It’s Death Spiral Part 9 of 9 – the conclusion! Spider-Man is now Spider-Carnage, who almost kills MJ but she is saved by … Eddie Brock! Anti-Venom is here and … stands around! Venom saves Aunt Anna and May from Torment, who … dies without revealing anything? The Carnage symbiote is now on a cockroach. All of this, plus … Peter’s mystery cousin wants to visit 23 And Me???
(Where did this motif of the Carnage symbiote creating miniature spiders come from?)
CREDITS
Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Ed McGuinness & Carlos Gomez with Francesco Manna
Inkers: Mark Farmer, Wade Von Grawbadger, Ed McGuinness, Carlos Gomez & Francesco Manna
Colorists: Marcio Menyz & Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
PREVIOUSLY IN VENOM …
Torment tries to kill Dylan. Spidey, Venom and Carnage show up but Torment gets away after killing Paul(1). Carnage is out for blood now that Torment tried to kill his son, but Dylan is hiding in the sewers, wearing MJ’s Jackpot bracelet. Spidey and Carnage catch up with Torment, but the Carnage symbiote leaves Eddie and bonds with Torment.
PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN…
Spidey fights Torment/Carnage while Eddie (dying without the Carnage symbiote) worries about Dylan, who is in the sewers with Venom. Spidey realizes that Torment is “all method” and won’t let the Carnage symbiote indiscriminately kill people. Flash takes Aunt Anna to meet Aunt May at FEAST while Venom takes Eddie to the hospital. Spidey catches T/C about to kill a random guy whom T/C says is Peter’s first cousin. Spidey saves this mysterious family member as T/C arrives at FEAST.
PREVIOUSLY IN CARNAGE VENOM(2) …
Torment/Carnage attack Aunt May and Aunt Anna at FEAST. May fights back with hot soup but is saved by Anti-Venom. T/C uses Shocker’s gauntlet on Anti-Venom, and they decide to separate – the Carnage symbiote will go after May and Anna, while Torment fights Anti-Venom. Eddie is in the hospital and sees on the news that symbiotes are attacking FEAST and leaves to go there. The Carnage symbiote kills random people, angering Torment, who turns his gauntlet on the symbiote. Spidey and Venom show up, but Torment knocks Venom out, and seriously wounds Spidey, who is saved by the Carnage symbiote, becoming Spider-Carnage.
SUMMARY
Peter tries to fight off the Carnage symbiote as Spider-Carnage fights Torment.
(“I’m infected with the Carnage symbiote, so I’m going to attack you with miniature spiders!)
Spider-Carnage rips the Shocker’s gauntlet off of Torment and is apparently about to kill him when Venom shows up and stops him.
(That looks like it hurt. It’s just a glove, it wasn’t bonded to his skin. It shouldn’t have ripped off any skin.)
The Carnage symbiote has taken over as Spider-Carnage attacks Venom and is about to kill them, but he is stopped by Eddie Brock, wearing Shocker’s gauntlet.
(Am I the only one who at first glance thought this was Flash?)
Inside Peter’s mind, he confronts the Carnage symbiote and proves that he is stronger than it, driving it out of himself.
(Aw, the poor Carnage symbiote, I feel bad for it.)
Anti-Venom helps Spidey up stand up, fulfilling his mandated appearance in this issue.
(“I have to go now, my planet needs me.” Anti-Venom is pulled up out of the panel.)
Torment is about to kill May and Anna but is stopped by Venom, who drags him up the side of a building, ripping his costume and showing half of his face.
(Ooh, that’s GOTTA hurt.)
Torment mocks Venom that if he’s put away he’ll eventually get out and kill Aunt May, traumatizing Peter. Venom responds by dropping Torment off the building to fall to his death.
(Ooh, *that’s* GOTTA hurt.)
In the aftermath, Peter and MJ console May and Anna, while Flash recuperates at home. Eddie is in prison for … reasons. Peter and MJ talk on the phone, with Peter trying to get her to admit if Torment died by accident or if she killed him. She doesn’t answer him either way.
