memories, being sidetracked to beat down the reformed Norman Osborn as revenge for killing him and antagonize members of Spider-Man's supporting cast, his second major plan to use demons to psychological torment Peter Parker through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle into eating a demon fruit to give up his soul, his third major plan to transform random demons into Limbo-themed versions of Spier-Man's rogue's gallery to prolong his torment along with enhancing the chaos of the demon invasion, and his final off-the-cuff plan to simply take over Limbo with Hallows' Eve and destroy New York City as its new king, it becomes impossible for readers to keep track of what he's even trying to accomplish, let alone whether he still wants his memories back or if he just wants to torment Spider-Man. If it were the former goal, [[StatingTheSimpleSolution not only has he been shown using magic to steal memories before with Madelyne Pryor's help]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot fans have pointed out that the X-Men (with Peter's permission) could easily have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him like they did to help Madelyne]]. If it were the latter, then Peter himself points out that Chasm not only did not need to involve anyone else in their quarrel, but that all of his attempts to torture Peter are a massive waste of time due to hinging on a fundamental misunderstanding of Peter Parker/Spider-Man's nature as the {{Determinator}}. [[LampshadeHanging It really doesn't help that the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans ever had any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking On a lesser scale,]] compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallows' Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, Chasm still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it ambiguous whether the reader is meant to take Chasm's angst and gallows humor regarding his losses at face value or to laugh along with the dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he engages in with abundance during the story. In essence, the narrative's attempts to establish Chasm as EvilerThanThou compared to Madelyne Pryor, along with his general SanitySlippage, makes Chasm impossible to root for due to falling into StupidEvil territory right at the start and never stopping. Even Chasm's ultimate fate is confused on whether the reader is meant to pity or scorn Chasm, as he's made to take [[TheScapegoat the entirety of the blame]] for planning the invasion of Limbo, left imprisoned and alone in the new embassy in comfortable surroundings as a small concession on Madelyne's part for involving him in all of this, before the story seemingly tries to slam the door shut on any remaining sympathy points by showing Chasm giving Madelyne and Peter's offers to help him the silent treatment in favor of angrily brooding over his losses. Overall, readers are left confused on whether to consider the narrative is asking them to consider Ben a sympathetic victim of circumstance due to his clear mental illness and being an ignorant pawn in someone else's conflict until he was discarded, or an irredeemable monster due to his gleeful slide down into StupidEvil once cut loose by Madelyne and unrepentant nature. Many can't even decide if Ben would even go to such extreme measures in the first place were he not crazy-town banana-pants [[ConflictBall for the sake of having a final villain]].

