Superior Carnage Issues #1-5 Review

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a month on geek cast radio Welcome to The Pullback.

Join us as we dig out our latest comics and discuss

them with a rotating panel of the GCRN crew.

So sit back and enjoy this week's Pullback. New

York City. If only everything down there was

really as peaceful as it looks from up here.

Welcome to the Heinz 57. No, we're not talking

about ketchup. Of course, this is The Pole Bag.

I am your host, TFG1Mike. And joining me for

a second week in a row is JT from Saskatoon.

Thank you, thank you. It's great to be back.

Wow. Man, that fanfare from that Nickelback concert

you went to last night must have lasted a long

time. Oh, it happens. Oh boy. So, it's been a

while since... I've had this planned, this episode

planned since... I don't know, June of 2013?

And we're now getting to it in February of 2014?

Today we're going to be... Yeah, it's been a

while. today we're going to be talking about

the five issue miniseries that came out last

year uh... the superior carnage or superior carnage

as there is no the on this on these covers but

um... you know ever since asm ended and for those

of you who don't know what asm is amazing spider

-man with number seven hundred and it went to

superior spider -man uh... you know as you can

tell from the reviews that we've been doing on

that series I saw this in... I think it was comiclist

.com. I saw this listed, and I'm like, ooh, Superior

Carnage, what's that? Yeah. And I've just been

getting them. Oh, yeah. I've been getting them

and shelving them. Until about probably three

days before we recorded this episode, I had not

read this at all. So I've been waiting since

June of 2013 to read these five comics. My only

exposure to Carnage has been... Wow. That would

have been funny. Superior Spider -Man 94 animated

series. Wow. Just imagine what that would have

been in the 90s. Talk about going unlimited.

The Spider -Man TAS 1994 is where I first found

out about Cletus Kasady and Carnage and all that

stuff and everything else and then I had seen

him and Venom in the Unlimited very short -lived

one -season Spider -Man Unlimited in 1999. Other

than that I have no previous knowledge of the

character other than what happened in that cartoon

series in the original Spidey cartoon series.

Cletus Kasady who At least based on the cartoon

series was a complete psychopathic Murray's basically

the Marvel Universe version of a joker is what

he is Oh pretty much. I mean he Quick little

info dump. He debuted as Cletus Kasady in Amazing

Spider -Man 344 back in March of 91 as Eddie

Brock's cellmate when for the short time that

Eddie Brock was in prison and when Brock finally

reunited with the symbiote that he had been separated

from it. He left behind a little surprise on

Cletus's doorstep in the form of this new symbiote

because the venom symbiote species, you know,

reproduces asexually. Just basically it's like

a cell it divides and this new earthborn symbiote,

you know, bonds with Cletus and he goes off to

become like one of the worst Most psychotic killers

in the Marvel universe though. I first came across

him when I was collecting amazing spider -man

back in the day when he actually became carnage

in 361 and That ran for three issues where he's

basically this anarchistic serial killer now

he's got alien superpowers and He ran for years.

In fact one point he got killed and got better

by the Marvel Universe version of Superman called

known as the Sentry who literally he flies him

into orbit rips him in half and somehow he survived

and got really good better and Previous to the

superior carnage miniseries. I don't know. I

think we've spoken about this a little bit on

here but in the there was a minimum carnage crossover

storyline between the scarlet spider and The

venom comic book series where he tries to you

know, take over the world and it ends with the

scarlet spider basically Severing his brainstem

and lobotomizing him Like he's brain dead, but

the engines still running Wow, so, you know that

leads into this miniseries and I've I've always

kind of liked the character. I mean Originally

when I first came into in the comic books, he

was drawn by Mark Bagley who is Like, my number

three all -time favorite Spider -Man artist,

if I were to make a list. Because he just had

this really solid art style, and it's the way

he drew Carnage, you know, with the - the Venom

jaw, with these rows of spiked teeth, and he's

got the tendrils growing off of him, and he just

whips him in Spider -Man, and it turns into,

like, you know, a giant axe, or, you know, darts,

or, you know, spikes, and this guy's just...

Let's kill everything. Why? Because I can. And

like he said, in that respect, he's very much

like the Joker. He's also like, he's like Venom's

like, dude, take a step back. Yeah. On my part

now, you know, I know a lot of people are going

to say, oh, these guys don't know. That's one

reason why I bring a lot of people on that know.

Yes, the pullback is more so from my perspective

most of the time the new readers perspective

but that's why I bring on people like JT or You

know others that know the comics history Whereas

I don't and I like being informed by that for

me all as I knew was All as I knew was was the

Spidey 94 cartoon and supposedly I don't even

remember off the top of my head. Somehow Dormammu

did it. Somehow he found the symbiote and cloned

it or did something. I forget what happens in

that episode, but anyway. When you said leaves

a little present on his doorstep, all I was flashing

to is the pool in Caddyshack and instead of a

baby Ruth at the bottom of the pool, it's a red

Twizzler. Yeah. Because I remember in the comic

books it's literally like this little bit of

slime that like hangs off the broken bars is

that venom like burst out the wall of like Riker's

Island and then you know, eventually it bonded

with Cletus and You know away they went yeah,

but I just remember Thinking as a kid when I

saw him in spider -man like on the Fox spider

-man series is just like really They really Cuz

I mean this whole weird mom and dad kind of thing

like father and son kind of thing. Yeah, cuz

I mean when It's just like this guy is literally

a serial killer with venom superpowers and they

put this into a cartoon and I remember as a kid

I was thinking What the F? You know, maybe maybe

if I ever get around to interviewing John Semper

jr. I can ask him about why they Went I guess

it was maybe their way of going maybe it was

Fox kids as a way going against sensors Because

everything in the 90s was you know, correct,

you know cracking the sensors Yeah Buster put

it in the tiny toons theme. So pretty much cuz

I mean and you look at the design like he's basically

Like for well, it's just the way that Mark Bagley

drew him in the original comics like he is kind

of why every You know, it's a kind of like a

very Like kind of athletic kind of body like

he was kind of thin but not, you know rail thin

so and the way he drew him was like he's always

kind of hunched over or just kind of Tittering

back and forth. He just looked like a complete

mess And I mean Carnage became like a pretty

popular carry at least in the 90s. I mean a couple

years after he came Became carnage. They had

this huge crossover called maximum carnage where

he basically tried to just Insanity is cool kill

everything You know it and it would ran for it

was a pretty long crossover and you know by the

end of it, you know venom smacks carnage around

he's taken off to like the cube or something

like that and You know, he popped up now and

again over the years through Spider -Man comics

and other series. I mean, yeah, I remember watching

Unlimited and just thinking, you know what? That's

a good look for Carnage, because he's like this

tall, gangly, bony looking SOB. And well, Venom

was like basically the Hulk on roids, which kind

of works for Venom. He was a Navy Blue Hulk on

roids. But yeah. Yeah. That's the weird thing

about Venom didn't have it so bad, but like or

Carnage didn't have it so bad but when Venom

came back in the TAS series he always had that

red shading to him in scenes which just kind

of bugged me but yeah and then Carnage has shown

up in other media he's shown up in like an episode

of Ultimate Spider -Man where see I have only

I want to watch more Ultimate Spider -Man the

current series because so far I've only been

able to see season one because that's all that's

on Netflix and I can never I'm one of those types

of people and most people by now where 57 episodes

into this podcast by now most people know that

I'm one of those people that I can't start in

the middle of something I have to start at the

beginning of something so like a television season

I can't start at episode 15 I need to see the

first 14 episodes to know So I still have only

seen the first season of Ultimate Spider -Man.

I love the show. I love the humor in it. It's

basically, what if Ferris Bueller had Spidey

powers? Oh, very much so. I mean, and the way

the Venom is like one of the first shows up pretty

early in the first season and then in the second

season. Don't spoil it. I'm just saying the way

he shows up in the second season is actually

really cool. the Yeah, there's not I can't tell

you anything about showing up all over the spidey

verse in various media so and since the takeover

of Doc Ock spider Spider -man now with superior

spider -man they decided to do superior carnage

And that's what we're here to talk about the

five issue miniseries. We're gonna take a quick

break You're gonna hear some classic Spidey stuff

or classic carnage stuff and we'll come back

after this Guess I could say you axed for this

webman. Stop! Spider -Man is ours and ours alone.

