"Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            After nearly perishing in a battle with the supervillain Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin, young superhero May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl was convinced by her mother Mary Jane Parker to give up the webs and live a normal life. As a result, her grades went up, she had more time with her friends and even found a boyfriend in Eugene “Gene” Thompson, son of Coach Eugene “Flash” Thompson, high school rival-turned friend of Mayday’s father, former Spider-Man now forensic scientist, Peter Parker. With the support of her best friends Courtney Duran and Davida Kirby as her campaign managers, Mayday was running for student council at Midtown High School against the popular Simone DeSantos. Fellow Midtown High students Jimmy Yama and Reynard “Wes” Westin were drawing and illustrating a Spider-Girl comic book. Mayday and Courtney were volunteering at St. Andrews Shelter under the supervision of Caitlan Leiber. One of the women staying at the shelter, Mona Carlo, was sought out at the shelter by her ex, Charlie Kurkle, but Caitlan turned him away. Mona had an item that Charlie was sent by the Hobgoblin to obtain. It was a disk that contained information on all the people that the deceased Wilson Fisk/Kingpin had ever paid off, information that would boost whoever possessed it to the status of the new Kingpin of Crime. Fabian LaMuerto/Black Tarantula, current Kingpin who was hiding out in South America, also wanted that disk. Unhappy that Charlie did not possess the disk, Hobgoblin sent one of his stooges to take out Charlie. Mayday was on her way to Café Indigo to meet her friends, including Gene, when she came upon the scene of Charlie about to be put down. Covering her face, Mayday sprung into action and saved Charlie. Charlie returned to St. Andrews, where Mayday had to prevent Charlie from starting a fire in an attempt to lure Mona out. Mona, knowing she was at risk for carrying the disk, went on the run. Mayday then joined her friends at Café Indigo. Hobgoblin went to St. Andrews and attacked Caitlan looking for both Mona and a list of Caitlan’s teenage volunteers, under the impression that Spider-Girl was secretly volunteering at St. Andrews and was the daughter of Hobgoblin’s archnemesis Spider-Man. The police were called to the scene, including Detective Vincent Drasco, who was secretly in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin planned to send two of his stooges, Rudy and Barney, after the teenage volunteers, aided by a battle armor Hobgoblin had come into possession of. On her school lunch break, Mayday went to St. Andrews looking for clues and ran into Hobgoblin’s stooges. Mayday barely escaped, but the stooges were not under the impression they had just battled Spider-Girl. Mayday returned to school late for class, where she was caught by assistant principal Slattery, who gave Mayday detention and Simone leverage in the student council election. While in detention, both Peter and Mary Jane attempted to call Mayday to warn Mayday that Hobgoblin was looking for the teenage volunteers, which only irritated Slattery, but when Slattery answered Mayday’s phone and spoke to Mary Jane, Mary Jane was infuriated Slattery dared to answer Mayday’s phone and sprung Mayday from detention. Mary Jane returned Mayday’s Spider-Girl costume, telling Mayday that Mary Jane could not accept it if Spider-Girl were prevented from saving lives because of Mary Jane, but to keep this a secret from Peter. Spider-Girl returned to battle Rudy, now called Reverb, to save Courtney. Following Reverb’s arrest, Mary Jane took back possession of the Spider-Girl costume.

Former St. Andrews refugee Betty Forest/Bitter Frost returned to St. Andrews, intent on revenge against Caitlan, who failed Betty when Caitlan first started as a social worker years before. Mona contacted Handsome Richie Valentine, attempting to find a buyer for the disk. Bitter Frost went after her abusive ex-boyfriend Wayne, intent on ending him. Caitlan and Drasco went after Bitter Frost to prevent her from succeeding, but their lives were put in danger. Mayday stole the Spider-Girl costume and swung in to save the day. Mona came into contact with Chesbro, representative of the Black Tarantula.

“Mad Dog” Rassitano, reality television bounty hunter, announced his intention to catch Hobgoblin, a task he had done once before. Mayday’s return as Spider-Girl was beginning to have an impact on her school and social life. Jimmy and Wes made a deal with Deacon, owner of Deacon’s Den, a local comic book show, that if Deacon sole Jimmy and Wes’s Spider-Girl comic book, Spider-Girl would come to the release day event herself. Jimmy intended to have his girlfriend Heather Noble dress the part of Spider-Girl since Jimmy was not convinced Jimmy and Wes could get the real Spider-Girl to promote the comic book. Mad Dog went to Hobgoblin’s brother Daniel Kingsley for information on Hobgoblin’s location. Daniel, who was hiding his brother, sold Mad Dog a location the Hobgoblin was going to be at. However, this was an ambush, and Hobgoblin was not really going to be there. Spider-Girl helped Mad Dog take down the thugs who ambushed Mad Dog, and Mad Dog promised not to televise Spider-Girl’s presence on the scene, mostly because Mad Dog thought being rescued by Spider-Girl on national television would look bad for his reputation. This skirmish caused Mayday to miss a date with Gene.

Drasco and Black Tarantula both obtained Mona’s location. Drasco and Chesbro both went to attempt to get the disk. Spider-Girl swung to Mona’s rescue but needed an assist from Mad Dog. Spider-Girl managed to obtain the disk. Mayday almost missed her campaign speech, but in a turn of events, dropped out of the race and nominated Davida in Mayday’s place, saying Davida would be a better candidate. Hobgoblin learned that Spider-Girl was scheduled to appear at a launch event at Deacon’s Den.

Mayday turned to her confidante Felicity Hardy/Scarlet Spider to try to crack the information on the disk, but Felicity was unable to get past the decryption. At the launch event, Hobgoblin abducted Heather, but realized Heather wasn’t the real Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl saved Heather and lied to Hobgoblin, saying that Spider-Girl had destroyed the disk. Hobgoblin believed Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl was saved from Hobgoblin by Chesbro and one of Black Tarantula’s snipers. Spider-Girl gave the disk to Drasco, unaware Drasco was in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Mayday told her parents that she had returned to being Spider-Girl and intended to keep being a superhero.

Rosetta Morgan/Ladyhawk sought revenge on the Hobgoblin for ending the heroic career of Rosetta’s sister Regina Morgan/Ladyhawk. Harlem crime lord Morgan arranged a meeting with Hobgoblin. Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk came to Morgan to get information on the Hobgoblin. Morgan gave Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk a fake address to the meeting between Morgan and Hobgoblin. Morgan’s meeting with Hobgoblin was actually an attempt to take Hobgoblin out of the picture. Drasco heard shots, and Drasco and the police prevented Hobgoblin’s demise, and Hobgoblin escaped. Mayday realized how much strain being Spider-Girl put her parents through and promised to stop being Spider-Girl until Mayday’s parents said otherwise.

