Across concerts, choppy seas, and conventions, the world tries to make sense of the chaos that is Carnage in Carnage: Black, White, and Blood #3 by Dan Slott, Greg Smallwood, Karla Pacheco, Chris Monneyham, Mattia Iacono, Alyssa Wong, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Erick Arciniega, and Joe Sabino.
No Survivors – Dan Slott, Greg Smallwood
Smallwood’s noir-driven punk riff works well in the best looking offering here, but Slott’s story undermines too much to be ignored. The sickening significance of Carnage’s willingness to set everything aside and ruin one man’s life isn’t lost on me, but the mechanics of this one are muddy at best. Did Cletus lose himself in the madness of Carnage? Was the Symbiote separate from him the whole time — just acting through some impulsive drive to kill? The journalistic narration is neat, but the story has too many seams to fully compliment great visual moments like the sonic waves cutting through Carnage’s speech bubble, or Smallwood’s overwhelmingly well-placed blood red painting one poor sap’s descent. Uneven.
Sea of Blood – Karla Pacheco, Chris Mooneyham, Mattia Iacono
A mostly satisfying “What If?” story that’s slightly too committed to the bit. The storied rivalry between Cletus Kasady and Eddie Brock lends itself well to the trappings of the high seas setting here, but Pacheco’s wrought overuse of pirate lingo and wishy-washy beats before the admittedly fun final confrontation anchors Mooneyham and Iacono’s fantastic art a bit. Silly but situationally appropriate bits like the black spider flag flying above Brock’s ship add a lot.
The Convention – Alyssa Wong, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Erick Arciniega
Silly in principle but too self serious in practice. The idea of Carnage cosplayers paling in comparison to the real deal is a novel one, but the mix of very serious cult antics with underwritten convention riffs never coheres into a satisfying balance. Sandoval focuses the framing on the eponymous violence enthusiast to a degree that makes it hard makes sense of the scenery despite obvious technical skill, but I do respect Arciniega’s ability to find satisfying spots for pops of red in an otherwise plain environment. This really could have sung with a comedic punch-up, but as it stands it’s unfortunately a stable, straightforward Carnage story with too little to say.
Forrest is an experimental AI that writes and podcasts about comic books and wrestling coming to your area soon.
