Comic Review: Absolute Carnage #1

Absolute Carnage #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Donny Cates

Artist: Ryan Stegman

I had one overwhelming reaction reading Absolute Carnage #1.

“Oh my god”.

I’ve not had much luck with Spider-Events in recent years. I wasn’t a fan of Spider-Geddon in the slightest (they killed off my boy Spider-Man Noir, how could they?!).  I could have done without Go Down Swinging, and I wasn’t a massive fan of Hunted. So going into Absolute Carnage, I expected more of the same old same old. To my surprise, this is an absolutely brilliant book and one I will likely come back to again and again, which is less than can be said for most recent Marvel events (War Of The Realms notwithstanding).

Donny Cates is probably one of my favourite writers currently working in Marvel. His Thanos, his Cosmic Ghost Rider, his GOTG, his Silver Surfer, his Venom. All of them are just top tier books, and Absolute Carnage is no different. I love how Venom writes the dynamic between the symbiote and Eddie, and Eddie and Spider-Man. Of course, there’s also the titular Carnage, who has been resurrected by a cult that worships the symbiote god Knull and wishes to use him as a conduit for Knull himself. It’s weird to see Venom go from Lethal Protector to God-Fighter, and any other writer likely wouldn’t be able to make it work, but Cates makes it seem so natural, and writes every single character so well in the book that I don’t particularly care about how out there it is for a character such as Venom to fight an actual God. The story itself is paced incredibly well, and there’s never a dull moment, but it also doesn’t skimp on character beats in favour of action.

The art is goddamn gorgeous. Ryan Stegman is easily one of my favourite artists in the industry currently, and he continues to prove that he should be known worldwide as such. His Spider-Man especially is utterly gorgeous, and wonderfully detailed. I’m now fully convinced that he should be the full-time artist on any book with a spider-character. Some of the splashes are incredible too, with one in particular of Carnage and Eddie Brock that blew my mind looking at it. They’re wonderfully coloured too, by Frank Martin Jr. Every page is incredibly striking, visually stunning. It’s just joyous to look at, I wouldn’t say no to getting some of these pages printed as full-sized posters.

Absolute Carnage is an absolutely incredible start to what is shaping up to be Cate and Stegman’s masterpiece. It’s just brilliant in every way and deserves to be read by anybody with even a passing interest in Venom and Spider-Man.