Mayday’s fellow Midtown High classmate Sara Hingle manifested her mutant powers in class. Sara was taken into custody. Mary Jane and assistant principal Slattery visited Sara’s parents Duane and Cindy Hingle. Duane was not handling the fact that his daughter was a mutant very well. Duane decided to send Sara to a mutant boarding school, despite Cindy wanting Sara to stay with Duane and Cindy. Sara escaped custody and tried to return home. Mary Jane tried to talk Duane out of Duane’s decision, saying Duane should love Sara no matter what Sara was. Mayday revealed to Sara that Mayday had powers and promised to try to help Sara live a normal life. Sara’s parents decided to let Sara stay at home. Slattery was impressed with Mary Jane’s empathy and offered to discuss a position for Mary Jane at Midtown High as a guidance counselor. Peter and Mary Jane decided that Mayday was ready to be Spider-Girl and gave Mayday back the Spider-Girl costume.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill came to government special agent Arthur Weadon and his team of rehabilitating convicted supervillains (Earthshaker, Mr. Abnormal, Killerwatt, and Kaine) with the mission of guarding an item code-named Specimen 297. Kaine turned to Reilly Tyne/Darkdevil for assistance in watching the transfer of the bioweapon that was being transferred to a government lab because it was believed the specimen might have medical benefits. Courtney’s boyfriend Maurice “Moose” Mansfield, whose father was in a hospital dying of cancer, was staying in New Jersey and not getting in touch with Courtney. Courtney learned Moose was coming to Midtown Medical Center to see Moose’s father and Courtney decided that Courtney wanted to see Moose to see where their relationship stood. Slattery offered Mary Jane a job at Midtown High. Courtney arrived at Midtown Medical and found Moose with another girl. The transfer of Specimen 297 was attacked by a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team obtained Specimen 297. Spider-Girl attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, and in the confusion, Specimen 297 escaped. Specimen 297 was one piece of the Carnage symbiote, which had been broken apart and was held in government custody. It was now believed that the symbiote could cure cancer. The escaped symbiote bonded with Moose, and a new Carnage was born. Moose was insistent on trying to curb Carnage’s murderous tendencies. Carnage attacked Café Indigo and scared Courtney and Davida, but Mayday fought Carnage until Carnage decided to leave. Weadon tasked his team with apprehending Spider-Girl. Kaine and Darkdevil contacted Spider-Girl to warn her about Carnage. Mary Jane went to school with Mayday to speak with Slattery about the guidance counselor position. Slattery offered the position to Mary Jane. Mary Jane said she would get back to Slattery with her decision. Carnage came to the Parker’s home and abducted Peter and Ben, Mayday’s baby brother. Spider-Girl went after Carnage and fought the symbiotic being. Peter managed to escape from Carnage’s imprisonment. Carnage went to Midtown Medical Center to find Moose’s father. Spider-Girl fought Carnage, and Carnage fled. During their fight, Carnage infected Ben with a piece of the symbiote. Ben attacked Spider-Girl. Hill and Weadon’s team tried to apprehend Spider-Girl but failed. Carnage took Ben back to Midtown Medical. Kaine and Darkdevil found Val and her agents and learned the truth about Specimen 297. Courtney found out the woman she saw Moose with was Moose’s cousin Donna Mansfield. Peter came to Midtown Medical with the Reverb armor, which fired sonic blasts, Carnage’s weakness. Peter faltered when he realized Carnage had infected Ben, so Spider-Girl took the sonic blaster and shot the symbiote off of Ben, causing Ben to have hearing loss. Mayday defeated Carnage before Carnage could infect Moose’s father, causing Moose, a huge Spider-Girl fan, to hate Spider-Girl, saying if Moose’s father died, it would be Spider-Girl’s fault. The doctors told Peter they had to run more tests to determine if Ben’s hearing loss was permanent.

Mayday felt overwhelming guilt over Ben’s predicament, but Peter and Mary Jane did not blame Mayday. Peter and Mary Jane brought Ben to the doctor. Hobgoblin disguised himself as his brother Daniel and locked up the real Daniel Kingsley. The day of the student council election came. Hobgoblin turned to William Turner/Mindworm to form an alliance against Spider-Girl. Gene, feeling neglected in his relationship with Mayday, broke up with Mayday. Ben began to manifest spider powers in front of Mayday. Gene moved on with Simone DeSantos. Hobgoblin went searching for Madame Web, hoping to learn a way to defeat Black Tarantula, and found Anya Corazon/Araña, disguised as a priestess. Araña told Hobgoblin the “heart of the spider” was the only weapon that could defeat the Black Tarantula. Moose announced he would be coming back to Midtown High, accompanied by his cousin Donna. The Parker family’s observed “May’s Special Day” arrived. Mindworm began to psychically implant illusions of Spider-Girl’s enemies into Mayday’s mind. Normie Osborn helped the Parkers arrange an appointment with Dr. Milton Kaplan, one of the nation’s top ear, nose and throat specialists. Mindworm learned Ben had an appointment with Dr. Kaplan, and Hobgoblin kidnapped the doctor. Mindworm attempted to manipulate Spider-Girl to learn about the “heart of the spider.” Hobgoblin abducted Spider-Girl and tried to force her to reveal the “heart of the spider.” Spider-Girl’s allies Darkdevil, Ladyhawk, Jack Jameson/The Buzz, the Fantastic Five, Mad Dog, Weadon’s team, the Avengers, Green Goblin, and more came to Spider-Girl’s rescue and fought off Hobgoblin and Mindworm. Mayday returned home to celebrate her special day with her family.

Okay, now that we have that lengthy plot summary out of the way, let’s move on to my individual bits of this review. As always, we’re going to start off with my own personal opinions about this book. I will say that I loved this book. I thought the stories in it were fantastic. Let’s talk about what I enjoyed the most. I loved watching Mayday trying to find her identity as both Mayday Parker and Spider-Girl. Her conflict between wanting a normal life and wanting to be a superhero was explored in a phenomenal way. Mayday tried to get her grades up and run for student council and because of Spider-Girl ended up in detention and her best friend had to take Mayday’s place in the election. Mayday tried to have a boyfriend, and Spider-Girl led him into the arms of her rival. I also loved how Mayday had to face the consequences of her battle with Carnage. Spider-Girl turned her greatest supporter into a Spider-Girl hater, and caused hearing loss in her baby brother, and then had to deal with the guilt of her actions. I enjoyed watching the Hobgoblin’s war against Black Tarantula with Spider-Girl caught in the middle, and that Spider-Girl wasn’t even Hobgoblin’s main concern, just an annoyance on the side. I enjoyed Mary Jane’s developments, from not wanting her daughter to be a superhero, to encouraging her daughter to be a superhero, then confronting the Hingle’s on how they should love their daughter no matter what she was and being offered a position as a guidance counselor at Mayday’s school. I enjoyed seeing the villains double-crossing with fake meeting locations and ambushes. I liked watching Slattery being an antagonist and assistant to Mayday and Mayday’s family, and particularly when Mary Jane stood up to Slattery after Slattery put Mayday in detention and answered Mayday’s phone. There was so much about this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I will say that I do feel like the artwork did go wrong a lot. For the most part the art was relatively good, but there were just moments where the faces and bodies just didn’t look right. Now, I’m also very nitpicky about the title and cover being appropriate for the content of the book itself. Every issue in this book had a different title, and there were fifteen issues in this book, so including each individual issue title and the option to make an original title not taken from the title of any issue in the book, there were sixteen potential choices for a title. The title “Comes the Carnage!” was the title of an issue in this collection. The Carnage storyline was an ongoing storyline in this volume, and while I don’t particularly feel it was “the best” title for this book, I will say that I will approve this as an appropriate title. As for the cover, it very simple portrays Spider-Girl web-swinging through New York City. I feel like this simple cover is perfect. It offers the promise of seeing Spider-Girl swing into action in this book, and this book delivers on that promise. So, I will say that all in all, this book was an amazing production, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time going through it.

