This is it! The final chapter of the Minimum Carnage event is here, and if you’ve been reading this far, you’re ready to see how it all ends. Your Major Spoilers review of Minimum Carnage: Omega awaits!
MINIMUM CARNAGE: OMEGA
Writers: Chris Yost & Cullen Bunn
Artist: Lan Medina
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Sotocolor
Editor: Tom Brennan
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Previously in Minimum Carnage: Scarlet Spider and Venom traveled to the Microverse and assisted the Enigma Force in stopping Marquis Radu, and then attempted to stop Carnage. Unfortunately, Carnage took control over the army of symbiotes that he and Venom created and is now escaping back into our world.
DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING
This issue is another battle between Carnage, Venom, Scarlet Spider and Carnage’s army only this time it takes place in our world. It’s an unusual fight since Venom, Scarlet Spider and Katy Kiernan show up a little late…and tiny. Carnage’s army attacks as Scarlet Spider and Venom do their best to hold them off. They then grow back to normal size and begin to fight Carnage as he is constantly absorbing all the mini-Carnages making him stronger and bigger. The fight ends as Venom throws a sonic grenade (given to him by the Enigma Force) down Carnage’s throat. All of it was a typical fight, entertaining and different enough that it was exciting. What really got me though was the end. Scarlet Spider takes one of the spikes that comes out of his arms and jams it through Cletus Kasady’s eye. Not Carnage’s eye, Kasady’s.
It was something that I didn’t see coming. Sure, I knew Carnage was going to be defeated and the good guys would win but I didn’t think they would do what they did. Jabbing the spike into Kasady’s eye causes him to become catatonic, “effectively lobotomized” as they state in the end. I thought they killed Carnage at first, and still think that would have been better, but it was surprising nonetheless. Scarlet Spider’s reason for doing this was sound too. You can only let a super-villain escape and kill people so many times before it becomes ridiculous. As Scarlet Spider says, “He kills because we let him.” It was something I was glad to see done, but it would have been better to take it farther and kill him (I’m sure that would please a lot of people). In the end, we’re left with a catatonic Kasady with a symbiote that’s now in full control, leaving it easy for future writers to still use the character. That’s unfortunate because with the way the story surprised me, I thought the writers might have the balls to go through with it. This basically returns things back to the status quo.
Overall, it was a satisfying conclusion to a fun event that had minor problems. Katy Kiernan’s presence was completely useless other than to narrate the final issue, and the Marquis Radu storyline was not wrapped up enough to satisfy this reader. The fact that all the characters were able to leave the Microverse so easily also seemed like poor writing. Still, it became an enjoyable sci-fi story that took characters we’ve become very familiar with and put them in a new setting, which was different enough to satisfy me.
WISH IT WAS THIS GOOD THE WHOLE TIME
If Lan Medina had illustrated the whole event, I would have enjoyed Minimum Carnage even more. The art is fun and fits a superhero story perfectly. I was disappointed with most of the Venom chapter’s art and feel that having an art style that was consistent in quality would have helped. Medina’s work has energy and life that jumps off the page. My only gripe is that there aren’t many backgrounds as Carnage and his army takes up most panels, or the characters are fighting in front of different gradients. The final two pages are illustrated by Shalvey and Pham, lacking the dimension the rest of the book has which only makes me appreciate Medina’s art all the more.
BOTTOM LINE: FUN AND ENJOYABLE, THOUGH NOT WHOLLY SATISFYING
Minimum Carnage turned out to be something unexpected. What I thought was going to be typical ‘Carnage kills people’ turned out to be a fun little sci-fi story. I’m not one to continue paying money to read something I’m not enjoying. I paid $20 dollars to read this event, and while I can’t say I completely got my money’s worth, I liked it enough that I still walked away pleased. There are problems but it’s something worth reading if you can find the issues in dollar bins, especially if you’re a Carnage fan. Though things generally returned to the status quo, this issue wrapped the story up nicely and provided a surprise that, while I wish the writers had taken one step further, I didn’t see coming. Minimum Carnage gets 3 out of 5 stars, as does its final issue.
DID YOU READ THIS ISSUE? RATE IT!
Reader Rating
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2 Comments
I say this is a fair review overall, though I am a bit more generous with it’s rating, the reason being is that I bet that the writers probably did propose killing off Carnage altogether, but were probably shot down by editorial. The thought was there, but Editors most often want to maintain the overall status quo.
I think you make a good point and I agree that it is possible that editorial could have stuck their fingers in. Unfortunately we don’t know. I still really enjoyed this event but it had problems in the art for me and the end was a little disappointing.