Miles Morales #6: Carnage Reigns Part 2

This review follows up on a story that began with Carnage #11, Carnage #12, and Carnage Reigns: Alpha, which were all reviewed for Comic Watch by Isaiah Hernandez.

_ _ _

Spider-Man: Miles Morales #6 benefits more than any other title wrapped up in this event due to the fact that this ‘event’ is really just the next story line in Cody Ziglar’s run on Miles. As a piece in a grander story, there isn’t a missed beat. No artificial pacing or absent minded filler meant to extend the amount of tie-ins the reader has to buy. Ziglar’s plotting remains sharp and to the point. For those invested in Kletus, they’ll be hard struck to find him no longer the protagonist of this story, but that doesn’t necessarily take away from the quality of this story.

If anything, it makes this crossover story line stronger than it has any right being. Carnage based crossovers are a Marvel staple, but normally devolve into unfocused and ill-thematic bits chunks of schlock. With Miles as a true protagonist battling against Cletus as a force of nature, both titles wind up elevated by the quality writing at hand. This crossover holds genuine weight and importance, because there are actual characters at hand here, not just action figures for the writers to smash together.

Elevation is the name of the game here when it comes to this issue. Ziglar has certainly impressed so far with his run on Miles, and not even an event can slow him down. While there is validity to those campaigning for Miles to have his own villains, that doesn’t mean he can’t muck around with others. Rabble was a great introduction, but it is common in Marvel for heroes to swap villains in order to strengthen not only the universal ties between books, but to challenge and add depth to our characters by placing them in new and fresh scenarios. Examples being Daredevil with Kingpin or Spidey with Doctor Doom. Miles battling Norman Osborn or Doc Ock is certainly not that interesting, but giving him villains that rarely see the light and when they do are just fodder, gives Miles more of a universal presence and allows that villain to form a stronger sense of depth. That’s why the Scorpion/Miles relationship as written in this book is so compelling.

Ziglar understands this, and treats as though he is Miles’ antagonist/character. That’s mainly why it works so well. The dude just gets how to grow new character relationships naturally without ever feeling out of place. There’s a genuine tension between Miles and Mac as they struggle to find their way out of Kletus’ horror house, their difference in ideology and the nature of fearing what’s unknown in their surroundings the kind of writing that makes for classic stories. While Kletus started as a Spider-Man/Venom villain, he’s grown into being the Marvel Universe’ equivalent of the devil. He’s a character that threatens the well-being of everyone, and as such has come to be a universal antagonist.

Federico Vicentini is pouring his blood and sweat into the penciling on this book. There are scenes here that could be easily over-crowded and indecipherable, but he takes that chaos and turns it into art. If he remains on the title alongside Ziglar in perpetuity, we could be in for an all-time run.