...and stuff.
So yeah there was a few day gap here I was hoping to avoid but that's due to just a big schedule. The main reason is because my boss is hosting a conference tomorrow, so I've been taking care of a lot for that. It's actually kinda cool because work I've done is going to be presented.
So anyway onto the conclusion of this three parter. I'll try to give some thoughts on the story as a whole, I know I've done some as I went so it'll mostly be a recap or anything I missed.
So we open with a close up of JJ Jameson saying "but I'm too important to die."
Great line. I mean it too, it fits the character to a T.
JJ hits his silent alarm. Which calls in his assistant. Hey, JJ, might want to hook that one up to the Cops, or the Avengers, or a guy with a really big stick or gun. So yeah they bust in and Carnage is like: OO audience good idea.
Then we cut to Spider-Man and Venom webbing through the city. Venom is being cracked out insane singing "Strangers in the night" And Spider-Man is worried about responsibility and other seriousness. He's also giving recap narration incase you didn't read the past two issues. Spider-Man wants to call the Avengers, Venom says no because they might not honor the deal he made with Spider-man. This raises the question of why not call the Avengers before calling Venom, and attacking Carnage with a team of: Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain fuckin' America. Yeah Venom has some insight on the other hand I don't remember him contributing a ton of information. He's mostly muscle in this story, and yeah, dude is super strong. The Hulk is stronger, I'm sure Tony could figure out a way to jury rig a sonar weapon onto his armor, or Hawkeye could SOMEHOW use fire and arrows together. Oh and CAPTAIN AMERICA. Yeah, this could have been solved just by having him call for help and they're off in Guatemala fighting Skrull or something.
So Spider-Man gets caught up by the people at the daily bugel, gives a speech as to why he has to work with Venom, Venom kinda lamp-shades the trite hero speech nature of it and gives Spider-man a thumbs up.
So we find out the baby alien suit copied Venom's strength and went to Carnage adding the strength of Spider-Man and an obsessive body builder to a psychopath. So this is the last moment where things remain somewhat sane. They find a woman shoved through the wall. Carnage dropped in shoved her into the wall then bounced out with JJ. Here's where the stupid comes in. He saw a Heavy Metal Poster and went: oh these people will get me.
So yeah all it takes to get someone to attempt murder is for Carnage to say: I kill people it's easy and crap.
Spider-man obviously stops the murder but still I'm getting flash backs. I don't remember this section lasting long hopefully it doesn't. So Venom gets knocked through MSG's floor into Penn Station Carnage following. Carnage goes into the crowd cause he's crazy and evil, then bolts. A Rent-a-cop pulls his gun on venom. Dude must have balls the size of mellons and I salute him for that.
Spidey stopped venom from killing the cop and they follow Carnage down the tracks. They block his escape with webbing and knock him onto the third rail. Carnage no sells it, hits them with his projectiles then says he's going to go kill JJ. Spidey and Venom follow it's a trap, fighting ensues. Spider-Man takes them down with the PA system, Venom shouts to keep it up, he's tough enough to take it, and they need to hold Carnage at Bay. Spider-Man says no, Venom goes bipolar and attacks Spider-Man. The Fantastic four come in and use their sonic weaponry to subdue Venom.
JJ calls spider-man out for not keeping his word as Venom is carted away for imprisonment saying Captain America would have. Spider-Man said Cap wouldn't have had to give his word because Cap is a legend and a hero and he's just a man. Nice sentiment, but it does raise the looming question of: WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL THE AVENGERS SOONER?
Oh my favorite part of this is the excuse for why the Fantastic Four held off is because if they'd gone in heavy more innocents would have been in danger. Yeah, with the guys who have the exact weapons to subdue both Venom and Carnage fast, and having the ability to shield the civilians from Carnage. Carnage's claws are neat and all but I'm pretty sure the Thing could have held him down while civilians fled and they sonic gunned everyone. This means it was the plan from the get go. So why not get the information from Venom on the island, he was forthcoming once he found out innocent civilians were in danger, sonic beam him into containment from the flying car thing, lock his ass up then go get Carnage while rolling deep with a team of four you can trust. And shit, considering this is an alien power fueling an omnicidal maniac call in the Avengers and use over-whelming force on the guy.
I will say this though: It's actually a pretty decent comic, nothing great, and the plot does fall apart if you think about it. It was clear they wanted an opportunity to force Spider-man to work with someone he doesn't trust and who hates him. That's actually an interesting concept. If the avengers and Fantastic four were off fighting Galacticus, and Spider-man had been alone it'd have made sense, there's the looming Venom question at the end but hell, I'd have believed Spidey had something, like if he'd lured Carnage up to the Fantastic Four tower and used the tech there to capture one than the other then had to call it in awkwardly. The problem with an Enemy mine situation is to make it feel right you have really isolate the hero with two opponents, one who's dangerous and one who's a remorseless bastard. The problem in Marvel is so many heroes are in NYC it's kinda hard to make that organic with out pulling them out of NYC or pulling some other heroes away. I mentioned it earlier that it would seem he'd go to Dr. Strange or Daredevil first, but I could see this not being Dr. Strange's type of problem, and Daredevil is not really the guy to be fighting aliens who are invulnerable. The looming problem is the two teams in the city that are mentioned and one is even used.
I know I just picked it apart a lot but if you can kinda turn the critical part of your brain off it's actually a pretty fun read, its got a ton of action in it if you just want to see fights, it builds then bipolar's venom's character, and has some fun character interaction. Is it the best thing in my collection? Far from it. Is it the worst? no, but it's actually probably near being the worst mostly because I have a lot of good. The worst is obviously Fortunate Son, near the bottom of the quality ladder is probably our next target: MAXIMUM CARNAGE
