Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 25: Maximum Carnage

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection

by Terry Kavanagh, David Michelinie, J.M. DeMatteis

Symbiotes clash - with Spidey in the middle! Carnage, the spawn of Venom, has assembled an army of the web-slinger's criminally insane adversaries to spread his message of hostility, chaos and wholesale slaughter: Carrion, Demogoblin, Shriek and the Spider-Man Doppelganger! Outmanned and overpowered, the wall-crawler must recruit his own band of super-beings to combat the rising tide of evil: Black Cat, Cloak & Dagger, Firestar, Captain America, Iron Fist, Deathlok and...Venom?! Spider-Man's worst enemy becomes his uneasy ally in the battle to halt the pure evil of Carnage's mad rampage!

COLLECTING: VOL. 25: AMAZING SPIDERMAN (1963) 378-380, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) 101-103, SPIDER-MAN (1990) 35-37, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) 201-203, SPIDER-MAN/PUNISHER/SABRETOOTH: DESIGNER GENES (1993) ONE-SHOT, MATERIAL FROM SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED
(1993) 1-2

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

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2020

About the author

Terrence "Terry" Kavanagh is an American comic book editor and writer. Kavanagh's last new comics project was the Before the Fantastic Four: The Storms limited series in 2000–2001.

Reviews

[Sean Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was going to say that this story arc is more 90s than AC Slater’s wardrobe, but, well, that’s ridiculous.
There is literally NOTHING more 90s than AC Slater's wardrobe.

That said, this has its moments, but it’s also beset by the violent excess that plagued early 90s comics, embodied by villains like Carnage—the epitome of the “some men just want to watch the world burn” serial killers that ran roughshod across the comics landscape at the time.

Spidey’s such a delight because he has to balance the challenges of real life with superheroing in a way that no other hero has to. Here, though, the connection between personal life and heroic life is forced, with Mary Jane dramatically in anguish and furious with Peter for not following through on a promise to take a week off from web-swinging…BECAUSE A MANIAC WITH CLOSE TIES TO HIM STARTS SLAUGHTERING HUNDREDS OF MANHATTANITES. Like, really, MJ? Priorities, girl.

(Also: weird to watch MJ chain smoke. This was a different time in life.)

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carnage starts his own Manson family and runs around Manhattan murdering hundreds of people while Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends argue about if they should kill Carnage or not while he repeatedly gets away. The crossover is more than a bit repetitive. Spider-Man sticks to his ideals even though with someone like Carnage it could be easily argued that he has killed thousands of innocents by not doing so. It's an interesting moral conundrum.

This did remind me how much I hated Mary Jane from this era. She constantly worries about Spider-Man, nagging him to stop being Spider-Man. I would have liked to see her more treated like the spouse of a police officer who understands why they are putting their life on the line. It's also strange to see MJ chain smoke inside without people telling her to stop. By the 90's, everyone I knew that still smoked would at least do it outside.

To round this out, a crappy one-shot is also included, Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes. Spider-Man and Punisher fight one another as much as they do the two brothers experimenting on the homeless. Sabretooth is along for the ride too, for unclear reasons.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Maximum carnage is fun at first, but at 14 issues it's waaaaaay too long, especially considering the entire plot consists of "random heroes and villains beat the shit out of each other for hundreds of pages". It really is the superhero genre distilled to its most basic essence. Also, the way Carnage's "family" is taken out at the end is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen in a comic, and that's saying something.

There are a few gems here, though. Spider-Man's struggle with the morality of killing a monster is pretty deep, and the artwork is generally really good.

The included Punisher story is pretty skippable.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 2 out of 5]

