It’s Death Spiral Part 5 of 9.(1) Spider-Man and Venom fight Torment and the Carnage symbiote. Eddie wakes up and still thinks that the Carnage symbiote can be trusted. Spidey and Mary Jane learn Torment’s “spiral” motif. Norman Osborn offers to train Miles and the other Spider-proteges. Flash goes to protect the aunts. Torment’s next victim is Dylan Brock. All of this and … phermones???
(Three against one? Torment must be pretty tough. What exactly are his powers again?)
CREDITS
Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Ed McGuinness
Inkers: Cliff Rathburn
Spider-Versity Interlude Artist: Pere Perez
Colorist: Marcio Menyz with Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
PREVIOUSLY IN VENOM …
Eddie suspects the Carnage symbiote of lying to him about Torment. Spider-Man and Venom visit The Bar With No Name where Boomerang puts them in touch with Tombstone. They all suspect Carnage is the killer, and Tombstone tells them that the killer stole Shocker’s Vibro-Gauntlets. Eddie realizes that Torment kills family members of his targets, and goes to save his father, but is attacked by Venom and Spidey. They realize that Carnage is not the killer, and that Carnage is Eddie Brock (gasp!). Eddie arrives at his father’s home to find him dead, with Torment waiting for him.
PREVIOUSLY IN CARNAGE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN(2)…
Carnage attacks Torment to avenge his father, but Torment’s Vibro-Gauntlets knock him out. Spidey and Venom go to Carl Brock’s to find Eddie. Meanwhile, Brian is recovering from his accident, dreaming of sentient mushroom creatures invading his body. Spidey and Venom find Carl dead and still aren’t sure Eddie didn’t kill him. Eddie is desperate to find Torment. Spidey and Venom catch up to Eddie, and they all find Torment. Spidey and Venom are surprised to find Carnage siding with Torment, revealing that the symbiote is in control and Eddie is asleep.
SUMMARY
Spidey attacks Torment while Venom attacks Carnage. Torment reveals that Shocker was killed because he was part of “the Watson spiral”.
(I guess that’s Torment’s razor whip on his back but it looks like he has Stegron horns.)
Torment uses his Vibro-Gauntlets to knock the symbiote off of Mary Jane. Spidey rescues her, but is knocked down the Vibro-Gauntlets. To Carnage’s chagrin, Torment refuses to kill them now as he has not “finished the spiral”.
(You have them at your mercy but can’t kill them now? How convenient!)
The sound of the Vibro-Gauntlets has woken Eddie up, and he takes control of Carnage, attacking Torment, who escapes. Spidey and Venom stop Eddie from pursuing him because they want answers … not from Eddie, but from the Carnage symbiote.
(Uh-oh, Mom and Dad are mad!)
Meanwhile, in a startling art shift, Norman Osborn is working out while talking to Miles Morales. He offers to teach Miles and Peter’s other proteges how to defend themselves … against him.
(A 50+ year old man working out while a teenage boy watches him? Nope, nothing weird about this at all.)
Eddie and the Carnage symbiote explain to Spidey and Venom how they ended up together. He is convinced he can keep the Carnage symbiote under control, but Mary Jane is not convinced.
(Watch out Eddie, Mary Jane has the crazy eyes!)
Eddie explains that Torment attacks in a “spiral”, targeting family members. Spidey and Mary Jane realize that Aunt May and Aunt Anna are in danger, so Mary Jane calls Flash, who is in action as Anti-Venom, to keep them safe.
(Who is on the Symbiote group chat? MJ, Flash, Dylan, Normie, Pat Mulligan, Mac Gargan, Liz Allan, ???)
Spidey, Venom and Carnage are following the Vibro-Gauntlets signal but realize it’s not leading them to Aunt Anna’s place, it’s leading them to Mary Jane’s. She realizes that Torment’s next target … is Dylan.
(No, don’t kill Dylan! An unlikable character I know next to nothing about and have no connection to!)
