The Batlord

Alright, I was just gonna do this series as one post, but pretty soon I realized I wanted to do it issue by issue. I dig this series. I dig it a lot. I'm even reading it all the way through again as I'm writing this. So, seeing as how this is going to be a lot more detailed than the above entry, this is going to be spoiler-filled. If you don't care, then please continue, but if you intend to read this series and don't want anything ruined then just take my enthusiasm as my recommendation. Love Carnage? Love violence? Love horror movies? Love cripple fights? Then read Carnage U.S.A. and get outta my face. So, on with the actual review...

One could be forgiven for thinking this was a more light-hearted series than the previous one, what with that cover, which is actually the least delightfully goofy cover of them all. You would however be mistaken. This is as dark and merciless a comic as Carnage was and, since it focuses much more on Cletus Kasady, even more gleefully sadistic. The same team, writer Zeb Wells and artist Clayton Crain, is working on Carnage U.S.A. as well, so it really is a direct sequel, in tone and art style as well as the storyline. Not that this is a retread mind you...

The most significant difference to me is the greater realization of Cletus Kasady as a character. Carnage was really more of a side character in his own series last time around, but now he takes center stage in a big, "Oh, God, what has that sick **** done now?!" kinda way. I get the feeling that Wells may not have known exactly what to do with Kasady last time around. Scratch that. I don't know if he knew what to do with Kasady as Carnage, since the couple scenes with just him were certainly on the creepy side. When he's all suited up though, Carnage tends to come off as not much more than a psychotic thug. He's fun, but far more interesting in human form. A big reason for this is the simple fact that Cletus Kasady is a Joker ripoff. Excuse me, Joker "inspired". Chaos, murder, crazy laugh, etc. I tracked down a Spider-Man/Batman crossover a few days ago, and the one good thing about it was that the Joker and Carnage team-up for a short time, until discovering that their two philosophies, while similar, are actually too different to be reconciled. You see, the Joker likes to spread chaos and mayhem through convoluted, flamboyant schemes. Carnage thinks this is bull****. He likes to spread chaos and mayhem through immediate, random violence. Not surprisingly, regardless of the fact that the Joker was terribly written in that story, he still came off looking like the bigger badass in that particular scene, cause let's face it, Carnage's modus operandi is good for an issue or two before getting stale, whereas the Joker... well, he's the ****ing Joker, god damn it!

Zeb Wells seems to understand this. Before these two series, the most in-depth storyline I'd heard of from Carnage was Maximum Carnage, which, if word-of-mouth is any indicator, got repetitive and boring after a while, since all Carnage did was show up somewhere, kill a bunch of people, scamper off, repeat. Not so this. My boy Cletus has taken a lesson from his big bad daddy and committed a large scale atrocity so devious that it would make even the Clown Prince of Crime jealous. Is it possibly sacrificing a bit of his previous interpretation to make him into even more of a Joker clone? Probably. But who cares? Sex and pizza, man.

Our tale of woe begins like any Carnage tale does: in a small town in Colorado...



I generally don't make a habit of posting four full pages like that, but it's just such a perfect opening to the series and says everything you need to know right up front. The very first panel, where we see that the population count on the town sign has been crudely added to, presumably in blood, works perfectly as both black humor and foreshadowing. You pretty much know what's going to happen for the rest of the series right there, even if the devil is in the details. Then we go from a picturesque American dream town, to what is one of the creepiest panels I've yet seen in a comic book. And then Carnage's final declaration and the caption beneath him drive home the point of this series even further.

In case you're wondering why it is that Cletus Kasady seemed to be eating raw cow (at least we hope it's cow) from a meat processing plant, it was to provide sustenance to his symbiote so that it could increase its mass to the point where it could assimilate the entire town.




