1994 Spider-Man Double Review-“Venom Returns” and “Carnage”

The unthinkable happens as the 90s show adapts Cletus Kasady a.k.a. Carnage in the series! How does the character hold up against BS&P? Does the show have a contract with “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”? And just where is Doc Strange when ya need him?

Credits
Story By: John Semper
Written By: Stan Berkowitz , James Krieg and John Semper
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)

THE PLOT: Baron Mordo and Dormmamu scheme to get both the symbiote back to Eddie Brock, and have its offspring bond with Brock’s cellmate the serial killer Cletus Kasady. Can Spider-Man save the world from four villains all by himself?

LONG STORY SHORT: Spidey enlists the aid of Iron Man and War Machine to help fight off the forces of Dormmamu, with Venom switching sides near the end. Venom and Carnage get lost in the time dialation portal, presumably to never be seen again.

MY THOUGHTS: One of the enduring stigmas that this series has the misfortune of carrying is the broad and ridiculous censorship that occured in each episode. As well as it nailed the characters from the comics down in its writing, 1994’s “Spider-Man” was always held back in people’s minds because the dude could barely throw a punch, let alone have somebody get killed or shot at on the show. Despite all this, the show does have the fortune of providing the foremost concept of Venom in the eyes of its fans. Say what you will about the lack of violence, the show got Venom down pat. But when word hit that the show would include Carnage in its third season, were fans skeptical or optimistic?

To be completely honest, I have no idea. But with hindsight in mind, fans do have a tendency to say that the show never should have included Carnage at all due to the severe watering down of the character. Getting it out of the way now, Carnage was an incredibly popular villain in the 90s, further cementing story potential for the Venom character by being the symbiote’s offspring and having its host Cletus Kasady, who was a twisted serial killer, to be even more dangerous than Venom was to Spider-Man. The initial three part story in Amazing Spider-Man #361-363 was followed by the 14 part storyline entitled Maximum Carnage, which cemented the popularity of Carnage to some, and completely turned off longtime fans of Spider-Man to others for the story being a certified product of its era. It can’t be denied however that Carnage was just as popular in the decade as Venom, and to have  a Spider-Man cartoon that didn’t include either just would not have been done, and Excutive Producer John Semper says as much in an interview found here. Disregarding the idea to make them premier villains like in Spider-an Unlimited, this is the only appearance of Carnage and the last appearance of Venom. So, how does it hold up?

Personally, I think this story starts off incredibly strong, and finishes not quite as strong at the end. The first part I find to be better than the second because it’s more focused on what we want to see, Venom and Carnage wreck shizzle up. The second Baron Mordo and Dormmamu pop their heads into the episode, the story takes a dive off a building. It’s odd because I’ve known for years that they were a part of the plot in these two episodes, and yet only recently have I grown to dislike them. It’s due to the fact that, hey, they’re not Spider-Man villains! Mordo’s got a cool voice and everything, but that’s not enough to justify them messing around in New York again. There’s also the fact that this episode did not need them at all. The original comic book version of Kasady obtaining the symbiote would have gone on much quicker than Baron Mordo’s exposition rally at Ravencroft, and it detracted from the action which was mostly great all around. And again, it just bugs me that Doctor Strange wasn’t even mentioned in the entirey of the episodes when his main enemy is jacking around with alien symbiotes. That’s like the Joker showing up in Keystone City and the Flash never mentioning Batman or questioning why Dormmamu is in his territory.

The opening to the first episode sets the tone perfectly. It’s excellent and illustrates what the two-parter should have been by establishing the insanity of Cletus Kasady, having Spider-Man stop him and re-introduce Eddie Brock in Ravencroft, recieving psychiatric treatment from Ashely Kafka. Even Madame Web’s annoying interference couldn’t ruin what this episode had going. What’s best about all this is that you really get a sense of the type of monster Kasady is. (was/is? Is he dead in the comics? Who knows anymore…)  The word “killer” is never mentioned, but Jonah, Robbie and the cops all infer how crazy he is just well enough that readers of the comics get it. It was also good that the set up was pretty creepy as well. It wasn’t 100% clear, but they were in the orphanage Kasady was raised in where he was abused as a child. That, added with the first image of him being Terry Lee’s flashlight in his grinning face were perfect ways to establish that this guy is dangerous, and only someone like Spider-Man could take him.

