>In a video during today’s retailer panel at C2E2 in Chicago, acclaimed writer Donny Cates announced ABSOLUTE CARNAGE—Marvel’s epic summer event!
>Beginning in Free Comic Book Day's SPIDER-MAN/VENOM #1 (out May 5), the blockbuster event starts in August (although fans will see the threads reaching as far back as AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252, with connections to almost every Venom and Carnage story since) and re-teams Cates with VENOM's Ryan Stegman and colorist Frank Martin for the deadliest story in the Marvel Universe!
>“Cletus Kasady is back, and he is deadlier than he’s ever been,” Cates teases in the video announcement. “ABSOLUTE CARNAGE encompasses every single character who has ever worn a symbiote and every symbiote that has ever been, going all the way back to when Peter found the black suit. Going from there to MAXIMUM CARNAGE to VENOMIZED to everything…everyone is a target.”
>Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more about ABSOLUTE CARNAGE, including news from this year’s Marvel Comic panels at C2E2.
>This summer, no Super Hero is safe…everyone is a target!
That cover is dope, not gonna lie. But yeah I'm kind of skeptical how it's going to turn out.
Also please don't kill Ben Reilly
Dominic Lewis
well what else can we do... like spiderman space adventure? no way spiderman trapped in Atlantis? naaaahhh spiderman and the spider mites? new spiderman saves JFK only to shoot him in the end? grassy knoll my eyes.
Michael Cooper
I may hate most of what Cates puts out but his Venom is pretty solid.
>THE RETURN OF OVERSHIPS AND CONSTANT EVENTS! I guess Marvel saw that DC has 2 events going on at the same time and wanted to put put at least one.
Oh well, at least this can't be as bad as the Poison garbage.
Owen Williams
This event seems flawed from the onset, since only the Spider-people have the chance of actually dying and heroes like the Hulk would molluwhop Carnage.
Wyatt Bell
Spider-Man stuff is Spender's wheelhouse now.
Luke Torres
>marvel event You mean event in general.
Hudson Martinez
>heroes like the Hulk would molluwhop Carnage. Carnage has become an avatar for an elder god who set the God Butcher events into motion.
I don't think it's that easy anymore.
Charles Moore
>This summer, no Super Hero is safe…everyone is a target!
But only C-listers and below will have a chance of dying. This will probably end with Eddie/Venom and Cletus/Carnage back to being the only host/symbiote pairs.
Carson Johnson
Carnage lost all his weaknesses in an earlier mini (pre-cates) after doing a bunch of stuff with the Darkhold.
Christian Adams
>But only C-listers and below will have a chance of dying and staying dead FTFY
Gavin Wilson
No, I mean specifically the Marvel way of making events. >big bad arrives >countless characters die >big bad is defeated >characters are revived either at once or after a while It's tiring. Same formula every time. WILL YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTER SURVIVE? FIND OUT IN THIS SHOCKING EVENT THAT IS SURE TO CHANGE THE STATUS QUO FOREVER!
Aiden Bennett
Right after war of the realms lol This is going to contained, right? They wouldn't include someone like Thor who's probably saving the MU in July just to end up being cannon fodder to Carnage shenanigans in August, right???... All culminating with a street level punching the bad guy ftw! Lmao
Does he even count at this point? Yeah, he wore both the Venom symbiote (during Planet of the Symbiotes) and the Carnage symbiote (Web of Carnage)... but we're on Ben's 29th clone at this point. The Ben that wore those symbiotes is dead.
Jack Brown
Sometimes a cigar is just cigar, or in this case, sometimes a spiral is just a spiral.
Caleb Hernandez
He doesn't even have that symbiote anymore. Keep up.
Norman killed that symbiote during the Red Goblin garbage. Cletus was turned into a Poison and now wears his fourth symbiote (as seen in Web of Venom).
Zachary Gonzalez
Piss off /pol/
Hunter Baker
>everyone is Carnage... again! The House of Ideas at work.
Noah Walker
He was seen on the final page on Web of Venom: Carnage, which is why I don't want him kill
And yeah, this just made me eyeroll. Watch everyone acting out of character while jobbing to Carnage and Knull, showing how little Cates knows about most of these characters and his most fierce defenders coming up with contrived ways to defend this shit. Yawn.
