YMMV / Absolute Carnage

• Fan-Disliked Explanation:
  • Not so much the explanations themselves, but the means by which they are conveyed. Fans are getting annoyed by Donny Cates' tendency to rely on Twitter to explain things that are unclear in the book itself.
  • Free Comic Book Day Vol. 2019 (Spider-Man/Venom) left several readers believing that Eddie Brock had killed Lee Price to steal the Mania symbiote and was being controlled by Carnage, and wondered what had happened to Eddie's son Dylan. Donny Cates eventually clarified that Eddie Brock hadn't been in the comic at all, but that it had been Cletus Kasady impersonating him — something he admitted wasn't readily apparent. While most fans were relieved by this, others had gotten hyped up for the possibility of a Carnage-controlled Mania-Eddie going after Andi Benton with her own symbiote, or Dylan bonding to a symbiote of his own — Toxin, Sleeper, or Tyrannosaurus being likely candidates — to rescue his father; and were dismayed this was jossed.
• Fridge Logic: Why was Lee Price with Mania still bonded, in the same prison as "Eddie" and other regular level general populace prisoners? In Marvel, prisoners with such help like symbiotes still currently bonded to them (if they’re seperated then they can and have sometimes been in regular places), are typically kept in very different accomodations that are actually specifically equipped to deal with them. Some fans have speculated that it was suitable to keep Lee detained with regular inmates because his symbiote was heavily weakened by Agent Anti-Venom in Venom Inc., being unable to manifest its powers.
• Funny Moments:
  • As grim and serious as Cates' run has been so far, Absolute Carnage #1 gives us a much-needed dose of levity the instant Spider-Man enters the picture. Poor Peter reminds us how much he hates symbiote stuff and ribs Brock for getting himself wrapped up in the current story.
    Eddie: Can you help us or not?
    Spider-Man: Now, when you say "us"...
    Eddie: You think this is funny?
    Spider-Man: Oh man, not even a little. I mean... gods, Eddie? When did you start fighting gods? And Carnage? You come to me with gods and Carnage but with, like... god powers? What happened to... evil businessmen and digging robots and sewer dinosaurs and fun stuff like-
    Eddie: I knew this was a mistake. Come on, Dylan, we're lea-
    Spider-Man: Hey, come on. Sit down. I promise not to be hilarious anymore.
    • Midway through their chat, a group of crooks burst through the door of the cafe trying to rob the place... only to find themselves in front of Spider-Man and "escaped convict" Eddie Brock. Spidey trounces them off-panel while the pair of them continue their conversation like nothing's happened.
  • In Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool, the editorial boxes get into an argument over whether Deadpool: Back in Black counts as canon.
  • In Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk, we get a look inside Bruce Banner's mind. Joe Fixit turns up, but due to circumstances doesn't look like his normal self. Instead, he looks like Bruce dressed up like a Vegas scuzzball. Meanwhile, Savage Hulk's only contribution to discussions is to yell at Bruce and the Venom symbiote over what's happened with Betty Ross and stomp off in a sulk.
  • In a bit of Fridge Humor, The Maker expressed a distaste for acronyms, seeing them as childish. In New Avengers (2015), though, he had no problem with leading W.H.I.S.P.E.R. It makes it seem like he's salty about O.M.N.I.T.R.O.N.I.C.U.S., his attempt to replicate City who much to his annoyance gained an incredibly hammy personality because Earth-616 has looser scientific laws.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Venomized storyline sees the majority of the Marvel heroes get bonded to symbiotes. This event's premise is that anyone who has ever bonded with a symbiote is now a target of Carnage.
• Nightmare Fuel: Carnage comes off as even more terrifying than in past appearances, with some scenes making him even look demonic.
  • His very presence and influence is this too, being able to drive symbiotes and hosts alike that otherwise would never even think of joining him to his side: if he doesn’t just rip them to pieces outright.
