Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors

Absolute Carnage

by Frank Tieri, Flaviano (Illustrator), Federico Blee (Colorist)

THE CULT OF CARNAGE COMES TO NEW YORK CITY! When he was last seen, John Jameson was being recovered from the scene of a massacre in Doverton, Colorado, by Misty Knight. Since then, they've both been MIA. So how, then, are they the only two people poised to prevent chaos as a mysterious foe of Spider-Man's is resurrected in the basements of Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane?! Plus: Years ago, Cletus Kasady used the Carnage symbiote to take over a small town called Doverton, Colorado, as well as the team of Avengers who arrived to stop him! Barely able to free themselves from his control during their first meeting, this small band of heroes will have no choice but to assemble once more after they discover that Doverton's entire population has recently fallen victim to Carnage's more lethal designs...

COLLECTING: Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors (2019) 1-3, Absolute Carnage: Avengers (2019) 1

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

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2020

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better Absolute Carnage tie ins. It essentially regathers the heroes that team up to helped Spider-Man back in the 90's during Maximum Carnage. It's a cool idea and actually ties in well with what was going on with John Jameson in the main book. Absolute Carnage: Avengers didn't do much for me. It reteams the Avengers involved in Carnage U.S.A. to fight a bunch of generic Carnage castoffs.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the Absolute Carnage tie-ins, Lethal Protectors was one of the ones I enjoyed most, despite it being a shameless tug on our nostalgia for the ‘90s symbiote books (I don’t have much of that anyway, the ‘90s being a pretty low-point for me in comics history).

It didn’t hurt that this featured some of my all-time favourite characters (Iron Fist, Cloak & Dagger) and the artwork by Flaviano was really nice.

Also collected here is the Avengers tie-in one-shot, which was OK, but felt a little inessential.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another weak Absolute Carnage tie-in. Totally skipable. Except...for completist nerds like me who like seeing how all the pieces fit together.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a minute to realise what the point of this mini-series is; it reunites the supporting cast of Maximum Carnage, namely Iron Fist, Morbius, Cloak & Dagger, and Firestar as they attempt to rescue Misty Knight from the Cult Of Carnage.

Of all the tie-in mini-series, I think this the one that deserves the most attention. Frank Tieri uses parts of the Cult of Carnage that haven’t been touched on, as well as leaning into the dark magic aspect of it all to craft a new villain that I’d like to see again that also pays homage to Maximum Carnage while being a truly horrifying design. Add in some good character work for John Jameson, and some really claustrophobic artwork from Flaviano that helps enhance the hopelessness that Misty Knight feels, this is just great from start to finish. Oh, and the end of this directly leads into the characters’ appearance in the main Absolute Carnage series too, which is nice.

The token one-shot here is Absolute Carnage: Avengers, which unfortunately isn’t very good. It checks in on the Avengers that were involved in Carnage USA and pits them against hordes of monsters, but it never elevates itself above ‘okay’, and there are some logistical issues with how Hawkeye manages to get across the country in like 30 minutes without a Quinjet. There were a lot of creative changes in the background of this one-shot, and it shows in the overall quality.

Easily my favourite mini-series tie-in, coupled with my least favourite one-shot. This gets a 4 star rating, but that one-shot isn’t doing the collection any favours.

[AJ Kallas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a tie-in. What’d you expect? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Still fun to see these characters tho.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lethal Protectors was pretty fun. Basically, Misty Knight gets kidnapped by Carnage, and then Iron Fist, Firestar, Cloak, and Dagger rescue her. That's pretty much the entire thing—just a kind of rescue mission. Good art, fun fights, but nothing special. 3 out of 5.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely non-essential...

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably the weakest of the tie-ins for Absolute Carnage. It's like the writers remembered all these extra characters they'd have to include because of the symbiote codex, and shuffled them off into one book.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that sucked. That sucked real nice.

I blame the one-dimensional-boring-ass-dumb-insignificant-yet-more-venomized characters that are a chore to read about in these events.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
Diving into two parts, this graphic novel covers another aspect of the Absolute Carnage crossover story. Highlights:
- Misty Knight gets up close and personal with Carnage in his Sewer lair.
- Sacrificing Shriek to Knull, Demagoblin is revived and teams up with John Jameson (Man-Wolf) to track down an escaping Misty
- Misty has called Iron Fist, who gathers Morbius, Cloak and Dagger, and Deathlok to save her. In the process, they are able to release John from Knull's influence.
- In the second story, Cap, Wolverine, Spider-Man and The Thing team up to take out one of Carnage's beacons, which helps him assimilate more and more people to the cause which helps him find more of those who have a Codex. Alternately, Hawkeye takes down the beacon out in San Francisco.

The last of the crossover Volumes for me to read (I think LOL). The overall story is good, and this Volume is just one facet of it. If I ever find it, I'd like to read an omnibus of the whole Absolute Carnage story in order.
Recommend, though obviously not as much as the main storyline.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Absolute Carnage tie-in books have been sitting unread in my virtual queue for a while because...well the main book wasn't exactly all that. Lethal Protectors explores more side stories including the effort to bring back Demo/Demagoblin and a cross-country Avengers effort to fight the rise of the symbiotes (not to be confused with The Rise of the Symbiotes).

The book was decent but nothing to write home about, really. Some strong character moments here and there but the overall tone of the book (and the event) just felt rather muddy.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This suffers from all the problems of secondary event books. Two unrelated short stories are crammed together. The big bad and other characters show up even though they're busy in the main event.

Also, here, it seems like Hawkeye drives cross-country in 35 minutes? And their story has no real bearing on the main story.

Still, I liked that the Maximum Carnage assists hung out together. Should have played the MIDIs.

[Michael Rivas · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a part of the story as to how these particular characters fought to get to where they will end up. We know where they end up because it’s already given to us in absolute carnage. The art is so so and the lines are very Boy Scout/ ra ra go team. There are plenty of characters interacting with each other which is why I didn’t deem it a one. Consistent action but choppy. But ultimately a waste of time.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I don't know that this volume is any more relevant than any of the other crossover volumes, but I personally liked this one slightly more. It was interesting to see the original Maximum Carnage team back together again (Cloak and Dagger, Iron Fist, Morbius, Firestar, Deathlok) and also interesting to see Man-Wolf in the mix. The Avengers appearance didn't really add much, but at least we got to see Captain America and Wolverine.

[Crazed8J8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best part of the event so far! This run brings together the players from Maximum Carnage (Iron Fist, Cloak and Dagger, Deathlok, etc) to face off against Carnage's minions, including the newly made Demagoblin.
The Avengers stand alone was okay, but not as epic as the Lethal Protectors run.
Onto the next chapters...

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked this tie in set more than some of the others for Absolute Carnage, but ultimately it is just like a videogame side quest that filters you back into the main storyline. The Avengers issue is actually probably the weakest of the bunch.

[Fuuma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got two things out of this that I really enjoyed: seeing a bunch of characters I like all in one place being quippy and bad ass, and actual movement forward in the Absolute Carnage event. I do think the issues are a little out of order with the Avengers in the back, but oh well. It's fine.

[Arbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a very boring one nothing happens except when the demogoblin appears.

[Pat Blades · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one but at the same time I didn't even know who the protectors were so I was confused but I'm going to read more stories about them soon so hopefully my opinion will change

[Santiago Fedorowicz · Rating 2 out of 5]

3

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember that Spider-Man episode that had Carnage in it ? Well this book sure is something.