Next up on the list of topics we need to discuss is accessibility. I know I’ve explained my definition of this over seven dozen times at this point, but I feel obligated to explain myself again because I know that there are some readers here who have never been to this blog before to experience a Tim Cubbin review. So, for you newbs here, when I use the word “accessibility,” what I’m saying is how easy it is for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Girl or Marvel Comics to obtain this book, read it, and understand it as it is written with no outside knowledge on the source material. So, when asking if this book is accessible, I will say that, yes, it is. This book contains the first fifteen issues of one new series, and contains a recap issue (which I did not discuss, I only cover actual comic-style material and not expository-style material when reviewing a graphic novel, so since that issue was not written in a comic narrative style, I didn’t include that in my review), and it does not pick up directly off of any previous stories, crossover into any other series, or tie into any events. As such, getting into this book is actually pretty easy. If you’re looking to get into reading Marvel Comics and are looking for a good place to start, this book offers an excellent jump-on point.

Okay, moving on, we’re going on to the numeric score. I know that some people consider this section the most important segment in my reviews because it cements exactly how good I feel a book is. I also know that some of my readers come to these reviews primarily so they can read about the stories. I know that to different people, every segment in my reviews is the most important to some readers. But this is one of the primary segments of my reviews. So first, I will explain exactly how I score graphic novels. I work on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I give that score, I felt like this book is not even worth reading. If, however, I give a book a ten, that is my highest score, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and should be the top seller at all the retailers. To get a ten, a book has to have a story that is enjoyable all the way through, artwork that is consistently visually appealing, a title that fits the content of the book, and a cover that delivers on what it shows on the front of the book. So, when I take all these factors into consideration, the score I’m giving this book is… a nine! I loved almost everything about this book, and while I do feel the art could use some improvement, I thought this was a great effort.

Next up is the recommendation segment. This segment answers two separate questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of whether I approved of this book or now, whom do I think would be the best audience, aside from the obvious fans of the characters, Marvel Comics, or the creative team? To answer the first question, yes, I do recommend this book. If you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading you’ve decided you want to read this graphic novel, I would tell you to go to your favorite bookstore or online retailer, or your local comic book shop or library, or your Marvel obsessed friend or family member, and try to get your hands on a copy of this book at your earliest convenience, you will definitely enjoy it. As for the best audience, I would recommend this book to teenagers or people who like reading stories about teenagers, females or people who enjoy reading about heroic female protagonists, people who like stories about characters trying to discover who they are, and people who like soap operatic stories.

Well, we’ve come to the ending paragraph of my review. There are still things that need to be said before we move on with our lives. If you have any spare time, please continue checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my content. I’ve been doing this blog for six years now. In that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. Some of these posts are short stories, some are poems, some are essays, some are articles, some are editorials, but the majority are reviews. You will find a few reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events here. Primarily, you will find over seven dozen other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections just like this one. The current focus of this blog is on Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one as soon as I can after it is released and post a review of it as soon as I possibly can. As such, I post on a very frequent basis, so expect to see plenty of content from me pretty often. If you liked this post and have some spare time, please feel free to check out my reviews of “Spider-Girl: Legacy” “Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith” and “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” for more Spider-Girl content. As for the future of this blog, keep checking back because sometime in the next four weeks, you can expect my next review “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree” to be published. You can also keep expecting to see more content coming from me for a long time, I intend to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, and I don’t think anything is going to stop me soon. If you have anything you’d like to say, feel free to leave a comment, please like, share, retweet, reply, spread the word, do whatever you can to get me out there and let me know what you think of what I’m doing. I’d really love to hear from you guys. That’s really all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Venom: Sting of the Scorpion"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Venom: Sting of the Scorpion” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Eddie Brock’s mother died giving birth to Eddie, something that Eddie’s sister Mary and father Carl struggled to get past as Eddie grew up. As a child, Eddie was a pathological liar, making things up to seem more impressive to others, particularly girls. Eddie always had an interest in the news, and one night, Eddie’s father joked that Eddie should report the news, something that Eddie took to heart. To appear impressive to the Director of Admissions at Empire State University, Eddie lied about an internship at the San Franscisco Chronicle, which helped him get into college. While on a walk at night, Eddie and a female co-ed named Ann Weying, whom Eddie was trying to impress, were attacked by muggers. Ann was knocked unconscious during the struggle. Spider-Man was in the neighborhood and swung to their rescue and knocked out the muggers, then left the scene, leaving Eddie to falsely take credit for protecting Ann when Ann came to. After college, Eddie and Ann got married, and Eddie got a job as an intern at the Daily Globe, but Eddie lied to Ann and said he was a reporter. While going through mail for the letters column, Eddie found a letter to the editor from a man calling himself the Sin-Eater, taking credit for the murder of New York Police Department Captain Jean DeWolff and leaving a date and location of where the killer next planned to make contact. Rather than deliver the letter to the editor, Eddie went to the payphone the Sin-Eater called, and Eddie interviewed the Sin-Eater. The editor would not run Eddie’s interview unless the Sin-Eater killed again, and when the Sin-Eater struck again, Eddie made the front page. Sin-Eater liked the sensitivity Eddie portrayed to the Sin-Eater’s plight in the article and Sin-Eater asked to meet Eddie at a church. Eddie met the Sin-Eater, who told Eddie the Sin-Eater’s next target would be Reverend Bernard Finn, and that the Sin-Eater’s true identity was Emil Gregg. After Reverend Finn’s murder, Sin-Eater contacted Eddie again and told Eddie Sin-Eater’s next target would be J. Jonah Jameson, published or rival newspaper The Daily Bugle. The NYPD found out Eddie had become Sin-Eater’s contact, and the police arrested Eddie as an accessory to murder. While awaiting trial, Eddie’s father made contact with Eddie to voice Carl’s disappointment in Eddie protecting a murderer. This led Eddie to publish Gregg’s identity as the Sin-Eater. Gregg was arrested attempting to assassinate Jameson, but with the help of Spider-Man, Stan Carter was arrested as the Sin-Eater, and Eddie’s source was revealed to be a copycat and not the actual Sin-Eater. The Globe had to recall the edition Eddie’s story broke out on and Eddie was fired. Following this, Ann filed for a divorce from Eddie. At a total low, Eddie went to the church he met Gregg in, and the alien symbiote that had previously been attached to Spider-Man bonded with Eddie. Hearing Eddie, the priest called the police. The police suspected Eddie to be on drugs and attempted to apprehend him, but the symbiote reacted and the two police officers did not survive the encounter while Eddie and the symbiote walked away. Eddie signed the divorce papers and ended Eddie’s marriage to Ann. The symbiote revealed to Eddie that the symbiote’s former host Spider-Man’s true identity was Peter Parker. Both Eddie and the symbiote nursed a hatred for Spider-Man and vowed revenge on Spider-Man. Eddie and the symbiote went to Peter Parker’s apartment and attacked Peter’s wife Mary Jane and told Mary Jane that Eddie was going to kill Spider-Man. Spider-Man fought Eddie and the symbiote, who now called themselves Venom, but this battle only the beginning of Spider-Man and Venom’s war.

