“Carnage: Born in Blood” by David Michelinie, Tom DeFalco, Terry Kavanagh & J.M. DeMatteis

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Carnage: Born in Blood” by David Michelinie, Tom DeFalco, Terry Kavanagh & J.M. DeMatteis.

            Cletus Kasady was born into a broken home and grew up in St. Estes Home for Boys, where he was badly bullied. He would go on to commit arson on the orphanage and many other heinous crimes that landed him in Riker’s Island Prison Complex serving eleven consecutive life sentences.

            Peter Parker was orphaned as a little boy and grew up with his elderly Aunt May and Uncle Ben. As a high school student when he was bitten by a radioactive spider at a radiology demonstration. He gained the proportional strength and agility of a spider, adhesive fingertips and toes, and a precognitive awareness of personal danger he calls “spider-sense.” He also created web shooters. He first used his powers to show off and try to make money. He allowed a robber to run past him when he easily could have stopped the robber. The robber later broke into Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s house and murdered Uncle Ben. Peter then took a saying from his Uncle Ben to heart: “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” He then vowed to use his powers for good and became a super hero called the Amazing Spider-Man. Peter kept his identity as Spider-Man a secret, telling no one of his alter ego. On one of his many adventures, Peter was sent to the planet Battleworld with almost all the other heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe. His costume was damaged, and he came upon a device that gave him a new costume. The costume could produce its own webbing, amplified Peter’s abilities, and could change shape. Peter brought the costume back home to earth and continued to wear it. Superhero Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four ran a diagnostic on the costume and discovered it was a living organism called a symbiote that wanted to permanently bond with Peter. Reed discovered the symbiote was weak against sound. Peter was able to separate from the symbiote and thought he had destroyed it. But he was wrong. Peter married Mary Jane Watson, one of the only people who knew Peter was Spider-Man.

            Eddie Brock was a disgraced journalist. He blamed the end of his career on Spider-Man. He stumbled upon the symbiote Peter rejected and the two bonded in their mutual hatred for Spider-Man, and they became Venom, who became one of Spider-Man’s deadliest enemies. Venom had all the same powers as Spider-Man, and didn’t set off Peter’s spider sense. Spider-Man defeated Venom and separated Eddie and the symbiote. Eddie was sent to Riker’s Island Prison Complex, where he became cellmates with Cletus Kasady. Eddie always hoped the symbiote would reunite with him. Then, one night, the symbiote did indeed return and broke Eddie out of prison. In the process, however, a piece of the symbiote was left behind. Kasady bonded with this symbiote and busted out of Riker’s. Kasady and the symbiote took on the name Carnage, and went on a nasty crime spree.

            Peter went on to investigate the crime spree, believing this to be the work of Venom. Peter had previously battled Venom on a desert island, and Peter faked his death to give Venom a sense of satisfaction and let Venom find peace. Peter came face-to-face with Carnage and was defeated. Peter realized he could not defeat Carnage on his own, and turned to Venom for help. Venom returned to New York with Peter. Carnage set his sight on Peter’s boss J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the newspaper The Daily Bugle. Spider-Man and Venom were able to defeat Carnage and destroy Kasady’s symbiote. Peter thought the nightmare of Carnage was over. He was wrong.

            Richard and Mary Parker, Peter’s parents, as it turned out were not really dead. They were spies, and had been captured and held in a Russian prison for twenty years. Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn became the super villain the Green Goblin, and met with an unfortunate end. Mary Jane then asked Peter to give up being Spider-Man for two weeks, and Peter gave Mary Jane his word that he would.

