CARNAGE #4
Carnage Part Four
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Clayton Crain
Cover Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Warning – SPOILERS below may make you scream… “VOLTRON!”
The Plot
We get a flash back that shows what happened to Carnage right after the Sentry rips him in half. The symbiote takes itself and Cletus into “hibernation” and started to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen which kept the two alive until they are woken up in a lab some time later. In the lab a few scientists remove the symbiote. Back in present day everyone is still baffled that Cletus Kasady is still alive and that now he’s coming after Michael Hall. The product crew goes after Carnage with no success as the symbiote takes control of their suits and absorbs each member into his body, becoming a mechanized symbiote monster.
Back in the secure holding cell at Hall Industries, Doctor Tanis Nieves is with Shriek and Doppelganger. Shriek believes that Tanis is trying to break up her and Cletus since she wore his symbiote but then realizes the good doctor is only special because she’s carrying the Carnage symbiote’s new offspring. Back in the streets Spidey and Iron Man are duking it out with Voltron Carnage (I’ll keep calling him that until further notice) and are getting their butts handed to them.
Back inside Tanis cuts her symbiotic arm off with a shard of glass and Shriek picks it up. Finally when Spidey and Iron Man get the upper hand on Voltron Carnage they are blasted away by Shriek who has bonded the symbiotic arm to her body.
The Good
The art and writing are okay to say the least. The battle sequences were alright. That’s all I can really point out in this issue without going on a tantrum.
The Bad
What the hell happened to the good stuff that I was reading before? I’ll just get to the point with Voltron Carnage. Seriously? Whoever has been reading this and thinking their turning Carnage into an Iron Man villain may be right. This whole absorbing trick that Carnage has been doing since the break out back in New Avengers is happening again. Since when was I reading a book on ULTIMATE Carnage?
I called it either in my last review or the review before that that the product crew was going to get controlled or most likely get killed off. It happened in this very issue to create this Voltron/Power Ranger giant robot wannabe. And the weird thing is he looks more like Venom then he does Carnage.
Carnage apparently will now have a new offspring. I don’t totally hate it yet I wish that they would acknowledge the existence of Toxin. The art and writing kind of take a step back in this issue. Almost half the panels in this issue end up looking dirty. And Spidey calling Voltron Carnage a “sick hillbilly”, really? Of all the things you could say you say that? Really??
Favorite Spidey Line
-While Spidey and Voltron Carnage are fighting-
Spidey: “Hall’s long gone by now Kasady and you’ve tried to take my city before, remember?”
Voltron Carnage: “You didn’t stop me. The tide just went out. But the moon’s full isn’t it. Tide’s comin’ back in.”
Spidey: “Are you rehearsing for a poetry slam?”
Rating
With this mini coming out every two months you’d think that the story would stay on the rails. Even though I didn’t like a few things in this issue it is important to pick it up since there is a plot development to it. 2.5 out of 5 webheads. That’s a 50% if you’re thinking as if it were a test in school. Expect my final review for Carnage… in two months!
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it was good
reminds me more of seperation anxiety rather than ultron.
thumbs up
@two-bit specialist:
The 90’s. Good times.
Embedding didn’t work. I meant this scene:
http://www.4thletter.net/gavok/venom/beers.jpg
Planet of the Symbiotes had its moments, like this one:
Of course, at then end, Brock and the Venom symbiote supposedly merged forever at a molecular level… You know how that turned out.
@Sthenurus – I didn’t completely hate the issue, I just thought it was the weakest one out of all the issues that have come out. I am glad to see the product crew gone though.
You are right about Planet of the Symbiotes, I had forgotten about that story… possibly because maybe my subconscious wanted me to. 🙂
I remember giant carnage. He was like 30 stories tall. Oh the 90’s…
This carnage looks a lot like the “Maximum Carnage” in the what if: Scarlet Spider had killed Spider-man.
Now on the book itself; I didnt hate it as much as you seem to have hate it. I just wish they wouldn’t have come up with such a crappy explanation on how kasady survived and just let the good doctor become a new Carnage, with Kasady’s mind slowly taking over. I don’t think Carny will keep his megazord form. I’m pretty confident he will lose it by the end of the mini.
And just a little note: Carnage started absorbing other symbiotes in the cross over Planet of the Symbiotes, back in the 90’s. And he turned into A GIANT FREAKING CARNAGE. So this is far less annoying than it could have been. 😉