You may be our spawn, but that won't keep us

from destroying. Alright, we are back in Superior

Carnage number one. It's... this cover is creepy.

Carnage is creepy in general, but this cover

is so creepy because it's basically... just like

the superior spiderman number one cover except

instead of superior spidey it's superior carnage

yeah it's the uh it's done by this artist named

clayton crane who did a really cool ghost writer

miniseries years ago and his art style is uses

i think he uses a computer to do a him with his

coloring because it's got this really Organic

look to the cover with the you know, he's yeah,

it's that kind of classics Dare we say classic?

superior spider -man Cut like image of him climbing

down the wall But the way he's colored it with

this computer style looks very oily and wet and

organic and Creepy as all hell It's kind of like

ladies and gentlemen this this cover to number

one is kind of like if you put If you took the

Venom material from Spider -Man 3 and turned

it red is basically what it looks like liquid

on this cover. It really does. Yeah, just very

fluid. Yeah, very much so. I love it. I think

it looks really, really cool. It looks really,

really creepy as well. Well, yeah. And of course,

this issue, the series is written by Kevin Shinick,

artist by Stephen Segovia. And I love on the

first page in the interiors, you know the it's

a proto update page like you know a lot of Marvel

comics have and I love the the the title or the

tagline they have at the beginning this is like

this could be a movie it's just like Cletus Kasady

was a murderer and a maniac now he's a murderer

and a maniac bonded with a deadly alien symbiote

you know that's a movie poster right there it

is yes very much so I just love the way they

start this issue. Like I gotta say first off,

Segovia's art, it's okay. It's got this weird,

I don't want to say shine to it, but it's got

this weird aspect that just looks really polished

or oily in a way. It's just, it's got this weird

shine. I don't know how else to describe it.

Like it's decent art. Don't get me wrong. It's

just. There's something there I can't describe.

I love the way they start this issue with this

our narrator being This Ted and Ted is a insider

traitor who has been? Shipped into a super villain

prison because of overcrowding in normal prisons

Okay, don't get me wrong ladies and gentlemen

I I am against all kinds of crime and all that

and everything else but Being put into a super

max villain prison because you fudged your stocks

Because of overcrowding that's a little extreme

Well, apparently but I do like his I like his

outside perspective instead of instead of say

the narration being done by Like a super villain

or some dog doom or or Modoc Oh God, can you

imagine this narration if it was done by Modoc?

Oh my god It was the worst day of my life Yeah,

it's unless they get the voice of Modok from

superhero squad, which was brilliant. Yeah Tom

Kenny was brilliant in that role of course, it

was a beach ball with the face and hands and

feet but but yeah, it's just yeah, apparently

there's a breakout in this first issue and the

SWAT team slash stormtroopers Throw Ted into

an empty cell and he's just sitting there kind

of cowering hands on his head You know, it's

I love the thing for the governor It was it means

having 60 days to try his plan out before the

state gets the vote on it for me It means my

heart rate never drops below that of a hummingbird

And my shorts remained at a constant level Brown

alert like you know what? Yeah, you go from an

insider trader who's in a regular prison and

you get shoved into a super max super villain

prison yeah you basically hear that sound all

the time and it just it seems like some weird

like like it's just like almost sounds like standard

prison dialogue the way as Ned's narration goes

and then Yeah, the guard that the guards oh my

god I didn't notice this when I first read it

because I was looking more at the at the at the

story than the art but The guard on the page

where Ted says and we know that ain't gonna happen

the guard at the bottom panel looks like Darth

Vader helmet with a gas mask. Oh my god pretty

much. Yeah That's hilarious But yeah, you know

they they mentioned You know, it looks like They

mentioned carnage and we go to the next page

and we see Asian venom bringing in Carmen carnage

post You know with the minimum carnage storyline

And they still got clean as he's lobotomized.

He has no active brain or anything But the symbiotes

trapped in his body and they still got him like

straight jacket it up Yeah, no the agent venom

is that that is flash Thompson oh Geez quick

so flat what happens sorry? So that's where they're

going with Well darkest hours well possibly I

mean that what happened with flash was in the

comic books He really I think I mentioned this

the last time I was on the show he had flash

had reenlisted He went to Afghanistan he got

like, you know, the Medal of Honor and some other

things for saving some guys, but he lost, you

know, both his legs from the knees down. And

he volunteers for Project Super Soldier version

two, where they've separated the symbiote from

Matt Gargan, the scorpion who had been venom

for a long while. And they had come up with a

process that, you know, they inject a soldier

and he's only supposed to have like 20 missions.

And you can only have the symbiote in him for

like a few hours before it completely bonds with

him. So basically Flash does a mission, he goes

back to the base that he's stationed in, they

suck it out of him and life goes on. But unfortunately

after a while he kept the symbiote and the Hank

Pym and the Avengers came up with a process where

he can control the symbiote and make it do whatever

he wants, although there have been a few times

where he hulks out as Venom. Aida guy's arm.

Oh my god. Yep, pretty much. He's basically a

badass super soldier with symbiote superpowers.

Yeah, you're talking about this and you mentioned

Matt Gargan and... Just maybe I need to go maybe

I need to go back and read it for myself to really

believe it because you're saying this to me and

all as I can think of is that little dweeb that

turned into the scorpion in the animated series

and flash Thompson the high school bully yeah,

no, honestly just go look up venom flash Thompson

and the scorpion on the Wikipedia and The you'll

be a lot happier than try to track down all these

comics but yeah, so you Cletus is rolled in and

Ted basically craps himself when he sees the

pure evil staring back at him from the darkness.

And then you get the dick -stained guard, you

know, tormenting Ted for some reason. Yeah. You

know, because, hey, look, Carnage is here. So,

you know, let's make fun of the normal guy in

the supervillain prison because we're assholes.

Carnage looks so badass. I mean, this is almost

like re - I know this isn't like reading a horror

comic, but this is almost like reading horror

comics a little bit, at least for me anyway,

because I don't read a lot of that kind of stuff.

Yeah. And Carnage is, not only is he evil incarnate,

he's just one creepy looking dude. Yeah, and

I love what basically... Was it... Ted? yeah

well Ted is not long for this comic book unfortunately

yeah yeah vote no yeah if you voted for this

man to survive or made a bet with people for

this man to survive you're gonna lose your money

you're you're gonna lose your money because basically

what happens is the vint the symbiote takes over

of Cletus's body. Cletus is not behind the wheel.

The hamster is dead, but the wheel is still spinning.

Venom basically morphs and starts a riot, starts

slaughtering people. I like that there's this

one page, what page is this? I think it's page

nine, bottom panel. And where you see the first

first image of carnage fully form this series

and it's not unlike Clayton credit the cover.

It's got this fluidity to it But carnage looks

more like his skin is basically there's no skin.

It just looks like you see this red muscle with

the spikes and everything and then the symbiote

goes through a vent and Sorry, that's something

else. He just basically starts killing some mofos

Yeah, and Well Ted makes like sushi Yeah, pretty

much he makes like sushi and then Apparently

we've headed off to the land of Oz because there's

a wizard in this story wizard longtime Fantastic

Four villain and just psychotic envious psychotic

who is envious of mr. Fantastic and must best

him in all things and should mention that the

guard that Opens the cell to Cletus Kasady is

being mind -controlled by the wizard, which is

kind of the wizard's thing mm -hmm, and he's

got this plan now at this point in the comics

the wizard is basically brain -damaged and He's

more Mad mad hatter than You know Serial he's

more mad hatter than he normally is like he's

always been crazy But this guy he's like literally

kind of going around the bend Yeah, he's he's

He's fruit loops right now and cocoa for cocoa

puffs. Yeah, so he's basically he's got a plan

for carnage and is basically going to reform

the fearsome, or the frightful four. And I love

how the one guard, he's like, captured some of

these guards and he's torturing them. And the

one guard is like, what is this, your 16th version?