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Both of the main villains of the crossover are given sympathetic motives in being clones that have both been [[TheChewToy subject to many years of mistreatment from the universe]] and just wanting to take back the memories they feel were stolen from them, but they end up both draining their sympathy extremely quick in opposite directions.
** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a rather vague goal of wanting the X-Men to pay, constituting sending an entire hell legion onto New York, only for it to be revealed that her motive in teaming up with Chasm was so he, Hallows' Eve, and Venom would serve as distractions to retrieve a Cerebro unit consisting of memories of Cable's childhood that were given to Jean. Notably, the conflict between Madelyne and the X-Men ends up turning into a CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot once Jean Grey is able to talk Madelyne down and shares the memories with her with no strings attached save stopping the invasion, and her subsequent abrupt FaceHeelTurn and attempts to stop the invasion can be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-Men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. It doesn't help that in the end, she's reestablished as the Queen of Limbo and is able to blackmail the United States into letting her keep the new portal to Limbo open as its new embassy. When you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallows' Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[AMillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], most think the X-Men were [[EasilyForgiven extremely light]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].
** Chasm meanwhile begins with the pointed and understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, but the attempts by the writers to paint how EvilerThanThou he is compared to Madelyne Pryor make his his motives, plans, and sanity rapidly undergo MotiveDecay at such an extreme rate that he begins engaging in StupidEvil actions well before the end of the crossover. Chasm spends most of the initial invasion beating down the reformed Norman Osborn or antagonizing members of Spider-Man's supporting cast instead of going for Spider-Man directly. Then when he's successfully blackmailed Spider-Man into willingly entering Limbo, his master plan seemingly involves into using psychological torture to break Peter Parker into giving up his soul both through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle while also transforming random demons into what amounts to Limbo-themed versions of Peter's rogue's gallery while continuing the invasion. Then when Madelyne outright tells Ben that she is pulling the plug on their plans, Chasm immediately drops everything in favor of taking over Limbo with Hallows' Eve and essentially destroying New York City in a fit of rage, only to lose everything and [[TheScapegoat be held solely responsible for planning the invasion]], thus reduced to an unrepentant prisoner in the new Limbo embassy as a concession on Madelyne's part for her involvement, leaving readers to decide if Ben was Madelyne's pawn being used and punished for effectively being too mentally ill to understand when to stop, a willing participant and willing monster of his own volition, or if Ben would normally even go to such measures were he not crazy-town banana-pants [[ConflictBall for the sake of having a final villain]]. Chasm's rapid destruction of the reader's sympathy is egregious not only because [[StatingTheSimpleSolution as many fans have noted]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot much like they did with Madelyne the X-Men (with Peter's permission) could have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him]], but also because [[BetterThanABareBulb the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's incredibly frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans have any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking On a lesser scale,]] it doesn't help Chasm's case that compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallows' Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, he still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it harder for the reader to decide whether they're meant to take Chasm's angst and existential despair seriously or laugh at the level of dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he brings to the table as a supervillain.
** To a lesser degree, the X-Men and Spider-Man themselves have been called out by the readers for their seeming initial lack of sympathy for Madelyne and Chasm's plights, although it's eventually toned down by the X-Men taking the time to talk to Madelyne and help her instead of just beating her down, and Spider-Man making it clear that he ultimately wants to help Ben, but his priorities lie with stopping Chasm from destroying New York first before he can do that.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Prior to her transformation into Hallow's Eve, Janine expressed feelings of helplessness over not being directly involved in Ben's campaign against Peter, and she was expected to be a major player in the event given how hyped-up she was by Marvel. However, Janine barely participated in the action up until the final issues, remaining on the sidelines while Ben, Maddie, and even Eddie Brock (who wanted nothing to do with their plan to begin with) took center stage as antagonists. The most she did before those issues was steal a [[MacGuffin Cerebro drive]] that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot Maddie never needed in the first place]].

