Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage #1: The Plot Congeals

This Frank Tieri written issue is a fairly quick read that is seemingly pretty important to this summer’s Carnage event I forgot the name of, Maximum Carnidrive? Heavily referencing 2012’s Carnage USA this issue showcased Carnage’s mission to kill and absorb every symbiote wielder former or current on Earth in order to gain Knull’s power or something, the trouble with doing the story in one shots spread months apart is I don’t remember exactly why he’s doing this. At no fault of the creators, of course. It does a lot to build anticipation but in terms of sequential storytelling I’m not trying to dig 4 shortboxes back for a refresher on things. Additionally it does become pretty recap/ exposition heavy at times and could have been a single throwaway panel in an issue not released 5 months  before the event starts.

I really liked the callbacks to the aforementioned Carnage event in general, I’m a big fan of referencing canon and Marvel’s long game can be shaky at times, stuff like this helps reassure fans that their time spent reading matters in the long term haha. Familiar faces and settings are abundant, and small callbacks are great.

The art by Danilo Beyruth is a bit cartoony for the dark story being told, but my biggest complaint is maddeningly Misty Knight’s robot arm comes and goes from one panel to the next, terrible consistency. Also for some reason Carnage is apparently 12 feet tall? Weird choices.

All in all this issue was fine, my trouble is it’s building to an event I’m a bit wary of conceptually and is just not at the same level as the previous issues in terms of dialogue, story or plot. The end is telegraphed from the third page and nothing is particularly revelatory, although the sheriff from Carnage USA getting killed did give me a little start, he wasn’t living much of a life at this point anyway, both in the story and as a character who hasn’t been canonically important in seven years.