Carnage #4: A Cure for Mortality

Despite the opening text boxes’ assurance that Flash Thompson’s mind is racked by fear and guilt, he seems to move on quickly from last issue’s gruesome cliffhanger. Serial killer Cletus Kasady lured him into a trap, taking advantage of Flash’s investigative nature to trick him into indirectly murdering an innocent. It was a bloodbath directly out of Saw, yet no moment is spared to truly absorb the trauma of the situation, as Thompson and the reader have to rush off to the next plot point. Even the possibility of Flash being framed and pursued by police is handwaved away. It’s a questionable choice to undercut the dramatic potential of this situation, but it certainly makes the proceeding events less predictable.

Carnage has bigger plans for the amateur hero, striking next at the spot where he is most vulnerable: his heart. Flash’s mother is dying, decaying from within after consuming tainted chocolates hand-delivered to her nursing home. Anti-Venom must beat the clock to save her, and it is here that Torunn Gronbekk delivers some of the book’s most impressive prose. Vivid descriptions paint a crystal-clear picture of the entirely internal damage being dealt on poor Rose Thompson’s organs and cells. It’s as if she’s being hollowed out, and a single panel of her warped, psychedelic point-of-view is a perfectly concise hint at the poison’s neurological toll.

The best part is that penciller Pere Perez and colorist Erick Arciniega hold back and let the writing carry itself, not overcompensating by making the character look more haggard and sickly than necessary. The artists’ subsequent depiction of Anti-Venom’s healing process is excellent, as it appears much less invasive and corruptive than symbiote bonding is often depicted. It’s as if Thompson drapes a white sheet over his mother’s form, absorbing all illness from her just in time.

Carnage has his enemy right where he wants, as his ingenious strategy is finally revealed. He sought to fight Anti-Venom in a weakened state, enduring the pain in manageable doses to build a natural immunity against his last remaining weakness. The battle rages on as the two symbiotes branch and spiral across an impressive two-page spread. Everything is cut short when Carnage pries the location of Eddie Brock, his true target, from Flash’s mind. Cletus leaves his opponent trapped in a timeless void as he runs off to face his oldest rival in an abrupt ending that feels like it’s literally putting the narrative on pause. But it was to be expected, given the ending of this month’s Venom #30, which promises thrills of an even grander scale.