TO BE CONTINUED!(3)
INITIAL RESPONSE
Well, we’re at the midpoint of Death Spiral(4), and we actually have more progression in this overall story than I expected by this point. All of the major characters are together, they are finding out things, and the plot is progressing at a reasonable pace. We still don’t know who Torment is and why he is targeting Peter and Eddie, but that (I assume) is coming.
But my biggest problem with this story is still that … this feels like a Venom/Carnage story with Spider-Man guest starring. Which would be fine if this story was only in the Venom and Carnage titles (assuming the Carnage title was still going). But most of the DS issues are taking place in Amazing Spider-Man, which means that it should feel like a Spider-Man story, which to me, it doesn’t. And by the halfway point of this story, I should feel that by now.
WHAT I LIKED
Ed McGuinness art is always welcome. Kudos for him not forcing Rek-Rap in here.(5)
While I don’t like the idea of Mary Jane as Venom(6) – or her with any powers – I do like Spidey and Venom teaming up and their banter (not all of it though – more on that later).
I do like that Torment has Shocker’s Vibro-Gauntlets which specifically helps him fight off Venom and Carnage, two of the three heroes he’s fighting in this arc. It would have made more sense if he had sought out Shocker specifically to get these gauntlets because he knew he’d need them against Venom and Carnage, but based on his “spiral” modus operandi, that just appears to be a happy accident.
(This makes me wish that Shocker would have been used as a Venom recurring antagonist in the past.)
I did laugh when the Carnage symbiote wants nothing more to kill Spidey and Mary Jane when it and Torment has them at their mercy, but Torment insists that they can’t be killed now because of his “spiral” motif. The Carnage symbiote is not one for self control.
(Poor Carnage symbiote, it just wants to kill, but first Eddie and now Torment are keeping it from having any fun)
I liked Spidey and Venom stopping and telling Eddie to tell them everything that’s going on with him and the Carnage symbiote. Characters stopping and talking to each other, filling them in on what’s going on? In a current Marvel comic?
I continue to enjoy the Venom symbiote being the voice of reason while Mary Jane is going off on Eddie, even though his explanation of why he bonded with the Carnage symbiote seems very similar to why she bonded with the Venom symbiote.
(“Mary Jane, we’re in public. Use your inside voice.”)
Mary Jane telling Eddie that he doesn’t have control of the Carnage symbiote when he’s convinced that even after everything that’s happened, he has it under control. Either Eddie is delusional or is wear rose-colored glasses. Good on her for keeping it real with him here.
Using Peter’s technical know-how to track Torment by the Vibro-Gauntlets. This was introduced in a previous issue but it’s still a good way for them to track Torment without just guessing who his next target will be and going there and hoping that he’s right. It reinforces Peter’s intelligence and technical know-how.
As others have already said on the Discord regarding this issue … “Even Kelly hates Paul.”
(I would side with Dylan here if he wasn’t so unlikable.)
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The Carnage symbiote taking over because Eddie is “asleep” – is this something that happens? Yes, the Venom symbiote took control of Peter when he was asleep, but that was when Peter literally went to bed and slept. Eddie was swinging around as Carnage, wide awake, and suddenly he’s asleep? Is the symbiote able to put him to sleep? Does Eddie suddenly have narcolepsy?
(“Huh? What? I must have hit the Snooze button, what’s going on?”)
Spidey calling Shocker “my friend”. Boomerang (aka Fred) was Spidey’s (and Peter’s) friend. But Shocker – they were never friends. I understand Spidey being sad that Shocker is dead, and that he was never a truly evil supervillain, but did I miss some story where Spidey and Shocker bonded?
The Norman/Miles conversation bring the issue to a screeching halt. It’s clearly only here to setup Spider-Versity, and likely not going to have anything to do with DS. Also the idea of Norman and Miles talking in casual conversation just feels ridiculous. These two have no relationship. Have they even met before Spider-Norman? Did Miles encounter Norman during Spencer’s run when Norman first met Spider-Gwen? Even then he wasn’t “good Norman”. Them interacting like this makes no sense.
(Even Kelly is acknowledging how this meeting makes no sense.)