(“So did you kill Torment or was it an accident?” “Peter, I’m going through a tunnel, I can’t hear you, I gotta go.”)
Meanwhile, the Carnage symbiote survived and is on a cockroach.
(What will happen with CarnageRoach/CarnageRat? Read Spider-Versity to find out!)
In the epilogue, the man that Torment/Carnage was trying to kill last issue whom he said was Peter’s first cousin – Mister Crane – is driving through Hudson Valley. He calls someone and tells them to make an appointment with a doctor for some genetic screening.
(Cousin Crane is evil, I tells ya … EVIL!)
TO BE CONTINUED!(3)
INITIAL RESPONSE
Well, Death Spiral is over. And while most of the issues were fairly enjoyable (even though I maintain that this entire thing read like a Venom/Carnage story instead of a Spider-Man story), this final issue was … a big disappointment.
Spidey is infected by the Carnage symbiote … and it’s resolved in less than half of the issue, quite easily.
The mystery of Torment … is never resolved. We don’t know who he was, his origin, why he was after Peter and Eddie, why he does his spiral motif, and now he’s dead.(4)
All in all, it’s a very disappointing ending.
WHAT I LIKED
While it lasted, I liked Spider-Carnage – both when Peter was struggling for control, and when the symbiote was in complete control. The Spider-Carnage/Torment fight was well done.
I liked Eddie showing up to save the day, even if he should have been dying in the hospital, since we have been told many times throughout this story that the symbiote was keeping him alive and he would die without it.
(“You’re welcome for saving your life … I’m dying here, by the way.”)
I liked how Peter was able to overwhelm the Carnage symbiote and expel it, even if it seemed right out of the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon.
(“You’re trying to take control of me by overwhelming me with negative emotions? You do know what I’ve been through in my life, right?”)
While I don’t like the idea of having MJ murder Torment, I do commend the issue for having the guts to do it. I fully expected to turn the page and see that Spidey/Anti-Venom/Eddie/someone had saved Torment after Venom dropped him.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Spidey being taken over by the Carnage symbiote should have been a big deal, and yet it happens in the final issue of this story, and it’s over in less than half of the issue. And Peter easily overwhelms the symbiote in his mindscape. In retrospect this didn’t like that big of a deal.
Anti-Venom literally does nothing in this issue. He helps Spidey stand up after he expels the Carnage symbiote. That’s it. He doesn’t fight anyone, he doesn’t save anyone. That’s it.
Torment. As I said earlier, the mystery of Torment was dangled before us for the previous 8 issues. Who is this person? (I fully expected someone from both Peter and Eddie’s past, not some unnamed person whom no one knows) Why are they after Peter’s and Eddie’s family? (would have been great to pick a character from the 90s who had a connection to both characters) Why the spiral motif? (a fan of Spirograph?) What is his origin? (“I was bitten by a radioactive spiral …”) We finally get to see Torment’s face and … it’s no one we know, no one recognizes him, and there’s no big reveal. And the worst part is that he’s killed, and we don’t learn anything. That’s so disappointing, and bad writing (it’s like getting to the end of And Then There Were None and finding out the killer is some random stranger who snuck onto the island and killed everyone instead of one of the main characters). When Torment was unveiled it should have been a big reveal, and yet it was more like this:
Tangent time! The reveal of Torment reminded me of the Howard Mackie ASM run. MJ had been presumed dead, kidnapped by some mysterious stranger whose face we never saw. It was this big mystery. And then in the final issue we find out … it’s just some guy we’d never heard of before (who didn’t even get a name) who latched onto Peter and MJ for … *reasons*. They weren’t anyone we knew, it was just some random mutant, and in the end they just wandered off and exploded with no real resolution. This final issue of DS felt like that reveal.
(This is literally the character’s entire History on the Marvel Wiki. And yet it’s more than we know about Torment.)