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a rather vague goal of wanting the X-men to pay, constituting sending an entire hell legion onto New York, only for it to be revealed that her motive in teaming up with Chasm was so he, Hallow's Eve, and Venom would serve as distractions to retrieve a Cerebro unit consisting of memories of Cable's childhood that were given to Jean. Notably, the conflict between Madelyne and the X-men ends up turning into a CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot once Jean Grey is able to talk Madelyne down and shares the memories with her with no strings attached save stopping the invasion, and her subsequent abrupt FaceHeelTurn and attempts to stop the invasion can be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. It doesn't help that in the end, she's reestablished as the Queen of Limbo and is able to blackmail the United States into letting her keep the new portal to Limbo open as its new embassy. When you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallow's Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[AMillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], most think the X-men were [[EasilyForgiven extremely light]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].
** Chasm meanwhile begins with the pointed and understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, but the attempts by the writers to paint how EvilerThanThou he is compared to Madelyne Pryor make his his motives, plans, and sanity rapidly undergo MotiveDecay at such an extreme rate that he begins engaging in StupidEvil actions well before the end of the crossover. Chasm spends most of the initial invasion beating down the reformed Norman Osborn or antagonizing members of Spider-Man's supporting cast instead of going for Spider-Man directly. Then when he's successfully blackmailed Spider-Man into willingly entering Limbo, his master plan seemingly involves into using psychological torture to break Peter Parker into giving up his soul both through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle while also transforming random demons into what amounts to Limbo-themed versions of Peter's rogue's gallery while continuing the invasion. Then when Madelyne outright tells Ben that she is pulling the plug on their plans, Chasm immediately drops everything in favor of taking over Limbo with Hallow's Eve and essentially destroying New York City in a fit of rage, only to lose everything and [[TheScapegoat be held solely responsible for planning the invasion]], thus reduced to an unrepentant prisoner in the new Limbo embassy as a concession on Madelyne's part for her involvement, leaving readers to decide if Ben was Madelyne's pawn being used and punished for effectively being too mentally ill to understand when to stop, a willing participant and willing monster of his own volition, or if Ben would normally even go to such measures were he not crazy-town bannana pants [[ConflictBall for the sake of having a final villain]]. Chasm's rapid destruction of the reader's sympathy is egregious not only because [[StatingTheSimpleSolution as many fans have noted]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot much like they did with Madelyne the X-men (with Peter's permission) could have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him]], but also because [[BetterThanABareBulb the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's incredibly frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans have any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking On a lesser scale,]] it doesn't help Chasm's case that compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallow's Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, he still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it harder for the reader to decide whether they're meant to take Chasm's angst and existential despair seriously or laugh at the level of dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he brings to the table as a supervillain.
** To a lesser degree, the X-men and Spider-Man themselves have been called out by the readers for their seeming initial lack of sympathy for Madelyne and Chasm's plights, although it's eventually toned down by the X-men taking the time to talk to Madelyne and help her instead of just beating her down, and Spider-Man making it clear that he ultimately wants to help Ben, but his priorities lie with stopping Chasm from destroying New York first before he can do that.

* HeartwarmingMoments: While mostly PlayedForLaughs due to how wacky he is, Rek-Rap gets to return the favor for Spider-Man rescuing him by helping him battle the Insidious Six, then standing up to the newly-crowned King Chasm when he slaps Peter away, even though Chasm is larger and more powerful than he is. Not only does Rek-Rap get to fight alongside his new idol, but he proves how dedicated he is to Spider-Man's ideals as well.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: The would-be superhero demon Rek-Rap, as he's utterly ridiculous and from out of left field.

** Chasm meanwhile begins with the pointed and understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, but the attempts by the writers to paint how EvilerThanThou he is compared to Madelyne Pryor make his his motives, plans, and sanity rapidly undergo MotiveDecay at such an extreme rate that he begins engaging in StupidEvil actions well before the end of the crossover. Chasm spends most of the initial invasion beating down the reformed Norman Osborn or antagonizing members of Spider-Man's supporting cast instead of going for Spider-Man directly. Then when he's successfully blackmailed Spider-Man into willingly entering Limbo, his master plan seemingly involves into using psychological torture to break Peter Parker into giving up his soul both through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle while also transforming random demons into what amounts to Limbo-themed versions of Peter's rogue's gallery while continuing the invasion. Then when Madelyne outright tells Ben that she is pulling the plug on their plans, Chasm immediately drops everything in favor of taking over Limbo with Hallow's Eve and essentially destroying New York City in a fit of rage, only to lose everything and [[TheScapegoat be held solely responsible for planning the invasion]], thus reduced to an unrepentant prisoner in the new Limbo embassy as a concession on Madelyne's part for her involvement, leaving readers to decide if Ben was Madelyne's pawn being used and punished for effectively being too mentally ill to understand when to stop, a willing participant and willing monster of his own volition, [[CharacterDerailment or if Ben would normally even go to such measures were he not crazy-town bannana pants]] [[ConflictBall for the sake of having a final villain]]. Chasm's rapid destruction of the reader's sympathy is egregious not only because [[StatingTheSimpleSolution as many fans have noted]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot much like they did with Madelyne the X-men (with Peter's permission) could have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him]], but also because [[BetterThanABareBulb the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's incredibly frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans have any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking On a lesser scale,]] it doesn't help Chasm's case that compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallow's Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, he still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it harder for the reader to decide whether they're meant to take Chasm's angst and existential despair seriously or laugh at the level of dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he brings to the table as a supervillain.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Prior to her transformation into Hallow's Eve, Janine expressed feelings of helplessness over not being directly involved in Ben's campaign against Peter, and she was expected to be a major player in the event given how hyped-up she was by Marvel. However, Janine barely participated in the action up until the final issues, remaining on the sidelines while Ben, Maddie, and even Eddie Brock (who wanted nothing to do with their plan to begin with) took center stage as antagonists. The most she did before those issues was steal a [[MacGuffin Cerebro drive]] [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot that Maddie never needed in the first place]].

