Carnage: Family Feud

Carnage (2010) #1-5

by Clayton Crain (Writer), Zeb Wells (Contributor)

Carnage is back!
The fan-favorite villain returns to rock the Marvel Universe, with the Amazing Spider-Man and the Invincible Iron Man first on his hit list. But just why - and how - has Carnage returned, and how many of Marvel's heroes will it take to stop him? Superstar creators Zeb Wells (Amazing Spider-Man, New Mutants) and Clayton Crain (Ghost Rider, X-Force) team up for the Spider-Man epic that'll leave jaws on the floor! Literally!

Collecting: Carnage 1-5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Spider Man, Superheroes, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics

168 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2011

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having enjoyed Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain’s Carnage USA, I hoped their other Carnage book might also rock - and it didn’t.

Carnage is a meandering, weak story ostensibly about just putting Cletus Kasady and the Carnage symbiote back together again. Shakily built around that is some crap about an evil CEO who has illegally and immorally used the Carnage DNA to make next-gen prosthetics that Spider-Man and Iron Man get tangled up into fighting.

The characters are bland and unremarkable: there’s Shriek, Carnage’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, and her psychologist, whose name escapes me, that’s how memorable she was, and a six-armed Spider-Man clone/imposter swinging around for some reason. There are some new corporate superheroes introduced that are pure cheese and there just for Spidey and Iron Man to hit until Carnage appears.

While the art is overly dark throughout, Clayton Crain’s painted artwork is very impressive and beautiful in a horror/Aliens-esque way. The visuals are the only thing going for this one - Carnage is an instantly-forgettable bore that’s not worth the effort. I recommend Carnage USA for a more entertaining read instead.

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Symbiotes go wild in this crazy power house of supervillains!
This. Was. Amazing.
Some of the best artwork I've seen yet in comic books and graphic novels. I am a huge Carnage fan and to see Carnage as a woman for the first time really made me cheer for the bad guy!
The storyline was a little complicated but still simplistic enough to where it made it fun. Loved the introduction of the new symbiote character. And I loved the twist in the plot at the end.
All in all very well done. BRAVO!!! 👏👏👏

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Carnage 2010 series is genuinely a blast! I read it a while ago and enjoyed it just as much now as I did then. It's basically an awesome team-up with Iron Man and Spider-Man taking on Carnage, Shriek, and an idiotic businessman who tries to combine symbiotes with Tony's armor.

Carnage is incredibly fun whenever he appears, and his hulking size in this series makes the fights with Tony and Peter super entertaining. The new characters introduced are good, and I also really enjoyed most of Shriek's parts.

I will say, the art takes a little getting used to; it can feel a bit too dark at times, making it hard to discern what's happening. The humor mostly lands, with only an occasional dud, but a lot of it genuinely made me laugh.

I'd rate this about a 3.5 out of 5, but I'm bumping it up to a 4 out of 5 for Goodreads.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading performed as part of the self-imposed penance trek I’m on to prep for reading Absolute Carnage.

I remember reading this book years ago, but didn’t have the “benefit” of knowing the Maximum Carnage story on which this is founded. Shame on me - would’ve been much more satisfying to see how much less irritating this one was than it’d predecessor (especially with most of the same players, sans irritating writing).

Fantastically under-written, a decent lock on the psychology of the characters, not a lot of wasted back-and-forth chase scenes, some artistic mystery being spooled out, and great action. Oh, and the art takes this to the next level - even a terrible 90’s script would’ve seemed great with this gorgeous painting (even though it’s sometimes hard to know what I’m looking at exactly).

Plus we get a new symbiote variant named Scorn! The family just keeps on expanding!

(And - spoiler! - somehow the top half of Cletus survived orbiting earth for a year, was given a tech lower half, and found himself bonded back with the Carnage symbiote - a happy ending?)


Original review:
Good writing + great art can sometimes = pathos (or a reasonable shadow thereof). This is fun, smart, modern writing and beautiful, big, slick-looking art. Especially in the fight scenes, where the pages are big, massive, border-crossing splashes - its a treat to read a comic where you can almost feel and hear the thundering hits.