MJ killing Torment should be a *huge* deal, and yet, we know that anything that deals with this will happen in the Venom book, not ASM, and that’s disappointing. Is this the first person MJ has actually killed? I know she has physically attacked some Spidey-villains while married to Peter, and during her solo book. And she did shoot the Green Goblin in Marvel Knights. But her choosing to kill a villain should be a big deal for this book, and yet I have no hope that anything will be done about it here.
Eddie goes to jail … why? Is this because of things that he did in the Carnage series? I never read it so I don’t know what crimes Eddie committed there, or between the time he had was Venom and when he took on the Carnage symbiote. Yes, he bonded with the Carnage symbiote and killed some bad people, but there are dozens of people who have been taken over by symbiotes and weren’t responsible for their actions because the symbiote was in control. Isn’t he publicly known as Venom, a hero who worked for years with the Avengers and other heroes? This issue should explain exactly why he is going to jail. He tried to keep the Carnage symbiote bonded to himself to keep it from killing random people. If this is something from the Carnage series, or if it’s something I missed here, let me know.
(“Goodbye son, I’m going to prison for … reasons.” “Yeah, whatever dad, I’m off to be emo in my hoodie.”)
I mentioned this in a previous issue, but I really hate the trope in comics recently of heroes with a secret identity having their mask off in public and assuming their identity is safe because they’re on top of a building or someplace remote. There are cell phones, helicopters, drones, zoom lenses – it is so stupid for Peter to have his mask off here while talking to MJ on the phone. There is no reason for it except to show Peter’s face in this scene. I feel like this is bleed-over from the MCU where they find any reason for the hero to have their mask off so we can see the actor’s face.
(Back when Marvel actually cared about Spidey being unmasked in public, and there were actual consequences when it happened.)
I understand that the issue wants to remind us that Paul is dead, but it makes no sense to have his picture on the front page of the Bugle. Besides Peter, MJ and Dylan, does anyone else even know who he is? Does he have any friends, or interact with anyone else? (I guess Shay knows him since they all double-dated once) What about all of the other people killed by Torment in this story? Eddie’s father was killed, and I can guarantee he’s more well known by the public than Paul, even if just by association – he’s the father of Eddie Brock, who is known as Venom, who was just arrested. Everyone who reads this Bugle headline is looking at Paul and saying “Who?”
(Please let this be the last mention ever of this character in ASM ever. Have MJ mention him in Venom, that’s fine.)
The epilogue shows that it’s possible the whole purpose of Death Spiral – besides killing Paul – was to introduce Peter’s mystery cousin. If there’s one thing worse in fiction than a long lost friend from the hero’s childhood whom we’ve never heard about showing up out of the blue, it’s a relative we’ve never heard about before showing up out of the blue. I am not interested in Cousin Crane at all, but it’s likely this is part of a big reveal in issue 1000. Yawn.
LETTERS PAGE SHENANIGANS
So the secrets of Torment aren’t going to be revealed in the actual Death Spiral story, but in some random one-shot after DS is over?
Marvel, this is why your readers hate you.
WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL
Well, Death Spiral is over. What happened? Paul is dead, MJ killed someone, Eddie is in prison, and the Carnage symbiote is on a cockroach (and heading for Spider-Versity, I guess). And I feel like most of these things are going to be followed up on in other book and not in ASM.
GRADE
C-
This was a very disappointing ending to what had been a pretty good story. I was halfway through the issue and suspected they weren’t going to give us a satisfying ending, and unfortunately I was proven right.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
(Spidey is angry … about how Death Spiral ended, I’m guessing.)
FOOTNOTES
(1) Paul, a character that was created in ASM and has been a thorn in the side of ASM readers for years … dies in another title.
(2) Once again, that issue definitely reads like it was meant to be an issue of the Carnage book. It was written by Charles Soule, not Al Ewing or Joe Kelly, and it focuses mostly on Carnage.
(3) It’s the final issue of Death Spiral, there should not be a continuation. This is the end!
