Mike's Reviews > Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage

So, I did my best to read this with perspective that it was of a time and place. And I jumped that hurdle enough to enjoy this. However, it definitely has plenty of sour spots that simply don't hold up.

The art is indulgent and fun. Carnage's design has always been a favorite of mine. That's one of the high points. I'm also a sucker for team-ups and we get a few of those here.

On the other side of the coin, a few of the characters are written pretty poorly here. Mary Jane is terrible. Also, they essentially use Venom as a sounding board for the same idea ad nauseum.

That becomes my biggest criticism of this arc. The repetitiveness. There is WAY too much "it doesn't matter if you fail, you gotta try!" just vomited into every issue OVER AND OVER AGAIN. It's straight up awful.

The other part that sucks is anything doing with the citizens of New York rioting and becoming like a secondary antagonist. Just plain bad. They defeat them by...giving pep talks? At one point the good guys use a positivity beam as a weapon. No joke. It's total clownshoes.

Overall, despite my gripes, I liked watching Spidey go toe to toe with a pretty awesome cavalcade of villains. I also understand that comics were different at this time, and I give this story credit for being so ambitious and keeping a tight enough focus to make it more enjoyable than not.