Originally posted Nov. 9 2019 in Waldo's Corner blog.
For the first time in about seven years, this past summer I missed Free Comic Book Day back in May. I was so busy working, to be honest I did not even remember it until a few days later! Lucky for me my ex roommate is a big fan and he and his brother went out and picked up a few issues for me. Quite a number of the offerings actually, so I thought I would do a retro review of a few of the issues in my collection dating back a few years, because why not? Maybe you are a fan of comics too and are in my same boat where you either forgot or never knew about the FCBD offerings.
I figured maybe reading some of these will get me out of my rut and my writer's block thereby giving me incentive to continue working on the creative project that I have bouncing around in my head trying to get out.
It is funny, I read another review of the 2019 Spiderman/Venom offering by Marvel and it amazes me how one person can have a totally different take on a book. In fact, this particular reviewer gave the comic a perfect 10. I was less than enthused by it. It isn't like artist Ryan Stegman wasn't up to the task, the artwork is pretty flawless. There is even a two page spread at the end of the comic featuring Spiderman, Spider Gwen, Miles Morales and another Spiderman character (I think it may be Ben Reilly but I am not sure) and a bunch of villains including the Green Goblin, Scorpion and Venom, by Ryan Ottley and Nathan Fairbairn which is a pretty awesome visual. However it is captioned, "The Scariest Spider-Year ever continues." Somehow I wasn't that scared.
This FCBD copy was supposed to whet readers' appetites for an upcoming event called "Absolute Carnage" A series which by now should be into its fourth issue, but after reading the comic, I found it, quite frankly, to be nothing new under the sun. The solicitations said it followed the tradition of classic Spider-man tales like Amazing Spiderman #252 and Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-man #90, but after reading this book, I honestly just wanted to re-read those stories which were infinitely superior to this.
The book starts out with former Venom Eddie Brock in prison at Ryker's and culminates in a lot of gore and mayhem (SPOILERS if a six month comic can be spoiled) when the alien symbiote takes over Eddie as Carnage. Apparently there is some subplot in which Cletus Kasady was brought back from the dead by a cult and merged him with a symbiote that used to belong to some god named Knull. After breaking out of the pen, Carnage/Eddie sporting a Venom logo on his chest but looking more like a fusion between Venom and his "offspring," deliberate whether to go after the Avengers, or the Life Foundation, among others, until they spot Spiderman swinging by. This is the issue's cliffhanger. Could be I just don't find these villains interesting anymore, over 30 years following their introductions.
There is a secondary tale called "Rivalry" by Saladin Ahmed and Tom Taylor with pencils by Cory Smith which involves Peter Parker clashing with Miles Morales, or so the cover and introductory page would have you believe. However, anyone who has read comics for as long as I have is familiar with the old trope that superheroes always fight first and sort out the conflict afterward, and what's worse writers Ahmed and Taylor try to ratchet up the suspense showing the two heroes seemingly about to go to blows. I guessed incorrectly that there was no physical confrontation coming, but I thought it was going to be a video game competition or another such nonsense, but it turns out the two Spider-Men are fighting over......
the best pizza in New York? Yes, one is from Queens and the other hailing from Brooklyn, both claiming the best comes from their preferred location. There is a brief confrontation with the Shocker who seems surprised he has to fight not one, but two Spider-Men but goes along with his plan and is unsurprisingly eventually bested by both heroes. I did get a chuckle out of the punchline, but was not impressed by the dialogue. At one point Morales calls the Shocker "Muchacho" which is Spanish slang for teenager, or young man, which does not quite fit since the Shocker is not a teenager. Also, I know Miles is supposed to be from a region where there are number of Hispanics and I guess he is probably Puerto Rican, but he didn't speak a lot of Spanish in the "Spiderverse" movie, which is why this is a bit grating. I know it's nit-picky but it took me out of the story a bit. The whole thing seems like a commercial for Spiderman movies and other Trade paperbacks, which I suppose it is since Spider-Man Far From Home was about to hit theaters at the time.
Overall a lackluster outing for our first FCBD entry and retro-review. Here's hoping some of the others I have in my collection, but have yet to read and review, will be a bit better.
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