It’s time for a Symbiote bug-hunt!
Creative Staff:
Story: Gerry Conway
Art: Mike Perkins
Colors: Andy Troy
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
What They Say:
Get ready to scream! Carnage, the homicidal symbiote is back, and he’s leaving a trail of bodies behind him. The FBI is hot on his trail, with a different playbook since their serial killer is a super villain. They’re equipped with the latest sonic tech and a team including military hero/astronaut John Jameson and a reformed Eddie Brock/Toxin! But when Carnage escapes into an abandoned coal mine, the FBI’s plan is starting to look like a trap… for them! And when trapped down in a mineshaft with Carnage, the situation for the FBI’s symbiote squad gets HAIRY when John Jameson loses his cool.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Back when the alien symbiote first broke onto the scene in my early comics collecting days in the 80’s amid the original Secret Wars, I loved the twists and turns that lead into Venom and how it became its own thing over the years. What I didn’t get into was Carnage when he appeared about a hundred issues later in Amazing Spider-Man and never really followed or read anything about the character in the few other books I was reading at the time before dropping out of comics entirely. So stepping into this book without any real knowledge or history with the character definitely felt like it could go pear shaped pretty quickly, but I was hopeful that unlike some other relaunches after the new Secret Wars event that it would click. And with Gerry Conway, I knew we’d likely get what we need from that.
Working with Mike Perkins who along with colorist Andy Troy, Conway delivers the closest thing to a horror series here working with the character while also ensuring that new readers can largely follow it even if they only have a base understanding of the Symbiotes that have been a part of all of this since the mid 1980’s The premise is straightforward enough in that Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, is being targeted to be dealt with because of the string of murders he’s caused and is still causing. With some simply psyops to push him in the right direction, ops which cause a lot of innocents to be killed, it’s all about drawing him to an abandoned mine where they’re using a survivor of his original massacre as bait, Manuela “Manny” Calderon. If you’ve got bait, and capable bait at that, and a solid enough plan that has worked with other Symbiotes as Venom is now in government employ, you’ve got options and you exercise them.
Naturally, it doesn’t go well and while the sonic weapons make a good impact at first, there are plans within plans going on here with someone else that wants Carnage in this location in order to introduce him to his larger destiny. But what the book wants to do while teasing that is to have it go pear shaped where Carnage and a number of soldiers end up falling through into unknown tunnels below the trap and turn it into a bug hunt. If you’ve seen movies like Alien/Aliens before, it’s essentially that with Carnage being a brutal yet snarky killer. The soldiers aren’t worth remembering who they are, though the inclusion of Jonah Jameson is worthwhile since that provides a larger connection and it brings Man-Wolf back into play after quiet some time away. To complicate it even more, the team running this operation has brought Eddie Brock along as insurance since he’s bonded with Toxin, which is essentially Venom’s grandkid. And considering Eddie and Venom have quite the history, it’s like he’s bonded with his own grandkid.
Suffice to say, Conway finds plenty of weird angles to brush up against throughout this and that makes for some fun. Brock is a one-note character here since he’s being held in reserve and that shouldn’t work but it adds the right humor along the way. Calderon herself is pretty fun to watch as she’s by the numbers with her own secrets here while Jameson provides for some hard nosed aspects that make him a solid boots on the ground character to engage with since you know he’ll largely survive. Plus, let’s be honest, Man-Wolf. That takes me back a ways to my earlier comic days back when there was a different sense of goofiness that worked in its own weird way. But what works best here is that Carnage, our title character mind you, largely lurks in the shadows once he ends up in these tunnels. He bursts out like a little alien to kill and throw some sharp words, but once we get past that opening in the diner he’s just a threat down below. It’s looking like it’s going to lead to something bigger, but it works well here with what it wants to do as the opening setup.
In Summary:
Carnage is a book I would never have picked up if not for the Timely Comics edition and now it’s one that I’ll likely follow in trade form as it progresses. Conway is a writer I read a lot of work from back in the day and he brings readers up to date well here, though longtime readers may be a bit frustrated by the recap even if presented well. But it did what’s critical with a first issue in a shared universe in that it made it accessible. Paired with Mike Perkins, we have something that looks great as his layouts are strong with some creative areas that really builds a fantastic flow. And his work is elevated thanks to Andy Troy’s color design since so much of it takes place at night, in desolate areas, and in the darkness of the mines. I had no idea what to expect here but it definitely intrigued me a whole lot.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 1st, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