A stylish book with some great emotional moments, from the doctor who just wants to help, to the broken villainess who can't decide who she is, to the poor sap henchmen who don't stand a chance. And Spidey and Iron Man passing by, trying to stand up to these awesome and whelming circumstances. I am *definitely* reading the next volume by this team - right now.

[Sud666 · Rating 2 out of 5]

First the good: the artwork is quite good. I liked the almost painted quality of the art. Now the bad: the pedestrian and oft-confusing story.

So some corporate retard has decided to get the Carnage symbiote back from outer space and use it for research. Spiderman and Iron Man have to deal with the fallout. That isn't a terrible idea, per se, and could have been the basis for a solid story. However, the execution of the story falls rather flat.

One of the complaints is the unnecessary "extra" characters such as Shriek, Kassidy's girlfriend, because serial killers NEED a girl pal right? It is nothing more than sheer SJW hackery. Marvel saw the Joker has a gal-pal in Harley Quinn, so Carnage MUST have a girl-pal as well.

Then we have the liberal psychiatrist who goes around saving everyone and everything, who then gets merged with a symbiote arm..and becomes "Scorn"..because..actually..just because. Also, where she uses a shard of glass to hack off a prosthetic arm? Ummm any idea how long that would take and how hard that would be? Nigh impossible.

The whole symbiote family was pushing it. Perhaps if the story had focused more on the return of Carnage (a pretty good character) and Spiderman and Iron Man's conflict with him..then this would have been good. But all the hack dervative characters and some of the silly writing was a bit much.

The saving grace of this volume is the art. Kudos to the artist and I hope to see them work on better titles with better stories.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the artwork in this one.

[FortressOfBookitude · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art style is great and fits the eerie and gory tone of Carnage perfectly. The plot, unfortunately, is not that interesting and the characters are flat, which lets me assume the writer and illustrator were only there for the gore.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but something was really off with this. I think it was the dialogue. It just really didn’t flow very well. The pacing definitely could’ve been better too.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comic looks amazingly visceral. The level of violence here is impressive and is the thing that stands out the most. One of Spider-Man's greatest enemies, if not THE greatest, returns to take revenge on the guy who thought he can use the symbiote as a source of technology to be used in prosthetic limbs and armor. He is going to be defeated by an unlikely character, since the good guys are pretty much out of their league. The pace of the story is beautiful, building up to a battle that is as destructive as it is gorgeously drawn.

A mutated Spider-Man doppelganger is drawn to an armored truck where Shriek is being held. They were two of Carnage's team of supervillains, until their leader was ripped in two and left to die in space. Doctor Tanis Nieves is Shriek's psychiatrist and she ends up losing an arm when she tries to protect her patient from two armored individuals belonging to a team called the Iron Rangers created by Michael Hall. Spider-Man and Iron Man are the good guys here, but they may have met their match.

Michael Hall has been developing advanced prosthetic limbs which makes Stark suspicious. Nieves receives one of those limbs to replace the one she lost, but it's making her experience hallucinations. When she gets close to Shriek she finds that her new arm has a mind of its own. It kills Hall's R&D scientists and frees the Carnage symbiote which possesses Nieves.

Spider-Man and Iron Man infiltrate Hall's factory only to be attacked by his Iron Rangers. Carnage's escape forces the five to team up with the good guys in pursuit. The symbiote's goal is to reunite with Cletus Kasady who was presumed dead, but was kept alive by Hall. Given that the Iron Rangers' suits are made out of symbiotic alloy, Cletus takes control of their armor. He twists the metal into armor for his body, killing the owners.

While Cletus fights Iron Man and Spider-Man, Nieves discovers she has been impregnated by the symbiote. In her prosthetic arm she feels Cletus' insatiable hunger for killing, so she cuts it off. The symbiote fragment in the arm bonds with Shriek. Later on, given Nieves' offspring, the symbiote returns to the doctor who embraces it while being tortured by Shriek. She adopts the name Scorn and forces Shriek to use her power against Cletus. He is weakened by the sonic blast and taken apart by Iron Man, but somehow manages to get away and is in hiding until his return.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating and review isn’t necessarily a reflection of the author or artist’s abilities. They’re both fine. Art is awesome, in fact.

