Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing quite well for a Thursday. Today I'm going to be reviewing The Amazing Spider-Girl #'s 7-12 which covers the story arc "Comes the Carnage!". There will be some slight spoilers because I want to talk about a few things that happen in this issue without worrying about that sort of thing. So with that in mind let's get right into it shall we?
Unlike last time, this arc doesn't cover all six issues. Instead there's a two part story told in issues 7 and 8 that basically follows the aftermath of the previous arc while continuing a couple of the high school storylines from the previous arc as well. I don't really have a whole lot to say about these two issues, because not a whole lot goes on in them. I do like that Mary Jane comes to terms with Mayday being Spider-Girl over the course of these two issues. However, we don't really get Peter's side of things as he is barely in these two issues except to be the "disapproving father" character so THAT's a thing here. Aside from that these two issues were decent. I still don't like Mayday's boyfriend, Gene Thompson in them, especially in issue 8, but at this point he's basically playing the Flash Thompson role which means he's not SUPPOSED to be likeable so I can't fault the comic for that too much.
The rest of the arc is...okay. I'm not a big fan of Venom or Carnage, and so I don't really care all that much about this version of the character any more than I would the Cletus Kasady version if he were to show up. Also, it wasn't really a shock to me when it was revealed that Carnage was Mayday's friend, Moose Mansfield. Look, I've read a few comic books with teenage protagonists, not to mention seen a few TV shows, and inevitably there's always going to be one story arc or TV season where it's revealed that the main character's friend has actually been their enemy the whole time. Actually, never mind just teen shows, how many seasons of The Flash has there been where it's revealed at some point that one of Barry's allies is actually the enemy he's been fighting all season? How many seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? It happens alot, so it really wasn't a shock. Especially since, while Moose was mentioned in the previous arc, he didn't actually appear in the series, so naturally the new supporting character is going to be the new villain or working for an old villain.
The high school stuff to superhero stuff is less balanced this time around, but it actually feels more intrusive to me in a way. I don't know if it's because it's the same stuff that I see in EVERY other comic book, movie, TV show, or novel set in a high school or just because of Gene's behaviour in issue 8 when it's revealed that Mayday's friend, Sara is a Mutant when her powers manifest during class. That's gotta suck. At least on Superman & Lois Jordan's powers didn't start to manifest until AFTER school. I digress though. My point is that Gene is a jerk and it doesn't look like he's gonna grow beyond the stereotypical dumb jock. Of course Mayday isn't going to kick him to the curb either, despite the fact that he basically cheated on her with the school's resident Mean Girl, Simone, because that's what dumb jock boyfriends tend to do in stories like this. I prefer her friend, Wes Westin. And yes, they did usec alliteration for his name though it's not as imaginative here as it usually is.
Overall this was an okay set of issues. I much prefer the Hobgoblin storyline than this round's field trip into Carnageland, but again, I have more of a connection to the Hobgoblin due to the '90s animated series than I do to Carnage, since I got my first Spider-Man comic before Carnage debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #362, and then I didn't read another one until a couple of years after Maximum Carnage had come out. I also don't care about Moose since I'm presuming he showed up in Spider-Girl, which I haven't read yet, but this set of issues was my introduction to him, so that reveal probably would've been more impactful to me if I'd read the previous series. Issues 7 and 8 are my favourite of this set of issues because they do deal with the aftermath of the previous arc and I'm assuming they also set things up for the rest of the series.
I think that just about wraps it up for this review. I'll be back tomorrow for this week's movie review where I'll be taking a look at Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. So until then have a great afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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