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Cover: Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend

The Amazing Spider-Man #556

Name: The Amazing Spider-Man #556
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Jun 2008 · Marvel · 2.99 USD; 3.05 CAD

📊 ~78,442 copies sold its debut month

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“The Last Nameless Day”

★ 1st appearance — Wayep

About this Issue

Amazing Spider-Man #556 delivers the first full visual appearance of Wayep (also rendered as Wayeb'), a Mayan underworld deity who became Marvel's primary representative of the Mesoamerican divine pantheon — a notably underrepresented mythology in the publisher's god-filled cosmos. The issue is a product of the Brand New Day era's ambitious television-style writers' room, in which a rotating Brain Trust of scribes and artists produced Amazing Spider-Man three times monthly, an experiment that reshaped how Marvel structured a flagship title. Within that framework, Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo used the Mayan calendar's five 'nameless days' (the Uayeb cycle) as the engine of a genuinely mythological horror story, distinguishing their arc from the more street-level tales running alongside it. The issue also advances Carlie Cooper and Vincent Gonzales as emerging figures in Peter Parker's reconstructed social world — the kind of supporting-cast building that defined Brand New Day's long-term design.

writer Zeb Wells · artist, colorist Chris Bachalo · inker Tim Townsend · colorist Studio F's Antonio Fabela · letterer VC's Cory Petit · cover Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $6

CGC 9.8 · 47 in census $44

CGC 9.6 · 14 in census $21*

CGC 9.4 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 9.2 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 9.0 none in existence

CGC 8.5 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 none in existence

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 none in existence

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The issue was written by Zeb Wells and drawn by penciler-colorist Chris Bachalo, with inking by Tim Townsend and editing by Stephen Wacker and Tom Brennan. It falls squarely inside the Brand New Day initiative launched with #546, a publishing strategy conceived by editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and overseen by Wacker — who was recruited from DC Comics partly because of his experience shepherding the weekly series 52 — to run Amazing Spider-Man on a three-times-monthly schedule with a pool of rotating writers including Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Bob Gale, and Wells. Issue #556 is the middle chapter of the three-part 'Sometimes It Snows In April' arc (covering #555–557), titled internally 'The Last Nameless Day'; Wayep had already appeared behind the scenes in #555, making #556 the character's first on-panel, fully realized debut.

Trivia · 8 facts

First full on-panel appearance of Wayep (also spelled Wayeb' or Wayob), a Mayan Underworld deity belonging to the Ahau pantheon of the Marvel Universe; the character had appeared behind the scenes (BTS) in the preceding issue, Amazing Spider-Man #555.
Written by Zeb Wells; pencils, cover, and colors by Chris Bachalo; inks by Tim Townsend; letters by Cory Petit; edited by Stephen Wacker and Tom Brennan.
Published June 2008 (on-sale April 9, 2008) as part of the Brand New Day event — the era in which Amazing Spider-Man shipped three times monthly using a rotating creative Brain Trust.
Story title: 'The Last Nameless Day,' the second chapter of the three-part arc 'Sometimes It Snows In April' (Amazing Spider-Man #555–557).
First appearance of the supporting character Vern, a homeless man on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. who aids Spider-Man during the blizzard by insulating his costume with newspaper.
The issue establishes the plot thread of Carlie Cooper and Vincent Gonzales seeking a new roommate and suggesting Peter Parker as a candidate — a development that deepens both characters' roles in the Brand New Day supporting cast.
Professor Benjamin Rabin is revealed to have murdered a colleague as a blood sacrifice in an attempt to transform himself into a 'Kuhul Ajaw' (god-king) by invoking Wayep; this confirms him as the arc's primary antagonist.
Wayep later appeared in Journey Into Mystery #627 (November 2011, written by Kieron Gillen), and writer Zeb Wells subsequently confirmed for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol. 13 that the character's name was intended to carry a 'b' rather than 'p' sound — hence the preferred rendering Wayeb'.