Amazing Spider-Man #34 Review

Written by: Zeb Wells
Art by: Patrick Gleason
Colors by: Marcio Menyz
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Marcio Menyz
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: September 20, 2023

Amazing Spider-Man #34 continues a sin-infected Spider-Man’s reign of terror as he visits everyone who wronged him in the last year+ to mete out vengeance.

Is Amazing Spider-Man #34 Good?

Amazing Spider-man #34 continues Zeb Wells’s role-reversed take on Kraven’s Last Hunt and other famous storylines after Spidey gets infected with Norman Osborn’s mystically extracted sins. Zeb Wells (under the misguided direction of Nick Lowe) may never wash off the stink of the “What Did Peter Do Arc?,” but shorter contained stories are a step in the right direction, even if they are less-good rehashes of superior stories from times past.

When last we left the Amazing Spider-Man, the goblin sins coursing through his veins led him to repeat Kraven’s Last Hunt crescendo by burying Kraven II alive with nothing but a few matches and a loaded rifle. Now, Spidey goes after the still-wounded Tombstone, Paul, and anyone else who made his life difficult. Only Norman Osborn and Queen Goblin(?) stand in the Vengeful Spider-Man’s way.

In a lot of ways, Amazing Spider-Man #34 feels like a transition comic. Nothing significant happens other than Norman and Queen Goblin trying to stop Spidey from doing the unthinkable. There’s a lot of running around and characters “almost” dying, but the net effect is players moving around on the gameboard to set up whatever is coming next.

What’s great about Amazing Spider-Man #34? Wells’s relentless hammering on Spidey’s psyche is done well as the sins, imagined as the visage of Green Goblin, push him to lash out. I suspect the success of that push is largely due to Gleason’s art, but it’s a high point, nonetheless.

What’s not so great about Amazing Spider-Man #34? Wells scales down and rehashes Kraven’s Last Hunt with less impact, and then moves into a transition issue that accomplishes nothing other than “check out evil Spider-man acting all evil.” It’s a concept and an image, but it’s not a story.

How’s the art? Honestly, Gleason is doing a better job on ASM than Romita Jr. That’s not a slight on Romita Jr.’s talent, but Gleason seems to have a better feel for elevating the story Wells wants to tell through the art rather than letting the art become a distraction (e.g. bobble-headed children).

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Amazing Spider-Man #34 loosely concludes the reverse take on Kraven’s Last Hunt with a transition issue that has Spidey running around and menacing anyone without accomplishing anything. Gleason’s art is great, and the issue has plenty of energy, but Wells’s script reads like filler.