I have suspected for some time now that I just am not ready for superhero comics again yet. I stopped teaching my Comic Books as Lit course at college, in part because I dread covering Civil War, and haven’t had time to develop new lessons around a new book. Superhero books are what students expect when they get in the class, and I always tried to throw them a bone, but it is exhausting. The tropes are tired. It all seems formulaic at this point.

This book was no exception. Carnage (one of my favorites as a kid) is back. Things are bound to get crazy (but don’t worry, it is Marvel so they’ll also be tame as fuck for marketing purposes). Iron Man is still an arrogant prick and Spider Man is boiled down to the driest elements of his personality. Symbiote merges with a new human and a new character skin is revealed. Minor character encounters a change that may or may not impact future continuity. End story.

About five years ago I joined Marvel Unlimited and that shit was solid. Things seemed to be moving in a new direction with Squirrel Girl, comics dealing with more character-driven stories, heroes in a practical world, it was great. Then I read everything I wanted and felt caught up.

This pre-dates that glorious time, so I’m hopeful that things are still going well in the Marvel universe. I’m just not ready to go back for fear that the movies have dredged up an audience whose demand has dragged us back to 1990-2012 or so.

I will brave it soon.

But I think I’ll be staying away from Marvel circa 2000-2012 or so for a while unless it has a strong draw.

But this one was not for me. Maybe I’m just too old for this shit after years of reading and teaching it 🤷🏻‍♀️ Happened with 19th-Century American Lit as well. If I have to read another Melville book . . .

[Freyja (semi-hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Venom: Dark Origin çizimleri fiyaskosundan sonra bu bayağ�� iyi geldi. Çizimler ve atmosfer bence harikaydı. O karanlık ortam ve vahşi çizimler... Özellikle de o fasikül kapakları! 5 yıldız vermemek için kendimi zor tuttum, 5 yıldızlık değildi. Çizimleri gerçekten çok beğendim.

Hikayeyi o kadar kuvvetli bulmadım ama sıkılmadım da. Akıcıydı. Özellikle son 2 fasikül merak uyandırıcıydı. (Bu seri Carnage'ın başlangıç hikayesi değil bu arada.) Ayrıca daha önce hiç bilmediğim bir simbiyot olan Scorn'u da burada görmüş oldum. Beğendim.

[Bryan Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! This definitely filled in some holes from Carnage USA. I wish I had read this one first.
Art was really well done, writing and story were great, and even included probably the darkest joke Spidey’s ever said (web-noose, you’ll know when you read it).
This has everything you’d want in a Carnage story. It’s brutal and violent, has some throwbacks, has comedy, and is scary.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carnage has left the building!
Quality, but poor doctor Nieves 😢

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.. great artwork, mediocre plot with nothing to write home about.

[IndieReviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, there just wasn't a lot of depth to this book. Sure, the art is good, it introduces some new characters, but overall, it was a bit of a sleeper.

[Ithlilian · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can you go through the comic section of the bookstore, see this cover, and not want to read it? I'm not a huge Spiderman fan (well, I wasn't, but I'm becoming more of one the more I learn about the universe) and have very little idea of what is going on other than Carnage is a symbiote that joined with Cletus Clay to go around and be generally evil. The jacket mentions who the important characters are in this go round and I didn't feel lost at all with my little background information.

This starts off on a good note with Tony Stark doing what he does-being generally awesome, and just picks up from there. I think the story had a decent amount of complexity, and there was no unimportant filler. The art is amazing, and I love all of the characters. Spiderman is basically a sane version of Deadpool, humor wise, and I enjoyed reading about him. I enjoyed him spilling Fruit Loops all over himself too. I think this story is well worth reading for Spiderman fans, and non Spiderman fans, and should spur people to read more Spiderman, which is great. Loved it!

