"Carnage: Web of Carnage"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Carnage: Web of Carnage” as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format, written by J.M. DeMatteis, Larry Hama, David Michelinie, Warren Ellis, Dan Jurgens, Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie, Todd Dezago & David Quinn.

            Cletus Kasady was a criminal who was about as worse as they could come, a prisoner on Riker’s Island serving twelve life sentences. His cell mate Eddie Brock claimed to have been bonded to an alien called a symbiote and was the super villain Venom. The symbiote broke Eddie out of prison, but left a piece of itself behind during the escape. That excess symbiote bonded with Kasady and gave birth to the psychotic super villain Carnage. Kasady had been locked away in Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane for the crimes he committed as the Carnage.

Peter Parker was arrested for the worst of all crimes, which were actually committed by Kaine. The mysterious Judas Traveller transported Peter/Spider-Man and Kaine to a fictional courthouse where Traveller placed Spider-Man on trial to prove if his actions as a super hero were as beneficial as Peter has been led to believe or if they had unintended consequences that made things inadvertently worse for other innocent people, placing Carnage as prosecutor of the case.

            A video game called “Carnage Unleashed” has been created, starring Carnage as the villain and Venom as the hero. This game featured online capabilities. While unable to actually make the money he technically deserved for having been made the star of the video game, the staff at Ravencroft allowed Carnage screen time. He was allowed to play the game. Wary of this fact, Eddie decided to travel to New York to pay Kasady a visit. Kasady was subjected to inhibiters which prevented him from becoming Carnage. Kasady learned a new trick while playing this game. Kasady sent his symbiote through the internet to bond with a player of the game. This possessed player was then able to hack the security systems of Ravencroft and release Kasady/Carnage from his cell. Fortunately, Venom’s arrival in New York was timely, as he was able to defeat Kasady/Carnage, place him in a coma and return him to Ravencroft.

            After an encounter with Spider-Man, Eddie decided he had had enough with the symbiote and enough with being Venom and cast out the symbiote. The symbiote was not happy about this and sent out a distress call to other symbiotes, which led to a symbiote invasion of earth. Eddie found himself in an alliance with Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider to fight back against the symbiotes with sonic cannons (symbiotes are weak against loud sonic frequencies and fire). Ben had accidentally picked up the Venom symbiote along the way, which decided to bond back with Eddie again, dismayed about seeing what it’s species was doing to it’s adopted planet. Unfortunately at this point, Kasady emerged from his coma, releasing Carnage, who then absorbed several of the invading symbiotes, creating a giant symbiotic monster. The combined might of Venom, Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider were able to defeat Carnage and force back the symbiote invasion.

            Ravencroft head psychiatrist Doctor Ashley Kafka invited world renowned psychiatrist Doctor Matthew Kurtz to Ravencroft in an attempt to rehabilitate the recaptured Kasady/Carnage. During the course of the interviews and treatments, Carnage dragged Kurtz into Kasady’s memories, making Kurtz actually live the moments in Kasady’s life that led to Kasady becoming the criminal he grew up to be, and this mind bombing drove Doctor Kurtz completely insane.

While Kasady was in Ravencroft, a Carnage impersonator was terrorizing New York City. Ben Reilly/Spider-Man went to investigate and found that Kasady had been separated from his symbiote and had little time left to live, while the symbiote was attached to Ravencroft head of security John Jameson. Ben Reilly/Spider-Man engaged Jameson/Carnage, and the symbiote decided it wanted a stronger host, and left Jameson and attached itself to Ben, giving birth to Spider-Carnage. Spider-Carnage went on a rampage through New York City, ruining Spider-Man’s reputation. Peter Parker confronted Spider-Carnage at the risk of his own life. Spider-Carnage instinctively went to Ravencroft, where the symbiote left Ben Reilly/Spider-Man and rejoined with Cletus Kasady.

Kasady’s treatment continued, but Carnage attempted another mind bomb by dragging Doctor Ashley Kafka and John Jameson into his own made up, insane, twisted, pocket reality, turning John into his Doctor Kafka into an insect metamorphic creature and Jameson into the Man-Wolf.

Eddie Brock was placed on trial for his crimes as Venom, represented by Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Eddie was given a serum that prevented him from becoming Venom. Kasady, being Eddie’s former cell mate, was called to testify. Kasady was given the same serum as Eddie, yet still transformed into Carnage, and Daredevil, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Venom had to team up again to take Carnage down once again.

 

Some of you may recall I am a huge fan of Carnage. I’ve previously reviewed the “Maximum Carnage” event as presented on Marvel Unlimited and “Carnage: Born in Blood” as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format on this blog site and gave high scores, so if you’ve read either of those, you probably know. If you didn’t know, well, now you do.