Isso é muito anos 90.
Sério, chega a ser ridículo.
A parte mais assustadora é que são catorze edições.
Catorze.
Ca-fuckin'-torze.
É muito mais simbionte do que alguém precisa, mas no final das contas é uma história muito simples; Carnificina esgata da prisão, arranja uma namorada - a Shriek - e um parceiro mirim - o Doppelganger -e saem tocando o terror em Manhattan, com o tempo eles ganham mais alguns aliados - o Duende Demoníaco e o Carniça - e vira uma espécie de família caipira que mata turistas naquele sítio amaldiçoado em Pindamonhangada; mas em Nova Iorque. Para enfrentá-los temos o Aranha, o Venom, a Gata Negra, o Manto e a Adaga, o Morbius, a Firestar, o Nightwatch, o Capitão América, o Punho de Ferro e o Deathlok; e mesmo com essa galera toda eles apanham por 14 edições até o Aranha e o Venom enfrentarem o CarnePiscina numa daqueles confrontos nem tão finais assim.
É um daqueles gibis que são a cara dos anos 90, tudo é extremo, radical, todo mundo tem um universo negro e carrega a culpa por um passado nebuloso e aquele chorume noventeiro de sempre.
Eu nunca tinha lido até hoje e achei bem ruim. Dá pra salvar algumas coisas nas edições da dupla Micheline e Bagley e da dupla DeMatties e Buscema - o Sal -, o resto é bem complicado para dizer o mínimo, mas o maior problema é que são catorze edições para algo que poderia ser resolvido em, sei lá, três, não precisava mais que isso.
Eu não faço a menor ideia de quem são o Duende Demoníaco, o Doppelganger ou o Nightwatch, mas eles tão por ali.
Pra jogar sal com vinagre na ferida, a edição apresenta um especial entre o Aranha, o Justiceiro e o Dentes de Sabre se "unindo" para enfrentar a Roxxon e seu programa de customização genérica ou algo parecido.
E o Justiceiro tem uma moto com um caveirão gigante.
E o Justiceiro anda na moto com um caveirão gigante pelos esgotos de Nova Iorque.
Os anos noventa foram difíceis pra todo mundo.

[John Driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this since the first time I played the Sega Genesis game based on it. And while it wasn't the best thing ever by any means, it didn't disappoint.

Cletus Kasady, a.k.a. Carnage, breaks out of a mental institution and takes with him another psycho supervillain named Shriek. They become a twisted, abusive couple (kind of a Marvel equivalent to Joker and Harley Quinn, but with powers), and quickly pick up a few lackeys that they treat as their "children" in the form of the Doppelganger Spider, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Spider-Man tries to stop them, and ends up teaming with Venom and a long list of other heroes and antiheroes in order to take them down.

There's an ongoing sort of debate between the various heroes and antiheroes (and mirrored by a few of the non-powered people in the story) about how far the heroes should go to to stop the villains, i.e. should they kill Carnage or capture him and turn him over to authorities again? If the hero doesn't kill the villain and the villain kills an innocent afterward, is the hero to blame? The story examines these questions, and even though Spider-Man reaches the only conclusion he ever could (especially in the time period this was published), it's the most interesting part of the story. The battles are fairly standard comic book fare, with lots of still action poses, "witty" banter between the characters while they fight, and a whole lot of inconclusive battles that feel like they exist solely to pad the page count until the predetermined ending time.

I can't help but compare this to the video game. The cutscenes in the game (at least, the ones I remember) consist of panels lifted directly out of the comic, but rather than the rest of the panels they're strung together by a beat-em-up game where Spider-Man or Venom beat up dozens of thugs and then sometimes the supervillains. None of the thug designs, even the ones that are boss characters, bear any resemblance to anything in the comic. A lot of the nuances of the story didn't translate to the game. But on the other hand, I found myself practically humming the game soundtrack while reading the comic. I can't remember the ending of the game, but I feel like it diverged somewhat from the source material, or at least it didn't cover all of it.

Also, there's a random story with Spider-Man, the Punisher, and Sabertooth stuck in the end of the book that's not connected to anything else. I know comics used to do that back in the day, but I had thought it was pretty much a thing of the past by the 90s.

Anyway, overall this was a fun read, but not one I think I'll need to read again. I probably will dig out the game again sometime though. The story isn't as good as the comic, but the game play and soundtrack help make up for it.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carnage escapes from Ravenloft asylum and begins a brutal murderous rampage across New York, gathering a cadre of psychotic killers, including Shriek, Spider-Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Carrion.
With the Fantastic Four and the Avengers unavailable, Spider-Man has to gather what allies he can, including Cloak, Dagger, Black Cat, Morbius and Venom, and attempt to stop the killing. However, when Shriek's psychic powers bring out the violent urges buried within the inhabitants of the city, Captain America, Firestar, Deathlok, Nightwatch and Iron Fist join the fight.