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not as good as the sequel, Wells and Crain still tell a creepy Carnage tale. I once again think Wells stretches Carnage's powers too but the idea of him possibly putting together demented Maximum Carnage family is very interesting. Crain does a fantastic job with the creepy aspects of Carnage and others. The corporate Iron Man ripoffs are depressingly mundane. Overall, decent but a few missing elements.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a comic book connisour but when I saw the artwork in this book, I had to read it. It turned out to be a good gamble because I loved the story as well! Dark, funny, and surprising!

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yooooo! I needed that!

What a book. It’s perfect. Zero negative criticisms. Every page is awesome.

But that art though... holy hannah... this Clayton Crain guy is a magician. There’s a panel early in this collection where it’s just a closeup of this guy’s hand while he holds this computer chip thingie, and even that simple panel is breathtakingly detailed. This is easily some of the best art I’ve ever seen. As soon as I finished reading, I felt compelled to spend another few moments just flipping through and taking this amazing work in.

The story and writing are badass. It’s like.... imagine Maximum Carnage boiled down to the cool shit without the mountains of unnecessary bullshit. That’s what this is. Long story short, Carnage was recovered after Sentry ripped him in half in New Avengers. Now he’s loose. Shriek and Doppelgänger are there. Carnage Spawns a cool new symbiote. Iron Man and Spidey save the day. It’s a simple, cool story. Exactly what it should be. It’s lean.

I’m sure I’ll read this again. And again. It’s pure candy. This is why comics rule. I really can’t recommend this hard enough.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Brian Michael Bendis's New Avengers: Breakout, Sentry killed Carnage by flying him into space and then tearing him apart. It must have been satisfying to write.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. This miniseries exists with the sole purpose of bringing Carnage back. Like most Carnage stories, it's fine until Carnage shows up and then it's just stupid and annoying.

[Dean · Rating 1 out of 5]

a pseudo sequel to maximum Carnage - doppelganger, shriek and Carnage return. this bring Carnage back to 616 after new avengers death by sentry.

clayton crain is doing pretty good work here. it was a bimonthly series so either it takes extremely long or crain is trying really hard to do high level work. I like their symbiote work and ghost rider, but not sure how it works representing the rest of the universe. dr tanis Nieves who plays host for a while is well drawn though.

wells is doing workmanlike work here.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this not knowing much about Carnage, so this was a bit of a struggle. I think I was able to follow the story, but didn't get on with the artwork which seemed designed to make it more difficult to understand what was going on.
This would have benefitted from a required reading list or a page for 'Here's what you need to know' at the start. It was okay, but I'll have to reread it once I'm more up to speed with the characters.

[Robert Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iron Man and Spider-Man handle the reappearance of Cletus Kasady. Sleazy business mogul Michael Hall manages to get Carnage out of space imprisonment. The purpose: business exploitation. There is also an appearance by Shreik, evidently Kasady’s gf, as well as Dr. Nieves’ transformation into Scorn, just in time to prevent Iron Man and Spider-Man from getting Spanked.

[Arturo Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las ilustraciones de Carnage en aus distintos huespedes son muy buenas, es lo mejor del comic, la historia es un poco plana.

Carnage illustrations in different guests are very good, it is the best of the comic, the story is a bit flat.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carnage: Family Feud

Second Carnage book I've read and it even better. Carnage and Venom are the only reason I read Spider-Man books now. The artwork looks alive, coming off the pages. Loved that part of the book. Can't wait to read the next book.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was good, the story quite interesting. I am very interested to see where this goes from here, and hope more symboytes will show up later. I am liking the addition of Scorn, and wonder how that will turn out as well...

[Zach Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carnage

I wasn’t expecting a character to be half robot because he or she is was considered dead. I’m trying to not have spoilers written down. But, the violence and story was pretty good.

[Daniel Acosta · Rating 3 out of 5]

La ilustraciones muchas veces no se entiende lo que está pasando por lo oscuras que están además de que se confunden las acciones por la falta de bordes en los personajes pero en general está bastante chido el estilo y la historia está chidilla 🤙🏻

[Carla Rodrigues · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very boring and forgetfull.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked this - especially the artwork which at times seemed heavily inspired by the old tales from the crypt...