Why didn't you just call it the Pussycat Dolls

already? Oh man, yeah. And well... Guards should

learn, guards in the Marvel Universe should learn

not to lip off to supervillains because they

shouldn't know by now. Like dude, don't prison

guards talk, you know, like, you know, share

the collective dirt and all that because well,

one guard gets basically hung by an energy rope

and the other two are shot dead. And basically

the whole, I mean, the wizard's plan is basically

revealed in this first issue. He basically, he

wants his own family, or he wants his family

back. Well yeah, I love how he just marches in

because he doesn't know. Apparently super villains,

when they come up with their plan, they don't

do due diligence and do the research. And he's

like, Cletus Kasady, I am the wizard! You are

mine! And... Carnage basically comes at him like

I'm gonna eat you and then you literally see

I love the panel where you see this close -up

of the wizards I'd he's like, oh shit your brains

not working And who comes to the rescue as Carnage

is about to crush the wizard's head like a grape

but the but claw the master of sound now claws

like Lot of versions there have been many versions

of the frightful for almost as many versions

as there have been of the Masters of Evil in

Avengers and to the cornerstone characters like

you know how there's always like Baron Zemo and

Save the whirlwind have always Kind of consistently

been members of Masters of Evil. Well, the wizard

and claw have always been members of the frightful

for Although I do like how So go if you had drew

You know Clyde like it's very solid look to him

Yeah, I was just waiting for mad cat to appear

Oh My god the splash page of carnaging and Cassidy.

Oh my is some of the best art I've seen Oh my

god, this is just up there, with how the splash

page is. It's just amazing. Well with, yeah,

the way that you see like the traces of sonic

energy and how literally it's like all this blood

that was... because that's always been how they

talk about how carnage looks. It's like what

if, you know, the symbiote isn't like the the

black oily thing we've seen in Spider -Man 3.

Venom has always been described as a... Human

body covered in blood and I love yeah, the art

is absolutely beautiful as you see the symbiote

being blasted to pieces by this sonic what would

we find to be a sonic energy wave because that's

The two classic weaknesses of the symbiote in

the Marvel universe is fire and sound You know,

yeah, so I mean that is absolutely I love the

almost cartoonish look on the symbiotes faces

it, you know, it rolls off with like, you know

the Dagger teeth and the distended jaw and it's

just like no like no like And hey kids look it's

Mikey and he doesn't like it It's like you know

what that touch Yeah Oh God it's like um the

guy It's like Mr. Director from Animaniacs. When

they turn the tables on him, he's like, heard

for me to go, no. Yeah, it's that kind of thing.

The first issue, I really like it. It has a lot

of things that most people reading Marvel Universe

stuff would... Expect to see you've got a prison

break. You've got people trying to stop the prison

break badly and then Cletus and the symbiote

Combine and all hell breaks loose and there is

true carnage there. Oh, yeah No, I'm tempted.

I love like this first issue. I'm not knocking

it like you basically You know, I mean you get

that bit of narration from Ted who's around for

all of five minutes And I mean it's decent because

you know it's setting up the larger part of the

story it just Reading this is it just I got this

feeling like this was like the first five ten

minutes of an action movie Oh, you know before

the credits roll and all that Such like this

whole this whole five issue series could be one.

I would say 90 minute animated feature sure Of

course, they'd be really pushing the PG -13 rating,

but yeah, it could work. No, I was just brain

fart. Issue number two, the cover on this one,

carnage is hooked up to all kinds of machines.

Yeah, I will mention something when we're done

with this second issue, but this first issue,

or sorry, first issue. Second issue cover, I

like it a lot. It's got this whole Dr. Frankenstein

aesthetic to it with, you know, the the electric

arcs between those two pods and all the wires

and everything strapping carnage together and

down. And, you know, it's like we we have the

technology. We can make him smarter, stronger,

more psychotic. Yeah. You know, and again, you

got that nice fluidity with Crane's art and everything.

I mean, overall, it's a really good cover. It

is. It's a very, very good cover. I will say

this as we continue on through the episode after

this issue, but I wish that these opening pages,

sure, the narration changes or the speech bubbles

change as the story progresses, but I wish the

information... on the classified pages would

change and they didn't. It's pretty much the

same like the same thing for three four and five

after this. Well yeah it kind of goes uh basically

if you read it it's the wizard commenting on

everything. Yeah I know and I just yeah and like

I said the wizard is not his right mind because

he identifies there's a shot of this uh Super

villain known as the black tarantula And he's

like agent venom and I was like clearly you don't

do your research, dude Because that is clearly

not venom But yeah, it's venom's kind of well

the tarantula is kind of badass and so is venom

but just saying I like how he's taking like the

red marker and Crossed off stuff. Yeah. Yeah,

it's like, you know project rebirth 3 .0 you

know has no mind left to control plan b yeah

and he crosses out uh like that shot of crazy

like you know colors out his tooth and he just

writes the speech bubble you know it's it's kind

of fun and how he's stolen like this paperwork

from like shield and stuff but if you get into

the issue we're in the wizard's secret lair somewhere

in new york city And apparently the wizard goes

into a lot of kink Yeah Apparently so now either

Cletus is wearing some grape smugglers or the

shadowing is Done, just so we don't see you know

the dangly bits Yeah, I would say it's the second

part But yeah, it's the wizard like I said at

this point he's been Forget exactly what happened

to him, but he's suffered this brain damage in

a way where he's just as intelligent as he's

always been but he's even more unhinged and only

a truly crazy person would attempt to fix a Superpowered

alien or an alien powered super serial killer

Yeah, and then you know is again Well, even clock

calls it out on him because you know, the wizard

is you know loopy he's like this is a photo of

black tarantula, dude And then there was just

like oh, it's a placeholder idiot I just said

it was a damn top -secret project. How am I supposed

to have a photo of him? You think this means

like he basically is overcompensating for the

fact that other people are calling him on his

shit So Oh, who else did they bring in? I have...

I think this is... Dr. Mollus? Yeah, who looks

kind of like Dr. Milo from Batman TAS. Yeah.

Except he's in a wheelchair. And he wears glasses.

He's a combination of Dr. Milo and Doc Ock. Oh,

no, no. Well, no, no. I mean, the bottom panel

with the glasses. yeah come on now those kind

of look like what awk used to wear yeah he always

had those kind of coke bottle glasses but i like

this they've brought in you know basically they've

written dr mollis in order to uh operate on cletus

in order to uh you know basically fix him and

then also i needed a fourth to make the name

make sense you know because apparently dr mollis

is the fourth member of the new frightful four

It's just... How un... Okay. Sinister 6, I get.

Yeah. Well, by the name alone, you can figure

out who they go up against, but... Sinister 6,

I get. Fantastic and frightful 4, that is so

obvious. Yeah. For who's sp - You know - Alliteration.

Yeah. Wow. In here I thought the Fantastic Four's

only true villain was Doom. Holy crap. Yeah,

we could spend an entire episode or three talking

about great supervillains. Which we will probably

do after Dark in the future. Oh yeah, there's

an idea. But yeah, so they brought in Dr. Mollusk.

The wizard is ready to, you know, get things

started. So he turns off the sonic cage. And

he's like, prepare to be my fist to the face!