(4) Yes, it’s a comic book, and Torment could still be alive. But he’s clearly intended to be dead here. He falls off a building, there’s a literal SKLATT, the authorities are there to clean up the bodies, and the Bugle says Torment is dead.
@Hornacek – I definitely remember that story. It was The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock from 2007, part of the Back in Black “event,” post-Civil War, to sort of match what was going on with Spider-man wearing black in Spider-man 3, which just had its nineteenth anniversary this past Monday, I think.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/The_Last_Temptation_of_Eddie_Brock
@Aqu@:
I read all of the 90s Venom mini-series and I don’t remember it ever being said there that Eddie had cancer. I didn’t read the Venom ongoing series so I don’t know if it was ever discussed there, but as far as I got from ASM, Eddie was Venom, he gave up the symbiote because … he found religion and wanted to make amends for everything he did and he sold it, choosing to do something good with the money? (it’s been a long time since I read those issues). And Roberto Aguillera-Dacosta introduced the idea of Eddie having cancer and that the symbiote kept it in check (similar to it keeping Harry alive from his disease in the Insomniac games). RAD had Eddie (without the symbiote) in a hospital for cancer treatments painting himself black and going after … Aunt May who was also in the hospital? (again, long time since I read that)
I was just using the “ozone layer” as an example of something that Reed with all his scientific know-how and tech would be able to fix. If he can create a time machine and Negative Zone portal in an afternoon, global warming should be something he could fix within a couple of days.
The “Emperor Doom” graphic novel I mentioned came out in the 1980s.
Aand that happens when you’re interrupted when writing a comment. It got cut.
*history (but it does check out with my opinion on Cates’s run ).
“No consistency among *today’s different Marvel writers”
Mmh, from a quick look at a wiki, it seems Venom only convinced Eddie he had cancer before they met, but then he really developed one… The wiki has been wrong before, but I don’t feel like diving in my collection to confirm this. At least, as much contrived as it is, it doesn’t change his history (but it does).
Unfortunately, global warming isn’t caused only by the “ozone hole” (and repairing the layer would just be temporary if the causes aren’t eliminated).
I think I read someone else mentioning another story titled One World Under Doom, I presume it’s the same you’re citing. I should really give it a look.
@Aqu@:
“It’s also unfortunately true that symbiotes’ abilities often change from writer to writer.” Wait a minute, you’re telling me there’s no consistency among different Marvel writers? I am shocked, I tell you – SHOCKED!
“As for Eddie’s cancer, I seem to remember it was suggested (or confirmed) in Cates’s run that the problem was somewhat exaggerated or even made up by the Venom symbiote.” We literally see Eddie after the symbiote has left him dying of cancer. So I don’t know what Cates was talking about. It’s hard to exaggerate “cancer” when you’re literally dying of it.
Reed has invented time travel, travelling to the Negative Zone, etc. Are you trying to tell me he couldn’t whip up a device one afternoon that would repair the ozone layer if he really put his mind to it?
“I’m all for Doom solving global issues.” I only skimmed it when it came out but I remember the Emperor Doom graphic novel where he used Killgrave to take over the entire world, with Wonder Man (of all people) being the only one unaffected. He fought to stop Doom but had to admit that under Doom’s control, the world was better: he brought about world peace, eliminated crime, rid the world of nuclear weapons, and ended apartheid in South Africa.
Yes, there’s a general consensus between writers that symbiotes can heal you, at least by accelerating your healing, sometimes by doing more (it may also depends on the symbiote’s experience). It’s also unfortunately true that symbiotes’ abilities often change from writer to writer. I mean, I remember them showing Liz literally becoming sort of a human goo as Misery (she was cut in half and recovered very fast, and iirc she even splattered somewhere only to reconstitute like nothing).
As for Eddie’s cancer, I seem to remember it was suggested (or confirmed) in Cates’s run that the problem was somewhat exaggerated or even made up by the Venom symbiote.
For the record, I didn’t like neither of these two things (which explains my hazy memory).
