CARNAGE #5 Review

After waiting for this mini to finally be done with, the final issue is out! And with that, so is this review! So does Carnage jump start Maximum Carnage 2.0? Can Spidey and Iron Man stop the maniac? And will we ever see Gerard Delatour ever again? (Wait, what does that mean??) Well click that “Entry” tag and find out!!

CARNAGE #5
Carnage Part Five
Writer: Zeb Wells

Artist: Clayton Crain

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

 

Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Warning – SPOILERS below may make you “shriek”

Crawlspace Carnage
Hey web heads, Nathaniel Collins here to give you the low down on what occurred during the crash of the Crawlspace. First day of darkness we were trying to get through it… but by the time we got passed the midnight point of the day one by one people started to lose their minds. Brad was crying out for his Mountain Dew, Two-Bit was driven crazy by the thought of never being able to review Spider-Girl again, Bertone and Donovan had to hold Gerard back as he was about to punch Two-Bit for thinking of Arana at a time like this, Brian started to miss his dog and Kevin stood around asking himself, “What kind of s#*t storm did I walk into?”

 

You could say it was, “Utter Carnage”??
Butters911: “Who are you talking to Nate?”
The readers; leave me alone and go back to your Marvel Adventures Butters!! Now where was I… oh yeah, people were losing their minds. I have to admit even I was feeling the effects of the site being down after being locked in a building with these guys. If I was feeling it, imagine how Stella was reacting with all these dudes! But there was one man who stood up and helped bring Brad back up to save the site. That man’s name… is George Berryman. He kept his cool and even though it took 24 hours to snap Brad back to reality, he did it. George did have some help from his Christina Hendricks poster that he keeps in his office and that only made him more determined to help start running the site again. I don’t know how the poster helped in anyway… but I don’t want to ask.

 

So were back with good health… except Two-Bit who is now lying in a hospital wearing a body cast while Gerard is being arrested for the serious beat down he gave him. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the review and I’ll–
Gerard: -as he’s being taken away towards a police cruiser outside in hand cuffs- “MAKE MINE MAYDAY! MAKE MINE MAYDAY!!!”
*AHEM* Yeah, I’ll see you guys around.

The Plot

 

Michael Hall flees New York City in a chopper as Voltron Carnage continues his battle with Spider-Man and Iron Man. Shriek drives civilians in the street into violence and madness as she continues to wear Tanis Nieves’ prosthetic symbiote arm. As Shriek tries to force Tanis to watch all the civilians go crazy the symbiote is trying to bond itself to the doctor. When the mob of crazy people start attacking a school bus full of kids; Tanis decides to accept the symbiote back, the symbiote leaving Shriek and joining Tanis to become Scorn. Doppelganger tries to save Shriek but falls to do so. Scorn forces Shriek to scream into Voltron Carnage’s direction, destroying his mechanized body. Spidey and Iron Man start dismantling his body, trying to find Cletus but are too late when they realize he’s not there. Scorn turns Shriek over before Spidey tries to comfort her with the fact that Carnage has spawned again. Days later Spider-Man and Iron Man try to track down Carnage but end up at a dead end, Shriek is now in a coma as Tanis did something to her brain when she controlled her before, and Tanis is now seeking help with her symbiote by professionals. As for Cletus Kasady, he’s hiding out in a home belonging to a family he just killed with Doppelganger, planning his comeback.  
 

 

The Good
The art is defiantly great in this issue and really does avoid that muddy look to it as it’s been having that almost throughout the mini. It really gives that dark and gritty feeling when you look through the issue. The writing is pretty good and Zeb Wells does a great job portraying the screwed up mind that is Cletus Kasady. For an odd reason I found myself happy that Cletus managed to escape. Knowing now that he’s planning a comeback that may make the heroes of the Marvel Universe shiver, I’m looking forward to reading Carnage U.S.A.
Now let’s talk about Tanis Nieves AKA Scorn. I see potential with her character and I’m glad that Wells didn’t decide to just leave her in limbo. I’ve actually been in support of this character since the beginning of the mini and now I’m happy that she’s gotten this push.
We get some good action between Carnage, Spidey and Iron Man. I enjoyed each panel as the two heroes fought Carnage to the best of their ability but the maniac just kept coming back.

The last page of the issue, damn was it dark and it helps hammer in what Cletus Kasady is made of and who were dealing with.    

The Meh
Lack of Toxin. Is it so bad though? Not really as this mini is about Carnage’s return. Adding Toxin in would maybe have been a bit too much but I do hope he makes an appearance in the next mini. We deserve to see a “father/son” reunion.
When the symbiote was attached to Shriek’s face it looked pretty ugly but I believe it was suppose to be like that. Something I don’t get is why the sudden color change from yellow/gold to violet/purple?
The scene with the school bus didn’t go anywhere. It was just there to cause Tanis to struggle with what was happening around her.

The Bad
Surprisingly I don’t have a lot of negative comments to say about this issue. It was quite good.

Favorite Spidey Line

Spidey: -In a caption box- “In the end, we didn’t beat Cletus Kasady… he just had more important things to do. In no way can that be a good thing.”

Rating

Good writing, good artwork. Dark, gritty and full of bloody fun. That’s what Cletus Kasady is in this mini. 4 out of 5 webheads
.

 

Overall this mini deserves a 4 out of 5 webheads. If you’re a Carnage fan, pick this up. Cletus is back baby and he plans on taking on the U.S. next. Check out my reviews for Carnage U.S.A coming this December.

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9 Comments

  1. @Scarletspiderfan – It looks like you may be right. After looking over that last page again I took a better look at the family photo and the man in it looks like Hall. Nice job catching that.

  2. This mini really surprised me how enjoyable it was. I’m really looking forward to Carnage U.S.A.

    Can’t say that creating Scorn is the best of plans, but I’d love to see her and Toxin take on their father together. The interaction between her and Toxin also could have potential. She’s a shrink, so they could be a good crime-fighting duo…

  3. I think the person they were torturing at the end was supposed to be Hall.

  4. “Bertone and Donovan had to hold Gerard back as he was about to punch Two-Bit for thinking of Arana at a time like this”

    This would’ve happened REGARDLESS of our little site crash there. He probably thought it’d be a nice alibi. 😉

  5. I enjoyed the hell out of this review… and I don’t even give a d*** about the book!

    Nice to see Gerard made bail.

  6. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to introduce a new symbiote. I mean we already have Venom, Anti-venom, Scream, Hybrid, Carnage and toxin. And we all know what happened to most of them right? They all went on to have an ongoing and become big players in the MU… (/sarcasm)

    In a way i would have prefered if they had kept Nieves as the host and erase her memory and personnality with cletus. As someone said somewhere now we got BOTH Venom and Carnage hosts misssing their legs. And we got a new useless symbiote on the table.

    My theory for having her purple-ish and not orange is that she would look too much like the other femal symbiote -Scream.

  7. Ha, I do miss my dog… what a true test of character we were all just put through.

    Nice review, the art of that series looks pretty good and I’m glad they got past those Rainbow-themed people from the first story or two, can’t remember their name right now.

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