Yeah, and something slight cuz yeah, I love the

sound effects slice and Wow, that's a lot of

spit to be spewing there bud Yeah I mean what

happens is basically The wizard gets his well

he gets smacked around he He basically does nothing

he does nothing that really affects the symbiote

until Claw comes in with his sonic hand and well

sonic fist to the face Let's see why didn't he

do that in the like as soon as as soon as that

force field was down Yeah, why didn't claw come

in to do that right away? Was did man cat have

to eat or something or did the cat have to go

out or I don't know yeah I know what you're saying

but it's clearly again just this scene kind of

illustrates like how quote unquote stupid the

wizard has become Because he's like, you know,

I won't have my creature taken from me not now

he mentions Bentley who in the fantastic for

a while back and again, I like the little info

dump here is that black bolt of the inhumans

did something to the wizard that basically gave

him this weird form of dementia and You know,

he's basically trying to get his the wizard has

in recent years has become obsessed with the

concept of family like the frightful four is

his family he wants his son in so much as a clone

of himself can be called his son to be part of

his family so that's kind of what he's working

before or working towards i mean and for some

reason mollusk i guess is very invested because

he's like trying to you know explain to claw

what's going on and you know we gotta help him

do this and Think you know it's clear that he's

got his own ulterior ulterior reasons for doing

this All right. Yeah, so doctor Whatever his

name. I believe it's Bentley Whitman Whitman,

but you know the wizard. Yeah wizard. Yes the

wizard he He's a couple of sounds you short of

a picnic pretty much I mean, I don't like to

make fun of you know there's there's crazy in

comics like the joker and then there's crazy

in comics like the wiz like the wizard and that's

more one of the more realistic portrayals of

mental damage in the comics that i've seen in

a while but yeah he's basically he gets this

the taste smacked out of his mouth puts on his

broken helmet and okay let's do this again and

you know what they say about insanity You know

not learning from history and all that and Then

we get you know the first shot of auto in this

auto spider -man He knows yeah, and clearly the

see he doesn't realize that he's monologuing

to himself Either that or he's not monologuing

to himself. He's on some com -call Well, yeah,

you don't get that right away because I mean

if you didn't know that part of the coming into

this if you didn't know that he's got his spiderlings

and You know he's got this. It's just it Okay,

I guess for someone who isn't currently reading

superior spider -man the ongoing yes I could

see that they wouldn't understand that until

they got that stop wasting my time click Yeah,

I like how he and then you get to the internal

monologue You know yeah, he talks to you Doc

Ock and that's something they've done with superior

spider -man here and there that I don't think

either of us has really mentioned it's like he

auto keeps reminiscing about the other quote

-unquote smart super villains Yeah, I like that.

I think it's it's another angle to him being

spider -man that again It's not often at least

okay I'll admit, and I've admitted this in the

last 57 episodes of this show many times, I did

not read a lot of ASM. I came in at ASM at the

tail end, but I do know from watching other Spider

-Man material that Spidey, that Peter does do

his own hero monologue at times, but it's not

that often, and it's because Spidey has to be

a good guy, so you know what I mean? So many

terms here That it's interesting to see him still

keep part of his villain persona with the whole

monologue stuff. Oh, yeah Flection I think that's

real. That's what makes superior spider -man

really interesting. Oh, yeah, and Again with

like I love mad scientists and what were the

best part of a mad, you know mad science is You

know the monologuing like that and again the

inner model it also gives this, you know a little

more information About what its exposition we

get an info dump about a little more description

of what black bolt did because I mean for those

that don't know black bolt of the inhumans Has

this his superpower is his voice causes like

basically his voice is like a That cannon going

off on the ship in the movie under siege is the

best way to describe it It is an immensely powerful

weapon basically But, you know, over the years

he's shown he's got a lot of subtle control that

he can use these sonic vibrations to, you know,

futz with your... futz with people in a variety

of ways and somehow uses his powers to unhinge

the wizard's mind and apparently it's killing

him, you know, in addition to the tumor that,

you know, the wizard has. Right. And then, you

know, Otto's musing, you know, is this the last...

Is it an attempt to secure the wizard's legacy

or is it simply he wants to kill himself? And

we go we go back to the wizard's lab. Oh, he's

laid out in the floor again and You see the wizard,

you know mistaking claw for Bentley and he's

like a claw dude You know, yes, that's yeah and

then you know, dr Milo and I'm just gonna call

him dr Milo cuz that's what he looks like I know

it's Dr. Miles Milo is like he basically slaps

the wizard upside the head and says there's no

brain in that body to control therefore you cannot

control you know carnage and then being the crazy

as a bag full of cats as the wizard is determines

uh that he's going to come up with the idea to

You know transfer carnage into somebody whose

brain is working Yeah Yeah, I do want to go back

just for a minute because before Before Carnage

decided to interrupt us there a moment ago the

page where we were talking about Spidey's monologuing.

Yeah I just can't see... Okay, sure. Otto is

a genius. We all know this. But it always sometimes

weirds me out when main superheroes, and I say

that term lightly when it comes to Oxbrain and

Spidey's body, when they reference real life

people or events and he says... he says... Unless

you're concerned. They're gonna replace hoda

and Catholic Cathy Lee and I was like, oh my

god. No, he didn't. Oh Man, that's Doc Ock is

a fan Maybe he is. Yeah, maybe is But yeah, I

like little things like that do kind of make

the comics some days It was some days they do

in some days. It just makes me shudder because

it's like Don't think of the comics universes

as I probably should especially being in New

York But it's like I just don't think of them

paying attention to that kind of stuff and knowing

who? Who is on the damn today show or whatever

show they're on now Yeah, no, I get that but

So we have more of Basically, it's a double cross

or they're so they're setting up like that because

you know Milo is like, you know, this is crazy.

We need to You know do something about this and

claw mentions the fact that However, there's

claw is basically a walking talking mp3 He's

made out of solid sounds and I love how you know

when you make a copy of a copy of a copy You

know kind of like that Michael Keaton movie multiplicity

It gets worse every time, yeah. Well, basically,

yeah. So, I mean, this is like the umpteenth

version of Klaue that we've seen in comics, and

he drops it. I love the absolute look of horror

that Dr. Milo has in his face where Klaue goes,

I am his family. Like, that is just really creepy.

And then it's punched to the face. I was like,

dude, that's not cool. You punched... Like, okay,

that... It's not... the most PC use of dialogue

ever in a comic book but there's something like

he basically Claus beating up an invalid he's

like please I'm a cripple you wouldn't hit a

bat with glasses would you? I guess you would

but yeah so basically they strap down Dr. Milo

and they're going to transfer like do a blood

transfusion and transfer the symbiote into Milo

and it's all kinds of great yeah well especially

the the well it almost looks like something out

of freaking saw that they've got uh you know

cletus and dr milo strapped up to with what looks

like tony stark's arc reactor on his chest i

was gonna say what the hell is the arc reactor

doing in the on dr milo yeah and then i i do

kind of like the super villain monologue it's

Where the wizard goes what do you think doctor

when I'm proving? When I've proven you and everyone

else who doubted me wrong because we will no

longer be equals I will be Lord your master your

superior and giant demon tongue Like Jesus, that's

a hell of a way to start and the comic Yeah It's

just like oh god, you know, that's like the marvel

equivalent to the chest burst or an alien kind

of just like you know damn dragon dragon i ain't

no lizard i don't do that tongue thing oh mushu

oh you gotta love the mushu yeah all right so

issue two I, it was an interesting progression

of the story. Yeah. And I kind of knew as soon

as Malice was in there, I'm like, yeah, because

Wizard knows that Cletus is brain dead. He needs

another host. He's not going to use his own quote

unquote family in Dr. Claw there. So Malice is

the only other one in the room. And I kind of

knew the whole mad scientist experiment thing

was gonna happen and it was an interesting Interesting

read it read a lot quicker for me than the first

issue did I don't know if the page count was

lower in the second issue or what the deal was

but It felt like the issue went by so fast Yeah,

I I for me it read kind of the same as the first

issue Like, it did breeze along pretty good.

I mean, there's a lot more, you know, the character

development because, you know, you see the...

I don't know if the proper term is psychosis,

but, you know, you see the wizard is not right

in his head. You know, this dude is running on

three cylinders, if you will. And I mean, overall,

I really enjoyed the second issue because, you

know, move the story forward. You're developing

the wizard's, you know, psychosis. you know we

we see there's some there's potentially something

going on with claw just and you know i am his

family and then he punches a dude in a wheelchair

i mean and i mentioned this before the one thing

that absolutely this is like superior spider

-man 20 the cover is a lie Because I really like

I saw this cover and I know the wizard from the

first you the wizard wants to fix Carnage or

something and I wanted him to be strapped down

to this table with all these doodah doodads and

gigas Connected to him and you got those two

electric pile on things that he stole from dr.