There’s an element of history with this episode, not just in continuity to thing that have happened before in the show’s history, but with things that are now different. This is both a pro and a con. It adds to the episodes because you have nods to comic book history such as the first appearance of Dr. Ashley Kafka and the Ravencroft Institute. There’s also the offhanded reference that Spidey makes in “Carnage” that symiotes are weakened by sonics and fire. The problem with both of these lay in the fact that it would have behooved the show if these elements were brought up before. Since the show developed Brock from the beginning, if we were given scenes with him meeting and getting to know Kafka in an episode or two in this season, the payoff would have been that much more satisfying. But it hurts the credibility of the drama because the audience is expected to accept who Kafka is, and that Eddie is in love with her due to their thereputic sessions all in about three minutes. This is Kafka’s only appearance in the series anyway, which is dissapointing because she’s a longtime supporting character in the comics. Especially in the 90s, and the majority of her scenes had nothing to do with the symbiotes. More expansion of her and Ravencroft’s roles in the show would have really benefitted this episode. Also with the fire and sonics reference, at no point in the series is it ever shown or said before that the symiotes were weak to fire. A nice nod to the comics, but it could have been done better.

These episodes also add another notch on the guest star list, including both Iron Man and War Machine respectively in each part. In my opinion this is one of the more awesome team-ups in the series. The main reason is that it still remained a perfectly central Spider-Man episode. The two never got in the way of the plot, nor did the plot stop to advertise the characters more than it needed to. The opposite of “Doctor Strange” to be sure. On a more personal reason, I really like the character of War Machine and this episode shows just how cool he is. His role in part one only added to the overall enjoyment, and much of that is due to James “Uncle Phil” Avery voicing him, which was fantastic. He was perfect as Jim Rhodes, and his performance was enhanced by the fact that ever line he spoke was incredibly cool. I’ve seen a number of different interpretations of Rhodey, from the comics to the MAX series to the movies with two different actors portray him. But I love this utter badass that was shown here, who goes toe-to-toe with friggin’ Venom. It justified his place in the episode, without really making Venom out to be a jobber and added the incentive for Carnage to be included instead of “just because” which was great. Iron Man was cool, though he did get less screentime due mostly to the main plot which was unfortunate. But the inclusion of the both of them was well done because having Stark Enterprises be behind what ends up being a major part of the series with the Interdimensional Time Dialtion Portals felt logical and natural. Something this huge had to include more than just Doc Connors, and I liked how they had Tony in L.A. watching via SKYPE while Rhodey was in New York keeping things on lock. I also felt that it wasn’t all that predictable for Tony to get involved as Iron Man which was probably due to War Machine not getting injured until the beginning of the first part. You gotta love the line that leads into Tony’s suiting-up sequence.

Stark: “You softened them up my friend. Now I’m sending in someone to finish the job.”

Spidey: “Who’s he gonna send?”

War Machine: “The guy they call…IRON MAN.”

With that, you got the feeling that everything had just become epic. The only thing that needed to happen was a jump cut to the Iron Man cartoon’s second season opening. I would have fainted if I saw that.