>Endless amount of time spent talking >Retcons everywhere >Over half of the retcons have absolutely no logic to them and break apart once you think about them for over a minute >Stupidly slow pacing >Completely out of character mains >Half of who makes up Venom doesn't even speak for more than 5 volumes and then Cates completely drops the "brain dead" thing and now the Venom Symbiote can walk and talk like nothing happened >Venom drools shit >The Venom Symbiote collects Eddie's jizz and impregnates someone else with it >Bastard kid makes even less sense the further down the rabbit hole we go >Overall boring writing, exposition--I mean dialogue, and action. >"Art is good tho!"
Absolute Carnage has a completely different story to Maximum Carnage. Wanna take a third try, casual?
Cameron Brown
Look I don't know anything about these carnage stories, I just like to joke about the name of all these carnage events basically means the same thing
Joseph Smith
It's true, Ryan Stegman's art is frankly the saving grace of the book. Though admittedly I am not a fan of Venom in first place, but I was sticking with it until what happened in #5, where Cates once again pulled his retcons and tying to (Aaron's) Thor lore. I followed a few more issues before basically dropping it altogether. I don't know how people can handle all that if not for the art.
Noah Smith
>Look I don't know anything about these carnage stories
Then stop saying they're all the same, dumbass.
Mason Gutierrez
Fucking hyped
Camden Cooper
You should check out the 90s Carnage stories, they're really a lot of fun if you like goofy chaos.
>I just like to joke about the name of all these carnage events basically means the same thing
Adrian Cox
It's the art, the fact that new readers are coming in after the movie, and Cates dedicated fanbase.
Eventually at least the first two reasons will give way because good long-lasting comics isn't just good art and post-movie hype.
Don't get me wrong Stegman's art is fantastic, I really loved the redesign to Eddie. I just don't drool over art so much to let it cloud the stink of a shit story.
Hunter Ward
>Don't get me wrong Stegman's art is fantastic, I really loved the redesign to Eddie. I just don't drool over art so much to let it cloud the stink of a shit story. It's like reading Bendis just because of Marquez' art. Ultimately it's illustrating a shit story that doesn't give justice to all the effort put into it. >It's the art, the fact that new readers are coming in after the movie, and Cates dedicated fanbase. And I figure this is it, because something similar is happening with his Guardians of the Galaxy: I noticed A LOT of people in the past complaining about "movie synergy" in previous runs, yet Cates has been directly referencing stuff from the movies and retconning stuff just to fit with that, while adding Hela for a double-whammy of Thor lore and a recognizable movie villain, and fans are outright ignoring all that shit because it's Cates. And it's not even a good story in first place, it's blunt and unsubtle, careless, with more interest in uplifting his favorites while making everyone else a shadow of their former selves (and let's not talk about the predictable route of killing off obscure characters off-panel for shock).
Nicholas Young
There's plenty of DC events that follow the same formula you mentioned. Infinite Crisis and Blackest Night come to mind right away.
Thomas Perry
Don’t get your hopes up. If she appears, she’ll probably die.
Joshua Jackson
Can we at least get our hopes up for the OC Donut Steel edgelord who stole her symbiote to die painfully?
John Jones
We could have actual Spider-Man stories instead of gimmick events.
Nathan Diaz
>a Cates edgelord creation dying anytime soon instead of being milked to oblivion for royalties Hahaha, you're hilarious.
Xavier Gray
You mean like Hunted going on right now? Or the stuff that’s going on with Aunt May’s health?
Chase James
Cates didn't create Lee Price
Austin Harris
Yeah, just do more of that. The Spider brand has enough characters these days to run multiple comics and organic, story driven events instead of gimmicks or the forced comics flood of the 90s.
I don't know who created which to be honest, I didn't read that book. I'm only saying that people expecting him to let go of Knull or Cosmic Ghost Rider or the new design of Venom (among other stuff) should probably get real.
Nicholas Adams
The things he needs, some kind of symbiote remnant left behind on the body of anyone that's been a host, are harvested from the bodies after they're dead. So the ones that are already dead just means they need to dig up their bodies, as opposed to having to kill them first.
Charles Brown
>being biased: the thread
at least Marvel events don't get pushed for years.
Angel Price
Ok, but user was talking about Lee Price, which Cates didn't create.
Blake Jones
He didnt create Wraith either, but he's now an essential part of both the Thor and Venom mythology. I think he's just trying to say that Cates in general likes Edgelord looking guys. He'd probably be a Reaper/Androxus main if he was a gamer.
Aaron Butler
With this and Savage Avengers, Cebulski really going all in on this "Make it the '90s again" strategy.