Frankenstein You know, why'd you do that? Oh,

it just looks cool You know, I really wanted

that scene to be in the comics somewhere And

well, we didn't even really get that so Maybe

we'll get it in issue three, but the issue three

cover it's kind of weird it's It's bleeping weird

it really really it's like he's crawling out

of like a portal or something like that or Well,

if you see with the because there's no hard Lines,

you can't really tell what he's in is easy coming

out of a portal or like a pod or something like

Jeff Goldblum in the fly. You know, I mean, it's

it looks alright, but it's it's I'm going to

say right now, this is the weakest cover out

of the five issues. At least for me, I completely

agree. It's just you see Carnage coming out and

he's got like, you know, the tendrils and. You

know, you can almost hear like the bad 80s, you

know, John Carpenter synth music. You know playing

like from the thing or something. I mean, it's

kind of a creepy cover, but it's Ultimately a

very weak cover in my opinion Yeah, no when I

first When I first got this last year when I

was you know building up the collection so we

could do this episode here And I looked at this

cover and I'm like what the hell is this? I know

it says superior carnage on it, but What the

hell is it supposed to be? But it's it's yeah,

you're right. It is the weakest cover out of

the five Yeah, and I gotta agree with you at

least like I liked how they did it in the last

issue, but the you know The info let's just call

it the info dump the info dump in the first page

here It just you know aside from that of wizards

narration. It's exactly the same you know, you

got that shot of you know, dr. Mollus with the

demon tongue and but yeah other than that it's

just it really doesn't it doesn't pop the way

like the Daily Bugle page does in Superior. Yeah,

no it doesn't well and again the reason why it

doesn't pop as the daily bugle page doesn't superior

is because This is the exact outside of wizards

narration This is the exact information that

we've already seen in the previous two issues

Whereas in superior the daily bugle banners change

every happen every issue Yeah So basically we

get a quick when we get into the issue, you know,

the you see like all Dr. Milo's all red eyed

strapped to the table. He's I don't know who

he's like, this can't be happening. This can't

be happening. Yeah. And, you know, he's like,

basically, it's an exposition. And now the wizard's

going to transfer the symbiote into somebody's

mind or somebody's body who he can then control

his mind and Because I love the last bubble going

into this next page where he says so strike the

word Brilliant from my title because I just got

suckered into becoming a human guinea pig Yeah,

yeah And oh Now that he's got a bird now that

the engine is running and there is someone behind

the wheel carnage can talk Yes, he Boots I've

stood this before and I'll say it again I love

it when... I don't know. I would assume it's

the artists that do the word balloons. Yeah.

I would assume... I don't know. I know that the

Marvel method is script and then, you know, whatever

the hell else later. But on the artist part...

What I really love is how they, not just this

artist here in Superior Carnage, but any artist,

any comic book artist that I've read over the

past two years now, because October 2014 will

be my two -year anniversary of reading comics

full -time, I love how they distinguish characters

by different speech bubbles. Oh yeah. With Superior

Carnage, it's a red background with white text.

And that is just simply awesome. Oh, yeah. I

mean, they're the copy or not. You kind of talk

about that claw in the past has usually been

written like his the word bubbles have usually

been the normal, you know, black on white. There

have been some artists who do like kind of an

an echo effect with his dialogue. So you read

it and you see kind of like an afterimage just

behind it. Which is to denote that, you know,

a lot of times in the cartoons, when Klaus showed

up, he has got this weird echo. Yeah. I mean,

Klaus, sorry. Yeah, so Klaus... I apologize to

your listeners. Carnage, damn it, carnage! But

Klaus, when he's been written, he's always had

this echo quality to his voice, or this weird

distortion. So... and I kind of wish they would

have done something like that with him here but

you know it's big but I mean other than that

yeah I love the uh like creepy you know white

on red you know not solid bubble it's got like

the weird squeak like it's distorted which is

to denote that carnage would have has like this

distorted quality to his voice and then you know

like he boots you know sure kick the mentally

ill man in the head and then he cuts Klaue who's

made out of sound and it hurts the symbiote and

you know he's basically go back to square one

and the wizard puts on his helmet and I like

the panel he puts on his helmet and you see you

got the at least for the internal monologue you

know you got the purple box for wizard you've

got the white box for Dr. Milo and then the red

for the symbiote and it's like this weird back

-and -forth and if you ever seen like movies

where you know a killer has like the multiple

voices his head you can kind of imagine like

you know it's just the camera whipping around

and the different voices coming in and out and

everything like that oh yeah yeah and then after

that you've got the full -on reveal of the new

costume Which looks like it was taken straight

out of the 90s, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, he...

It looks suitably creepy and... It's a... It's

not. This image where it says superior carnage

and it has finally over by the bottom, so you'd

have to turn the page to see what that, you know,

to see what that says, but the image of carnage

here, superior carnage, it kinda looks like...

I hate to say this, but it kinda looks like his

head gear, or his head, looks like Hellboy a

little bit. Well the only reason why I say that

is look at the horn looking thing on the right

side of, well it would be the left side of the

head as we're looking at it, but it's basically

the right side of his head and I saw that and

I'm like, why has he got horns? This isn't Hellboy.

I don't know, it's kind of weird, but no, it's

not as creepy. It more reminds me of Dr. Destiny

from Only a Dream and Justice League. Yeah, it's

got that skeleton look. I mean, it's okay, but

one of the creepier things about Carnage is you

get basically the silhouette of the guy in the

suit. but the lines like the red and the black

are constantly shifting like Rorschach's mask

and Watchmen. And that's kind of what made it

really creepy besides this, you know, spike mouth,

you know, bug -eyed looking mother coming at

you. And this is like some alien soldier that

I've seen like a dozen times in comics. And we

go to the next page and the wizard monologues,

now put on a coat or something, I'm tired of

all the butts and crotches on display in this

town. You are my soldier and you will dress accordingly.

And could this design come anywhere out of the

90s because the guy basically morphs a leather,

like a leather trench coat? Yeah, it's pretty

much and... Anyone who listened to Punisher month

will probably hate me for saying this but it

looks like Punisher meets carnage is what this

looks like. Yeah, what did with the trend? I

don't know. I get that I get that I do like right

away the you know, the the wizards over there

still monologuing to himself probably in the

Symbiote as you can see has got a mind of its

own because that's not Milo talking and he's

basically You're trying to you know cut a deal

with claw So then the next plan is they're gonna

go to City Hall Which I guess you can fight City

Hall Yeah, and then I like how claw is obviously

like he's genuinely Genuinely concerned about

the Wizards, you know health It calls him like

you should have told me about the tumor who the

wizard Seizes like it's like an awareness spreading

across my mind, you know, like the guys just

you know, like I said fruity or sorry Cuckoo

for Cocoa Puffs, obviously but You know, it's

the you know, it's just I like this bit of characterization

for claw Howie, you know, he's it's like these

two guys who've been on the same crew for years

and you know They care about each other. Well,

at least claw does Yeah, you kind of have this

nice little moment and then well the 90s rears

its ugly little head again Yeah, cuz it Aside

from the face. This doesn't look like carnage

anymore It looks like some dude in a jacked -up

leather suit with a trench coat and a bandolier

of grenades and a machine gun in each hand and

two shotguns strapped to his back Oh god, so

he's basically Punisher and Chewbacca morphed

into one with some carnage in the edges. I'd

say the Punisher and one of the aliens from Alien,

but yeah, no, I get that. I can see that. But

apparently the wizard's planning to take down

Jolly Jonah Jameson. And I do like how his mind

slips. we only need one more thing and we can

finally take down that Johnny Storm for once

once and for all and then Venom's like uh don't

you mean Jonah Jameson boss huh yes of course

first things first i mean that'll be my next

plan i was you know like the wizard is just like

hey they pretty much set it up already he already

told us he already told the readers that as long

as his mind doesn't slip he can continue to control

carnage in Milo or on Milo's body or whatever,

however the hell we're gonna say that. And then

we consistently see his mind slipping. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's just to illustrate the fact

that this dude is not well. Yeah, that's true.

Although I will admit, I do like the, it's a

cool, it's one cool point to the wizard. where

Claude's like okay just after this is over we

got to come back and fix my arm properly because

his sonic gun arm is kind of buggered and wizard's

like oh my dear boy i won't be coming back and

you know it's just that image of the you know

the explosion of them blowing up his secret lair

and they're you know jumping down to the street

that is a really cool comic book style image

you know kind of action movie -esque in a way

like that's a movie poster right there Oh yeah.

But yeah, so we go to City Hall and I don't know

if it's Segovia's art or the writing, but this

is a really subdued J Jonah Jameson. He is, yeah.