The animation in this episode is for the most part very good. The models look great all around, but it only lags when the fight scenes go on with Carnage. Carnage’s design has to be very difficult to animate, so I’m willing to cut some slack where he’s concerned. It’s mainly in the second part though that it felt a little stilted. Some scenes like Brock and Kafka in Connor’s lab came off a little flat, while other scenes such as the battle with Carnage in Terri Lee’s apartment and onto the rooftops looked really good. That fight scene is in my top five list for the fights in this show because it was really dynamic without having to be too violent. Carnage overloading Spidey’s web-cartradges was cool, but what topped it was Spider-Man kicking and slamming Carnage off a skyscraper onto the streets below, making sure he landed first. That’s what I’m talking about! But unfortunately it also leads into one of the more annoying changes to the element of the character that is Carnage. Dormmamu needs life force to power the science in order for him to escape to our dimension. Instead of giving Carnage the ability to absorb life force after killing people, he sucks them up like Androids #19 and #20 from Dragon Ball Z. Of course you can’t hack people to pieces on a children’s show, but then it leads to asking why have Carnage at all? Does having the character in the show alone resonate with the fans?

In my opinion it does. It’s still Cletus Kasady, despite the means of his destruction he employs. It’s still recognizably Carnage because he attempts throughout the two-parter to slice people up. (At one point I was a little surprised they got away with him nearly hacking of Spider-man’s head with an axe-formed hand.) He’s got a heck of a voice in Scott Cleverdon. That guy was born to play Carnage. The origin’s essentially the same, the desing is the same, the voice and motives match the character. It’s still Carnage, whether or not he’s visibly killing people. But some things are more important to some fans than others, so to each his or her own.

But what about Eddie Brock? The story is really about him and his redemption, and while the first storyline with him dealt with his villainy, this one dealt with his nobility which is another reference to the comics. This is another thing people have contention with, as in the comics a lot of people saw Venom becoming an anti-hero completley out of character and even worse for Spider-Man to just accept it. What I like about it in this episode is that Eddie is just majorly conflicted, not really wanting or caring to change who he is except when it comes to Ashley. (That may account for Kafka’s design resembling Eddie’s wife from the comics, rather than the designs she had in the 90s which Spec. Spidey came much closer to emulating.) At no point did he want anything to do with Spidey, which was the opposite of the comics. It may be because this version of Brock has a lot more character than the original source material had. In the comics he always had this religious element that to me felt intrusive, and the same was vaguely applied to Carnage as well in his first appearance but was dropped later on. But the Eddie Brock featured here strangely feels more sympathetic, even though he hasn’t appeared in a long while. I think that despite being a tool for all of his ppearances prior to this, we never got too much of his perspective outside of a third person narrative, and even in “Alien Costume part.3” he was under the influence of the symbiote which is established here as going totally against his mind rather than being in synch. It’s an interesting aspect to the character that at this point wasn’t done in the comics until fairly recently in Paul Jenkin’s “The Hunger” storyline. In these episodes, the symbiote practically brainwashes Eddie when he’s Venom and tortures him when Eddie tries to fight it. It seemingly comes out of nowhere, but what needs to be remembered is how symbiote reacted when Peter tried to fight it. This episode succeeded in establishing the difference between the symbiotes and the men they attempt to bond with. Kasady is the same with or without his suit, but Eddie and Peter were definitely different. Maybe the love story with Kafka was rushed and a bit annoying, but in establishing Eddie’s character, it re-established his worth in the series.

In the end, it was a bit dissapointing that Venom and Carnage were clearly written off and through the cause of friggin’ Dormmamu no less. Word is that Semper planned for Carnage to return in the sixth season as Jack the Ripper, which makes absolutely no sense given the censors. But for their appearances here, I thought the writers did an admirable job of incorporating one of the more impossible characters from the comics onto a kid’s show. And Venom’s story was done well to get him back on the show. It was different from the revenge theme, and moved onto a theme of redemption. These two characters I would hold up to leaving indelible marks in the minds of the fans, so more kudos is owed to this show for incorporating two violent SOBs and getting them right. In my mind.

1st part: 4.5/5 “MARY JAAANE!!!”s

2nd part: 4/5 “MARY JAAANE!!!”s

Altogether: 4.5/5 “MARY JAAANE!!!s

Best Quote Contender:  Eddie Brock: *To Kasady* “Hey shut up in there!”

Kasady: “Hey man! I could eat you for breakfast!”

Eddie: “I’d give you indigestion…MANNN!”

All images taken from marvel.toonzone.net.