About the issue of having geniuses like Reed Richards in comics: necessary suspension of disbelief aside, real world global problems cannot realistically be solved that easily by a single person, no matter how brilliant, because they depends on a complex series of factors, including many individuals’ will and interest. I mean, it’s not like global warming couldn’t be stopped in our world too (it’s been a known issue for at least 50 years, for God’s sake!), it’s just that it never bothered (and still doesn’t) the right people (those with the power or means needed) or the solutions clashed with their personal interests.
This topic has interestingly come out with the recent One World Under Doom (which I’m reading now and loving!): the main series make it easy with Doom coming to power, but it was in a tie-in (Iron-man I think?) that it was acknowledged some realistic implications and consequences of something that huge. It was also very boring, honestly, but maybe that’s because I’m all for Doom solving global issues. LOL
@Aqu@:
You’re right about having a single strand connecting the host and the (separated) symbiote. Then again, these are the same artists that think it’s ok for heroes to be unmasked out in public (on top of buildings) and there’s no problem with that, because no one in these times have phone, drones, etc.
Do symbiotes heal you? I know they can protect you but I seriously don’t know if they’re able to heal the host. I know the Venom symbiote kept Eddie from dying of cancer but it didn’t “heal” him, it just kept his cancer at bay. Once the symbiote left him, his cancer was still there.
“Ewing made that exact same remark on the bracelet in ANV through the voice of Robbie. Told you he knows when to jab at his colleagues’ work.” I am all for writers pointing out the inconsistencies of other writers.
@Evan Berry:
Yeah, that conversation between MJ and Peter on the girders was one of the ones I was thinking of. We’ve also seen MJ “step out” of the symbiote more than once in this story. Shouldn’t she have started dying each time she did that?
“Can’t she just go see Reed Richards?” Exactly. That’s the problem with having so many super-smart heroes who can invent anything they think of in the Marvel universe. Back during Ends of the Earth, I think it was JR who complained about having global warming be a key plot point in this story – with someone like Reed Richards around, shouldn’t he be able to fix real-world global problems like this in under a day?
Making a Jackpot bracelet that has 3 skulls on it seems like a huge design flaw. Like creating a device that has a “death” button and saying “Oh, if you press that button, you will die, so don’t press it.” Why would you include that as an option???
@Hornacek
If they did their homework, there should be at least a single filament of symbiote connecting them (or physical contact of some sort, like touching) in every scene where they seem separated. Considering who the editor is, however, I doubt the writers or the artists got the note.
(Unless something happened after ANV 6 that changes the rules, as I said I’m still behind)
As for Peter, I still have to read ASM after the first arc, but an easy explanation may be that he just had a mortal wound and the symbiote healed him. No need for permanent bonding after that.
@Evan
Ewing made that exact same remark on the bracelet in ANV through the voice of Robbie. Told you he knows when to jab at his colleagues’ work. 🙂
@Hornacek – I also thought I’d seen Mary Jane separate herself from the symbiote — like when she and the symbiote were talking to Peter on construction girders, I believe, maybe in the first issue of Death Spiral just after his return from outer space.
I’d like Mary Jane to go back to normal, but I guess if she risks molecular meltdown without the symbiote then I guess we’ll have to wait a while for some complicated means for her to be stabilized again. Can’t she just go see Reed Richards?
By the way, why would Paul make a Jackpot bracelet that has skulls in it at all, much less the possibility of getting all three? I’m sure it’s explained somewhere, but come on.
@Aqu@:
Thanks for that explanation, I figured it was something like that but wasn’t sure. But haven’t we seen the symbiote leave MJ multiple times during DS? Why didn’t she immediately die (or start dying) then?
And considering that Peter was “dying” and the Carnage symbiote was supposedly the only thing keeping him alive, but they got separated and he was fine, maybe the Venom symbiote being the only thing keeping MJ alive is being exaggerated too?
