Writer: Ram V
Artist: Francesco Manna
Color Artist: Erick Arciniega
Cover Artist: Kendrick “Kunkka” Lim
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Carnage is out in the Universe, traveling through the mythical Ten Realms for one purpose – to forge a weapon. And not just any weapon, the very same ancient symbiote weapon called All-Black the Necrosword, created by Knull, God of the Symbiotes, then by Gorr the God Butcher, and then by Malekith the Accursed. And very soon, the crimson symbiote will wield its own version of it in Carnage #10.
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Review:
That’s right! Carnage has arrived on the Dwarven realm of Nidavellir to have All-Black the Necrosword reforged for it to wield it on its own bloody massacre across the entire Universe. However, there’s one small problem: the Dwarf making the weapon wants to kill Carnage. And this Dwarf, Drorin Runehewer, has persuaded Kenneth Neely, the former up-and-coming serial killer called “The Artist” to help him kill Carnage as well. Because Neely, despite being murderer, can also tell that Carnage getting this weapon means bad news for everyone else. However, there’s one little wrench in the duo’s plans: Detective Jonathan Shayde. Let’s get the good out of the way before getting into the bad. Fair warning: there will be some SPOILERS throughout this review here and there.
First up, the art from Francesco Manna continues to be great with Erick Arciniega’s colors. This duo really know what they’re doing with making Carnage pop on the panels with the red symbiote matter all stretched out and making Carnage look more like the alien monster it is without a human host. Then there’s the character journey of Kenneth Neely. I won’t lie when I say that Neely felt like he would be the worst element in this series from the start, but over the issues he became the most interesting part of the series aside from Carnage. He got the real struggles, physical and mental challenges that come with hanging around with Carnage, and having his own character development.
I honestly thought it would be Jonathan Shayde who gets all of the character development, but it turned out to be the reverse. Speaking of Det. Shayde, let’s dig into the bad: he’s the character who gets the least development. Surprisingly, Shayde ends up being the most uninteresting part of this series despite the initial promise. But even though he’s the weakest element in the series, Shayde still gets to serve a purpose in the narrative here, as he finally catches up to Carnage and Neely, but he only makes things worse and things take a horrible turn for Drorin and Neely, and great for Carnage.
SPOILERS:
At this point, the comic has now brought its payoff – Carnage has its weapon and a cool new look. That’s right, Carnage endsup looking like it does on the main cover of the comic. The weapon is now called “All-Blood”. Take it or leave it, but the name fits the new weapon and what Carnage plans to use it for. And not only that, but the comic keeps getting interesting by having Neely once again take centerstage again as he starts narrating for the remainder of the comic.
From there, the comic ends up being Neely’s story as Ram V uses him to take the story to the next obvious step. Neely escapes using a Dwarven device given to him by Drorin to teleport to anywhere of his choice. And where does Neely go? Simple, to the one person who knows the Carnage symbiote inside and out better than anyone in the whole cosmos: Cletus Kasady. Now Ram V has brought things full circle as Kasady is being brought into the picture to stop his own symbiote. Can’t wait to see what chaos comes out of this.
Final Thoughts:
Carnage #10 brings things to a head as Carnage coerces the Dwarf Drorin to forge him a new weapon based on the weapon All-Black the Necrosword. Things don’t go as planned for the crimson symbiote as Drorin makes his own plans with Kenneth Neely, but once Jonathan Shayde shows up, it all goes sideways. The comic sets up the next big step in the story for Carnage and it has potential to be a good one. We’ll see where it goes from here as it looks like Carnage is ready to live up to its name.