I bought this book because the early-to-mid 90s was exactly my era of comic books, with the Spider-Man/Venom/Carnage dynamic long being a favourite element (not to mention fond memories of playing the computer game of 'Maximum Carnage' on the Sega MegaDrive).
I have to admit, however, to being a bit disappointed. That's not to say that there's not some really good stuff here (I'll get to it in a moment) but the simple truth is that 14 parts (comic book issues) is too long for the amount of actual story the writers had. Much of the book feels like rehashing of the same events over and over, usually something along the lines of 'Carnage and co. cause chaos, the heroes intervene, the heroes get beaten and withdraw, Carnage and co. move on to cause chaos elsewhere, and repeat'. I feel like a much tighter and more impactful story could been told in 8 or 10 issues-worth of content.

What is really good here is the examination of the question 'How far should a hero go to stop a villain?'.
Spider-Man sticks rigidly to his code of not killing but is faced with the moral dilemma that in not killing the villains or letting them escape to save someone else, it guarantees that Carnage and his crew will kill any number of other people. This theme is reflected nicely in the allies Spidey has to work with; in the beginning he has to work alongside killers and criminals like Venom, Morbius and Black Cat, being influenced by their determination that moral lines have to be crossed in order to prevent Carnage from killing more people. However, later in the book, when Spidey chooses to reaffirm his determination to doing the right thing at all costs he is joined by far more wholesome heroes such as Firestar, Iron Fist, Deathlok and, in particular, Captain America.
I really enjoyed this examination of and reiteration of Spider-Man's unfailing moral code.

The book ends with a story which sees Spidey crossover with the Punisher and Sabretooth, all working to stop a deranged and murderous scientist but, sadly, it never lives up to the potential of that combination of characters.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Chaos0x57 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a comic from my childhood. I remember having read it in the 90's and I wanted to read it again. I didn't remember anything.

Having read all the reviews on this website before proceeding, I had my expectations low. But still, I got somewhat annoyed. Everything is classic tropes: the villains want chaos just because, their background is all suffering and bullying, and the story feels like the stories I told myself when I got all my random toys and put them in the same world to battle each other: not much justification behind the action, but a lot of entertaining action.

Still, the drawing is pretty good (if you're into that style) and the action is pretty decent. It is a high-octane story that keeps you wanting to read more because the stakes keep getting higher (despite the not-so-great premise). What annoyed me was that every time the heroes manage to win the fight, some of the anti-heroes decide to kill Carnage, Spider-Man stops them, which allows Carnage to run away and recover, this is a recurrent theme here and basically what the story is all about. The author could have explored this in better ways.

The whole thing that leads to the ending is kinda bad too, but the other reviewers said so many bad things about the ending that I thought it would be worse. I think it made some sense considering it was basically a counter to Shriek's power.

But what annoyed me the most and prevented me to give the original 3 stars I was planning to, is that towards the end the story gets a very... religious tone. Lots of mentions of God, sins, forgiveness and other religious-themed conversation. It feels like this story had some kind of hidden agenda to try to spread "catholic values" to the possibly-young readers. In page 271 (part 12) we even get this classic from MJ:

"There are decent people out there putting their lives on the line! They need our good thoughts -- our prayers -- not your negativity and cynicism!

Like, yeah.... 2 stars. Despite that, I was entertained and read the 14-issue story from beginning to the end: it wasn't bad enough to make me close the book and just return it to the library unfinished. There is better stuff out there for you to read, for sure. But if you're a fan and are prepared for the bad stuff, go ahead.

But the best part? The top-left panel in page 257.