** To a lesser degree, the X-men and Spider-Man themselves have been called out by the readers for their seeming initial lack of sympathy for Madelyne and Chasm's plights, although it's eventually toned down by the X-men taking the time to talk to Madelyne and help her instead of just beating her down, and Spider-Man making it clear that he ultimately wants to help Ben, but his priorities lie with stopping Chasm from destroying New York first before he can do that.

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a rather vague goal of wanting the X-men to pay, constituting sending an entire hell legion onto New York, only for it to be revealed that her motive in teaming up with Chasm was so he, Hallow's Eve, and Venom would serve as distractions to retrieve a Cerebro unit consisting of memories of Cable's childhood that were given to Jean. Notably, the conflict between Madelyne and the X-men ends up turning into a CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot once Jean Grey is able to talk Madelyne down and shares the memories with her with no strings attached save stopping the invasion, and her subsequent abrupt FaceHeelTurn and attempts to stop the invasion can be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. It doesn't help that in the end, she's reestablished as the Queen of Limbo and is able to blackmail the United States into letting her keep the new portal to Limbo open as its new embassy. When you consider the amount of help she gave Chasm and Hallow's Eve, how she and Chasm share responsibility in turning Eddie Brock into Bedlam, and [[MillionIsAStatistic the amount of deaths caused on Christmas Eve by the demons of Limbo]], most think the X-men were [[EasilyForgiven extremely light]] with how they handled her, especially since Madelyne Pryor [[TheBadGuyWins effectively got everything she wanted from her plan and more]].
** Chasm meanwhile begins with the pointed and understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, but the attempts by the writers to paint how EvilerThanThou he is compared to Madelyne Pryor make his his motives, plans, and sanity rapidly undergo MotiveDecay at such an extreme rate that he begins engaging in StupidEvil actions well before the end of the crossover. Chasm spends most of the initial invasion beating down the reformed Norman Osborn or antagonizing members of Spider-Man's supporting cast instead of going for Spider-Man directly. Then when he's successfully blackmailed Spider-Man into willingly entering Limbo, his master plan seemingly involves into using psychological torture to break Peter Parker into giving up his soul both through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle while also transforming random demons into what amounts to Limbo-themed versions of Peter's rogue's gallery while continuing the invasion. Then when Madelyne outright tells Ben that she is pulling the plug on their plans, Chasm immediately drops everything in favor of taking over Limbo with Hallow's Eve and essentially destroying New York City in a fit of rage, only to lose everything and [[TheScapegoat be held solely responsible for planning the invasion]], thus reduced to an unrepentant prisoner in the new Limbo embassy as a concession on Madelyne's part for dragging him into this and. Chasm's rapid destruction of the reader's sympathy is egregious not only because [[StatingTheSimpleSolution as many fans have noted]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot much like they did with Madelyne the X-men (with Peter's permission) could have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him]], but also because [[BetterThanABareBulb the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's incredibly frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans have any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking On a lesser scale,]] it doesn't help Chasm's case that compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallow's Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, he still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it harder for the reader to decide whether they're meant to take Chasm's angst and existential despair seriously or laugh at the level of dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he brings to the table as a supervillain.

** Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, starts with a rather vague goal of wanting the X-men to pay, constituting sending an entire hell legion onto New York, only for it to be revealed that her motive in teaming up with Chasm was so he, Hallow's Eve, and Venom would serve as distractions to retrieve a Cerebro unit consisting of memories of Cable's childhood that were given to Jean. Notably, the conflict between Madelyne and the X-men ends up turning into a CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot once Jean Grey is able to talk Madelyne down and shares the memories with her with no strings attached save stopping the invasion, and her subsequent abrupt FaceHeelTurn and attempts to stop the invasion can be interpreted either as wanting to make amends for her constant needless antagonism of the X-men or deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Ben and Janine have fulfilled their purpose as distractions and thus no longer worth helping]]. It doesn't help that in the end, she's reestablished as the Queen of Limbo and is able to blackmail the United States into letting her [[EasilyForgiven extremely light]] for the amount of suffering she caused entire involvement in helping Ben and Janine send the forces of Legion on New York.
** Chasm meanwhile begins with the pointed and understandable goal of capturing Spider-Man to forcibly steal his memories back, but the attempts by the writers to paint how EvilerThanThou he is compared to Madelyne Pryor make his his motives, plans, and sanity rapidly undergo MotiveDecay at such an extreme rate that he begins engaging in StupidEvil actions well before the end of the crossover. Chasm spends most of the initial invasion beating down the reformed Norman Osborn or antagonizing members of Spider-Man's supporting cast instead of going for Spider-Man directly. Then when he's successfully blackmailed Spider-Man into willingly entering Limbo, his master plan seemingly involves into using psychological torture to break Peter Parker into giving up his soul both through an over-the-top reenactment of his life working at the Daily Bugle while also transforming random demons into what amounts to Limbo-themed versions of Peter's rogue's gallery while continuing the invasion. Then when Madelyne outright tells Ben that she is pulling the plug on their plans, Chasm immediately drops everything in favor of taking over Limbo with Hallow's Eve and essentially destroying New York City in a fit of rage, only to lose everything and [[TheScapegoat be held solely responsible for planning the invasion]], thus reduced to an unrepentant prisoner in the new Limbo embassy as a concession on Madelyne's part for dragging him into this and. Chasm's rapid destruction of the reader's sympathy is egregious not only because [[StatingTheSimpleSolution as many fans have noted]], [[CouldHAveAvoidedThisPlot much like they did with Madelyne the X-men (with Peter's permission) could have pacified Chasm by offering to copy Peter's portion of Ben's missing memories into him]], but also because [[BetterThanABareBulb the story itself comments through Spider-Man and Madelyne]] that Chasm's incredibly frayed sanity and obsession with Spider-Man mean none of his plans have any internal logic behind them beyond making Peter Parker and New York City as a whole suffer. [[ArsonMurderandJaywalk On a lesser scale,]] it doesn't help Chasm's case that compared to Madelyne Pryor, Hallow's Eve, and the brainwashed Venom, he still carries Ben's/Peter's tendency to joke and quip in all but the most serious situations, making it harder for the reader to decide whether they're meant to take Chasm's angst and existential despair seriously or laugh at the level of dark humor and over-the-top hamminess he brings to the table as a supervillain.

* {{Narm}}: In issues 16 and 17 of ''Amazing Spider-Man'', Peter is made to live out his personal Hell in Limbo until he relents to Chasm's demands to eat the fruit that will allow Ben to claim his soul. Said personal Hell? Working in the Daily Bugle, with demons filling in for the staff while threatening Jonah and Robbie. It's so benign compared to many of Spidey's [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied other]] [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay tragic]] [[ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan fates]] that it ends up looking more absurd than anything else.

* MoralEventHorizon: Chasm crosses it by stealing Eddie's memories to revert him into his Venom persona, taking away years of growth and causing him to relapse into the same bloodlust and rage he worked so hard to overcome. This is even crueler on Ben's part since he had his own memories wiped, yet caused the same thing to happen to Eddie with zero remorse or hesitation.