Maximum Suckage.
I finally broke down and checked out the collected edition of the 14-part "Maximum Carnage" crossover among three Spider-Man titles in 1993 thanks to inter-library loan. I avoided this thing like the plague when I was actually still buying new comics on a regular basis: I never liked Venom (he's the gent in black, on the right, in the picture below; Carnage is the geek in red with black highlights on the left), and since Carnage was touted as an even darker, more bloodthirsty version of Venom (who was quite dark -- and ridiculous -- enough for my taste in the main Marvel superhero continuity, thanks), I just saw nothing in it to appeal to me.
Reading Maximum Carnage is as big of a cheerless slog as most of my college textbooks; I'm stuck in Chapter XI, and I've not seen anything thus far to make me change my mind. I am soooo glad that this is one money-sucker that I managed to dodge.
Even with the occasionally interesting writing team of David Michelinie (who co-created both Venom and Carnage, and whose first run on Iron Man re-defined Tony Stark and Iron Man into a recognizable antecedent of the Robert Downey, Jr. character in two Iron Man movies and in Marvel's The Avengers) and J.M. DeMatteis (who, to my mind, did a better job of writing The Defenders [and its rebranding of the title as The New Defenders] than he did writing either The Spectacular Spider-Man or Marvel Team-Up), together with the considerably lesser scripters Tom DeFalco (who, to be fair, did okay writing The Amazing Spider-Man; but his stints on Fantastic Four and Thor? YECCH) and Terry Kavanagh (who bears the blame for inspiring the misbegotten "Clone Saga" in the Spider-Man titles in the mid-1990s; this storyline was one of the things that chased me away from collecting current Marvel titles, along with the equally godawful "Onslaught" and "Heroes Reborn" company-wide crossovers) at the helm, "Maximum Carnage" never gels as a coherent, compelling -- or even moderately interesting -- story.
I'm gobsmacked that Carnage's true identity, the redheaded, rictus-grinner Cletus Kasady, was apparently intended to be Marvel's answer to the Joker. I vaguely remember Kasady before he got powered up by a splinter cell of the Venom symbiote (originally Spider-Man's "black costume," introduced during Marvel's egregious Secret Wars limited series/crossover from the mid-1980s), and even before his power-up, he wasn't as interesting as Batman foe Zsasz. Post power-up? He's certainly annoying as all get-out; but he seems a better fit for the old, semi-comedic version of DC's (formerly Fawcett's) Marvel Family: maybe he could've been one of Ibac's buddies.
How in the hell did Carnage get so much fanboy (and -- even more amazingly -- fangirl) love as to be voted IGN's 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time? I can see how people might give big love to the Joker; but Carnage? Carnage??
At least Brian Michael Bendis had the retcon character Sentry (never a favorite of mine; at least I got to see him get his -- doubtless temporary -- comeuppance at the conclusion of the Siege storyline) rip Carnage in half in an early issue of The New Avengers.
*GASP!* Could this be the end of Carnage?!?
NAAAAAHH.
Reading Maximum Carnage is as big of a cheerless slog as most of my college textbooks; I'm stuck in Chapter XI, and I've not seen anything thus far to make me change my mind. I am soooo glad that this is one money-sucker that I managed to dodge.
Even with the occasionally interesting writing team of David Michelinie (who co-created both Venom and Carnage, and whose first run on Iron Man re-defined Tony Stark and Iron Man into a recognizable antecedent of the Robert Downey, Jr. character in two Iron Man movies and in Marvel's The Avengers) and J.M. DeMatteis (who, to my mind, did a better job of writing The Defenders [and its rebranding of the title as The New Defenders] than he did writing either The Spectacular Spider-Man or Marvel Team-Up), together with the considerably lesser scripters Tom DeFalco (who, to be fair, did okay writing The Amazing Spider-Man; but his stints on Fantastic Four and Thor? YECCH) and Terry Kavanagh (who bears the blame for inspiring the misbegotten "Clone Saga" in the Spider-Man titles in the mid-1990s; this storyline was one of the things that chased me away from collecting current Marvel titles, along with the equally godawful "Onslaught" and "Heroes Reborn" company-wide crossovers) at the helm, "Maximum Carnage" never gels as a coherent, compelling -- or even moderately interesting -- story.
I'm gobsmacked that Carnage's true identity, the redheaded, rictus-grinner Cletus Kasady, was apparently intended to be Marvel's answer to the Joker. I vaguely remember Kasady before he got powered up by a splinter cell of the Venom symbiote (originally Spider-Man's "black costume," introduced during Marvel's egregious Secret Wars limited series/crossover from the mid-1980s), and even before his power-up, he wasn't as interesting as Batman foe Zsasz. Post power-up? He's certainly annoying as all get-out; but he seems a better fit for the old, semi-comedic version of DC's (formerly Fawcett's) Marvel Family: maybe he could've been one of Ibac's buddies.
How in the hell did Carnage get so much fanboy (and -- even more amazingly -- fangirl) love as to be voted IGN's 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time? I can see how people might give big love to the Joker; but Carnage? Carnage??
At least Brian Michael Bendis had the retcon character Sentry (never a favorite of mine; at least I got to see him get his -- doubtless temporary -- comeuppance at the conclusion of the Siege storyline) rip Carnage in half in an early issue of The New Avengers.
*GASP!* Could this be the end of Carnage?!?
NAAAAAHH.