            Years later, Carnage, the result of the bonding between the symbiote offspring of Venom and serial killer Cletus Kasady, was going to give birth. Carnage was not happy that he was going to reproduce and was planning to eliminate his offspring. Symbiote fathers never had loving relationships with their children. Following the birth of the symbiote, NYPD officer Patrick Mulligan had come to the scene of a disturbance caused by Carnage, and the symbiote attached to Mulligan. Mulligan, not knowing he was hosting a symbiote, went home to his pregnant wife Gina. Venom went to Mulligan’s apartment to protect Mulligan and Gina from an attack by Carnage. Spider-Man also came to the fight, and saved Gina, who went into labor. After pulling off a successful art robbery, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat came to Mulligan’s rescue. Venom vowed an allegiance with his grandson, whom he dubbed Toxin. Edward Mulligan was born. Mulligan was informed of the art robbery and recognized Black Cat in the surveillance photograph. Mulligan arranged a meeting with Black Cat, where the two were attacked by Carnage. Mulligan became Toxin and fought off Carnage. Mulligan was horrified that he had become a monster but decided to keep this fact a secret. Toxin went back to fight Carnage but held back on causing a fatality. Venom and Carnage realized Toxin was on the path of becoming a superhero and decided to team up to end him. Toxin stopped an armed robbery, and almost went fatal on the robbers, but with the help of Spider-Man, got the situation under control. Venom and Carnage attacked Toxin and overpowered Toxin, but Spider-Man and Black Cat came to Toxin’s rescue. After the villains were defeated, Mulligan realized that for his whole life, he would now be a target of Venom and Carnage and left Gina and Edward for their own protection while he went on the run.

            Peter’s Aunt May Parker had been abducted by a supervillain and was possibly dead. The Daily Bugle was offering a five million dollar cash prize for a photo of Spider-Man’s secret identity. Eddie received a cancer diagnosis and found religion. Eddie decided to get rid of the Venom symbiote and let the cancer do its work, so Eddie went to Phineas Mason/Tinkerer to hold an auction, the lot being the Venom symbiote. An assortment of super criminals and mob figures, including crime boss Don Fortunato, attended the auction. Spider-Man stopped at a diner where he met a waitress named Ramona, who had a sick grandson. The child’s grandfather was Adrian Toomes/Vulture, and Spider-Man had just stopped the Vulture from committing a robbery that Vulture would have given the money to Vulture’s grandson. To take Peter’s mind off of Aunt May, Mary Jane suggested Peter and Mary Jane attend Peter’s high school reunion. Don Fortunato won the Venom symbiote auction and gave the symbiote to Fortunato’s weakling son Angelo Fortunato. The new Venom attacked Spider-Man at Peter’s high school reunion. After taking it to the streets, Venom tried to kill Spider-Man, succeeding in killing an impersonator seeking to make the five million dollar prize. This only angered Spider-Man further, and Angelo proved to the symbiote that Angelo didn’t have what it took to be Venom, so the symbiote abandoned Angelo. Eddie had a bad reaction to Angelo and Venom’s split up. Peter found a way to end the Spider-Man secret identity photo contest and settle things with Ramona. Mac Gargan/Scorpion contacted Peter, revealing he was Aunt May’s kidnapper. He demanded that Spider-Man would break Norman Osborn/Green Goblin out of prison or Aunt May would face the consequences. Spider-Man agreed, and with Black Cat’s help, was able to break Osborn out of jail. Osborn double-crossed Spider-Man with an attack by an army of Spider-Man’s worst enemies. Scorpion was supposed to appear. Osborn had sent Gargan a new Scorpion suit. The Venom symbiote found Gargan, and Gargan attended Osborn’s attack on Spider-Man and Black Cat not as Scorpion, but as Venom. Osborn was not happy with Venom’s appearance, but continued Osborn’s plan of revenge on Spider-Man by going after Mary Jane as Spider-Man fought Spider-Man’s enemies. Just as Spider-Man and Black Cat were losing, a group of Spider-Man’s allies, summoned by Mary Jane, joined the fight. Spider-Man attempted to go after Osborn but was halted by Venom. Spider-Man was able to defeat Venom, but Osborn had already reached Mary Jane. Spider-Man was able to prevail, Peter was reunited with Aunt May, Gargan was apprehended, and Eddie was hospitalized.

            After Peter unmasked as Spider-Man on live television, Aunt May was shot and clung to life in the hospital. Eddie was still residually haunted by Venom, despite no longer being physically bonded to the symbiote. Eddie discovered that Peter’s Aunt May was dying in the same hospital Eddie was dying in. Venom saw this as a perfect opportunity for revenge on Spider-Man. Peter wanted to reach Aunt May on the astral plane and bring May back to consciousness. Peter went to the clairvoyant Cassandra Webb/Madame Web to ask for Madame Web’s help in contacting May. With the aid of Mary Jane and Aunt Anna Watson, Peter was able to reach Aunt May. Aunt May told Peter she was ready to die. Eddie could not go through with Venom’s plan to get revenge on Spider-Man.

            Carmilla Black debuted as the new Scorpion. Venom was not happy that his former namesake had been taken and wished to defend his trademark by eliminating Scorpion. Scorpion had to defend herself with her power to absorb toxins to survive Venom’s assault.

The Cape Killers came after Venom in violation of the Superhuman Registration Act. After Venom took them out, Songbird and Radioactive Man, representing the Thunderbolts, came to Gargan with the offer of joining the team. Venom accepted the offer.

While the Thunderbolts battled Biohazard, Venom was pulled aside by Whirlwind, who arranged Gargan to be able to leave Thunderbolts Mountain without consequence. Gargan met with Whirlwind, Tiger Shark, Boomerang, and Mister Hyde, who blackmailed Gargan into arranging a meeting between the quartet of villains and Norman Osborn. Gargan agreed. The villains found out what it was like to cross Norman Osborn.