This is not the over -the -top, low -hard that

we all know and love. Well, we'll get there I

think in the next issue when his main foe actually

shows up but carnage malice's carnage makes a

really really good point cassidy wasted all that

time on chaos when all you really needed was

a little bit of focus and it was that moment

i was like oh my god that's just ingenious What

the hell did they do to carnage in that next

page? Oh No, it's like he the wizard, you know,

cuz the words it wizard basically Uses claws

power to you know Well, basically claw is Green

Lantern with sound You know, he that's basically

what it is is Yeah, and plus he kind of looks

like a manhunter. Yeah. So, you know, Claw Magix

ups a train that crashes through the wall, and

all the security is trying to protect Jonah,

and you know, the wizard comes out and he's just

basically being a dick. Yeah. Yeah, because the

one guy is, it's a frightful four, I only have

eyes on two, I only have eyes on two. And the

wizard, well, don't straighten your eyes too

hard. And then Sonic Carnage comes out. Because

apparently the wizard has somehow merged claw

and carnage together Yeah, that's um, that's

a little crazy Well, the wizard is not right.

But yeah, even for the psychotic supervillains,

that's a little not yeah Well, at least it looks

like carnage because I made a mistake it's just

I guess okay man, I was a little confused there

the way because the way the wizard says Don't

strain your eyes. I can buy the two. I assume

did he combine? No, he means the other I think

the aspect that carnage and he and claw are two

and then malice and yeah, that's what he means

is you see in the next page the claws blasting

through a wall and The wizard has, uh, you know,

he breaks down in the middle of this fight and

he's almost trampled by the horde of stampeding

civilians. Yeah. And, and then that's, and again,

it's one of the, it's kind of the quieter little

moments like this in the story that I've liked

where the clause like we're attacking city hall,

get it together. Like he's, he's propping up

the wizard, you know, cause he kind of cares

that, you know, his friend is sick like this.

Yeah. yeah um so we have more and more mayhem

going on here and um these final two pages are

basically i meant blow the door and as soon as

they get in your term is up jameson there's a

new mayor and you know why they say you can't

fight city hall because city hall fights back

and the spidey's already there with the spot

Although I've always liked saying you can't fight

City Hall but you can damn well burn it down.

And of course the next issue, the Frightful Four's

Farewell Tour. Did they really have to do the

rhyming scheme? Really? Come on. Overall, issue

three, it's good. It's solid. Like I said, the

one thing that kind of bothers me is just it's

not the art, it's just that design for superior

carnage. Yeah, it's weird. It is very, very weird.

It's the 90s. Like, it's almost radical, totally

tubular, dude. You know, it's like, what if Keanu

Reeves was a superpowered serial killer? And

I think he's actually done that in a movie, so.

Well, they did make him the chosen one. This

is true. All right, so We have Superior carnage

number four the cover is superior spider -man

versus carnage and Spidey's wearing his Air Jordans

again. Yeah Well, he wants to be comfortable

Yeah, that's true. Um, I like the cover I have

a lot better than covers. Yeah, it's definitely

a more solid feel. I mean, it's Clay I don't

know if he couldn't draw carnage like that or

something similar but Clayton crane like on the

cover is done like a more traditional carnage

You know with the spikes and tendrils and oh

my that looks sharp Yeah, you know and it's spidey's

like boot to the face sort of pose. It's I like

the cover. It's not the strongest cover, but

it's It's like you said, it's a lot stronger

than issue three. Yeah, yeah. We open up with

where we left off and superior Spidey in the

mayor's office. Yeah, it's like five minutes

ago. Yeah. Yes, moments ago. I do like the pose

like you see the spiderlings dragging Jolly Jonah

into like a panic room and You know, I like the

way Segovia has drawn Spider -Man with his hands

on his hip and his head thrown back. It's like,

you're a liability, Jameson, and you will wait

in the secure bunker as I have dictated. Ah -ha

-ha -ha -ha! But I like that and how, you know,

in an internal, when I, the great Otto Octavius,

like he's monologuing to himself in his head

and he's setting, clearly, I guess to, as much

as he respects the wizard, you know he can't

let his spiderlings know so he's like talking

about the wizard he's a feeble old man who's

only got minutes to live before his brain succumbs

to dementia you know it's yeah and and and then

this bubble where he talks about an aging super

villain with only days to live and that kind

of when i read that for the first time i was

like wow it's auto relates to what the wizard's

going through Because of how he was dying of

the radiation poisoning and all the shots to

the head that he's taken over the years You know,

so it they're alike in a lot of ways. Oh Yeah

I'm wondering who's doing the the monologue on

the info dump page when you look at that Because

it doesn't seem like it's wizard think at this

point this stuff is it's just like a narrator

like standard you know standard comic book narrator

63 you know it's not like the Wizard the first

couple of issues where yeah yeah we had this

yeah and so I like that yeah so we cut everything

time catches up again you know Spidey kicking

back in the chair and Like I said, there was

this doing the evil finger period pyramid of

contemplation. I estimate this should take about

seven minutes Yeah You know we go to the next

page and it's You know, it's the the the terrible

trio basically Because there's only three of

them yeah, I'm pretty much us I know it's just

I get the feeling that, you know, this could

be a lot stronger story than it already is. Yeah.

You know, but again, you know, Venom comes in

with his awesome 90s coat melting and, you know,

the wizard's got his techno gauntlet and the

claws ready to start some stuff and... I don't...

Yeah, it... a splash page though, a couple pages...

After the ad that splash page of Spidey just

in action. That's just awesome Because yeah,

the first couple pages basically it's standard

action movie. The villains come in You know wreck

the underlings shit because they basically get

organic throwing stars to the throats and then

it's it's on like Donkey Kong you get the You

know auto kind of winding up and getting into

gear and yeah, that's splash page is absolutely

gorgeous Because you know I love it when when

they do splash splash splash pages like this

was especially with spider -man now you see the

Multiple images as to him just bouncing here

there and everywhere and kicking you know, Boku

ass Yeah, yeah It's yeah, it's very very very

awesome as we continue through the action we

eventually But claws are malfunctions He's trying

to like take everyone out with like a sonic wave

And it's like god damn arms futzing again and

I Like that basically spider -man is just diving

tackle out the window Right into a crowd of reporters

who like oh something's happening. Let's take

pictures Yeah, it's like forget about getting

out of the way yeah and i like how the wizard

kind of plays with that he's like please don't

hurt me spider -man and one reporter's like spidey's

gonna kill a feeble -minded old man and spider

-man's like you idiot does this look like a feeble

-minded old man could have done this idiots and

back to the action i know so they go back where

they go up to the roof and he basically spider

-man's like he's He's like dude, seriously, you're

not well stop this like he's trying to talk the

wizard down Which is cool and then just the way

that Otto is talking to him the wizard has this

moment of clarity where he's like Yeah, and then

Otto's like oh hell and he just drops him You

know, I know he's like no, but he let go Spidey

totally let go of his webs. And the wizard lands

on a bus or something. He's like, my brain must

be really bad. I can't even read people's minds

anymore properly. And because of this, Carnage

is free to wreak whatever havoc he wants to.

And you get this weird intermediate form of Carnage

where his head's got all drooly again. But he's

still wearing that stupid jacket and, you know,

claws like ready to, okay, let's end this. Ah,

son of a gun. Cause his arm futzes on him again.

I do like, uh, the next page where, uh, you know,

Spidey or like Otto gets down to him and he's

like trying to talk the wizard down and everything.

And it goes back to. Like he's he's using his

Experiences, you know with like where you switch

minds with Peter and all that he's really just

using the wizard But you know not much time to

dwell on that cuz you know carnage comes and

pretty well shanks spider -man Yeah, the one

thing so far and I don't think I don't think

this has happened yet Unless There was one thing

I think it's in this issue because this is the

spider -man battle issue Where he tells spider

-man his name? It's like how dare you use that

name just because you have a costume change Yeah

Because he calls himself superior carnage and

awk is like you cannot use that name Oh, yeah,

I do like like Carnage Shanks Spidey he calls

Spidey calls for backup from his minions and

let's face it they're minions not not grue level

minions but you know beado beado no they're nothing

like but yeah i like that kind of don't expect

to respond that is seriously one of the creepiest

and most disturbing images i have ever seen in

a comic book Yeah, it is like oh, dude. I've

heard of trophy collecting before but damn Which

we're talking basically carnage has attacked

all spider -man's minions and well, you know,

they're not living anymore because he's a collection

of human tongues did uh, oh Yeah, that was creepy

as all hell, you know and he gets in I like that.