The brilliant thing about this development is that Carnage doesn't kill anyone. Well... that's not really true, but for the most part the town is alive, just controlled by Kasady. He even lets them keep their own minds rather than having them be mindless slaves. Otherwise, how would he psychologically terrorize them? Another nice touch to this series is his southern accent. When sitting down on a porch swing with a horrified elderly couple, lazily watching the clouds go by this picturesque slice of smalltown Americana, Kasady's good ol' boy way of talking goes from amusing to terrifying. The seeming normalcy of it all creates this ironic tension that does far more for my love of this character than any amount of wanton brutality ever could.




Of course there are the good guys. When word of this gets to the government, thanks to the town sheriff who is sent to the neighboring county with Kasady's list of demands carved into his flesh, the Avengers are sent in. Honestly, even though the "demands" basically amount to a declaration of a new "sovereign symbiotic state" and an allusion to potential world domination, I don't really know that Carnage's motives are actually anything more than a confrontation. He's Carnage after all. This time around the Avengers team consists of Spider-Man (naturally), Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye, and the Thing. They probably play an even smaller role this time around than Spider-Man and Iron Man did in Carnage, but they still give you a nice little scene to introduce the personalities of the protagonists: Spider-Man trying to convince Wolverine to let Hawkeye shoot an arrow off of his head, before being interrupted by Captain America. And Hawkeye's annoyance at the Thing's constant mentioning of Yancy Street, his aunt, and his "ever-lovin' blue-eyed schtick" reminds me of why I'm now a Hawkeye fan. "It's clobberin' time!" "Of course it is..."

At this point the comic basically becomes a quasi-zombie movie. The Avengers enter what appears to be a ghost town, walking down a deserted main street. Eventually they find the townspeople, who are just standing around, seemingly only able to say "Big smiles. Big big smiles." They are then confronted by Kasady, shielding himself with a baby.




And in case you think this is just a cheap ploy to get around the fact that the Avengers could otherwise beat Carnage's ass into the sidewalk, think again (although they did exclude Thor). Carnage's symbiote has increased its mass to the point where it soon overwhelms the entirety of the team, except for Spider-Man, and possesses them as well.




So, Carnage has now taken control of over a thousand people, and still has the juice to put down the Avengers like they were red-headed step-children. At this point I'm wondering if he might actually have been able to take down Thor as well. Maybe not head-to-head, but as soon as those tendrils hit you, you're kind of done. If Wolverine's healing factor can't fight them off, then Thor being a god may not save him either. Carnage pretty much comes off as Satan in this issue. He's just so, so deliciously evil. He may not quite have the Joker's twisted, serpentine imagination, but he certainly shows the promise that he can be further developed given the right chance. And Marvel seems willing to give him that chance too. This is his second mini-series in little more than a year. Too bad his third series didn't get nearly as good reviews. Still, I'm now waiting for a worthy follow-up to Carnage U.S.A., and I get the feeling I'm not going to have to wait all that long.

We're left with this cliff hanger, with the last panel revealing the inside of a military facility where a general is gazing at a screen showing a number of symbiotes aligned on the side of truth, justice and the American way, including Venom, Anti-Venom (smh), and a certain doctor you might remember from the previous series, now going by the name of Scorn.

An excellent start to a series that deserves the praise it gets. If this isn't the definitive Carnage story, then somebody please tell me what is, cause I'm sure it'll cause me to need to change my underwear.



Edit: Yup, new Carnage series already coming soon. Apparently he plays a part in the new Avengers/X-Men crossover event, Avengers and X-Men: AXIS, and will get his own spin-off, three-part mini-series in October called AXIS: Carnage. It'll be written by Rick Spears, and drawn by German Paralta. Paralta's art looks somewhat similar to the style of this series, with that painted look, so they may be going for a similar tone. Rick Spears seams to be more of an indie writer, so I imagine Marvel isn't looking for just another violence fest like the newest Superior Carnage, which, while I have only read the first issue, I was not really impressed with. Not sure what to think of him though, a year or two ago I read the first volume of a series he did a called Black Metal, which was basically a Metalocalypse-inspired series about two black metal fans conquering hell or something. I seem to remember it being fun, and if the new Carnage writer is a black metal fan, then I'm cautiously stoked.

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