Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety #1 Review

One big happy symbiotic family!

Writer: Clay McLeod Chapman

Artist: Brian Level

Colors: Jordan Boyd

Letters: VC’s Travis Lanham

Cover artists: Philip Tan, Marc Deering, and John Rauch

Assistant Editor: Danny Khazem

Editor: Devin Lewis

Story:
Our tale begins with a wandering stray dog in Colorado. This mangy lookin’ mutt stumbles upon the protagonist of our story, a sad looking girl named Sadie. It seems her parent’s relationship isn’t going so well, and her mom is taking her and her brother away. The dog offers her a bit of comfort, and Sadie decides to bring it inside to try and find out where it belongs. She leaves it downstairs and goes to show her brother, but as the dog stares at the arguing husband and wife, it reveals that it is no ordinary dog. No, this dog is all that remains of Mercury Team from Carnage USA. In Deadpool vs Carnage, Cletus killed the rest of the team, but that mini ended with the dog getting all 4 of the Hybrid symbiotes and Deadpool sending it on its way after helping him. But it seems Knull’s influence had something else in mind. Sadie returns downstairs with her brother in tow, only to find a horrific transformation scene as the dog splits apart and bonds her parents to the Riot and Agony symbiotes. The siblings flee as the parents stalk them around the house, attempting to bond them to the other two symbiotes. A nosy neighbor attempts to help out, but Agony makes quick work of him. The kids attempt to hide as best they can, but the Phage symbiote eventually finds its way onto Sadie’s brother Billy, and though she manages to hold them off for a bit longer, they eventually catch her and drag her down to the dinner table, featuring the dead neighbor himself. After saying their grace, “Good God Knull, let’s eat!” They chow down on the meal and the corpse, while Sadie resists the Lasher symbiote best she can, but ultimately it’s futile. The issue ends with the Family all together again, closer than ever, and they decide to take a road trip to New York, where a certain “extended family member” is ready to cause some Carnage.

Thoughts:
I absolutely adored this issue. Seriously, it’s essentially a near perfect issue as far as I’m concerned. I may be biased because I’m a huge symbiote fan myself, but I just think it works on its own as a standalone horror story. The art compliments this feel perfectly as well. Brian Level’s new designs for the Life foundation symbiotes are very creepy, and the way he has the human limbs partially sticking out of the masses of symbiote makes your skin crawl. And the dark red spiral instead of the large white eyes they have on their heads only adds to that. And not to mention those transformation scenes. Truly a horrifying delight for the eyes. And not only is his actual art in the book fantastic, but that panel layout! So creative without being unable to tell what’s going on. From the shadow of dog extending into a transformation scene that’s right out of John Carpenter’s The Thing, to incorporating the house layout into panels, every page of this book is an eye-pleaser.

A big thing I really loved about this book was the characterization. And I’m not talking about the humans, we admittedly don’t see too much of them before things go bad. No, I’m talking about the actual symbiotes themselves. The last time we saw these symbiotes, they were given to Mercury team after Eddie Brock killed Hybrid and left the 4 symbiotes for dead. But in Hybrids original appearance, the symbiotes were doing their best to help their host, Scott Washington. They meant him no harm. And what happens in this book? The symbiotic dog listens to Sadie’s story about how she doesn’t want to move and wishes they could stay together as a family. And then when the dog comes inside, the father says he would do anything to stay together. Be careful what you wish for, because though the symbiotes are very obviously infected by Knull’s influence, they still manage to do just that. Even while Riot is chasing the kids around the house, he’s talking about how he just wants them to be a family again. It’s incredibly entertaining to read the way these horrifying monsters are stalking them while saying things like “Don’t make me count to three!”. So as one of the few Hybrid fans, I did really appreciate this detail and nod to continuity (And speaking of continuity, there’s even a deep cut easter egg near the beginning of the book when Billy asks for the password “Xemnu” to enter his nerd cave).

This issue excels at making you dread for Sadie’s safety, and just how hopeless the situation really is for her. I’ll admit though, she’s a real trooper. She almost manages to get away a couple times, but it’s still not enough, even with the makeshift flamethrower she makes from a can of hairspray. You feel awful for her as tears are streaming down her face while the symbiotes are ripping apart the neighbor’s body on the table. And then to cap it all off, we get those uncanny smiles where everyone is almost too happy at the end with the symbiotes fully in control. My only real complaint about this book is that it’s only a one shot instead of a 3 issue mini like some of the other tie ins. Really want to see what happens next with this family and whether we’ll ever see them again (Hint: Check out the Venom tie ins)

Final Grade: A+