Yeah, let's see who's really superior And Spider

-Man's like, you know, punched the face, he grabs

the wizard, he's trying to take off. Well, here

comes the sycophantic claw. And it's just...

I... Oh, there it is. Yeah, see, that's... See,

that... I think the thing that bothered me most

about this image is that they're kind of building

claw up a little bit, like... It's not that he's

like in love with the wizard anything, but he

does have some affection for him and you kind

of hope that you know the wizard gets that and

Then you know spider -man's you know basically

he's trying to You know he wants he wants help

with the wizard and everything and all of a sudden

he gets he gets straight -up shanked by by the

symbiote Yeah, it's nuts I Mean the art in here

is so so great. It just really is the story is

Progressing nicely. It's we've got action. We've

got adventure. We've got all this stuff and By

the end the blood seeps off. Yeah. Well, yeah,

it's just Like carnage said and I like think

it was like issue where he's like, I told you,

I'd get you. He's basically, you know, he's shanked

the claw with a piece of vibranium, which is

the only thing that really weakens claw. Cause

vibranium absorbs energy and sonics, sonics and

all that. And he, and he kind of has this kind

of cool, you know, villain end to him. He's like,

you were, we were doing it. We're going to take

over the city. You know, and he's like, he apologizes

to the wizard, and I hope you reach his son,

is what he's gonna say. And then they have another

gorgeous splash page. At least I thought it was.

No, it is, it is. Yeah, the kaboom. The boom

where everything goes everywhere. Yeah, I mean,

it really, really is. And just the way that it's...

Design and drawn because you look at car look

at the central explosion where carnage is supposed

to be and it's just Wow Yeah, and I like the

Spider -man like the next page where he's crawling

out of the rubble You know ground zero. It's

I know like it says not my finest hour But the

city is safe. My secret is safe and the planet

has three less super villains yeah and then he's

like am I and then like he's basically ready

to call it a day and then he turns around and

you see the wizard is covered in the symbiote

yeah and it ends on that that kind of creepy

image where like the wizard's face is half covered

in the symbiote as it envelops him and something's

taking over my mind yep and the final issue is

Hey back. Now this is a cool ass cover. Yeah.

With the other Spidey on one side, Wizard on

the other, and the symbiote, you know, re -enveloping

Cassidy. You know. But it's like Spider -Man

and the Wizard are fighting to keep the symbiote,

Spidey's trying to keep the symbiote from re

-abonding to anybody, and the Wizard wants the

symbiote for his own self -shens. And it almost

looks like Carnage is giving the reader the finger.

The massive, spiky, clawed finger. Yeah, pretty

much. It's kind of like Wolverine calling Cyclops

a dick. And then they completely change the info

dump page where you no longer have the pictures

all over and there's like this wanted poster.

As I said, issue three had the weakest cover.

I think this is the weakest info dump that we've

had. Yeah, it kind of is, because it starts out

with, you know, full panels, narration, and it's

basically three pages of narration. Yeah. Or

so. It's basically claw. talking about how you

know, he's part of the sonic wave and You know,

it's like he's dying and going to heaven and

he can see everything and Mm -hmm. It's we get

to we get to the page where it's About six panels

or well, yeah, it's about it's about five panels

on top five panels on bottom and There's one

thing in here that just creeps me the hell out.

I like carnage, but I'm sorry the symbiote does

not Look good on a female. Yeah, that's just

oh my god. That image is like No, I mean because

I like how they the art with the art here it

kind of references Certain areas of carnage like

you see the the first time Cletus turned into

the carnage you see where the symbiote had possessed

the clone spider -man during the clone saga he

possessed the silver surfer at one point you

know it basically catches everyone up to the

current right and it takes them six pages to

do so because you mentioned the one in poster

and i'm like what one poster and i just counted

the pages it takes them six full pages to catch

everybody up yeah out of uh Or is this usually

a 40 -page book or something like that? I feel

like it's like 22 pages. Yeah, something like

that. And then it basically, you know, the only

time it's even different at all is this one.

Oh yeah. Number one, issue one I can let go and

understand why. they did the classified thing

and it's great because we can see it for the

first time but for the other two or the other

three or however many it's in it's like change

the information here they did so i like that

i thought that was really cool yeah but i i did

i like the info dump pages don't get me wrong

but i like this one is it's too plain is what

bothers me about that i guess yeah you know but

I mean, get back to the story. You see, like

in the last issue, you see Dr. Milo's body lying

there. I thought he was dead. And we see it in

this one. He's like just waking up and what the

hell happened. So, I mean, you got Spider -Man,

you see some some of his minions have shown up.

Carnage is ready to start some stuff. And I like

that really cool image where, you know, Carnage

brings down like this massive like Axe knife

thing it's Spidey that he barely dodges and you

have that image of carnage screaming at spider

-man but you see the image of the wizard inside

and I like that perspective and shows you that

the symbiote changes kind of the physical mass

of Somebody yeah, but it also illustrates how

carnage and venom can do like the massive slack

jaw of death like that Yeah, it's very true all

his fangs and Mm -hmm, you know minions show

up with the flamethrowers Which fail on them

in the rain and I just love Spuddy's reaction

fucking prototypes Just out loud too and oh look

dr. Milo didn't survive the issue after all You

know, although well the rip sound effect is good

I would have preferred a crunch But that's just

me Yeah, and then moving along and well the wizard

is like he's like you said before he just wants

to have a family he wants his son back and Basically

Bentley because he's part of the future foundation

Under the auspices of the Fantastic Four So I

love the fact the minis his boy is here. We could

use him to Talk him down and spider -man. It's

like never reveal information unless I approve

it smack Like you literally Back hands his own

minion in the middle of a fight Yeah, that was

awesome. And then it but that gives him an idea

though for what will eventually come now We're

at the page or I at least I'm at the page where

he says the bottom panel on the right side Oh,

I'm sorry wizard. I wasn't talking to you bring

him in. Yeah Yeah, I I have to rant again okay

so after that page we get a full page spread

ad for marvel superheroes available november

2013 blah blah blah immediately after that we

get another a another ad page for agents of shield

declassified uncover the secret origin of tony

stark Help Longshot save Marvel Universe, Q &A

Jerry Duggan, Marvel the Watcher, try it now.

Like, do we really need two and a half pages

of ads right in a row? Come on now, Marvel. That's

the way it works, man. I've just kind of dealt

with that. I mean, I prefer, you know, how ITW

does their comics and they have a good case to

have all their ads at the end. where you can

take your time and look at them if you want and

you know apparently well so like get back to

the story they they bring in cletus who according

to the art was burned or damaged something well

i guess because of the explosion that uh took

out the wizards i just didn't really realize

that but you know he's sitting there in his pod

and you know carnage is like Basically, he's

Spider -Man's player talking to the symbiote,

not the wizard. Yeah. And now we see... I love

this whole page, but specifically the middle

panel, where it's Superior Spider -Man with his

eyeglass broken out staring down carnage. and

then carnage on the other half. It's supposed

to be a staredown but it's kind of like two halves

of the same coin even though I know they're not

but that's what it looks like. That's the bisected

image like that is awesome. You know it's very

cause you know cause they're watching the whole

thing go down and I like how they the symbiote

hasn't latched on the Cassidy kills a bunch more

minions. and you know Spider -Man's got like

the sonic gun and Carnage smashes that he's about

to you know om nom nom nom on the wizard's head

where basically at this point Claw is you know

dissipating rapidly he uses the last of his power

to weaponize Thunder and destroy or take out

the symbiotes That was a nice boom splash page

too. That's the one thing this series has going

for it. The splash pages are amazing. And again,

I like this one. You see the tendrils and everything

and there's all the little sticky bits still.

The strings and everything as the symbiote is

blown off Cassidy after he's taken them over.

