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Comics are becoming semi-popular again with the recent success of comic-based movies such as X-Men and Spider-Man, and the stories in comics are better than ever. It's been a long road to recovery for comic books since the horrible crash of the mid-90s.
What caused the crash? A combination of factors: bad storytelling, tons of horrible crossovers, and a focus on making money rather than making entertaining comics. A lot of horrible comic moments came out of this dark period, which convinced many people to give up comics entirely.
With the popularity of the comics industry rising again, people are choosing to focus on the great new stuff coming out and ignore the old stuff, but I don't believe in letting awful comics get off scott free. That is why I am founding The Comics Hall of Shame, dedicated to the comics, characters, and writers responsible for almost destroying the comics world.
For the first entry into the dishonorable hall, I needed a character that exemplified all the worst qualities of mid-90s comics: unoriginal storytelling, part of a horrible crossover, and responsible for the ruination of another character. Who better than to pick one of the most vile and unimaginative villains in Spider-Man history: Carnage.
If you're unfamiliar with Carnage, here's a brief overview of the character. Celtus Cassidy was supposedly a ruthless serial killer with a tortured childhood. He just so happened to be the cell mate of one Eddie Brock aka Venom.
While he was a "ruthless" killer, he shaked and cried like a complete pussy anytime Eddie Brock came near him. The Venom symbiote had a mind of its own and came to rescue Eddie Brock. The symbiote and Brock bonded again and broke out of the prison, but the symbiote left a piece of itself behind.
Unfortunately for all lovers of decent comic books, the symbiote bonded with Celtus Cassidy, allowing him to become the murderous Carnage and go on a killing rampage. Spider-Man and Venom had to team up in a three-part arc in order to stop Carnage, and it was thought that afterwards he was in protective custody and wouldn't be a problem again. Oh how wrong we were.
Carnage's Crimes Against the Comic Book Industry
1. One of the Worst Crossovers of All Time
For months the Spider-Man hype machine was building up to a crossover of epic proportions. It was supposed to be a massive juggarnaut of a story, something that would change the Spider-Man universe forever. Acclaim was already promoting a video game based on the story arc, proclaiming that it was time to paint the town red.
What was this epic crossover? A little story called Maximum Carnage. The plot of the mammoth 14-part crossover is this- Carnage breaks out of prison and recruits a bunch of C-list villains to fight with Spider-Man, Venom, and some B-list heroes. That's not a brief plot overview, that's THE ENTIRE PLOT FOR FOURTEEN ISSUES.
"Good guys punch on bad guys a lot" is barely enough of a plot for a single issue story, but they found a way to stretch a over a three month period. Not only was there absolutely no plot to the story, it also had no lasting impact on Spider-Man comics whatsoever! Dagger gets killed in the story, but comes right back in the last issue.
Carnage doesn't die, he just goes back into custody. Nothing changes at all, except for one very important thing- Venom is essentially killed as a character.
Perhaps the greatest crime of all the Carnage is guilty of is killing Venom's character. Granted he didn't do it by himself, but Maximum Carnage signaled the beginning of the end for Venom.
It seems no comic company can resist turning a popular villain into a pussyfied hero, and Venom was no exception. Venom went from being full of bitter hatred towards Spider-Man and making his life miserable to a constant ally of the web-slinger and even got his own superhero comic.
Carnage was supposed to be the replacement for Venom, becoming the new "evil" symbiote. I'm sorry, but Carnage isn't even in the same league. Venom had characterization and a reason to hate Spider-Man, Carnage just hates him because he's evil. It's horrible storytelling and probably the main reason that Maximum Carnage was terrible.
No matter how many axes he makes out of his arms or evil things he does, Carnage just isn't an interesting character, and teaming him up with other uninteresting Spider-Man characters can't mask that.
2. Ushering in even more Symbiotes
Even after the awful Maximum Carnage was reviled by fans and critics alike, Carnage still returned on several occassions. This is because that even though he was a horrible character, Carnage had become popular.
Many fans didn't give a shit that he didn't have any motivation and had no originality, he turned his hands into axes and killed people! WHEEE!!! Nevermind that we never saw him kill anyone on panel, he's a serial killer!