William Bennett
I think I’ve gotten to the point where I want disney to just kill the comics division and use the ips for movies, cartoons and video games only. There’s hardly anything of worth coming out of marvel comics nowadays, it would be a mercy killing.
Connor Rodriguez
He also didn't create Vox per se, he borrowed the Black Bolt design from Earth-X and repurposed it alongside Olivetti for his own interests. And he ain't gonna let go of it if he can, despite the ending of that mini. It's all about "Coldsteel"-tier edge with him.
Cameron Clark
Isn't Hickman's mystery comic supposed to be revealed today?
Aaron Smith
That's tomorrow actually. They're revealing it in "Next Big Thing". I'm expecting it to be Eternals... It has to be. If it's another X-Men shit I'm dropping it before even picking it up.
To be fair, Secret Wars did last a full year, but that was kind of fun
Chase Thompson
But did it CHANGE THE STATUS QUO FOREVER? And did they make another event immediately after?
Owen White
>But did it CHANGE THE STATUS QUO FOREVER? Batman literally said "things will never be the same again." at the end of it. >And did they make another event immediately after? Yeah, pic related.
Ok retard, it’s just a four issue Justice League/Suicide Squad/JLA/Titans/Teen Titans crossover
Logan Turner
It might as well be.
It became mandatory reading for multiple books.
Isaiah Ross
No it didn't.
Angel Hall
Yeah it did.
Oliver Allen
Yes, it did indeed (not the same user), since that miniseries spawned other miniseries and you couldn't just pick them without knowing the required context. Plus it came out right around the time Avengers No Surrender was happening with an opposite purpose (unifying all Avengers groups), so it's silly to pretend it wasn't important.
Ethan Allen
Emphasis on "miniseries."
Nathaniel Allen
>Avengers get a mass grave dump Heh
Alexander Morgan
>Carnage again
I mean, aside from the Red Goblin, he hadn't shown up in anything not specifically branded "Carnage" since 1998. Even this event still has Carnage in the title. There were a couple of issues of Axis with the character, but that's the one exception to his 20 year mainstream exile.
>to VENOMIZED Didn't Cletus was IN SPACE as A POISON at the end of that? Was that an Alternate Dimension?
Robert Hill
As someone that stans Carnage and has all of his collected stories aside from Planet of the Symbiote and that Venomverse/Venomized event, I am terrified of this story. Cates played wild and loose with Carnage back in the Carnage: Born one-shot. He laid on the retcons really hard and had zero regard for killing some of Cletus' old supporting cast. I am very wary of what will happen here. At least the character will be safe no matter what thanks to Venom 2. Even if he dies, Marvel will bring him back for cheap moviebux.
Didn't Gerry Conway write a Carnage book? Is it good?
Kevin Diaz
Probably the best Carnage 'run' there is. Especially if you are a fan of Conway's horror books like Werewolf by Night. Its way more of a horror series than a superhero book. Amazing covers too.
>Leftmost tombstone says -GERS Is there anything you want to say about 13 percent of North America's population, Carnage?
Grayson Ortiz
That sounds great. I will try it, thanks.
Jeremiah Lee
Steve Rogers
Nicholas Adams
...
Nathaniel Jackson
>He didnt create Wraith either, but he's now an essential part of both the Thor and Venom mythology.
Wraith? The guy from Annihilation: Conquest? What happened? How did he become 'essential' to Thor and Venom?
Dominic Murphy
All the other characters have their names (Brock, Parker, Logan) It says Rogers, this isn't hard
Cooper Hughes
>THE RETURN OF OVERSHIPS AND CONSTANT EVENTS! "Return"? When did they leave?
Jordan Brown
>How did he become 'essential' to Thor and Venom? Wraith is one of Cates' favorite characters who's in the "Dark Guardians" team he devised for his Guardians of the Galaxy run, and he (predictably) tied his origin to Knull, who's the "god of the Symbiotes" who also created the Necrosword. There, six degrees of separation for you.
Brandon Martinez
I'm a casual when it comes down to Venom and Carnage so I have been enjoying Cates run.
>reee no one important will die for a month and therefore the event will be trash The absolute state of Yea Forums.
Camden Gonzalez
Cates doesn't really act "edgy" himself from what I've noticed
Brandon Peterson
>although fans will see the threads reaching as far back as AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252, with connections to almost every Venom and Carnage story since
To be honest I don't remember a damn thing about Spidey stories that far back or what Venom and Carnage stories have been released since. Everything since Agent Venom is a blur at best and I actually have been keeping up since then.