Okay, we have that rather lengthy plot summary out of the way, now it’s time to move onto my individual bits in this review. Let’s start where we usually do, with my own personal opinions on the book. For the purposes of making this review make sense, I arranged the stories chronologically, they were not presented in this order in the collection itself. So, the verdict is… I loved the stories in this book. The “Venom Vs. Carnage” storyline was great, I loved the debut of Toxin. I enjoyed the “Venomous” segments, I liked how Spider-Man made good with Vulture’s ex. “The Last Stand” segments were enjoyable, Gargan’s debut as Venom was a great start. “The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock” was brilliant, with Eddie struggling with the remnants of being Venom, and the ending was so touching, with Eddie trying to be a better person, and Peter reaching Aunt May and what May told Peter. “Switching Sides” was a fun little bit with Venom fighting the Cape Killers and surprising Songbird and Radioactive Man by accepting the Thunderbolts offer. “Namesake” was entertaining, seeing Venom trying to defend his Scorpion trademark, and the fight was rather unexpected. “Reason in Madness” was enjoyable, seeing Norman Osborn in action as a human and not as the Green Goblin and still kicking butt was exciting. “Dark Origin” was my favorite story in the book, getting to look back at Eddie’s history and seeing what led him on his path to being who he was as both Eddie Brock and Venom was so much fun. Overall, I thought this book was very well written. Now, since this is a graphic novel, we also have to look at the artwork as well as the story. For the most part, I enjoyed the artwork. I thought most of it was relatively good, if not better. My favorites were Terry Dodson, Frank Cho, and Angel Medina, and I also enjoyed the work of Leonard Kirk. I generally enjoyed the work of Clayton Crain, but there were moments when Crain’s work did go wrong. Lee Weeks, Rick Hoberg and Ben Oliver did decent work, sometimes it was a little gritty, but I still found it enjoyable. And I did not care for the art from Leinil Francis Yu on “Switching Sides” at all. Now, I know this is being nitpicky, but I also evaluate the appropriateness of title and cover applied to graphic novels as well. And I will say that I don’t feel that “Sting of the Scorpion” was the perfect title for this book. It’s true that this book does involve Mac Gargan, the former Scorpion, but he’s not active as Scorpion in this book at all, and he also doesn’t hold as much of a majority of appearance as Venom as Eddie Brock did in this collection. I feel like a better title for this collection would have been “Dark Origin,” which would have been more fitting to the overall content for not only having the five issue “Venom: Dark Origin” limited series, but for featuring the birth of Toxin, and Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan both becoming Venom. As for the cover, this collection is fronted with Spider-Man perched on a building in the rain with Angelo Fortunato as Venom standing menacingly behind him. I feel like this was poor representation as Angelo appeared as Venom in only two issues in this entire book. As far as marketing goes, I feel the branding is not proper for the majority of the content in this particular collection.

Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews like this at this point, and in each one, I’ve been obligated to explain the usage of that word every single time. I know some of you have been to these reviews before and know what I’m about to say, so if you do, bear with me while I explain it to the newbs who are reading a Tim Cubbin review for the first time. So, essentially, accessibility means how easy it is to understand the material contained in this volume with no outside or prior knowledge of the characters or storylines. So, when asking the question of if this book is accessible, I will say that it really isn’t. This book has issues of “Marvel Knights Spider-Man” that are part of a twelve-issue storyline, but this book only contains excerpts and three entire issues, with only blurbs explaining the pieces that are missing. I feel like this book is extremely incomplete in that particular story. It also has tie-ins to other events like “Civil War” and “Back in Black,” detracting from making this easily accessible to beginners. I feel like if you are looking to get into reading Marvel Comics for the first time and are looking for a place to start, this book is not a good choice for you.

We’re up to the point where I give this book the ultimate evaluation: my numeric score. To some people, this is the key reason they come to read my reviews: to find out exactly how good I feel a book is. My scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. The lowest score I can give is a one. That score means that this is one of the worst things I have ever read in my entire life, and the money I spent buying it and time I spent reading it were such a colossal waste and I totally regret all of it and wish I could go back and undo it. My highest score is ten. That score is reserved only for sheer perfection. That means that the story was exciting and engaging and entertaining the whole way through; the art was consistently visually appealing; the title fits the main theme of the book; and that what is shown on the cover is actually a proper representation of the content of this book. It also means that the time I spent reading this book was some of the best time of my life while consuming a form of entertainment. I’m not in the business of just handing out a ten to a book that doesn’t deserve it, and I am very hard to please. But in terms of what I’m looking for when I evaluate a book, the story was an enjoyable read, the art was, for the most part, relatively decent, but the title and cover, while are delivered upon in the book itself, don’t capture the totality of the essence of this book. So, when taking all the ingredients that make up the book, pouring them into my metaphorical blender, and blending them until they are completely fluid, then pouring the liquid out into a cup, the liquid represents a score of… an eight! This book was an enjoyable read, but the marketing does seem a little off in my opinion.

Our next stop on our journey through this review is the recommendation segment. This segment focuses on two topics. The first is to answer the question of, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation with me about this book? The second topic is to discuss what aspects of this book would appeal to specific readers, based on the content and what a person looks for when they read a book, and not looking at the obvious of fans of Venom, Marvel, or the creative team. In answer to the question, if you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading and my personal recommendation that you want to read this book, I would tell you to definitely read this book. Hop onto your favorite online retailer, head over to your favorite bookstore, your local comic book shop, your local library, or hit up a friend or family member with this book and get your hands on a copy as soon as you can. As far as the content that readers might find appealing, if you like stories about aliens, you’d probably find this book appealing. This book is also appealing to fans of horror comics. Also, fans of stories about people dealing with depression and other psychological issues might find something to relate to in this book. And people with an interest in journalism could be interested in this book.

Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about ready to say goodbye for now. There are a bunch of things I do have to say first. If you liked this post and want to check out more of my work, keep looking at timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve been doing this blog for almost six years now. During that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. While I have posted short stories and poetry, this blog favors a journalistic approach, and I’ve also featured articles, essays, and editorials, but my primary focus is reviews. I’ve reviewed some prose novels, manga, and comic book events, but the majority of the reviews have been of graphic novels, particularly Marvel Epic Collections. I have done over seven dozen such reviews. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, and if possible, put up a review of it. At the moment, there are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed, three because I didn’t have a laptop to type a review on at the time, and one due to scheduling issues that made writing a review a problem and by the time I got around to being able to write a review I wasn’t able to properly recall the book to do an accurate review, but that should be amended by around the start of next year. I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released thus far. If you liked this review and want to read more similar posts, feel free to search for my reviews of “Venom: Shiver” “Venom: Agent Venom” “Venom: The Savage Six” and “Venom: Space Knight” for more Venom content. I post on a very frequent basis, at least once every two months, but usually more often than that, depending on releases of books to review and my scheduling. Just so you know, my next review is going to be on “Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!” You can expect to see it posted within the next two months following the publication of this post. Everything I say on this blog is strictly my opinion. I respect that you might not agree with what I have to say, and if you have ever read anything I’ve reviewed or have anything you’d like to say, like you disagreed with anything I’ve posted, or if you agree with me, or if you just want to let me know what you think of my post, feel free to leave a comment or a response or a post of some kind. I’d love to hear from you guys as I value all my readers and their opinions. Please follow, like, share, retweet, do something to spread me around the internet to your friends, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, so don’t expect me to stop anytime soon. I’m looking forward to posting again and hope you’ll come back to join me. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Carnage: Carnage U.S.A."

