Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man #1 Review

“We’re all criminals inside, just waiting for an excuse to come out. That’s all it takes. One excuse.”

Remember when the Symbiote attached itself to a tourist to hitch a ride back to Peter Parker? No? Well, Marvel does and now you’re going to find out his fate!

WRITER: Peter David

ARTIST: Francesco Mobili

COLOR ARTISTS: Java Tartaglia & Rain Beredo

LETTERER: VC’s Travis Lanham

COVER ARTISTS: Greg Land, Jay Leisten & Frank D’Armata

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Greg Land & Frank D’Armata; Mike Hawthorne & Dave McCaig

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Danny Khazem

EDITOR: Devin Lewis

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #99 & 100 pages by Al Milgrom, Herb Trimpe, Jim Mooney, Geof Isherwood, Bob Sharen, A. Kaoticm Joe Rosen & Diana Albers

SPIDER-MAN created by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO

STORY: Judge Leonard Elkhart is a tourist from Indiana visiting New York City for the first time when the Symbiote, recently separated from Peter Parker, possesses him momentarily. Not recalling exactly what happened, but thinking maybe he was mugged, he returns home.

In the present day, Judge Elkhart has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is sitting in front of a parole board. He tells them his sad tale of how he got to this point. The Board advises him they will let him know their decision by the week’s end and the former judge goes back to his cell. Cletus Kassidy, disguised as a guard, breaks into Leonard’s cell and transforms into Carnage, advising Leonard that he has come for the piece of symbiote that has been left behind inside of him. Carnage murders the grateful inmate and leaves.

THOUGHTS: I can’t say I recall this tourist with any great clarity, but thanks to Marvel celebrating their 80th anniversary, we all get to relive those bygone days with miniseries like Symbiote Spider-Man. Now, this issue is a tie in to Absolute Carnage which didn’t make sense to me at first given that the Symbiote Spider-Man mini that just concluded was firmly grounded in a post Secret Wars world. However, while this one shot has its origins in that bygone era, it quickly jumps to the present day to show us the ramifications of  the tourist’s brief contact with alien life.

Let me tell ya, it ain’t pretty. No, not the comic itself, but the outcome for the tourist, one (former) Judge Leonard Elkhart. It’s a stark contrast to go from the bright, yet simple colors of the ’80s and the clean cut, well dressed tourist to the dour blacks and earth tones of the present day with the same man now withered, grey, and with unkempt long hair. The transition was completely unexpected by me and immediately drew me in.

What follows is Leonard’s tale of how he got to this place in his life to his parole board. Having identified the tourist as a judge makes his incarceration all the more shocking. How did being possessed by the Symbiote land this man in jail? For a book I had no anticipation for, I kept turning the pages to get to the bottom of this.

Long story short, Leonard’s “black out” led him to seek medical help once he got back home. Returning from an appointment, he and his son made a quick stop at a fast food restaurant that wound up being the site of an impromptu incident involving Lorina Dodson, aka “The White Rabbit” who just wanted a breakfast burrito after 11 A.M. She got arrested and wound up in Leonard’s court room, where he denied her bail before her hearing. Somehow, she got out and came to Leonard’s house, drawing a gun and firing it at Leonard and his son.

If that didn’t seem like it was tragic enough, writer Peter David twists the knife in when it’s revealed that the gun didn’t fire a bullet, but a flag with the word “Bang!” on it, not that it made a difference to Leonard’s son with a heart condition. He goes into cardiac arrest and even with White Rabbit shocking him with her gloves, he’s unable to be revived. Mobili’s art is horrifying in this scene as the frantic Leonard holds the drooling Dan as his eyes roll back into his head. You feel everyone’s desperation during the situation and the tragedy of it all as the shocked White Rabbit sits in disbelief over what was supposed to be a joke and Leonard’s rage at the loss of his son. It’s really intense and now what I was expecting.

This leads Leonard to attempt to murder the White Rabbit during her trial. He sneaks a gun in, but is thwarted in his attempt. During the struggle to subdue him, the gun goes off, killing the stenographer. The White Rabbit, who had already planned her escape via robotic rabbit, flees, but not before telling Leonard that now he is just. Like. Her.

Leonard takes responsibility for his actions, going to prison and taking every beating he gets. He gets diagnosed with cancer and as he closes his story, he tells the parole board that he doesn’t care what his fate is. He’s gone that nihilistic and no matter what they decide it won’t change the fact that all it takes is one excuse for the criminal inside all of us to come out.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse or weirder, White Rabbit visits Leonard outside his cell, wanting to be friends. When I say “outside his cell”, I mean literally outside the walls of the prison. In her insanity, she came to tell him that she hopes they can be friends. They have this weird bond that Peter David has crafted and the panel of her standing on the ledge outside the prison elicited a chuckle out of me in this dark story.

So, how does this all tie in with the latest crossover? Enter Cletus Kasady, disguised as a guard. He lets himself in to Leonard’s cell and transforms into his latest Carnage form. It’s here that the tone rightly shifts to horror. Mobili provides an excellent splash page of Carnage in all his grotesque glory. Leonard sighs in relief when Carnage announces his intentions to kill the disgraced judge. Mobili’s art makes you feel the gratitude Leonard has at the revelation that his suffering is almost over. Cutting away from the horrific attack, the art focuses on the startled White Rabbit, who gets splattered in Leonard’s blood as his spine gets ripped from his sickened body. Still a bit under-powered, Carnage acknowledges her witness and spares her, warning her to stay away. It’s an abrupt, shocking end, but the team pulls it off well.

Crossovers can be a chore and one shots can hardly be worth the price of admission. Peter Parker/Spider-Man only appears in one panel and it’s in flashback! Furthermore, is this special integral to the main story of Absolute Carnage? Not in the slightest. The codex that Leonard has is just one small part of what Cletus needs in his overall plan and that fallout is relatively minimal. Did I feel like it was a waste of my $5? Absolutely not.

I didn’t know what to expect from this comic, but I was thoroughly entertained by what David and Co. produced. It’s a simple story, but it sucked me in regardless. It’s hard not to feel sympathetic for a man who simply wanted to achieve a lifelong dream of seeing New York and as the fallout of that dream snowballed, it cost him the life of his son and his freedom. I can’t imagine those that worked on Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man would’ve seen such a dark twist of fate for what was surely to be incidental character, but here we are. It’s not often that we see the ramifications of superheroism on the common person in the street, but Peter David didn’t waste the opportunity to tell a riveting story about someone fans haven’t pondered about in over thirty years. Aided by some heart-wrenching art, this may not be an essential tale, but it’s definitely worth your time.

MY GRADE: B+

JAVI’S HUH?: Why is the parole board meeting in such a darkened room? Did they just finish their plotting for global domination and this was next on their To-Do list?