As the Minimum Carnage story jumps from the pages of Scarlet Spider into Venom, I consequently grab the review baton. Does diving headlong into the war-ravaged Microverse put a spring in this crossover’s step? Read the review!
While you’re at it, check out my tandem review with Kevin for Part One!
And Kevin’s review of Part Two!
Tell ‘em CrazyChris sent ya!
VENOM #26
“Minimum Carnage Part 3: The Madman & The Microverse”
WRITER: Cullen Bunn
ARTIST: Declan Shalvey
COLOR ART: Lee Loughridge
LETTERS: VC’s Joe Caramagna
COVER ART: Patch Zircher & Marte Gracia
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Chris Yost
PLOT:
In the Microverse, there lives good little people and bad little people. The good little people follow the Redeemer, while the bad little people obey Marquis Radu. The bad little people escort Carnage to an abandoned clone factory thing. They tell Carnage that he will be the instrument of the Redeemer’s death. Katy Kiernan, Carnage’s journalist hostage, suggests that the bad little people actually want Carnage for “raw material” to create an army with the factory. Concurring, Carnage apparently kills all of his allies but the one Carnage needs as a “chauffeur.”
Meanwhile, the good little people (Arcturus Rann, Princess Marionette, Quark, Bug, and Flare–former Micronauts who for legal reasons don the moniker “Enigma Force”) have brought Venom aboard their ship with orders to take Venom to the Redeemer. The symbiote causes negative physical reactions in Microverse inhabitants who touch it, and it supposedly poses a risk to the Microverse itself. Many bad little people board the ship and attack. Their sonic weaponry causes Venom to loose control of the symbiote.
Elsewhere, the Scarlet Spider has encountered the Redeemer. After killing a giant bug, Scarlet Spider learns that the Redeemer seeks to find and “heal” Marquis Radu. But then Carnage enters the scene to menace our heroes.
THOUGHTS:
Minimum Carnage? More like Minimum Care-age. HA! I’m so smart. But seriously, this story arc’s main failing is that neither writer has provided strong reasons for readers to take concern in the goings on of the Microverse. We have no sense of who’s fighting whom over what and why, and why it matters. Venom #26 falls into that category of mildly lame comics that aren’t bad enough to get upset over, but still make you yearn for whatever better comic you didn’t buy because you bought this.
I assume the majority of comic readers, including myself, have little if any preexisting interest in the Microverse. Thus, the writers must endear us to the unfamiliar characters instantly. Like, when I jumped into the Marvel cosmic comics with the Annihilation events, I had no clue who was who, but those books grabbed me because characters like Gamora, Groot and Rocket Raccoon exuded pure, immediate fun. But Minimum Carnage conveys nothing fun or distinctive about Arcturus Rann and his bland crew. And if you’re looking for personality traits in the bad little people, then good freaking luck finding any. Unless “has snakes for hair” counts as a personality trait.
I normally love Carnage, but I’m already sick of him here. “Kill! Kill! Kill!” makes for a sufficient personality when interesting characters get caught in the peril, but in a universe where nothing and nobody matters, his lack of direction and depth gets old quickly. Furthermore, I can’t decide if I like Shalvey’s Carnage rendition. One one hand, this Carnage departs from the Mark Bagley design I prefer, but then again it is the most expressive element of this comic’s art. Speaking of which, while I enjoyed Shalvey and Loughridge’s work on the personal and emotional Venom #22, their style may lack the vividness and sharp definition best suited for cosmic stories. Besides Carnage, Venom #26 looks somewhat barren and nondescript.
Scarlet Spider still outshines the other characters, but not by as great a margin. Although, he again receives the best action scene and Bunn keeps his attitude intact, Kaine never earns the same laughs he does when Yost writes him. Every Kaine quote in Scarlet Spider #10 made me grin, especially “Let Carnage go terrorize leprechauns in some other universe. I don’t give a @#$%.”
I can’t put it any better.
RATING:
2 out of 5 (Unfulfilling).
POST A COMMENT AND I WILL THINK ABOUT YOU!
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I have been waiting to see your take, Kevin. I’m pretty jealous that you get to review the parts of this crossover that are actually, y’know, good.
Thanks for the comments. I’m thinking of all of you.
1 – Maybe, and that’s an emphasized maybe, Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain could have done better with this concept, but at least this way we get some issues of Chris Yost writing Kaine, and judging by SS #10 that might be enough to save a whole issue.
2 – I haven’t gotten the sense that this crossover needed to be shorter. The story has been moving fairly quickly through the three issues–the problem is that the story is lame.
3 – I was optimistically intrigued with the involvement of the Microverse. I thought Carnage unleashed on a new universe could be fun in theory. Problem is, the Microverse seems like a pretty barren place full of uninteresting characters.
4 – Glad to know I make someone laugh.
5 – The “show don’t tell” guy, at least on the most recent podcast, was Josh. But you’re right about that weak monologue TELLING us about how great a unit the micros were, and I should have mentioned that in the review.
6/8 – Yeah, there’s no excuse for Venom and Kaine vs. Carnage to be this dull.
7 – I don’t know the answer to your questions, but this story sure hasn’t made me eager to see the Microverse ever again.
9 – “Great characters, awful scenario” is the best I’ve seen anyone put it in the fewest words.
Location location, whe have great characters, awful scenario. Eventually Kane’s awesomess won’t do the trick and Venom, a secondary player on his own book.
I believe that the hype of the crossover is slowly getting axed by the desperate and unsuccessful attempt to make us the readers care about the microverse, it might work on the FF but with characters like SC, Venom and Carnage it just feels to weird, when the devils started to appear so much on Venom, I got the same feel of strangeness on the book, but it worked out better than expected leaving a very strong impact an consecuences on Venom, but with the microverse I can’t’ take it seriously.
Great review as expected from Chris I enjoy so much reading you man, I agree with you on the characterization of Carnage, plain and boring, a extremely rich character that rarely is handled well, in the end is played as the crazy very bad guy with a symbiote that will always keep talking about your brains, (yawn)
The microverse was quite big (no pun intended) in Fantastic Four books from the 60s and 70s. It’s a corny relic that just seems dumb in 2012, especially in a Carnage story.
Two questions…
1) How often did the microverse come up before this?
2) How often will the microverse come up after this?
Yeah, I’ve been let down with this arc. Agent Venom and reformed Kaine take on Carnage? I was expecting something really sick and badass. Instead some corny microverse crap. Oh well….
Spot on review. We have no idea what’s going on, not always a bad thing IF we care about the characters. But as you said, we have not been given any reason to care about the “Leprechauns.” The thing that especially got on my nerves was Venom’s inner monologue about how admirable the Enigma force is. I forget which one of you Crawlspace guys (you? Donovan? Kevin?) is always harping on this, but if they would show instead of tell how heroic and great the Leprechauns are, we might give a damn about them.
Please think about me. Great review, by the way. Your writing makes me laugh out loud. Glad I skipped this part, though
Has to be said, when I first saw the pitch for this crossover, I thought: “Scarlet Spider and Venom VS Carnage? Sold.” Then I realised the Microverse was involved and my interest took a slump. There might still be a good final showdown with the three main characters, but no, I don’t care about the mid-story Microstuff. At all.
This event could have been better if it hadnt been stretched for 6 issues. And I for one love the carnage design. He looks mean and deadly.
Why exactly do writers think the symbiotes want to eat brains?
I’m sad that this crossover has been this disappointing. Maybe it would have been better to make this a miniseries with the same creative team as the last two instead of putting this on the ongoings, although I guess it’s better that they tie into the ongoings sooner rather than later.