[Markus Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esse gibi é o puro suco dos anos 90. O Carnificina foi criado pouco tempo antes, e depois de sua aparição inicial ele foi preso e aparentemente retirado de seu simbionte. Esse gibi começa com ele preso no Instituto Ravencroft e sendo levado pra ter o sangue tirado pra análise. Só que quando ele sangra percebe que o simbionte substituiu o sangue dele, se tornando parte do Cletus. Na sua fuga ele solta a Shriek e juntos começam a espalhar o caos em Nova York. Aos poucos outro vilões vão surgindo e se juntando a eles do nada, como o Aranha Doppelganger (a versão de Desafio Infinito que não lembro como foi traduzida aqui), o Duende Demoníaco e o Carniça, que do nada formam uma “família”. O Venom estava em São Francisco e volta pra Nova York pra matar o Carnificina, já que ele está na fase anti-herói de proteger os inocentes a qualquer custo. Ao longo da história se juntam a eles outros heróis, como Manto e Adaga, Gata Negra, Morbius, Deathlok, Capitão América, Flama, Punho de Ferro e até o Spawn genérico da Marvel, o Nightwatch faz uma aparição. E o gibi todo é basicamente a família Carnificina espalhando o terror por Nova York e a equipe Aranha tentando deter com a dúvida se deve ou não matar o Carnificina. Ainda começam a aparecer tumultos por toda a cidade, que depois descobrimos ser por influência da Shriek, que estimula o que tem de pior no ser humano. E isso tudo acontece logo depois da morte do Harry Osborn como Duende Verde e da volta dos pais do Peter, que estavam presos por 20 anos numa prisão soviética. E esse gibi é o suco dos anos 90 porque as coisas vão acontecendo. Não tem motivo a aparição de alguns personagens. Eles simplesmente estão ali. Não tem motivo do Carnificina e a Shriek começarem a tratar seus outro aliados como filhos, e principalmente, deles tratarem os outros como pais, mas acontece. Mas ainda assim é um gibi muito divertido. No final ainda colocam uma edição especial do encontro do Aranha com o Justiceiro e o Dentes-de-Sabre por que sim. Não tem nada a ver com Carnificina Máxima, só com tiro, porrada, bomba e dentes rangentes.

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never read this one, and with Carnage back in the latest volume of the current Amazing Spider-Man series decided to check it out.

The work is of course wildly varied as it was told in the old school event style--in the books featuring the character--which had the disadvantage of forcing a collector to buy the entire line to get the whole story, but the advantage of having the most important events in character x's story happening in his/her own books instead of constant mini-and maxi-series that devalue the narrative worth of the monthlies...

But I digress into "Get off my lawnisms." The teams come together to tell a really intense story, about as rough a time as I've seen Peter put through considering it's a simple beat-down or be beaten-down kind of story line for the most part. Venom's been more hero than villain or even morally-gray character for so long it's not even weird to see the team up, although I remember that at the time of publication it would have been ultra-uncomfortable for characters and readers both. The ends vs. means internal conflict for Spidey is interesting, and it gets a bit uncomfortable for me as a reader. I think it's given short shrift a bit here by being painted as ultimately a fully answerable never, ever, ever, ever kill anyone, ever kind of answer. That cheapens what could have been more complex.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are parts of this that I loved and parts that were really annoying. For one thing the cheesy good vs evil thing was really hamfisted. The whole Carnage family thing with them calling Carrion, Demogoblin and Doppelganger the kids and calling Shriek mom and Carnage dad was weird and partly ruined the serious tone.

My main complaint however is the constant insistence that by fighting evil you are sinking to it's level and doing evil yourself. This is one where I'm 100% on venoms side when you have an insane unrepentant maniac who cannot be reasoned with whose only goal is to cause as much death suffering and chaos as possible, you are morally obligated to kill that person if it is within your power to do so. This whole idea that killing carnage is admitting that people are all evil was ridiculous and at one point Spider-Man fully says he thinks Carnage is the most innocent of them all...that's brain worms levels of backward delusional self deception. Absolutely ridiculous and to me that knocked a whole star off of the rating.

On the positive side the artwork is phenomenal and there is a lot of action and you get to see a lot of villains and heroes on display.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carnificina Total me lembra das primeiras histórias do Homem-Aranha que eu comecei a ler na vida. Com Sal Buscema nos desenho, por exemplo, que eu achava a arte uó e agora entende que ele era um monstro sagrado da Marvel. Ao mesmo tempo eu embarquei nos dois espaeciais que compunham a minissérie de Carnificna Total de forma a me lembrar ainda hoje de algumas passagens e, de me esquecer completamente de outras. Mas vendo a saga com um olhar atual, posso perceber que, por incrível que pareça, ela tem menos violência e sangue do que muitas publicações atuais que não prometem uma "carnificina total em suas páginas. Se aquela era aépoca do grim'n'gritty, hoje temos outras publicações que nem se prometem violentas mas espirram sangue e se baseiam na pancadaria à toa. Sim, isso é um pouco eu ficando velho, mas agora poderei repassar aquelas minhas duas edições de Carnificina Total que eu gostava tanto e que tinham um adesivo de vinil escrito "Guilherme" nele e que coloquei em diversos gibis meus da época. Como eu era mais bobinho! E como eu queria que esses tempos de inocência voltassem!