I can confirm that if the Venom symbiote leaves MJ, they both die. She, in particular, would just dissolve: as of All New Venom 6 (i.e. no spoiler from later issues, thank you) the symbiote is the glue literally keeping her molecules together. During Venom War they used the symbiote to hijack the Jackpot bracelet and bypass its safety; soon after it started malfunctioning until MJ got three skulls (instant death by demolecularization). Luckily (?) the dying symbiote was there and they bonded.
BTW, if you want to see Paul getting humiliated again and again, ANV is the book for you. Ewing has a knack for meta-narration and he doesn’t refrain from having a dig at his colleagues’ work when it’s due.
@Dark Mark:
I mean, in theory, (nearly) everyone in the world has their own spiral – parents, siblings, children, spouse(s). For example, if Eddie’s father had remarried and had new children, wouldn’t Torment have to kill them since, even though they weren’t in Eddie’s spiral, they were in his father’s?
The more you think about it, the more this motif has so many problems.
I didn’t think about Paul having no familial connections here. That would have been interesting if Torment killed him and realized no new spirals erupted. Could have made for an opportunity for him to pause in shock and give a leg up to the good guys.
My assumption is that when he kills someone in the spiral, it doesn’t generate new spirals or else there would be no reason to follow the spiral to its conclusion. If that is the case and Torment is tormented by the spirals, once he completes a spiral, why doesn’t he just stop?
@Evan Berry:
“Does this mean that Mary Jane will die if she loses her symbiote, too?” I think (?) we’ve been told in ASM that MJ will die if the symbiote leaves her, but I don’t know. This is probably explained in the Venom book.
No joke – I literally thought that was Flash punching Spider-Carnage while wearing the gauntlet at first. He and Eddie are drawn identical in this issue.
Yeah, when you think about the spiral motif, it makes no sense. Very few people have no family connections to anyone else, so most relatives of Peter and Eddie that Torment killed would also have relatives that have no connection to Peter/Eddie, but would create their own sub-spirals. My head hurts.
No telling your villain’s origin or identity in the actual story where they’re introduced and (seemingly) killed seems to be a failure in storytelling.
@Hornacek and Dark Mark – I had the same question about how Peter so quickly got better after purging the symbiote. I thought I wrote it in the Discord after first reading it, but, frankly, I had so many other questions that I may have forgotten it. When I saw in the last issue (of Venom) that Peter was wounded and that he needed the symbiote to survive (for some reason), I thought, “Come on, Peter. You know that Torment isn’t going to kill you yet, so your wounds could not possibly be fatal. There’s no need for a symbiote. You’ve had worse.” Does this mean that Mary Jane will die if she loses her symbiote, too? Those were the circumstances under which she and her symbiote bonded, if I’m not mistaken.
I had difficulty keeping track of who had what symbiote the entire time I read this story. The fact that Flash and Eddie look the same just made it worse.
I wondered why Peter himself didn’t stomp on the symbiote (sort of like Agent K and the bug in Men in Black, or, for a literary reference, like the Grand High Witch in The Witches), but then I realized that Carnage has survived being torn in half in outer space (just like Darth Maul), so it would probably find a way back.
Another great review! I hope Puddin’s a good sport.
By the way, given that Paul had no connections with anyone, and thus no spiral was generated in Torment’s mind when he killed him, I’m sure he had no problem with that — but it seems to me that every spiral would go on forever and ever. Why wouldn’t Torment try to kill Dylan Brock after killing Eddie? That’s the reasonable end of the spiral, assuming spirals are family lines, in this case.
So many questions. How convenient that the origin of Death Spiral comes out after the story, so that the writer(s) now have time to think of an origin that takes into account the questions that arose from readers in the interim. It reminds me of One Moment in Time, or the “What Happened Six Months Ago?” nonsense, or whatever it was. These just tell me the writer has no idea what he or she is doing and is making it up on the way. The only time I like a Mystery Box is my birthday or Christmas.
@Frenchie:
“I like when some mysterious baddie has no links with the SH.”
