Carnage U.S.A. #5

Highly Recommended!

Ripped from the pages of issue four, the same terrifying chill runs down my spine as I open this, the final issue of the Carnage U.S.A. mini-series. Set up just like a scene from the SAW films - this chill stems from the simple thought left behind from the cliffhanger - trapped, without legs, and apparently entirely disadvantaged against a psychotic killer - yikes! I really felt bad for Flash.

Silly me, I should have known better - he doesn't need legs, heck, or his symbiote to hold his own against Cletus Kasady - he is Flash $%#! Thompson. Venom. And he definitely has more friends than his psychotic adversary.

I love the pose he is in (above) with the knife - so reminiscent of wall-crawling Spider-Man, only with a giant freaking knife.

I thought it far too campy to name this review, "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My" - but this issue had it all - symbiote infected zoo battles, gory knife-to-hand-to-knife combat, airstrike explosions - you name it. All for the grand finale and fate of a small meat packing town in Colorado with a symbiote problem. This five part mini-series didn't hold back. It almost took Doverton, Colorado off the map, and along with it some of the key Avengers and all of the military controlled symbiote assets. The art and writing were 100% consistent, making a "must have" out of the collected story as a trade and/or hardcover. I am not saying that this is story scores perfect across the board, but it was as good or better than last year's Carnage: Family Feud.

In fact, I believe the addition of Venom to this series made its impact huge. It took a great story and made it better. Carnage and Venom stories always sell out. I do not know whether it is the "my symbiote did it" attitude or the raw power and unexpected nature of the beast that draws people to the stories, but whatever it is, it works. It definitely got my attention, and left me waiting for the next set of symbiote-charged stories. It is more that just symbiotes that make these stories great - I mean, they added an entire team of symbiote enhanced soldiers into this series before introducing Venom and they did nothing for it - at least for me. In fact, throughout the story they were wholly ineffectual, save Scorn.

It is this point that makes this final issue lack what it takes to get a five-out-of-five rating. It feels as though many of the plot points were rushed and much was left on the table. Maybe that is so it can pick up again next year, but still, this is a mini-series with a huge cast of characters from the Marvel Universe, so much more could have been done. That said, the ending did not disappoint - and whether it was intentional or not, it certainly left enough room for another mini-series next year.