[Mr. R · Rating 4 out of 5]

The young version of me, who hunted for these issues as they came out, would give the collection five glowing stars. The team ups. The sinister villains joining forces. The violence. These were elements that I focused on as a kid, and the plot wasn't even a focus. With a more mature reading, I still feel connected to the elements that I loved as a kid, but there were definitely some frustrating moments: allowing Carnage to escape multiple times, when Spider-Man knew the innocent death he'd bring; writers putting characters (on both sides) in perilous positions, only to have them saved in some deus ex machina style; and an ending, that, well, not only felt anti-climatic, but was a huge let down. In fact, the more I write, the more I'm considering three stars, but I think nostalgia has a tight grip on my hands, reminding me that I enjoyed it more once, and, not to take it so seriously, especially when it's clear the writers didn't.

Grade: B-

[Marko Perisic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've seen this story arc listed among Spidey's best purely on the fun factor. Good chunk of people have corroborated those list by their own love for the story. For a fan of Venom and Carnage to a degree I had high hopes.

Never trust strangers on the Internet. Not even me.

I expected 90s excess, but holy moly was reading the incessant pages of fisticuffs between characters who for the most part are just there to make this event more eventful by the force of numbers. It's an action-packed extravaganza that could have won me over if it wasn't so boring.

With that said, I am not venturing to call it entirely shallow. There is an attempt to broach an interesting subject of superhero genre. Not to spoil much, it regards the question of pure evil. The attempt was clumsy and on the whole unsatisfying for me, but the pages when it was tackled were the ones that actually managed to capture my interest. As always Mark Bagley's art of costumed or monstrous characters is a joy to behold.

Punisher comic at the end was unremarkable.

[James Hiltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do think Carnage is a great addition to the Spider-Man rogues gallery and I know this is often regarded as *the* Carnage story, but my god is this long and drawn out. There are definitely good moments and cool ideas, but stretching the story into FOURTEEN parts means there's a lot of pointless repetition of the themes and plot points. So many conversations between the heroes and anti-heroes can be summed up as:

"Should we kill Carnage?"
"We have to kill Carnage!"
"We can't kill Carnage!"
"Okay, but should we kill Carnage?"

There are good moments here even within all the mess though. DeMatteis and Micheline are almost always good on Spider-Man, and I'm a fan of Mark Bagley, especially whenever he gets to draw one of the symbiotes, but overall, this seems like a relic of the 90s, for better or worse.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite so much of Marvel comics from the early 90s being objectively terrible due to talent departing for Image comics, an aesthetic that over-relied on extreme cartoonish masculine fantasies, and a market that focused more on collectibility over storytelling, Maximum Carnage charms me despite its flaws. Perhaps this is just due to childhood nostalgia engineered by a Sega Genesis game I could never beat, but the pacing across these stories combined with the crossover nature of this arc makes Carnage feel like an Avenger’s level threat, a sense of the character that I feel like went ignored in Marvel until recently with Carnage’s role both in the resurrection of Knull and his current ongoing stories in his own solo series.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maximum Carnage was a huge video game in my childhood, I don't remember if I actually read the story until now. The main storyline comparing and contrasting the approaches of Spider-Man (her0) and Venom (anti-hero) in their pursuit of a common threat, Carnage. Maybe it's looking at it from a 2024 lense but Spider-Man's no killing ethos which continuously allowed Carnage and his group to kill more and more people was groan inducing and laughable. To make this feel like a giant crossover event there are a bunch of secondary characters (Black Cat, Cloak & Dagger, Morbious, Shriek, Demogoblin, Doppleganger, etc) but made the story arc feel more unfocused.

I'm sure there are better Venom and Carnage storylines.