David Hughes
Right...
Michael Lee
Oh god, Cates really thinks we're still in the 90s.
Isaiah Sanchez
>This will probably end with Eddie/Venom and Cletus/Carnage back to being the only host/symbiote pairs.
Ugh.
Liam Cook
So why does Knull get all the visceral hatred? It's just more symbiotes are evil cosmic goo stuff.
Caleb Nguyen
>dressing like a chump means you're edgy Geez, do you abstain from swearing all the time too?
Brandon Harris
I just gotta wonder what compels people to defend him so fiercely at every turn. Yeah sure he's not really "edgy" (debatable) but his writing says otherwise. And it's fucking dumb to try and deny this when it's all there for everyone to see.
Levi Phillips
>Still salty about Scorn being dead.
When did this happen? Or do you mean no one's used her since then?
Carson Long
>-gers THEY PUT THEM ALL IN ONE GRAVE?
Samuel Smith
God forbid we don't keep the market flooded with literally who symbiotes, each less original than the last.
Joseph Cook
People (myself included to some extent) just dont want or need answers to the symbiote. There's no real value in explaining Spidey' black alien costume. We didn't need Planet of the Symbiotes, we didn't need the Klyntarr, we don't need Knull. So many symbiote writers crawl over each other to answer a question that no one asked. People were happy not having all the answers.
James Scott
After being absent for six years, she finally returned in the Carnage Born one-shot, where she had apparently become the leader of a cult devoted to freeing Knull. I can only assume that she was corrupted off-panel at some point. Her plan involved reviving Cletus, who proceeded to eat her spine.
Angel Nguyen
Maybe Cates visits this board...
Jaxson Scott
I'm not "defending" Cates, that's one hell of a jump in logic. He's a shit writer for sure, but if you're going to bitch about him, don't do it with baseless arguments.
I think the Kyntar idea could have worked if Bendis handed it off to someone else that could actually write.
Kevin Morris
How am I defending him in the first two? I even call him a shit writer in one of them. Is this opposite day or something? The last one isn't me by the way, I think the syntax is kind of evident.
Carson Hernandez
>the syntax is kind of evident Hey user, shitposting is shitposting.
Noah Wright
That last one is me, not the guy you're arguing with. I don't super care for the new Venom run one way or another, I just think it's hilarious to see a bunch of fanboys get super worked up about it because it goes against terribly written schlock that sometimes made Maximum Carnage look good.
Telling you to use actual adult arguments isn't shitposting, if anything I'm trying to help you out. I really hope you don't argue with people in real life like this too.
Wyatt Butler
You still don't seem to get that the problem isn't the dumb retcons he's doing, but the fact he's a terrible writer desperately trying to make a mark. Though you say "you don't super care" but it kinda feels like you do, since people who "don't care" at the very least don't post about it.
Julian Rogers
How am I backpedaling? I've consistently made my position making fun of Venom fanboys who throw a fit if someone steps on their shipping
Colton Barnes
OK, Cates.
Colton Howard
This is just getting sad
Landon Gray
And yet here you are...
Nathaniel Long
What? You're the one who is just accusing everyone who disagrees with you of being sock puppets of the same guy. What point are you even trying to make?
Jose Martinez
>if someone steps on their shipping Accusing people here of being "tumblrites" upset because Venom raped a girl using Eddie Brock's semen isn't gonna excuse all the garbage writing he has been churning out not only on Venom but in Thanos and GOTG, as well as his terrible OCs.
Thomas Hall
It was handed off to Robbie Thompson, the guy who took Silk after Slott’s trainwreck and turned her into the best female spider while her ongoing was being published. And even Robbie couldn’t make that Klyntar crap any better, even if Venom SK was alright
Jeremiah Smith
To be honest, being knocked up by Eddie is probably the most depth Ann ever had as a character.
Jacob Foster
>another fucking event Who even reads these anymore? I swear to christ it feels like one comes out every two weeks.
As a fan, I disagree and agree. I think that Planet of the Symbiotes did its job perfectly to explain the Symbiotes and their history. It was literally all that was needed to understand the Symbiote kind and how the Venom Symbiote fit into its society. It was great character development for the Venom Symbiote and Eddie and served its purpose as a non-evasive special/event.
The other attempts of retcons or "explaining the Klyntar/Symbiotes" have been unnecessary at best and mindbogglingly stupid at worst.