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Carnage: Carnage U.S.A.” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Tech billionaire Michael Hall recovered the body of Cletus Kasady/Carnage from space after Carnage had been ripped in half by the superhero the Sentry. Francis Barrison/Shriek, Carnage’s lover and a supervillain patient at Ravencroft, a sanitorium bought over by Hall Industries, was being transported to a Hall Industries facility. The Spider-Doppelganger, who thought of her as its mother, sensed her presence and attacked the truck carrying her. Shriek’s psychiatrist, Doctor Tanis Nieves, tried to use her car to run the truck off the road. Tony Stark/Iron Man and Peter Parker/Spider-Man came to stop the creature, but Shriek used her mind control powers to incite an angry mob against the heroes. Two tech powered employees for Hall Industries, Royal Blue and Firebrick, joined the fight and shot the Spider-Doppelganger, hitting Nieves as well. The truck got away, and the mob quieted down. Nieves was outfitted with a high-tech prosthetic arm from Hall Industries that was laced with a piece of the Carnage symbiote. Spider-Man visited Nieves in the hospital, suspicious of Shriek’s part in the riot, and Nieve’s confirmed she was Shriek’s doctor but did not implicate Hall Industries. Stark found traces of the Carnage symbiote left behind from the skirmish with Royal Blue and Firebrick and told Spider-Man, who had a long history with symbiotes. Nieves demanded to see Shriek during the middle of an experiment, and the symbiote in her prosthetic arm took over and attacked. Stark pieced together that Hall was involved, and Iron Man and Spider-Man went to Hall Industries, where they were attacked by the tech soldiers Paris Green, Firebrick, Royal Blue, Burnt Orange, and Gun Metal. Nieves freed the Carnage symbiote, and the symbiote attached to her. The tech soldiers were called in to fight Carnage. Iron Man and Spider-Msn joined the fight. As Shriek was being moved, the Spider-Doppelganger tried to rescue Shriek. The Hall employees moving Shriek fought the creature, and Shriek attacked the guards to save the creature. Carnage found its way to the cell where Cletus Kasady was secretly being kept alive. The symbiote left Nieves and rejoined with Kasady. Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hall tech soldiers fought Carnage, but Carnage pulled the symbiote tech from the soldiers and added it to himself. Shriek found Nieves and informed her she was carrying Carnage’s baby. Tanis cut off her prosthetic arm to try to prevent bonding with a symbiote. Shriek attached the arm to herself, then joined Carnage in the fight, mind controlling all the civilians to her side, along with the Spider-Doppelganger. The tide turned against the heroes, and as it looked like the heroes were losing, Nieves became the symbiote hero Scorn. Scorn forced Shriek to use her sonic powers to destroy Carnage’s armor, but Carnage himself was able to escape. Nieves was then placed under Stark’s care.

                Carnage escaped to Doverton, Colorado, where he took over the entire town. Kasady sent the sheriff out with his demands. The Avengers, Spider-Man, James Howlett/Wolverine, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Ben Grimm/Thing were called in to rescue the town. Upon arriving, they encountered Kasady, who expanded the symbiote and corrupted the Avengers, except for Spider-Man. The government, in response, sent in two contingency plans, all symbiote powered agents, Contingency A was Scorn. Contingency B was soldiers Marcus Simms/Lasher, James Murphy/Agony, Rico Axelson/Phage, and Howard Ogden/Riot. Spider-Man was rescued by the citizens of Doverton who were able to escape from Carnage and were hiding on the Ralsby Estate outside Doverton. Carnage sent the wife and children of one of the escapees to the Ralsby Estate to kill their family. They were unable to go through with their mission. Carnage briefly lost control over Captain America, and Cap called in a third contingency plan: Eugene “Flash” Thompson/Venom. Spider-Man and Contingencies A and B fought Carnage and the symbiote civilians of Doverton and the symbiote Avengers until Venom arrived. Scorn set up a trap that separated symbiotes from their hosts and plowed Carnage into it, but unintentionally also drove Venom into it as well. Flash and Cletus fought without their symbiotes. The government fired on a localized area of Doverton to destroy the symbiote mass, and Cletus Kasady was arrested and detained.

                Carnage managed to bust out of custody from the Thunderbolts Mountain Maximum Security Prison. Venom was called in to hunt him down. On the footage of Carnage’s escape, Venom saw a small creature. Venom called his contact, Daily Inquisitor reporter Katy Kiernan, who sent him a report about the Prometheus Pit in Houston, Texas. Kaine Parker/Scarlet Spider, who operated in Houston, found a survivor of a crime scene, who seemed to be afraid of him. Katy flew to Houston to investigate the story and met with Doctor Ketola, who had built a version of the Prometheus Pit at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Carnage attacked the Space Center, and Scarlet Spider swung in to try to stop him. A group of small creatures joined the fight and forced Ketola to activate the Prometheus Pit. Carnage grabbed Katy and stepped through it. Venom arrived at the scene and lost control of the symbiote and attacked Scarlet Spider. After a brief fight, Flash regained control of the symbiote, and Scarlet Spider and Venom stepped through the Prometheus Pit. The two arrived in separate locations in the Microverse. Venom was discovered by the Enigma Force. Scarlet Spider arrived in front of the Redeemer. Carnage was brought to the Body Banks. Enigma Force traveled through the Microverse with Venom to fight Marquis Radu. The Redeemer brought Scarlet Spider to Marquis Radu’s location, where they were attacked by Carnage. The Redeemer was endangered, and Scarlet Spider broke off the attack. Marquis Radu abducted Venom, the Enigma Force, Katy, and Carnage and brought them to the Body Banks. Marquis Radu used the Venom and Carnage symbiotes to create an army of symbiote soldiers. The Enigma Force and Katy managed to break free. Carnage escaped from the Microverse. The Redeemer used his powers to return Scarlet Spider, Venom and Katy to Houston, but they did not arrive full-sized. Scarlet Spider and Venom battled the symbiote soldiers until they returned to regular size. Venom detonated a sonic bomb, destroying the symbiote soldier and knocking out Carnage. Scarlet Spider then lobotomized Cletus Kasady. Carnage was apprehended and sedated.