I like how... You know the clause like talking

about is like this so -called miracle Basically,

you know that no one knows that he did this,

you know, they're all say it's an act of God

freak of nature like that and It's like it's

basically the last diet last will and testament

sort of thing of a super villain as he dies Which

I kind of like that. It's almost a classy way

for the character to go out Yep, and then they

just randomly get some new Artists for like the

last two last three or four pages Yeah, the art

does change quite a bit and this is literally

after Yeah, it's like after the symbiote gets

blown off. They just randomly got a different

artist in here You see the aftermath of survivors

being carted away you know spider -man obviously

he's taken the symbiote now that's been blasted

off of cassidy and it looks like he's got a few

more uh super villains in his underground headquarters

because you know you got you got carnage you

got the sinister six the lizard is in there some

other nondescript silhouettes that will i'm sure

will be revealed eventually yeah and it's basically

go to a secret hospital where the wizard apparently

the symbiote for the brief time it was part of

the wizard has basically halted like this doctor

says the dementia has been halted possibly even

reversed to a degree so you know the wizard's

on a computer and he's having an online chat

with his son so And it's I like that singer it

says a smile might be the most wonderful sound

of the world and yet the wizard makes it completely

creepy Yeah, but it and at least he got son I

mean the wizard kind of got something out of

it that you know, he's talking to his son and

then You think they're still talking about the

last page or so here. You think they're talking

about the wizard You've said so far in this episode

today a lot of times about the 90s stuff. Yeah

All is that? Graffiti on the wall needs is a

backwards e and a backwards s because Writing

carnage rules on the wall. That is so 90s. So

yeah, and it's like The one spider minion that's

talking to this doctor is like, did you say exposure

to the symbiote may have repaired his brain?

Yeah? Why? No reason. Because, well, clearly

Cletus Kasady is back at the wheel. And now he

looks like the mother lovin' Joker. Yeah, and

I... After I read this, usually when I read a

comic... And it says it, you know, it says either

next issue or it says whatever else I don't ever

really turn the page unless it already has what's

coming for the next issue and I had sent you

a link and I was looking on Marvel's website

because I was I was searching stuff on on there

and I was like Superior carnage annual number

one coming in 2014 what? And I should have just

turned the damn page, because it does say Carnage

will return on the final page. Yeah. Carnage

Homecoming on sale this month, actually, in February

2014. Yeah. So really quickly, we're going to

take a quick break, and then we're going to come

back with our ratings for... I'm just going to

rate the overall miniseries. I'm not going to

rate individual issues. So we'll be back after

this. It's action. It's drama. It's comedy. It's

Decian, the superhero webcomic. Decian has superhero

antics and sexy girls. Catch updates weekly at

Decian .com and NoSuperPants .com. Fly Up up

and away web Shazam go go go web go All right,

we are back here inside the pull bag Superior

carnage five -issue miniseries took us a while

to get to it, but damn was it interesting yeah

I because I made a few comments like how there

was like a lot of movie type moments and We talked

about how the covers were like posters. I Mean,

I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it

I mean the story of the other wizard breaking

carnage out of prison teaming up with claw and

dr Milo and Everything it kind of had this weird

super villain ish oceans 11 kind of feel for

me I mean it Kind of unraveled a little bit towards

the end I think just Because there there was

basically the the one moment in the secret headquarters

carnage to claw. I'm gonna kill you and Then

they go to the thing. I'm gonna kill you now,

but there's no There's no a lot of moments like

there's a lot of cool moments, but there's not

a lot of lead -up You know to take you to that

Yeah, there is it's not it's not not completely

weak writing, but it's It's almost but not quite,

you know, yeah For me it was a strong start Like

the first two issues were great. They really

really were the third issue was okay And then

four and five, the finales, I guess you could

say, I really enjoyed those because what I enjoyed

about four and five was it was basically superior

versus superior. Yeah. I think what bothered

me about the end of it is like you really didn't

need to have it a five issue. Like you could

have put four and five together and had like

a really robust final issue. Maybe do it like

32 pages, you know at you just had those extra

10 pages like that Mm -hmm, but other than that.

Yeah, I really did like the miniseries. I think

on the scale that we use I'm gonna give it like

an a three and a half almost a four Yeah, which

that is liked it or really liked it for me I'm

gonna give it a straight three and a half stars,

which is liked it I liked it. It was an interesting

read. I would love to read villain stories like

this more, where it's perspective from the villains.

Because, you know, last year in September of

2013 DC did Villains Month, where all the villains

took over 52 of the books. Yeah, and they had...

It was all from their perspective, and a lot

of that stuff was wood. It was from their perspective,

but the problem was, at least for me, you didn't

have... If you did have a hero come in, it wasn't

very often, and it wasn't in very many of them.

It was just from their perspective. Or a story

from their perspective that had not like... This...

Because superior carnage does tie into the superior

spider -man universe. I like this kind of thing

so if you know if there are other villain stories

out there that are told in this style where it's

The point of view of the villain, but the hero

is still there. You know what I mean? Yeah, I

like that Well like you said the good I was just

gonna say if you really want to read a good miniseries

From the super villain perspective and all no

heroes show up in it super villain team up modox

11 It's it's actually really good. It's basically

a super villain heist story But yeah, I mean

overall I like I like how you know, they've had

auto in here You know, they tied it very firmly

into the superior universe You know and and he's

gonna be back in the annual. It's just Like I

said overall, I like the art Splash pages were

brilliant I think my big thing was that disconnect

with the art in the last five pages of Less five

pages of issue five. Yeah. Sorry just bring fire

and They could have shrunk four and five together

into one issue, but overall I did like I said,

I enjoyed it I thought it was a pretty cool story.

You know, it's brought back Clearly there's some

love for carnage in in the marvel right now.

They're working towards, you know kind of bringing

them back a little bit more So we'll see what

happens. Yeah, we'll see what happens. Um as

you said this the series was written by kevin

shinnick and uh superior carnage annual number

one which releases the day this episode airs

february 5th 2014 Cletus Kasady is behind bars.

The Carnage symbiote is in quarantine, but we

all know that's never gonna last, right? Cletus

has been evaluated and imprisoned and even lobotomized.

Carnage has been sampled and cloned and poked

and prodded, but they've had enough. It's time

to get the band back together. A return to a

bloody, murderous form for the deadliest killer

in the Marvel universe. Now, according to...

tfaw .com the listing for Karna January 1 says

it's by Colin Bunn, Aaron Kim Jacinto, and Rafa

Garris. Now if Colin Bunn is the writer, this

goes back to my whole thing of oh my god why

are different people writing these characters.

You know it's just the little thing for me that

I always when i like writing i like it from a

certain person and it's kinda weird seeing the

character this is exactly why i'm kinda glad

i wasn't collecting comics in the old days because

i know writers and creative teams change constantly

i know today they still consistently change all

the time but i don't know as long as this new

writer or at least new to me uh... it keeps with

what the miniseries set up. I will be fine reading

Carnage Annual Number One, Superior Carnage Annual

Number One, and we will most likely cover it

at some point. Hopefully it doesn't take us nearly

six months to do so, but at some point it might

either... I'm trying to think... It's probably

either gonna be right before or right after we

get to Superior Spider -Man 22 through 25. Yeah.

So... Alright, well that's... Oh, what are you

gonna say? I was just saying, I'm definitely

looking forward to the... to the annual. See

what happens. Yeah, I am too. I mean, I think

this ended on a good note as far as the whole

mystery of the... the connection between the

symbiote and a host that might have fixed the

brain damage. Yeah. I think that's really cool

and maybe that's what they'll explore in the

annual, hopefully. So let's wait and see what

happens. Anything else you want to talk about

before we leave? No, I'm good. Alright, where

can they find you online? They can find me online

on Twitter at JT from Saskatoon. All right, you

can also follow me at TFJOMike or follow at GeekCastRadio

on Twitter. Coming up next, we are gearing up

for Marvelous March. That's right. Episodes 60

through 65 will air in March. Episodes 60 and

65 will be Steve and I doing bat books. But Episodes

61 through 64, every episode in that... block

there is gonna be Marvelous March here in the

pull bag where 61, 62, 63, and 64, they're gonna

be one of the core characters from Marvel. And

we're gonna review two trades per episode. So

we'll have to wait and see what that brings us

coming up in March here in the pull bag. And

after that, who knows? So for now, I am TF2 on

Mike with... JT from Saskatoon. Make your great

escape into comics and we will catch you next

time You just heard the latest episode of the

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