            Kasady was brought to Ravencroft, a maximum security institution for the criminally insane for study. The doctors there were under the impression that Carnage was just a regular costume that could just be taken on and off, and not actually a living organism. And the symbiote actually had entered Kasady’s bloodstream. Kasady became Carnage again. As he escaped from Ravencroft, Carnage released another criminal, Sandra Deel, called Shriek. Shriek had the powers of supersonic blasts and the psychic ability to bring out the worst aspects of a person. Fortunately for Kasady, Carnage was now immune to sonics. The two criminals immediately fell in love. After their escape, the two ran across the monstrous Spider-Doppelganger. After realizing that the creature posed no threat, Shriek and Carnage “adopted” it.

            Peter immediately broke his promise to Mary Jane after learning of Carnage’s escape and rushed off as Spider-Man. Unfortunately, he proved no match against the “Carnage Family.” Spider-Man was then joined by Tyrone Johnson/Cloak and Tandy Bowen/Dagger. The team-up met a snag when Shriek destroyed Dagger.

            Venom, meanwhile, heard of Carnage’s resurgence and returned to New York to battle his “offspring.”

            Spider-Man then found himself fighting the demonic creature called the Demogoblin, whose aim was to purge the world of sinners and deliver vengeance. After a brief battle, the Demogoblin escaped.

            Peter returned home, but he and Mary Jane were visited by none other than Eddie Brock. Mary Jane then stormed off from Peter after Spider-Man and Venom decided to team-up again. She went to see Aunt May, Richard and Mary Parker. Peter then turned to his ex-lover and ally Felicia Hardy/Black Cat for assistance. This alliance failed when Peter refused to do whatever it takes to end the threat of Carnage for good, and Black Cat and Venom went off on their own.

            Demogoblin encountered the Carnage Family and allowed himself to be “adopted” by Carnage and Shriek. Then a clone of an old Spider-Man villain the Jackal, who called himself Carrion, and possessed a decaying touch joined the Carnage family.

            Spider-Man then found himself surrounded by ordinary New Yorkers who were now under Shriek’s influence and at an impasse as he did not want to hurt these people but had to stop the Carnage Family.

            Michael Morbius, a former scientist and now a pseudo-vampire, dug into Shriek’s history, hoping to find information that could be used to bring down the Carnage family.

            Spider-Man, Venom and Black Cat met up again and reformed their alliance.

            Deathlok, a cybernetic organism also joined into the battle against the Carnage Family, but was swiftly defeated.

            Cloak also rejoined the Spider-Alliance, bringing the mutant Anjelica Jones/Firestar with him. Firestar’s powers include flight and microwave blasts, an ability that could help against the Carnage Family as the symbiotes are weak against strong heat and fire, and Morbius joined with the Spider-Alliance. The alliance was temporary, as Spider-Man and Firestar both did not wish to cross the line against Carnage.

            Danny Rand/Iron Fist also joined the fray, rescuing Deathlok, and Steve Rogers/Captain America, Iron Fist and Deathlok joined in with Spider-Man and Firestar.

            Carnage then abducted Venom and proceeded to torture his “father.”

            The Spider-Alliance learned that they had the ability to restore the good natures to the Shriek-controlled New Yorkers, but this proved only to be temporary. But two returning heroes then helped turn the tide against the Carnage Family.

            Still Carnage would not stop and set his sights upon a childhood friend, William Bentine, who Spider-Man then attempted to rescue.

 

            So, some of you may know my favorite Marvel super villain is Carnage, and if you didn’t, now you know. So you can imagine I got this Epic Collection as soon as I could. Some of my prior readers may have noticed I already reviewed the Marvel Comics Event “Maximum Carnage” which was the primary storyline in this book and may see some redundancies. That said, this book gave more content that was not in my prior review, particularly the original “Carnage” storyline and origin of Cletus Kasady/Carnage and another further Carnage battle, so this review is not exactly the same. It should be noted that when I score, I give it at the actual moment, and my scores may change before and after writing my reviews.