                Bentley Whitman/Wizard staged a prison break to recruit Carnage for his Frightful Four, along with Ulysses Klaw and Karl Malus. Wizard was dying due to dementia caused by a fight with Black Bolt and wanted to impress his estranged clone/son Bentley-23 before he passed away. However, Wizard was unable to bend Carnage to his will. Wizard decided to control Carnage, Wizard would have to change Carnage’s host. Wizard performed a blood transfusion between Cletus Kasady and Malus. Wizard decided the Frightful Four would stage an attack on City Hall in New York City and take down Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. As the Frightful Four attacked City Hall and entered the mayor’s office, they were greeted by Otto Octavius/Spider-Man and his Spider Patrol. The Superior Spider-Man then had to fight the Frightful Four and the Superior Carnage to save City Hall.

                Okay, I think that’s a good enough synopsis summary. Now it’s time for my personal input for the review. We’re going to start, as always, with my own personal opinions on the book. Some of my longtime readers may recall that Carnage is my favorite supervillain. So, of course when I found out Marvel was putting out a “Carnage” Modern Era Epic Collection, I was super excited. And I will say that I loved this book. Mind you that I did read these stories years ago, but it’s been at least twelve years on parts of this book, so the refresher was needed. But I thought these stories were excellent. I’ve always been a fan of Carnage, and I also enjoyed Flash Thompson/Venom and Kaine Parker/Scarlet Spider, so having all three of these characters featured in one volume was a huge thrill for me. Some of my longtime readers may recall that the “Minimum Carnage” storyarc was also featured in “Venom: The Savage Six,” so the story has been reviewed before in my review of that graphic novel, if you would like to compare them. Anyway, “Carnage” was interesting to me, I liked how Hall made his technology out of the Carnage symbiote, and Scorn was an interesting new character in my opinion. “Carnage U.S.A.” was highly enjoyable to me, the whole concept of Carnage taking over a whole town was highly entertaining. I loved “Minimum Carnage,” the Scarlet Spider/Venom crossover event was a great idea, in my opinion, taking these two vastly different characters and forcing them to try to achieve the same goal was genius. “Superior Carnage” was compelling, watching the Wizard making a last-ditch effort to impress his son almost made me root for the villain, which I actually felt was quite a brilliant twist. While I loved the stories, the art presents a little bit of a problem. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I have a few complaints. While I enjoyed Clayton Crain’s work on “Carnage” and “Carnage U.S.A.” I will say that I felt that his coloring was a little too dark. Also, I was not a fan of Declan Shalvey’s work on “Venom” in “Minimum Carnage.” That said, the rest of the art was, in my opinion, fantastic. But the biggest problem I have with the art is Cletus Kasady’s legs. Crain drew Kasady as he had been torn in half by the Sentry, with a prosthetic lower body. This lower body was destroyed during his fight with Flash Thompson during “Carnage U.S.A.” However, all the other artists who drew Kasady in human form gave Kasady flesh and blood legs. This inconsistency greatly bothers me. I feel it is something the editors should have noticed. Otherwise, I felt this book was a stellar Modern Era Epic Collection and hope to see more “Carnage” Modern Era Epic Collections in the future. Also, I felt that the title “Carnage U.S.A.” was highly adequate.

                Next on our list of things to discuss, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve explained this at least six dozen times at this point, but I know I always have new readers every time I do a post who don’t know what I mean when I use the word, so I shall explain myself once again. When I say “accessibility” I mean if a person who knows nothing about Marvel Comics can pick up this book, read it, and completely understand what they have just read. I will say this book does have some accessibility factors, but there are some details that are off-putting to readers who are unfamiliar with the comics. First off, Flash Thompson is not the best-known Venom, Kaine Parker is not the most well-known Scarlet Spider, and readers who don’t know Marvel would have difficulty with Otto Octavius being the Superior Spider-Man. But it does have a standalone kind of feel to it, particularly the fact that most of it is limited series. This volume is comprised of three limited series, two one-shots, and four regular issues from two ongoing series. Would I recommend it as a first read for someone who wants to start getting into Marvel Comics? Not particularly, but it’s not the worst place a new reader can start.

                Okay, now that I’ve been prattling on for a long time, I think it’s high time I move on to the point that is one of the key components of my review: the numeric score. I’m not going to say it’s the single most important part of my review, everyone reads my reviews for different reasons, but the score is a very integral part of any of my reviews. So, I score on a very basic system, on a scale of one through ten. One means this book is smelly garbage that should be avoided at all cost. Ten means this book is sheer perfection. People who have read my reviews before know I’m very particular about what I consider perfection and I’m not in the business of just posting every book I read is a ten. And I will say this book is just not perfection. While yes, the stories were fantastic, the art had its problems, with the color pallet being a little dark in Crain’s work, and Shalvey’s work didn’t appeal to my visual tastes, and yes, there was the forgetting of Cletus Kasady having been cut in half. However, I still thought this was an excellent book, and I feel like the score I give should reflect on that. So, when I put the book into my metaphorical review-mixing blender and turn it on and mix this book until it’s a fine liquid, taking everything in this book into account, the fantastic story, the relatively decent art, the adequate title, and I pour it out into my metaphorical cup, this score is… an eight. I felt like this book had an exemplary story, and if a different artist had been selected for “Venom” and if the artists had remembered to follow continuity on Kasady’s body, the score could have been higher, but for what it was, this book was a phenomenal effort.

                Next on our list of things to do is the recommendation. In this segment I do two things. The first is I tell you, my readers, if I personally recommend this book to you, or if I were to talk to anyone about this book, would I recommend it to them? The second thing I do is say regardless of if I would recommend the book or not, whom do I think would be the best audience to read this book. So, to answer the first question, you can probably already guess at this point based on the excellent review I’ve given that this book gets my personal recommendation. And if you guessed that, you would be absolutely correct. I do recommend this book to anyone within the sound of my voice and anyone reading this review who is interested in reading this review based solely on what I am writing right now should definitely make every effort to try to obtain this book, either going to your favorite online retailer, or bookstore, or if you’re really lucky your local library might have it, just do whatever you can to get your hands on it, I think this is an exceptional book and well worth the read. As to whom I think the best audience for this book is, I would say anyone who is a fan of Carnage or any symbiote storylines. I would also say people who like horror comics would really enjoy this. And I would also say people who like psychological comics would definitely be a target audience.

                Okay, we’re getting to a point where we are just about ready to part ways. There are a few things I have to say before I go. The first is that I have been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 170 posts. Over seven dozen of them are book reviews just like this. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after publication and post a review as soon as I possibly can after I read them. I post on a very frequent basis because of this, usually at least one post a month. You can expect to see my next post “Annihilation: Desperate Measures” within the next week after my publishing this post. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content on this blog to check out if you enjoyed this post. I’ll be back soon, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"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!

“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!

"Maximum Carnage"

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics event “Maximum Carnage.”

