Scarlet Spider #10 “Minimum Carnage Part 2” Review

So, after an event opening last week that left Chris and I a bit uninterested (don’t forget to check out our review of Minimum Carnage Alpha for part 1 of this story!), can Chris Yost ratchet up the proceedings enough in part 2 to leave me wanting more? The answer – through sheer force of good writing – kinda, yeah.

“Minimum Carnage Part 2: Inner Space”

Writer: Chris Yost

Pencils: Khoi Pham w/ Reilly Brown

Inks: Tom Palmer w/ Chris Sotomayor

Colors: Delgado & Soto

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Cover by: Ryan Stegman & Marte Gracia

Special Thanks to Cullen Bunn

THE STORY: In the aftermath of Carnage’s massacre at NASA in Houston and subsequent escape into the Microverse, Kaine is angrier than he’s been “since Reilly.” So when Agent Venom (aka Flash Thompson) shows up and yells at him to get down on the ground and put his hands on his head…that doesn’t happen (read also: stingers come out instead). A “heroes misunderstand each other” fight very, VERY nearly ensues, but it turns out Flash actually has a cool head and calms down the situation, remembering the “other Spider-Man” that took down the Queen in Spider-Island and putting together that the Scarlet Spider is the same man. After a brief chat, though, Flash loses control of the Venom symbiote and a REAL fight ensues! After some hardcore fisticuffs, Flash manages to get the symbiote back under control, and they see a woman cowering in the wreckage – Dr. Ketola, who it turns out was NOT killed by Carnage in the last issue (if you missed that review, the art could have gone either way). The doctor tells the two about the Microverse and that there’s life there, and informs Venom of his friend Katy’s kidnapping. Scarlet Spider decides it’s time to bounce, while Venom asks the doc to fix the machine and send him after Carnage.

In the Microverse, we learn that Carnage wants Katy to document what he’s going to do for everyone to know. We also learn that these little people don’t like Carnage very much, and that they have a hooded master who is confident Carnage will do “his job.”

Back in the big boy world, Kaine returns to the Pit in time to go with Venom to the Microverse, but there’s a spiel about the two not necessarily arriving together or even SURVIVING. They survive, but that first part was prophetic. Venom arrives in a picturesque place only to be attacked by tiny pink fangy faeries and saved by other tiny people who I believe to be the Micronaughts, and they ask him for help. Scarlet Spider ends up on what looks like the surface of the moon, accompanied by a guy in a cloak and a partial face-wrap, about to be eaten by giant space monsters!

MY THOUGHTS: Well that’s a bit more like it. I don’t think it’s out of line that when I signed on for this crossover of Scarlet Spider and Venom, I wanted to see Scarlet Spider and Venom together, which is something Minimum Carnage Alpha did not deliver. Part 2, however, has it in spades and I find myself much more entertained! And not only that, but Chris Yost plays their meeting really, really smart.

The first smart thing he does is to acknowledge the tired trope of “hero vs. hero because of a misunderstanding” and then chuck it completely out the door. On the final page of last issue when Kaine was in a murderous rage and muttering “kill you…” when Venom stepped in with a gun and started giving orders, it seemed unavoidable that this trope would be fulfilled and lazy storytelling would be had by all. And I groaned audibly. But lo, Chris Yost is out to prove that he is anything but lazy! And how does he sidestep this cliche? By simply writing Flash Thompson in character as a level-headed, reasonable guy. Now, writing a character IN character instead of going for a quick and easy action scene isn’t something that should feel so revolutionary, and yet it certainly feels damn refreshing to me.

The second smart thing here is that after eschewing the cliche, Yost gets in a good fight anyway! In fact, by taking the time to get to a fight that starts logically instead of lazily, what we get is actually a BETTER fight between the two. Flash losing control of the symbiote would seem to be a result of Venom recognizing Kaine, and quite possibly mistaking him for Peter Parker. Either way, the symbiote does. Not. Like him. And not only does that make perfect sense, but it gives us a Venom that strongly echoes the Eddie Brock-era Venom, and seeing him fight Scarlet Spider in THAT form is much, much cooler than simple soldier Venom. The visuals are better, the fight is fiercer, and it allows Kaine to genuinely fight for his life (which would never have been the case if he was fighting Flash in his right mind). I’d like to hold this up as an example for all comic book writers – putting in the work to avoid a lazy trope leads to a much better version of the scene you were trying to get to anyway. Take note.

As it should, the clash of personalities between Kaine and Flash really brings out who Kaine is with some good dialogue and some good narration. The perfect example of the disconnect between these two personalities is as follows:

VENOM: “Carnage is our responsibility.”
SCARLET SPIDER: “Don’t. Don’t say that to me ever. Let Carnage go terrorize leprechauns in some other universe, I don’t give a @#$%. Just so long as he stays out of Houston.”

One line. It took Yost all of one line to remind us of the fundamental difference between Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider and set up the complete dichotomy between the characters of Kaine and Flash Thompson.

The only real problem with this issue is that I still don’t have a reason to care about what’s going on with Carnage in a story called Minimum CARNAGE. Although now that I type that, it occurs to me that the title is actually as promised, if taken literally. This issue contains very little of Carnage, who wreaks no carnage whatsoever, and, well…doesn’t really do anything at all. He has a quick mustache twirl about Katy bearing witness to what he’s going to do, but he sure doesn’t seem in a hurry to DO whatever the hell that is. Instead he disappears after just two pages while his tiny cohorts (who look normal sized now since Carnage is their size…I know, I didn’t care either) grouse about not liking or trusting him, and their hooded master (seen only from behind and as a hologram) gets a mustache twirl of his own.

Then we’ve got the ending. Venom and Scarlet Spider get split up. Ok now – can anyone raise their hand and tell me what made this issue so much better than the last? If you answered “Scarlet Spider and Venom were actually together in their crossover,” you win the prize! So to split them up again after barely one issue together is quite disappointing. Plus, I really don’t care about either of their situations. Tiny heroes? Space bugs? Why can’t I just have Scarlet Spider and Venom vs. Carnage? I guess six issues was just too much space to fill with that. So I find myself wishing we could have done away with the one-shots book-ending this crossover and stuck with the 4 issues of the main title for a leaner, more exciting story.

I will, however, be interested to see if Venom can finally get a real starring role in this crossover when it makes it into his own book next week. So far we’ve had a one-shot where Chris and I agreed that Scarlet Spider completely stole the show, and now we’ve had an issue of Scarlet Spider which was narrated by its titular character as usual. So for these first two parts we’ve had a clear star and his name is Kaine. Can Cullen Bunn give us Venom as a viable lead of this event next week in Venom #26, or can Scarlet Spider still steal the show even in someone else’s book? That’s the real reason to tune in next week if you ask me.

RATING: 4 webs out of 5. I had my gripes with this issue, but smart writing led to some great material for the majority of the pages, which made for a pretty entertaining reading experience overall. Definite improvement over part 1.

And don’t forget to follow the story into part 3 next week in CrazyChris’ Venom #26 review!