  • Just like with Venom, Knull's corrupting influence causes the Life Foundation symbiotes to take on horrifying forms, unlike with the Venom symbiote though, his influence also messes with their bonding process which results in parts of the human hosts' bodies sticking out.
  • Eddie goes through some very real adult fear as Dylan’s safety is put on the line.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • Lee Price was unceremoniously killed off by Carnage in Free Comic Book Day Vol. 2019 (Spider-Man/Venom), leaving his many detractors gloating over who the superior symbiote supervillain was.
    Dylan: Who's Lee Price?
    Eddie: No one.
  • Tel-Kar, another villain of Costa’s that’s largely reviled by fans for his actions, is revealed in Venom #18 to have died at some point during Sleeper's interstellar travels.
• Tear Jerker: Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre has Carnage claim a number of innocent victims in his drive to kill Andi, including her aunt, an elderly neighbor and it's assumed the poor guy's pet poodle.
  • Eddie’s reputation being further slandered via that TV interview can also count as this.
  • The Separation Anxiety tie in as a whole is this, a little girl named Sadie is sitting outside of her house to get away from her parents arguing when the dog that hosts Hybrid walks up to her and she tearfully vents to it on how her parents' divorce is tearing her family apart and wishes her family could stay together before inviting the dog inside. However, this turns out to be a mistake as the now Knull-corrupted Life Foundation symbiotes slowly take over her entire family one by one in a twisted yet honest attempt to grant Sadie's wish.
  • The Symbiote Spider-Man one-shot gives us former judge Leonard Elkhart, the tourist who bonded with the Venom symbiote after it escaped the Four Freedoms Plaza. Thanks to the moment he spent bonded, it ends up triggering a set of Disaster Dominoes that end up with his son accidentally killed by the White Rabbit, the former judge in jail after he accidentally murders a court recorder, being pummeled by the criminals he put away, and learning he has terminal cancer. By the time Carnage drops in, he's ready to die for everything.
  • White Rabbit herself, not having meant to kill the man and repeatedly trying to revive him instead of trying to escape before cops arrive. However, White Rabbit's cheerfully sadistic reaction to Elkhart accidentally killing a court recorder while trying to shoot her calls into question how much of her remorse was genuine.
  • A father has his daughter’s grave defiled by Carnage digging up the deceased little girl to steal her symbiote codex.
  • The death of Ghost Rider Alejandra Jones, who was just trying to protect her village from Dark Carnage.
  • Eddie recounts losing Miles to the Grendel symbiote with four simple, rather familiar words, though Donny Cates stated on Twitter that he'd scripted them before the movie came out.
    I lost the kid.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Ironically enough for a Carnage series, the Carnage Symbiote falls under this, having been confirmed dead before it even started, aside from the fragment still confirmed to be inside Normie Osborn. This has resulted in similar critiques directed toward the Venom symbiote in the main title.
  • Subverted with Cletus as while it was unclear at first whether he was in control of himself due to his body being a corpse, Donny has clarified that Cletus is still the one in control but has become undead like the Sin-Eater.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Miles Morales' tie-in ended with him gaining control of his symbiote, implying that he was going to use his new-found power to take the fight back to Knull. When he finally appeared again in the main series proper, Miles is no longer in control of his symbiote and Eddie is forced to separate him from it. When asked about this, Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman mentioned that they weren't informed how the Miles Morales tie-in was going to end, so they just went ahead with their own plans.
• The Woobie:
  • Andi Benton, who went through a lot already prior to the series and continues to catch no breaks, other than Mania at least trying to warn of Carnage.
  • From the Separation Anxiety tie in, a little girl named Sadie — who just wanted her family to stay together — is forced to lose her family members one by one to the Life Foundation symbiotes before being forced to become the new Lasher. After temporarily freeing her from the Lasher symbiote, the Maker sadistically tries to shoot her point-blank with a BFG; and even after being freed, she is subjected to the Maker's excruciatingly painful codex extraction process.