Amazing Spider-Man #23

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

I could make a pun about shock(er) value, but I'm just all I can't even. I know I'm seeing only bits of this, but it does seem to be as bad as I expected.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah "old character killed off to build up new character" has always been an annoying trope imo. Bendis was a big fan of it.

[scorntx]

... I see he's taking it well.

It's not a great commentary the way writers (and editors) have written Peter that having a nervous breakdown legit counts as "taking it well" for him.

(having not been paying all the attention to the current run, took a moment to realise that must've been Ben doing the petulant door-slamming while Peter was off in space.
Because, at this point, petulantly sulking off at a revelation like this also seems like something the writers (and editors) would have Peter do anyway.)

[numeronone]

NGL, if I found out my on-again off-again romantic partner was Venom now, I too would pass out, from sheer arousal.

[badtakegoesbrrr]

To be fair, Peter just found out that the love of his life attached herself to the alien costume that went from being worn by Peter to wearing Peter in his sleep to forcing itself onto Peter to bonding with a guy who wanted to kill Peter. Even with the symbiote's character development, that's a lot to process.

Also the symbiote aggressively shipping Peter and MJ probably isn't helping.

[scorntx]

I wasn't meaning that Peter should've just shrugged the reveal off with a "oh. Hey, cool." or the like.
Just was worried he was going to respond in an unnecessarily hostile fashion for the sake of drama.

[blues32]

Noooo...not Herman! Shocker was such a good villain. Wasn't crazy, wasn't revenge driven...just a guy who wants respect and wealth. Shocker is dead for such an obvious edge lord loser of a newcomer.

Didn't Eddie send Peter a note telling him that he was Carnage? Well, that and Carnage knew who he was now.

[iamrman]

Welp, looks like I'm giving up on this crossover. Wake me up when it's done.

[thanekos]

I can't believe the Shocker was technically Mary Jane's least awful relative.

[tcampbell1000]

Ha!

Her sister's okay, though. For the most part.

[zachbeacon]

What's wrong with Kristy?

[numeronone]

I've seen people call the contrast between VenoMJ in part one saying "Peter probably thinks we chose this" and VenoMJ in here saying "Peter, we chose this" as bad writing/miscommunication between Soule, Ewing and Kelly.

However: I kinda like it? It feels like MJ deliberately lying to Peter because she's well aware of his kaiju-sized martyr complex and doesn't want him trying to "save" her from a situation she's got a handle on.

[superfangirl1]

Peter is bewilder, baffle, perplex, discombobulate and his day is confusingly mystify. By the revelation that Mary Jane is the host of Venom. Lol

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I hate that they killed Shocker, and I'm still glad I chose to read this after the end of DC KO.

[blues32]

Yeah. I mean, one of Shocker's traits is his extraordinary luck. He survived the Scourge, he survived Punisher, he survived being in Thunderbolts, fighting demons, and even the Venom War.

[cainofdreaming]

He survived the moniker "Master of Vibration."

[blues32]

So...is Torment Cletus? The spiral shape, knowing Carnage, the "Carnage Ruled" sign... Plus, killing in this fashion is very Kassidy.

[cainofdreaming]

Well, there's at least one... clone? Resurrection via symbiote? ... anyway, there's one or two of them around. They didn't part in exactly amicable way, though.

[blues32]

There's only one left. The one the Carnage symbiote made devoured the real Cletus. Yeah, they didn't part amicably, but Carnage's gooey hands are tied. Eddie has a good grip on him. Doesn't seem like Eddie is letting him get away. So he's turning to someone he can trust to get the job done and that's Cletus...if he's actually Torment. And let's face it, Carnage is never going to stop wanting to be with Cletus.

[cainofdreaming]

Didn't Cletus die already after the whole Poison event? He was a reanimated corpse during the whole prelude to Knull thing afterwards. At the end of which Cletus' body was destroyed too.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah the other Cletus was built from the codex so technically also a copy. The Carnage series compared it to the Ship of Theseus as to what constituted the real Cletus now.

[blues32]

Then Cletus's mind that had been living inside Carnage while he was trying to become a god, gathered up some of symbiote goop and make a new body for himself. Later Carnage snuck into Cletus's old prison cell, devoured the inmate, and produces a younger copy of Cletus.

Getting annoyed by Carnage's obsession with becoming a god, Cletus (having already killed and absorbed the one made from symbiote mass), removed himself from Carnage and walked off, telling the symbiote to come find him when he's done playing god.

[zylly]

Really unhappy about them killing Herman. There’s just something incredibly likable about him as a hard luck villain.

I’m sure there’s some way to bring him back, but mostly just annoyed right now.