As 2013 comes to a close, I reflect back on all of the awesome and sad moments in my fandoms throughout the year. With Venom and symbiotes in particular, we saw Flash Thompson, a.k.a. Agent Venom, make Philadelphia his new home; join the Thunderbolts; battle against the Venom symbiote's old host, Eddie Brock (a.k.a. Toxin); birth a new symbiotic sidekick, Mania; and survive past the end of his monthly ongoing series in a battle against the Superior Spider-Man. We also saw Cletus Kasady, a.k.a. Carnage, lobotomized at the end of "Minimum Carnage," lose his symbiote to the Wizard and his new Frightful Four, and summarily regained his symbiote and his mind at the end of
Superior Carnage. Outside of the comics, fans were delighted with playable Venom and Carnage characters in the
LEGO Marvel Superheroes game and blown away at the official announcement of an upcoming
Venom spin-off film tied to Sony Pictures'
Amazing Spider-Man film franchise.
How can 2014 top the ups and downs of 2013 in the symbiote fandom? Well, Marvel revealed Agent Venom will be joining the Guardians of the Galaxy in time for a mission to the homeworld of the symbiotes. They also announced Cullen Bunn's return to the world of symbiotes in
Superior Carnage Annual, in which Kasady—now fully recovered from his lobotomy thanks to his temporary exposure to the symbiote before SpOck (the Superior Spider-Man) separated them again—escapes from confinement to reunite with his other. Yesterday,
Comic Book Resources (CBR) revealed an exclusive look at a few uncolored and unlettered pages by artist Kim Jacinto from the upcoming annual, along with an interview with Bunn.
Bunn realizes that just because Kasady is Carnage again doesn't mean he will be restoring the
status quo.
"This story helps Carnage redefine his mission statement (if someone like Carnage can actually have a mission statement) and refocus on being the violent mass murderer he was meant to be," he says. In the recent past (post-resurrection), writers like Zeb Wells, Christopher Yost, and even Bunn tried to fix Carnage by making him into some sort of evil mastermind (
Carnage: Family Feud leading into
Carnage U.S.A.) or consort with other evil masterminds ("Minimum Carnage").
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| Cletus Kasady has had some weird redesigns, but this one is almost fitting. |
I actually welcomed the character's evolution at first, seeing it as a fresh start to what felt like a broken record player repeating the same tune over and over. As time went on, though, I realized that, deep down, I still pined for the good ol' Carnage we all knew and loved from the '90s. Well, it sounds like Bunn came to the same conclusion, too:
I've always called this issue "Carnage: Homecoming." That's what it's all about: Bringing Carnage home, back to the brass tacks of the character. When Carnage first burst onto the scene, he was a servant of chaos and disorder. Over time, he went through a lot of changes. He started to form plans that went beyond mayhem and murder. And it never worked out for him. Now, Cletus and the symbiote have been torn away from one another, so Carnage wants to go back to what he's best at—killing randomly.
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| The collective, initial fan reaction: "HOLY SHIT!" |
Not to return to Carnage's old, stale ways, however, Bunn recognizes that he needs to somehow shine a new light on the character's classic representation. To respond to this, it looks as though Bunn will be sharing ideas with Dan Slott and Christos Gage about Kasady's relationship with the symbiote, specifically concerning
a recent revelation about Thompson's relationship with his symbiote in the pages of
The Superior Spider-Man #24: "Going into the annual, the physical bond between Cletus and the Carnage symbiote has been severed. But we'll see that their connection goes beyond the host/symbiote dynamic. The question becomes—can they survive without one another?"
As if the new info and art from the annual weren't enough to keep me and my fellow symbiote fans giddy for 2014,
CBR and Bunn dropped another geek bomb today with the announcement of an upcoming
Deadpool vs Carnage four-issue limited series in April. Bunn has risen in fan popularity with his recent Deadpool works with Marvel, including
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe,
Deadpool Killustrated, and
Deadpool Kills Deadpool. Add his popularity with symbiote fans from his work with
Venom and the general fan attraction Deadpool, Carnage, and their pairing off enjoys, and you get one of the hottest Marvel titles of 2014. Salva Espin will be teaming up with Bunn once more for this epic showdown between the Merc with a Mouth and one of the Marvel Universe's deadliest serial killers.
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| *Hyperventilating* |
As you can see from Espin's action-packed pages, the book won't be holding back the big guns. Espin returns Carnage to a more classic Bagley-esque design and continues to give Deadpool his signature comedic look. It's almost as though
Deadpool vs Carnage was pulled straight out of every geek's fantasy from the '90s! I have a feeling that 2014 is gonna be one crazy good year for symbiote fans, and so far Bunn has yet to disappoint. #InBunnWeTrust
Are you excited from all of this Carnage news? Are you a fan of Bunn's work with symbiotes and Deadpool? Who do you think will win in the upcoming battle? Let us know in the comments below!
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