A little early in the morning for a moral dilemma
We start with the symbiote squad (I am so trademarking that name) doing some recon work and running into the Doppleganger, because I guess he's still around. Meanwhile, Cletus has appointed himself the town's preacher and as you can imagine, he's less qualified for the position than Jesse Custer. He makes the towns people pull out their teeth for his own amusement. The Carnage possessed Captain America starts to show signs of resistance but Cletus doesn't appear too perturbed. Meanwhile, the wife of the resistance leader shows up outside their homebase, now possessed by Carnage and having been given orders to kill her husband or Carnage will kill her kids. Spiderman tries to save him but is stopped by 5 year old Carnage kids. Only this creative team can be at the same time so disturbing and hilarious at the same time... well, maybe Garth Ennis. (That makes two preacher references) When the guy volunteers to die, Carnage decides killing him would not be fun, and so they leave and the symbiote promises to eat the children. Meanwhile, the Symbiote Squad (TM) engages the carnage army. They hold their own but they seem to be outnumbered. Carnage orders Captain America to kill the kids, but Cap temporarily breaks free and punches Cletus like he's Hitler. Before Carnage can take control Cap uses his wrist com to execute order 4563. What the hell is order 4563? Well, apparently we're sending in Venom, for real this time. As Jim Ross once said, business is about to pick up.
What Works:
This is a very gruesome miniseries and I love it. We have new characters blended with old, a great villain, some damn horrifying story ideas and stellar artwork. And with that ending, next issue promises to be even more awesome.
What Doesn't:
My only real complaint is with the color. This issue takes place mostly at night and so all the colors are darkened and faded. I've seen night stories done by Clayton Crain with better colors before so I know he's better than this. In Venom vs Carnage, Crain's first major story with this style, most of the fights were at night and the colors were still vibrant and bright. I know it's a minor nitpick but that really bugged me about this issue. Especially given the fact that with this color, Carnage looks purple so I keep mistaking female Carnages for Scorn.
Overall:
4.5/5
Next Time: VEMON! Nuff said