With the name "The Comic Droid" at the helm of this blogspot, you can infer that I will be reviewing a lot of comic oriented material, whether it would be movies, certain television shows, video games and other vital elements of pop culture. So when it came time to review a comic book, I decided to review one of my all time favorite comic book crossovers of the last decade, Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage.
When it comes to talking about this comic, the reception of it is somewhat lukewarm. When there comes along something that others love, there come along those who hate it with envy. Me, I enjoyed this series, and in my opinion, it is the horse of a different color out of the entire Spider-Man series. What makes this comic series great is that it combines all that makes Marvel awesome. You got your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, his foiled symbiotic villain Venom, the psychopathic lunatic that is Carnage, and just about any prominent Marvel super-hero from the 1990s such as Captain America, Cloak, Dagger, Firestar, Black Cat, and even Iron Fist, who has just recently been rumored to have a movie in the works. Serving on Carnage's side are classic Spidey foes like Spidey's own dog like Doppleganger, the fireball throwing Demogoblin, the shrieking Shriek, and the not so popular by today's standards, Carrion.
The story goes something like this. Venom's own alien symbiotic alien, Carnage, once again leeched onto the murderous raving cretin Cletus Kasady. Spreading havoc and killing doctors and security through the halls of Ravencroft Institution (the Arkam Asylum of the Spider-Man universe), Carnage suspects that Spider-Man and Venom will be coming after him, thus he decides to do vice-versa and go after them, thus gathering some of New York's most feared antagonists to join him in the Spider hunt. In order to stop the threat of Carnage and his alliance, Spider-Man and Venom gather classic super-heroes for the ultimate confrontation between Carnage and his crew to save New York City from crumbling into the hands of evil.
And for a series of short stories, it was really cool to see all the colorful and exuberant artwork to make every action pack second of each comic stand out. I loved the action sequences in the series, especially between the core heroes and the main villain. I also liked the relationship between Venom and Carnage, and it was also really cool to see what kinds of weapons and devices Carnage could mold out of his symbiotic shell. He's so powerful, he puts Sandman and Clayface to shame! The other super-heroes are excellent too. Captain America still knows how to throw a shield after all these years and Firestar still has that charm she had when fighting alongside Spider-Man years ago. most prominently seen in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. I also liked the character of the Spider-Man Doppleganger, for he was less of a violent villain and more of the obedient family pet that followed Carnage's orders.
Overall, the series was a great read. It was fun to see a great mashup of great super-heroes we all love and enjoy come together to help Spider-Man in his eternal struggle against evil. It is a great shame some people can't see this series to it's potential, for it would open the road to many more super-hero mashups in the future and inspire the creation of Spider-Man characters well known today, such as Anti-Venom and Toxin. But if there is one thing the series is best known for, it was for spawning the classic SNES and Sega Genesis video game from LJN. Gotta love the good old days!
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