At this point in the event, if I see Charles Soule name in the writer section of a Death Spiral chapter, I know I’m going to get some glorious carnage. All of that and then some are exactly what this penultimate issue of the spring’s splatter filled spidey/symbiote event brought in the pages of Venom #257.
With things just a hair’s breadth away from the end of it all, this chapter in particular takes amps up pressure from previous issues: with Carnage/Torment nearing their prey – namely Peter and MJ’s aunts, while the heroes race to stop their loved ones from becoming statistics. This issue in particular captures the tense vibe and gritty action that an event like this warrants, in terms of fast-paced narrative and some genuinely creepy visual work, especially with a cliffhanger that might not amount to much later on, but is definitely presented gloriously.
Taking Retirement Too Literally
The F.E.A.S.T center becomes a site for slaughter when Carnage/Torment show up in horrifying fashion to hunt down Aunt May and Aunt Anna: all part of completing the “Spiral” that would lead back to Peter and MJ. Torment and Carnage are still at odds about exactly what and how much killing should be done but they’re still in agreement enough to want to kill the old ladies. Before they can do that, however, Flash Thompson – in full on Agent Anti-Venom mode – shows up to save the day. Torment isn’t too happy that Carnage left out the part where Anti-Venom’s powers are one of the few things that can really hurt Carnage, so he takes matters into his own hands. Partially detaching from Carnage (after calling him a liability) he manages to incapacitate Flash with Shocker’s gauntlet; which shouldn’t be possible since the Anti-Venom “symbiote” doesn’t have the same weaknesses at all…but that’s a conversation for another time.
With a fight on two fronts, Carnage convinces Torment to split up: Carnage will go after the old ladies, while Torment will finish off Flash Thompson (without killing him, because more spirals or something). However, Carnage randomly killing people hiding in the FEAST center upsets Torment immensely, with each new death causing more pain for the serial killer as new spirals form in his mind. This is enough for Torment to end his partnership with Carnage – stopping the murderous symbiote just short of killing Aunt May and Aunt Anna. One supercharged blast from Shocker’s gauntlet is enough to put Carnage on the brink of death, where no amount of banter can help him in this truly dire, yet fitting situation. Venom and Spidey pick this exact moment to show up and they take on Torment face to face. But Torment is far from finished, easily dispatching Venom and using the remnants of the carnage symbiote to mortally wound Spider-Man. The situation looks dire until a little devil urges Peter to make a deal: the wounded Carnage symbiote, begging Peter to become its host to save his loved ones. And Peter says yes; with the results promising some truly spectacular Carnage for the finale.
Let Him Cook
As I’ve mentioned in earlier chapter reviews, Charles Soule just seems to have the right pulse for what this event should have been, and here with him taking over writing duties from usual Venom writer, Al Ewing, that puts things more into perspective. Soule’s framing for this issue is about keeping the pacing tight, the pulse pounding and the tension ramped up to high. This is a chase-comic: with Torment/Carnage closing in on our heroes’ loved ones. Will Carnage and Torment be able to coexist? What’s going to happen to our elderly Aunts? Will our heroes be able to save the day in time? These are the lingering questions that are left hanging throughout the book, and Soule’s writing actually does make you feel – for the most part – that the answers might not be as cliched as cape comics would traditionally have you believe.
Now right off the bat, this still being a Venom book, there’s precious little of any actual Venom or MJ in this at all. The titular character shows up with Spidey right about near the end mark of the issue, only to be unceremoniously incapacitated by a faulty Shocker gauntlet. One real pet peeve that’s been recurring across this event for me is just how easily symbiotes like Venom and Carnage, who’ve canonically developed higher resistance to sonics over the years (especially Carnage) are constantly dispatched to the point of uselessness by Torment’s amateur hour with hunk of junk gauntlet he stole. It’s an extremely lazy convenience that hinders otherwise great action moments and can get genuinely irritating after a bit. Even Flash Thompson’s Anti-Venom “symbiote” who is utterly immune to sounds gets put to bed by the power of the almighty plot armor gauntlet, which is a shame because its always great to see one of the greatest Venom hosts to ever do it get a moment to shine, but this simply isn’t it.