So, let’s talk about my reactions. First off, I will say I liked most the stories in it. But here is where we have the problem: these issues are not all consecutive and were gathered from points between 1994-1997, and only included issues with Carnage. It really jumped around. For example, it included two issues of “Amazing Spider-Man,” but they were #403 & #410. On top of that, most of this book took place during “The Clone Saga” and the little previously blurbs just aren’t enough if you don’t know the story. I have reviewed “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” as presented on Marvel Unlimited on this blog site, but the list ended when Ben Reilly became Spider-Man, and this graphic novel goes past that point, so even I don’t know the full story. Some of you who have read previous posts know this has also been a problem before, such as in “Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising” and “Hawkeye: The Avenging Archer” in particular, which I have previously posted on this blog site. I will say that Marvel Epic Collections have singular focuses, such as how “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” didn’t actually have any of the six issue limited series “The Infinity Gauntlet,” just the issues of “Silver Surfer” from around the time. Also, the titles of Marvel Epic Collections are the ones Marvel thinks will sell best, such as “Captain America: The Coming of… the Falcon” who only appeared in three issues of the book. “Web of Carnage” was only four parts, and there are eighteen issues in this book, but Marvel clearly thought that “Web of Carnage” was the catchiest and slapped it all over the book. But I TOTALLY digress, terribly sorry. Let me emphasize my point. The start of the book was “Amazing Spider-Man” #403, which was part of a four issue crossover story, but since this issue was the only issue with Carnage in it, that was the only one they included. And even “Venom: On Trial.” It was a three issue limited series, but Carnage wasn’t in #1, so only #2-3 were included. When reading a comic book storyline, I feel like two issues are most important: the first issue and the last issue. I’m not saying that I don’t think that everything in between isn’t important, but I like to know how a story starts so I get a feel of what’s going on. The exclusion of #1 made the graphic novel kind of confusing. The fact that this whole book was selections from an extensive event only including minimal amounts just makes it hard to fully follow. I will also say that one of the number one reasons I purchased this graphic novel was because it contained “Amazing Spider-Man” #410, which was actually the first Marvel comic book I ever got, so it was rather sentimental to me, plus it was part two of a four part crossover story I never read the other three parts of and have wanted to read the others for twenty-seven years, so when I heard about this book I had to get it. I really enjoyed that storyline, Ben Reilly is a favorite character of mine, so him becoming Spider-Carnage was pretty cool. And I enjoyed the “Venom: Carnage Unleashed” limited series, especially the irony that Cletus would have been rich over his use in the video game if he weren’t a prisoner. I thought that was a good joke. The psychological issues just didn’t do it for me, though. I’ve been a mental patient (not a serial killer), but I didn’t feel the depictions were right. I felt like the writers needed to do better research there. As far as Planet of the Symbiotes, I really enjoyed rereading this (since it was in “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga”) in context now. And let’s discuss the artwork. Previous readers may know how I feel about mid-to-late ’90s and early ’00s artwork, but if you’ve never read a post from me before, that is my favorite period of comic book art. There was just such a quality to it that wasn’t there before and isn’t followed anymore, and I totally miss that standard. Just like all art, there a periods that have distinct features, and I just loved that period. I will say that the artists of “Carnage: Mind Bomb” and “Carnage: It’s a Wonderful Life” let me down a little, but not too badly.

Now, I’m going to alter the order I do my reviews in a little and say that I only recommend this book to Spider-Man fans who know about “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” or else I feel like you will have NO idea what is going on and the previously blurbs are just not enough to guide you through it. I feel like this book is just NOT a point for new comic book readers to start with, even if you are a Carnage fan from any of the cartoons, movies, or video games. Back in 1996, I read “Amazing Spider-Man” #410 and had no idea what I was reading, I just didn’t have the background and context at the time, especially the whole who is really Peter Parker and who is the clone, it did feel a bit convoluted. Did I like this book? Personally, yes, but still, it’s not an easy book for me to recommend, but hey, what do I know? If you like this review and want to read this book, go right ahead. I know I always say that, but it’s true. We all have our own thoughts and opinions, I can’t tell you what to do. It’s just a really expensive book and I hope I don’t lead you to disappointment, so buyers beware.

Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: my numeric score. Some of you know the deal: one to ten, one’s the worst, ten’s the best. Simple as that. I’ve been going on for quite some time now and I hope you’re still here because I’ve been writing this for almost three hours and I hope I haven’t wasted my time, so if you’re still reading this, you are THE BEST! So, here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. I give it… an eight. When you look at a graphic novel, you have to take everything into account: story and art. It can have a story that’s amazing but the art is just an eyesore, or the story is awful but the art is just spectacular. So in this case, I liked most of the stories, I liked most of the art, so, yes, the score is an eight.

Okay, I’ve been ranting for almost 2000 words, you probably want to do other things on the internet, so I’m letting you go. As you could tell, I’ve done reviews before (actually literal dozens), mostly Marvel stuff, but I write short fiction and nonfiction, free-verse poetry, essays, editorials, and several other types of content, so feel free to keep browsing my blog site. I post frequently, I actually get an Epic Collection every month, so keep an eye out for that. Tell your friends. And now, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!