[Ezma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This event does really get into Spider-Man’s character and his desire to stop Carnage without killing him, even as he’s surrounded by anti-heroes who would prefer to kill him. The climax in the penultimate issue is fantastic, and I wish that had just been the end.

But the main problem here is that it’s 14 issues and most of that time is spent doing little besides having Spidey and friends fight Carnage and friends…over, and over, and over. If it was half the length, I would be willing to recommend this, but I can’t imagine most people willing to go through all of this.

[Josh Bungs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is classic 90s campy comic book writing.
The underlying story is good, has some dark elements and questions about past demons haunting us and guiding our decisions. However the character writing and dialogue is so cheese and camp, especially in the first few books of the 14 chapters. It gets better by the end. The art is good, classic 90s, and I think they could successfully adapt this into the Venomverse movies by tightening up the writing and story.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless story, dated writing, overall fun story classic story, bogged down by the exposition of every character explaining what they are doing as we see them do it with the art work. I’ve been a fan of symbiotes since I was a kid, it’s fun to go back and reread a story when you’ve gained a few years of perspective. Overall the art is pretty good, even though it’s 90s art it’s mainly old pros, no liefeld influence on the art thank the gods.

4 symbiotes of 5

[Daniel Parsons · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5☆
The story starts and ends strong, and has those symbiotie v. spider v. symbiote battles and moments you'd expect, but there's not enough to carry or justify a 14 issue crossover. Instead there's a lot of filler with a cast of B&C list characters resolving with minimal longstanding consequences (and the unspoken hopes that you start buying all the supporting titles).
It was okay & had way too many characters.

[Jack Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Killer Spidey Story!!!!

I loved this book jam packed with more Carnage than you can shake a stick at. Theres plenty of Cameos here and the action is great. The stakes are high in this one and Carnage isn't alone and you'll have to read to believe this epic Spiderman series! Certified awesome with a Bonus story at the end with Sabertooth and THE PUNISHER!! Sooooo good 💙

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is very much a product of its time. The pop culture references, depictions of the art, and the random
PSAs. So many random characters thrown into this story that don’t really cross over too much in Spider-Man’s universe. If you want action, it has it. Fair warning, it’s a lot to read!

[Violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A famous storyline that fleshes out just who carnage is and what he is capable of. But with so much going on, in order to not be confused or lost, you will need to have some knowledge of some of the chracters in this story and their lore to truly get enjoyment out of this story

[Jordan Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Could have been really great but it dragged on a little too long.

[Cris González · Rating 5 out of 5]

¿Porque el run de actual de Spiderman no es igual de bueno que sus historias de los 90? :(

[Kieran Westphal · Rating 2 out of 5]

lamentable period of uninspired Do Real Heroes Kill? stories. Kingdom Come this is not!

[Federico Kereki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A single long story, 14 issues long - interesting mix of characters!

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is extremely overlong and repetitive. It’s exhausting watching Carnage’s “family” bicker and “make up” over and over, especially when I inherently dislike Carnage as a character. I will say, though, that there is an attempt at saying something here and the story as a whole seems like a response to the 90’s vogue of grim and bloody—especially when DeMatteis is at the helm.

The art is also consistently fantastic and dynamic, with Bagley, Buscema, and Lim being my personal favourites. This also stretches to the OGN in the back, which feels otherwise pointless to me. That opinion might be a bit tainted by seeing the Spider-Man/Punisher idealogical clash dozens of times already; it may have been a fresher idea at the time.

Overall, the pros and cons of the book make it entirely average. Some sincere moments save it from being entirely bad, but the story’s gimmicky and repetitive nature make it a little too tiring to wholly praise it.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always see this book getting a bad rap but I would say the concept was fun but the writing was what was holding this book back for me. Yeesh spoiler alert but man the end was the biggest stinker of anything. I couldn't believe they went with let's kill a bad guy with positivity bit. All in all I was glad I read this goofy story and it was not the Trainwreck that I expected it to be.

On a side note as a kid I used to play the game adaption of the comic on the snes and after reading this I have to say it was kinda close. If anyone likes retro games it was one of the most faithful adaptions of a comic I've seen from that era.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jam packed with non-stop action and mayhem. As much as I enjoyed it, it was still an average story overall. I was also disappointed that this collection didn’t include the first appearance of Carnage, so I had to get another book.
Would still recommend!