Absolute Carnage by Donny Coates with
art by numerous artists is an event graphic novel. Event graphic novels are
cross over reads that include multiple teams and titles. This trade collects
the main story while there are several more trades that collect the various tie
ins. To read this tale one should probably read the current Venom
series by this author as well, but one could start here and follow along.
In this book Venom and Spider-man have
to again combine forces as allies despite their history of being enemies to
deal with their mutual enemy, Carnage. For those unfamiliar with him, he is a
serial killer that wears the child of Venom’s symbiont. Venom produced a child
and the alien creature was driven insane by being bonded to such an unstable
host. The human known as Cletus Cassidy became the host and he lived to kill
people. That alien symbiont bonded to him and together they are known as
Carnage.
The goal of Carnage is to kill anyone
who has anyone who has ever worn an alien symbiont and extract DNA from them to
free an evil alien god. If Carnage succeeds in recovering enough DNA to free
the evil god he worships, the survival of mankind is next to impossible.
Carnage is a sadistic monster who is now
even more powerful then he has ever been before. Carnage plans to kill Venom,
Spider-man, Captain America, Wolverine, Deadpool and many others including
Venom’s son as well as Spider-man’s godson. That is not going to happen if
Spider-man and Venom can stop it. It is a race to save as many lives as
possible from Carnage and stop his insane killing spree across the world.
This book is very violent. I do not know
how this book got approved as being safe for teens and up. Obviously, it
depends on the child, but I have a hard time accepting the idea that this
suitable for twelve and thirteen-year-old kids.
Spider-man provides a lot of humor that
contrasts nicely with Venom’s dry sense of humor. The book does a good job of
exploring their enemies turned allies relationship. They are the key players
alongside Carnage in this tale. There are a number of small roles for
certain heroes which work very well. I especially liked the small role that
Captain America plays. As a big fan of Captain America who appreciates when
writers decide to use him outside of his other books, I enjoyed that Donny
Coates did not have Captain America act out of character. Often the writers
choose to have Captain America play an antagonist role in these event books,
but instead he gets to play a mentor role. In other books, Captain America has recently
been acting in the role of a hero that represents the broader hero community
that is willing to give Venom a second chance despite his criminal past. That
angle continues here where Captain America continues to be supportive and a
mentor figure. There are a lot of villains and heroes that play a role in this
event read, but most of their stories are collected in other trades and this
are only briefly explored here.
This a good book for an adult that likes
books with action, horror elements, and lots violence. This tale explores
secrets and history and how these play a role in shaping a family then and now.
Included in this trade paperback read are some variant covers, psych
evaluations of certain characters, and a newspaper article that is written from
this universe.
My one problem with this book is that it
is event comic that clearly sets up another event comic in the future. This
book sets up things for the future that will not conclude in this book. At the
end, things are left far too open and are not tied off which make the
conclusion somewhat unfulfilling.
Absolute Carnage by Donny Coates This
book is really good despite that flaw. Carnage is expected to make his
movie debut in the Venom 2: Let There be Carnage that is supposed to come
out in October. Carnage is to be played by Woody Harrelson.
My reading copy came from the Central Branch
of the Dallas Public Library by way of their just started “Library to Go”
curbside pickup option.
Scott A. Tipple © 2020
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