            Okay, for you new readers, my name is Tim Cubbin. I am a certified journalist but can’t find employment, so to give myself purpose, I write this blog. I write essays, editorials, short stories, reviews, and I keep promising poetry but haven’t gotten around to it but I totally definitely will soon. Pretty much all my reviews have to do with Marvel, but every once in a while I tackle other content matter. When I review comic events, they’re usually from years back, and this is no different. I have Marvel Unlimited and read A LOT of reading lists, and in honor of the theatrical release of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (which I want to see because Carnage is my FAVORITE Marvel super villain but because of COVID I have no movie theaters open near me so I have to [shudder] wait until Blu-ray) the programmers highlighted the “Maximum Carnage” event, so OF COURSE I read it, and my devoted followers will note I haven’t posted anything in a while, so I said to myself, “Well, I read it, now I’ll review it” and now here we are. Again, new readers don’t know how my reviews work, and I’m sorry to my regulars that I have to explain this and you know how I roll, so here’s the deal: first I give my monologue (which I am obviously doing right now), then I give a synopsis of the story. This will also contain certain descriptions of characters for people who have no idea who Spider-Man and Carnage are. Then I go on to my review. My reviews consist of four parts. Part one: my own follow-up thoughts. Part two: accessibility (for my new readers who don’t know what I mean, just stay with me, I’ll explain when we get there). Part three: my numerical score (again new readers, I’ll explain my system when I get there). Part four: do I recommend this to others and if so, why? Then I write a few sentences and log out. You with me? Good! (You are with me, right? If you aren’t, I honestly don’t know what to say. Please be with me?)

            I think the best place to start will be to describe a bit about Spider-Man and Carnage (like I said I would). First off, Spider-Man. Peter Parker was fifteen years old. He was orphaned as a child and lived with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. He was top student in grades, but was heavily bullied. One day, he went to a radiology demonstration. A spider got in the way of the radioactive rays. As it died, it bit Peter Parker and then Cindy Moon (Cindy however, has nothing to do with this story, she wasn’t revealed to have existed until quite a while later, so we’ll just leave her out of this, but I had to be totally correct here and mentioned her). Peter gained spider-like abilities: adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength, and agility of a spider; and a precognitive sense of danger which he calls “spider-sense.” He also created web shooters, which he uses to travel New York City faster, to restrain bad guys, and to save others in danger. At first, he wanted to use his powers to make money. After a television appearance, Peter let a burglar run past him, figuring it was nothing to him, why should he get involved? That burglar broke into the Parker residence and murdered Peter’s Uncle Ben. Peter caught him, and thought of something his Uncle Ben used to say: “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” (That’s how it was said in the comics. If you’ve only seen the movies, it was misquoted as “With great power comes great responsibility,” but we’re talking the comics, so “there must also come” is what I’m going with). After that, he decided to use his powers for good use and make the world a better and safer place. He has a very extensive rogue’s gallery, but of all of his enemies, Carnage is among the most dangerous.

            Cletus Kasady was a convicted serial killer, a total nutcase, with absolutely no remorse. He was held in prison (because that’s where they put convicted serial killers for life or until they are executed, of course, but Kasady just had several life’s sentences, so, yeah, jail). His cellmate was one Eddie Brock, formerly the super villain called Venom. Brock had powers from an alien creature called a Klyntar symbiote. The symbiote was brought to earth by Spider-Man after the first Secret War on Battleworld when Peter was given it after he needed a new costume for proprieties’ sake when his original was damaged. The symbiote enhanced Peter’s powers, but when Peter found out the symbiote was a living creature that was trying to bond with it, he spurned it and separated from it. The symbiote found Eddie Brock, who blamed Spider-Man for his ruined journalistic career, and they became Venom. Eddie had been separated from the symbiote after a battle with Spidey. The symbiote eventually came back and broke Eddie out of jail, but while doing so, it spawned another symbiote. This symbiote bonded with Kasady, and they became Carnage. After an intense battle with Spider-Man and Venom, Kasady had been separated from the symbiote.

            And that brings us to “Maximum Carnage.” Without the symbiote, some idiots decided to send Kasady to Ravencroft Sanatorium for study. As it turned out, the Carnage symbiote had actually entered into Kasady’s bloodstream during their bonding period and Kasady cut himself and became Carnage again. Carnage then escaped Ravencroft, busting out Frances Louise Barrison/Shriek in the process and they decided they were now husband and wife. Barrison can manipulate sound into a solid force and can release pheromones that cause negative emotions in others. Upon escape, the couple “adopted” the Spider-Man Doppelganger, the Demogoblin, and Miles Warren/Carrion. Shriek also turned a large grouping of New Yorkers into a rioting mob.

            Obviously heroes were needed to combat this situation, and Spider-Man took the lead, what with Carnage being one of his rogues. He had an epic team-up with Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, Tyrone Johnson/Cloak, Morbius the Living Vampire, the cyborg Deathlok, and (surprisingly), Venom.

            Okay, I think that’s all you need to know. Now let’s start with my own personal thoughts. Alright, I must say that I LOVED this event. I thought it was epic, one of the (possibly the) best Carnage stories I have ever read. The story was so exciting for me. I loved the Carnage “Family.” I thought this was a great grouping of villain, and I felt that “Team Spidey” was an awesome gathering. I mean, I could go on-and-on about this, but I won’t, I don’t want to bore you.

            Alright, now we go to accessibility. For you new readers to my blog intrigued by my tags, I always tell you what background information I feel is needed for optimal enjoyment of the story. I don’t give a numeric score for this, but I will usually go into background knowledge. For this event, I thought it was a great jumping in point. I feel that this is very much self-contained and that knowing nothing about Spider-Man and Carnage beyond what you’ve read in this post is more than enough to totally dig into.

            Well, now the whole reason you’re reading this: my numeric score. For you new readers, my score is based on a scale of one to ten, one being “Ugh, this was a piece of garbage!” ten being “this was one of the best stories I have EVER read!” Based on what you’ve read on this post, I’m sure you’re expecting to see very high. I will say I am a VERY harsh scorer as my regulars know, so a high score is a GREAT honor. So, my number score is… (drumroll) nine! I would love to have given this a ten, but I don’t know why, I just can’t quite do that. I just have to hold back. There’s something.

            This is now actually a first being singled out in a post, but will definitely be done in every review from now on, is if I recommend this event. Do I? YES! As I said, this is a good jump-on point for new readers, and if you like/love Carnage, you should TOTALLY read this and you most likely enjoy it. I mean, like I said, this is (one of) the best Carnage stories I’ve ever read, and Carnage is my favorite super villain, so you can’t get any higher recommendation than that.

            Okay, now, if you’re still here, you are THE BEST! I mean, you stuck with me through this whole rant, so thanks for the support! So now, please retweet, like, follow, comment, whatever you can do on the platform you found this on, that would be greatly appreciated and then you are TOTALLY THE BEST! Be ready for plenty more content, I have three more reviews on the way, and an editorial and two essays planned, so whatever, be on the lookout. If you’ve never been here before, you can check out other posts, I have done over fifty now, so yeah, plenty of stuff to read! And now, as always, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!