So Carnage kept creeping his sorry ass back into the comics. The next big appearance of Carnage was in the Venom mini-series "Carnage Unleashed," in which Carnage somehow sends his symbiote through phone lines in order to break himself out.
Carnage mania is sweeping the city due to the success of his video game, and he's now ready to show these people the real Carnage blah blah blah I can't keep up this fake enthusiasm for this crap.
Venom and Carnage fight, guess what happens. Carnage Unleashed was bad, but I don't think it really hurt anybody since no one really gave a shit about Venom limited series by this point and anyone who did is a sad, sad person. But Carnage wasn't finished. No, he had one more horrible crossover left in him- Planet of the Symbiotes.
Five Spider-Man comic super specials came out in 1995, each one being a part of the newest crossover featuring even more stupid ass symbiotes. Marvel was absolutely not going to stop until the symbiote gimmick was bled totally dry.
Earlier on in continuity, Eddie Brock had voluntarily seperated himself from the symbiote because it was starting to permenantly bond itself to him. The symbiote gave out such an anguished cry after this that it drew several more symbiotes to the planet. They crashlanded on Earth and bonded to a few new hosts, generally causing discomfort to Peter Parker.
Each symbiote seemed to have its own gimmick and were all pretty lame. Now this story was bad enough already, but at least it was a break from the awful Clone Saga going on at the time (another story for another day), but when there's a gathering of symbiotes, you know Carnage has to be involved.
Carnage escaped yet again, and developed a new shitty power- the ability to absorb other symbiotes. Carnage proceeded to suck up all the other symbiotes until he became about 50-feet tall. So now not only is Carnage a horrible villain, but he's too big to ignore.
As expected, Venom and Spider-Man take care of it because these are just Spider-Man super specials and everything has to be cleaned up nice and neat so as not to mean a damn in terms of continuity.
3. God Awful Stupidity
Spider-Man books were definately in the shitter by this point. With Venom being gradually written out of the comics, it was time to write Carnage out in well. What would be the last hurrah for such a great villain?
How about one of the most retarded plots in Spider-Man history, and that's saying a lot if you read the books in the late 90s. The lead-up to the final Carnage story was a crossover called Web of Carnage, in which the Carnage symbiote left Celtus and bonded to Ben Reily, the spider-clone. The less said about that the better.
All you need to know is that the symbiote was now wandering around by itself. The Carnage symbiote managed to bond itself to the Silver Surfer, becoming Cosmic Carnage, able to inflict terror on a universal scale....or not.
Carnage sped around on his gimpy new surfboard and was all spiked out so he looked rad to the max, but he was still the same shitty Carnage, getting his ass handed to him by Spider-Man. If you have the power cosmic and still beat up by Spider-Man, something is very wrong.
Once again Cassidy was locked up in his holding cell. After his last big story, it was time to say goodbye to Cletus for good. Carnage had been defeated most times by using sonics to subdue him, for he couldn't be seperated from the symbiote because it was in his bloodstream. So after constantly just battling enough to subdue him, how did the heroes destroy him once and for all?
Well, the incredibly intricate plan goes like this: Venom broke into his cell and ate the symbiote. After tons of horrible stories involving just subduing Carnage, Venom just walked in and ATE THE FUCKING SYMBIOTE. WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE AND SAVE US FROM SO MUCH PAIN? DAMN YOU EDDIE BROCK!
Plain old Celtus Cassidy managed to break out after this and in a paranoid dellusion, painted himself red and went out to go crazy and murder some people. Without the symbiote though, he was still the same old red-headed pussy who pissed himself when Eddie Brock threatened him way back in that cell.
No one would take a red guy in his underwear seriously, and thus the pathetic character of Carnage met a deservingly pathetic end. And thus the readers of Spider-Man were free from the evil symbiotes and their vile ways, bonding to Spider-Man comics and making them suck.
Unfortunately, no villain stays gone forever, and now symbiotes are making a comeback in new Spider-Man comics. Thankfully, they're only appearing in the Spider-Man comics that no one buys, leaving Amazing Spider-Man a safe haven for those who love comics.
So now, please join me in inducting the first member of the Comics Hall of Shame, the murderous Carnage!
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