Now to move on to the real stars of this issue: Torment and Carnage. In the previous chapter, we’d seen Torment and Carnage arguing, but still agreeing to take care of business if it means their respective urges for killing were satisfied. Here, Torment and Carnage are a bit more in sync at first, but their difference quickly cause a massive (and deadly rift between them). I do like the contrasting dynamics between their killing philosophies being diametrically opposite and how Soule seems to grasp the idea of showcasing that better than his fellow writers on this project. While Torment murders in strict patterns to ensure peace of mind for whatever psychosis he suffers from, Carnage revels in the unending bloodshed and relishes the noise and chaos that comes with that suffering just for his own perverse pleasure. Carnage’s weakness to sonics being a liability for Torment – and it being called out by the latter who takes steps to mitigate that by separating himself from Carnage – is a great showcase of the killer’s methodical ideals. And eventually, when Torment does end his partnership with Carnage in emphatic and violent fashion, there is logic to it because Carnage is creating more problems for him than solutions. Carnage is given a ton of personality here as well, but nothing particularly new in that regard, though there is one particular scene at the end of the book where he beseeches as mortally wounded Spider-Man to help him that is particularly well framed by Soule, who shows how manipulative Carnage can be by exploiting Peter’s urge to save his family as well as his need to preserve lives – even heinous ones.
All in all, I think this is one of the better character moments for Death Spiral’s leading serial killer baddie, yet at the same time there’s more cracks to his already wafer thin narrative. For someone so obsessed with patterns, compelled to kill entire family lines in a certain way because it’s the only way in which he can quite the pain they cause him, there is a glaring hole in the plan: how he constantly ends up missing obvious targets. In a previous issue, he’d targeted Eddie Brock, hence making Dylan a target. But after a brief scuffle he kind of gave up on that one entirely. Several of Mary Jane’s other relatives are perfectly safe as far as we know, including her sister and parents, but here Torment is laser focused on her Aunt. There’s a lot of inconsistencies to Torment’s method or madness, and no matter how much Soule tries to present the character as calm and collected, Marvel Editorial does seem to be bungling a lot of it behind the scenes with the inconsistent narrative.
Unnervingly Attractive Art
Partnered with Soule on this particular issue is Javier Pina who brings the same kind of energy with his grim and gritty art in the same way long-time collaborator Saiz brought to previous Soule books. Pina takes to this issue like a fish to water, drawing some exceptionally tight action sequences, some great character shots, and a lot of violence and symbiotic body horror than you can shake a stick at.
Pina draws a great Carnage and gets to play around with several different forms for the crimson clad killer. Carnage being mainly autonomous in this issue allows Pina to have him take on almost Thing-esque forms, ala John Carpenter’s cinema horror masterpiece, to chase after his victims and commit horrors. On the flipside, Torment himself also looks incredibly unnerving whenever he’s on the page, having that kind of quiet, deadly energy that translates into his precise movements and actions. Spidey and Venom are also drawn impeccably, with Venom looking suitably monstrous after ages (as short lived as their appearance is) and Spidey looking just as heroic as he always does. But the real treat comes at the end of the issue with an all new amalgam abomination that Pina gives one page of beautiful setup and another full page splash of absolute glory to drive the idea of an all new, all savage Spider-Man home.
Matt Hollingsworth gives Pina’s line work the color it deserves, leaning into a lot of yellows and oranges as the chose tone for this issue in particular. There’s a persistent shade of that spectrum throughout most of the action sequences, transitioning to a more bloodier filter by the end to highlight Carnage’s ascension at the end. For the rest of the book, Carnage’s bloodclot red/black tones really stick out against his more sinuous forms on display, playing up the idea of Carnage being more like shapeless, gleeful disease that relishes in murder rather than a living thing with form that can be understood and reasoned with. Hollingsworth really brings so much flavor to this issue and it’s a merit to his skill and that of Pina’s with how good this issue in particular looks and feels in terms of this event’s ideal vibe.
Deliciously Delightfully Diabolical
Venom #257 works very well as a staging ground for the ultimate finale, setting up a shock cliffhanger ending with the whole Spider-Carnage of it all. How that eventually pans out in the finale is where I have my concerns. Firstly, because Joe Kelly is writing it and of all the writers involved with Death Spiral, his chapters have always felt like they’ve lacked the most investment and just feel like they can’t wait to get away from this event and get back to writing whatever he was working on with Amazing Spider-Man. It’s not a great feeling to be walking into the big finale with, but the precedent has already been set.
On it’s own however, this 8th chapter in the Death Spiral saga gets its best mileage out of the insane artwork and genuinely high stakes sense of storytelling that team imbue it with. It gives Torment and Carnage equal degrees of menace in different ways, even in the face of glaring plot holes. Ultimately that makes it another relatively solid issue in an otherwise meandering event.
Final Verdict: Venom #257 is an exceptionally tense penultimate chapter in the Death Spiral saga that uses fast paced action and deliciously unnerving art to bring things to a crescendo before the finale.