Ultimate Venom 'Interlude': Carnage, Part 1

[cyberghostface]

After my posts on the first Venom storyline from Ultimate Spider-Man, misterbug requested that I post the next 'Ultimate Venom' arc, but do that I'm going to have post some bits from other issues for it to make sense. You'll see when I get there.

First up is none other than Bendis's take on Carnage. Like Venom, Carnage was a character Bendis didn't want to do, so when he did do it, he ended up doing a character that was only similar in name and basic appearance.

First part is from issues #60 to #62.

So Curt Connors, despite being cured from being the Lizard, is still haunted by visions and nightmares.





As seen from my last post, Connors knows who Spider-Man is but has promised to keep the knowledge a secret.











#61...

Curt Connors calls Pete for a little meeting and tells him he looked at his blood sample. Peter wants to know if there is something wrong with it.





So Peter gets wounded again and calls Curt up for help. While there, he asks for the progress on Curt's project. Curt tells him he has to see his son soon and can't.







#62...

In the next issue, Connor's lab assistant (who is called Ben Reilly...an in-joke on Bendis's part to assure that wouldn't be an Ultimate version of the Ben Reilly) finds that the experiment is missing. At first he assumes that it has been stolen, but then the body of a guard is discovered...his corpse is completely drained and desiccated.

Needless to say, the creature has transformed into the Carnage we all know and love, and is now killing people left and right.

The Carnage creature also appears to have Peter's memories:















Yeahhh...so needless to say, the gruesome dispatching of one of Bendis's most popular characters didn't sit well with a lot of fans, and many of them dropped the book after this issue.

Next time: Spidey deals with the aftermath of Gwen's death and confronts Carnage.

Comments

[mrstatham]

So, so glad that Bendis decided on a complete asspull but brought Gwen back, really. I think this was one of his worst moves - The book was definitely worse off without her.

[cyberghostface]

Same here.

Now if only he brings back the Kingpin...

[darkknightjrk]

Speaking of which--after the Ultimate Carnage and sequel to Venom (which I didn't know existed) is done, is there a possibility of seeing how Bendis brought her back? I heard before that she has a bit of Carnage in her, but I never actually saw that story.

[cyberghostface]

It's sort of explained in the Venom sequel but its vague.

[big_daddy_d]

Speaking of a Venom sequel, any chance of the Ultimate Spider-Man game being addressed? I thought it was a great story and it does show how Venom got his own Spider Emblem.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah, I'll try to mention it.

[mrstatham]

I thought the Ultimate Spider-Man game got ignored by Bendis and that was why we got the War of the Symbiotes story?

[big_daddy_d]

Didn't know about that..I just knew that the game was suppose to be part of continuity, which is one of the reasons I liked it and admire that approach.

[cyberghostface]

It originally was but then Bendis changed his mind.

[misterbug]

My gratitude for this. I'd actually not read Ultimate Carnage all the way through either, so it's interesting to see this.

[mercia]

Add me to the group who really, really didn't like the fridging of Gwen. The book was much worse off without her.

Also, I do have to give props to Doc Connor for actually ASKING for permission before doing things with Peter's blood. It was a nice change... even though he then turned around and used Peter's dad's research without even a quibble.

[fifthie]

This was pretty much where I went "fuck this, I'm done" with USM, not that I was super-thrilled with it by this point already.

Come to think of it this was a big part of what convinced me that comic deaths are by and large pretty much all fucking stoopid.

[turtlefu]

It's funny.

The original Gwen Stacy had little personality compared to MJ. MJ was a fan favorite even though Pete was "supposed" to end up with Gwen.

However, Ult. Gwen had way more personality than Ult. MJ. But's she's Gwen Stacy, so she has to die.

[shadowpsykie]

so that whole scene when you see Carnage changing into Gwen, was where bendis got the idea to bring her back?

now as far as i remember, Gwen is still Carnage right? its just... Dormant... or something right?

[cyberghostface]

**spoilers**



At the end of the second Venom arc, Venom absorbed the Carnage symbiote from Gwen. So she's 100% Gwen in terms of genetics.

[sinisterlink]

I find those first scans of Connors dreaming about killing his son really creepy/sad considering what happened in the regular Spidey comics.