I don’t even think Peter shows up in this issue. Mary and Gwen get a good scene together, something Bendis’s two month fast forward makes problematic. It’s hard to believe they haven’t seen each other in that amount of time… not with Peter giving Gwen a message for Mary Jane.
But anyway, it’s a good scene. Bagley’s action might be a little boring and his horror is nothing special, but he’s good at the expressions Bendis needs to make the scenes work.
Besides that scene though, the issue’s nothing special. Ultimate Carnage shows up and appears to be some kind of Peter Parker clone. It wrecks havoc. It kills people. It kills major supporting players.
As for that major death (maybe the series’s first), Bendis fumbles. Maybe intentionally. He doesn’t give the scene time to resonate with the reader, ending the issue instead.
His handling makes it hard to care.
CREDITS
Carnage, Part Three of Five; writer, Brian Michael Bendis; penciller, Mark Bagley; inkers, Scott Hanna and John Dell; colorist, Jonathan D. Smith; letterer, Chris Eliopoulos; editors, Nick Lowe and Ralph Macchio; publisher, Marvel Comics.
Leave a Reply