            The content in this graphic novel was originally published between the years of 1991-1994, I feel should be noted. I have regularly been reading Marvel comics since 2001, and I have read many Carnage stories over the years. That said, “Maximum Carnage” has been my favorite Carnage storyline published up to this point. My reasoning for this has been that the heroes battling Carnage was consistent. Many Carnage stories have focused on several perspectives, meaning they are an event crossover of different series. There were five Spider-Man series at the time, and this event was contained only in Spider-Man series, with the main focus on Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Other storylines such as “Absolute Carnage” for example were a crossover event and was a limited series with tie-ins from other series that focused on different characters and occasionally were contradictory, such as dialogue changing between the different series and scenes not consistent between series. This event was just one continuous storyline, with just one narrative, and that is why this story has been my favorite Carnage storyline to date.

            As to why Carnage is my favorite Marvel super villain, he’s dangerous. Most of the time, the heroes win, and the comic is just how the heroes go from point A to point B, from the start of the villain conflict to the hero defeating the villain, and everything else is just in-between, how the hero defeats the villain. With Carnage, there have only been few times Peter Parker/Spider-Man has ever defeated him on his own, so I always like seeing the alliances it takes to defeat Carnage. He’s a very powerful villain and often out-classes the heroes who battle him, which makes the victories that much more surprising. For those of you who have seen the film “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (which truly was a disappointment to me), Carnage is not that easy to defeat in the comics as he was in the movie, and I thought that the comic storyline “Maximum Carnage” (that the film was based on) was so much better.

            And, lest we forget, this WAS a “Graphic” novel, and that is very important. You can have the best comic book story that you have ever read, but the artwork is just unbearably awful and ruins your enjoyment of the graphic novel. Or you can have stellar art, but the story is just completely flat. Let’s also point out the time of publication. There have been several periods of comic book art that exemplify the time period. One of my all-time favorite comic book artists is Mark Bagley, and he was one of the primary artists whose work was featured in this graphic novel. To me, this graphic novel had a story I loved, and MOST of the artists satisfied and impressed me, but this also impacts on my score.

            I enjoyed the three stories contained in this book. BUT! All that said, there WAS indeed a story where Spider-Man battle Carnage on his own, and that DOES impact my score. Which I am sure you want to know (if you’re still here, and if you are, you are THE BEST!), so let’s get to it. I score on a scale of one-to-ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. You can now tell that this will have a good score, but will not be a ten. So, all-in-all, everything taken into consideration, the stories, the art, all cards on the table, I score it as an eight. There was so much I loved in this book, but there were aspects that just didn’t meet my expectations, including some of the art that just wasn’t to my liking, and a story that just didn’t wow me, but I still heavily enjoyed this book.

            Now, I will say I give this book my recommendation. As I said, “Maximum Carnage” has been my favorite Carnage storyline, and “Carnage” was a good read in my opinion. You could probably find “Maximum Carnage” in a separate graphic novel, but the two other storylines made me feel getting “Carnage: Born in Blood” is more worth it. If you are a fan of Carnage from either the film or the cartoons and want to get into comics, if you are reading this review, I think you should look into reading this book. If you are a comic fan and have never read the earliest comic appearances of Carnage, totally look into reading this book. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and are looking for a good place to start, there is a gap between several of the stories that may confuse first-time readers, so this book is not completely self-contained, and this might not be a totally great start for you. Still, if you’re reading this review and this graphic novel has you intrigued based solely on what I’ve typed for you here now, and are now considering reading this graphic novel, I say go for it. I don’t think this was a perfect book, but I do think it was a good book. So if you want to, give it a try.

            Before I sign off, I will say that this blog has dozens of reviews of graphic and prose novels (most are Marvel though), and I write short stories, poetry, essays, and editorials (and I am working on several projects at this time), and I post frequently (I’d taken a few month off because I had a hand injury and could not type), so you can expect more. If you’ve read this and liked this review, there’s plenty more to see and read, so you can keep coming back for more. I’ll say that if you’re still reading this post at this point and want to read more of my work, you are THE BEST! I’ll be back, and I hope you will too. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!