Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage

    (Marvel, 1994)
™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In Maximum Carnage, Spider-Man’s ethical code is challenged when the serial killer Carnage leads a twisted “family,” including the Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion on a killing spree, and The Web-Slinger has to join forces with allies like his enemy Venom and others of more ambiguous morality before joining with more like-minded heroes to overcome his foes.

Maximum Carnage suffers from many of the flaws of 1990s crossovers. It’s both bloated (bookended by the quarterly Spider-Man Unlimited, it crossed over four monthly titles for three months originally) and crammed with guests including the overexposed Venom (in his ill-conceived role as an anti-hero) and the requisite mutant (Firestar, in this case). The theme of the storyline is hardly subtle: Spidey fights to stay true to his values when his allies of convenience (and even Peter’s father, apparently returned from death in a subplot of the time) urge a “take no prisoners” approach. Moreover, the hero’s wavering from one position to the other makes it often seem less as if he’s conflicted than that he simply lacks the courage of his convictions. Nonetheless, it’s still a largely entertaining tale that works fairly well.

— George Nelson
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Book #1 - 9th printing


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