Another problem with this Norman/Miles conversation is that the entire idea of Spider-Versity makes no sense. I understand that due to Marvel not letting teenage heroes age this means Miles is still the same age (or relatively close) to his age when he first got powers. But he has been Spider-Man for quite awhile. He is *very* experienced. The idea that he needs lessons from anyone, let alone Norman Osborn, is laughable. It’s only because Marvel needs to put the other Spider-heroes who can’t sustain their own book into one book. Even Aranya and Ghost-Spider have tons of experience and wouldn’t need this Spider-Versity. The only ones that are woefully inexperienced that could actually benefit from this would be Spider-Boy and Spider-Girl, since they are so new. But no one is going to buy a book with just Norman and those two. Still, the idea that suddenly Miles needs Norman to train him makes no sense.
(Didn’t Miles defeat a Norman Osborn Goblin in his own universe? I never read Miles’ Ultimate book.)
I like Flash being introduced to this story, but suddenly Marvel is trying hard to make Flash/Mary Jane(7) a thing. Yes, back in the Lee/Romita era Flash was after her, and they may have even gone on some dates (Bertone would be able to quote me the issues), but the talk about “phermones” just made me cringe. And why is Peter upset about Mary Jane having Flash on speed dial? They have been friends for years. This is only here to create tension of a potential Flash/MJ romance. Stop this, Marvel.
(Flash obviously went to Vietnam just to have MJ (and Gwen) kiss him goodbye like this.)
Why is Paul still here? I said in the Discord that I wouldn’t be surprised if the next issue (or the end of DS) had Paul sacrificing himself to save Dylan from Torment, with a silent splash page of Spidey holding Paul’s lifeless body, while Mary Jane hugs Dylan and both of them cry. Prove me wrong, Marvel!
I should care if Torment kills Dylan, but I really don’t. Was he a likable character in the Venom book? Everything I’ve seen here in ASM make me find him completely unlikable. I should be on his side since bashing Paul seems to be his favorite/only pastime, but there seems to be no redeeming qualities to him. Am I missing something here?
(Is Dylan’s only goal in this book to try to make me feel bad for Paul?)
Nice of Hellgate to do nothing during this entire story and wait until DS is over to continue that plot where his planet is literally about to be destroyed.
DISCORD TANGENT
(I said on the Discord that I would fit this in to my review – or maybe it was the water – but I ran out of time. So with no context, here it is.)
WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL
We had plot progression of the overall story, characters are telling things to other characters, with some good action and nice character moments. It’s a good story, but like I said, it just feels like a Venom and Carnage story with Spidey guest starring. Will there be something in the upcoming issues to really tie this to Spider-Man? Is Torment’s identity supposed to be a big reveal? Since he’s going after Spidey *and* Eddie, it would have to be someone connected to both of them. Carlton Drake, anyone?
Oh, and we set-up Spider-Versity, which was apparently important to do here, I guess.
GRADE
B-
This was a good issue of this story that progressed the plot and had the characters learning important information. The biggest knock against it is the Spider-Versity plug which makes brings it to a halt, makes no sense, and it has nothing to do with DS. And that DS doesn’t feel like a Spider-Man story. Oh, and Dylan and Paul, who both just suck all the fun out of any issue they’re in.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VENOM…
(No, don’t kill Dylan. Anyone but him.)
FOOTNOTES
(1) Where has the time gone?
(2) Seriously, this previous issue reads like an issue of Carnage, with Venom and Spidey guest-starring. Plus the main writer is Charles Soule, not Joe Kelly. I suspect this was intended to be an issue of Carnage when DS was planned, and they thought the Carnage book would still be going.
(3) But not in Amazing Spider-Man!
(4) I wouldn’t be shocked if we had some “Death Spiral: Epilogue” issue after Part 9.
(5) Although we have more ASM issues, presumably drawn by McGuinness. I wouldn’t it past Marvel to have Rek-Rap show up and save the day. Prove me wrong, Marvel!
(6) Does anyone? Seriously, if you like Mary Jane as Venom, please let me know. No judgement, I just want to know that you exist.
(7) FlashJane? Maryash? Provide your own shipper name in the comments.
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