I’m on a quest to read all Spider-Man stories, one collection at a time. Today, I read Absolute Carnage. This event sees Spider-Man and Venom team up to stop Carnage from unleashing a demonic entity that threatens the universe.
Reading Order
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2019 (SPIDER-MAN/VENOM) #1
ABSOLUTE CARNAGE #1-5
Plot
Carnage seeks out anyone that has bonded with a symbiote, both living and dead. His quest is to extract the “codex”, a portion of the symbiote that remains with anyone that has been its host. Carnage plans to extract all the codices in order to awaken Knull, a god of darkness that wants to destroy all light in the universe. Eddie Brock (Venom) and Peter Parker (Spider-Man) team up to stop Carnage, joining forces with other superheroes. After a battle where the heroes fight with Carnage and its many infected hosts, Venom manages to defeat Carnage, but in the process awakens Knull, who heads to Earth.
Review
The stakes are high in this story, as we are taken from heart stopping suspense to a climatic edge-of-your-seat battle. Whenever Carnage is involved, Spider-Man’s stories take a dark turn. The extreme violence and gore seems to be a requirement for a good Carnage story. I don’t enjoy gratuitous violence in comics as much as I used to, but the way the story was laid out did a great job of keeping me interested and hooked. There was some prerequisite reading to understand this story, so it may be more enjoyable for someone who is familiar with stories like “Maximum Carnage”, “Red Goblin”, and the latest Venom series.
Rating
4.5 (out of 5). A good story, perhaps a bit too violent and with a lot of previous baggage so that it does not stand well on its own without supporting material.
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