True, but he was introduced as someone who was targeting relatives/people connected with Peter and Eddie. It was setup that he had a connection with both of them. He should have been revealed to be someone from the 1990s Spidey-Venom stories. Otherwise, why not kill random civilians instead of people connected to only Peter and Venom? He was *so* upset when Carnage was killing random people at FEAST and not people connected to Peter and Eddie’s “spirals”.
@Dark Mark:
You’re right, in the previous issue Spidey was seriously wounded and the Carnage symbiote said it was bonding with him to save his life. And yet when he expelled the symbiote, he didn’t die and was fine. Same with Eddie losing the symbiote earlier. As I’ve said many times, I didn’t read the Carnage book, but from what I’ve heard (and was mentioned in DS), one of the reasons Eddie bonded with Carnage is that he was dying and if he didn’t bond with it, he would die. But he went to the hospital and he was fine. So what was to stop him at any time from removing the symbiote, destroying (or containing) it, and going immediately to the hospital? He would live, and the symbiote would be stopped. Maybe Eddie is so used to having symbiote powers that he would rather be bonded with the Carnage symbiote than no symbiote at all?
I assumed Torment looked normal under his suit, and the hand was supposed to look like that because of how the gauntlet was ripped off, and his face/chest looked so bad because Venom dragged him along the side of the building. But were we supposed to think this is how his entire body looks under his costume? Again, an origin here would have helped.
Yeah, somewhere along the way they decided Flash and Eddie looked the same.
“I am going to take it as canon that Teresa is NOT actually related to Peter after all since she was not mentioned by Torment.” In Teresa’s last appearance (SM & Wolverine?) wasn’t it revealed that she wasn’t actually Peter’s sister? At least she left that story assuming that?
“I really thought this arc was designed to remove Venom from her and bond it back with Eddie.” Yeah, I assumed that was going to be part of the ending of DS too. But no, MJ is still Venom.
Yeah, I’m surprised with McGuinness doing so many issues of this story that he didn’t shoehorn Rek-Rap in here.
I like when some mysterious baddie has no links with the SH. After a while, you’re running out of B or C supporting characters to turn into super-powered bad/good guy and it becomes ridiculous (but that’s Comics !).
Doesn’t mean I’m not curious about Torment’s past.
Review – A+
Comic – a generous C-
I actually liked the look of Spider-Carnage with all the little spiders. It was a plus for me. I wouldn’t want to see it often, though. I am glad it ended here rather than drawing out the Spider-Carnage idea, but I do have a question – I did not read the Venom title, but this issue said that Peter was injured and bonded with Carnage to survive, so wouldn’t his expulsion of Carnage also mean that he would die? I guess he got better, but that was rather quick. It seems a lot of people are bonding to symbiotes because they are injured, from what I’ve read in this arc.
I had the same question about the hand. I wasn’t sure if there was backstory to explain why his hand was messed up. It looked like Deadpool’s hand. Maybe Torment used superglue on it to make sure it wouldn’t fall off accidently.
I thought it was Flash saving the day as well.
I’m actually fairly intrigued – not a lot, mind you, but fairly – in who this Mr. Crane is.
I did think someone was going to save Torment before he died. I figured there was backstory about him given in the Venom books or something. My assumption is that he is a mutant ancestory.com but has this compulsion to kill people in the family tree to “quiet his voices”. He would be an easy villain to throw into other titles. I don’t think he would be a great recurring villain for Spider-Man, but to have him show up in Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night, Daredevil, etc. with each having to stop him from killing someone close to them, all the while revealing long lost relatives. I am going to take it as canon that Teresa is NOT actually related to Peter after all since she was not mentioned by Torment.
I have no problem with MJ killing Torment other than it looks like it will be yet another wedge to keep them apart. I really thought this arc was designed to remove Venom from her and bond it back with Eddie. Oh well. At least SKLATT makes a good OOTI.
I do remember and love that cover with the photograph on it.
From the Daily Bugle article, my assumption at first glance is that Paul IS Torment.
Very sad that Rek-Rap didn’t make an appearance. 🙁