• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2023
    • Marvel 2023: Where to Start?
    • DC 2023: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Email Newsletter
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Featured / Axis: Carnage #2 Review!

Axis: Carnage #2 Review!

November 21, 2014 by Bill Zeiders Leave a Comment

Yes, Carnage, the psychotic, symbiotted, serial-killer offspring of Venom, born in the excess of the 90’s, is back for Marvel’s Axis storyline. You don’t really need to know what’s going on in Axis to enjoy this series, all you need to know is that Cletus Kasady’s morality has been flipped, and now he possesses a desire to do good and save people. The problem is, his warped mind doesn’t really know how to do that. But, he tries anyway, and hilarity ensues. Dark hilarity, but hilarity nonetheless.

Courteous Carnage
The Courteous Carnage!

Last issue, Carnage decided he needed some help figuring out this whole hero thing, (and, boy, did he…) so he decided to kidnap a TV news reporter to give him some pointers. In the process, he also managed to save her from the new and disturbingly improved Sin-Eater.

Writer Rick Spears is performing a masterful wire-act with this script. He’s been able to take a deeply disturbed villain and write a funny and entertaining comic without sacrificing Carnage’s deeply psychotic character. Especially in issue #2, you’ll laugh out loud at his hijinx, and you’ll gasp at what’s going on inside his mind. Spears is managing to craft an excellent character study out of what I might have expected to be just a novelty comic.

In the story, Carnage manages to convince his new “friend,” reporter Alice Gleason, to guide him in the ways of heroics. Carnage foils a bank robbery, though I’m not sure the bank in question will be thoroughly pleased with his efforts. But Alice is basically using him to get a good story to advance her career. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to cross even a morality-flipped Carnage. There’s some real tension in what might happen to her once Carnage finds out he’s being played.

The Sardonic Carnage!
The Sardonic Carnage!

German Peralta shows off some range with his art for this book. His illustration is able to lend weight to the serious bits and levity to the silly bits. I really like the way Cletus imagines himself as a boy. He looks like a kid in a cheap Carnage Halloween costume, and I think it’s an inspired choice.

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by reader support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

Rain Beredo’s colors may be the highlight of this book. The washed-out palette he uses for the flashback scenes really stand out, and the brighter, more basic colors for the heroic scenes help sell the absurdity.

We don’t get to see as much of the Sin-Eater in this comic, but he’s poised to have a large role in the next issue. I’m really curious as to the nature of his new status-quo. The last thing I remember reading with him in was Venom: Sinner Takes All. (Yeah, remember that one? Hello?)

The Penitent Carnage!




The Penitent Carnage!

While the comedy is this comic is dark and sometimes gruesome (as the cover warns, this is no kid’s comic!) it never feels too heavy or forced. It’s almost like a really good Deadpool comic in some ways, and in other ways it reminds me a little of The Superior Spider-Man. I’d say definitely give this a read, especially if you’re a fan of Carnage. So far it’s been a pretty thoughtful and humorous examination of one of Marvel’s crazier villains.

CBH Score: 4.0 of 5.0

[schema type=”review” rev_name=”Axis: Carnage #2″ user_review=”4.0″ min_review=”0.0″ max_review=”5.0″ ]

Filed Under: Featured, Marvel Reviews Tagged With: carnage

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Donate here! Or, support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

CBH Newsletter!

About Bill Zeiders

Bill Zeiders spent some time in an alternate universe called Wyoming where he worked at a newspaper. Now he lives in Hershey, PA and writes about comics on the internet. His wife has a Ph.D in English and his two cats are uneducated.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The Comic Book Herald Podcast!

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsRSS

CBH Newsletter!

My Marvelous Year reading club helps Marvel fans become comic book experts

Recent Posts

  • Hickman on Ultimate Spider-Man! Fall of the House of X & Rise of the Power of X | CBH Live! September 21, 2023
  • Extra Issues – Superhero Subversions, ep 6: Sleeper September 20, 2023
  • 2004 Variant Cover C: We Declare This Episode Public Domain! September 18, 2023
  • Is Krakoa Over? Al Ewing’s Venom #25 & X-Men Red #15! | CBH Live! September 15, 2023
  • “The Fifth Beatle” w/ Vivek Tiwary | CBH Interviews #113 September 12, 2023
  • 2004 Pt. 6: New X-Men Ends & Astonishing X-Men Begins! September 11, 2023
  • So Who’s Buying G.O.D.S. #1? Immortal X-Men #15! X-Men #26 | CBH Live! September 8, 2023
  • 2004 Pt. 5: Marvel Knights Spider-Man & Wolverine September 5, 2023
  • 2004 Variant Cover B: The Most Overrated Comics Of All Time August 28, 2023
  • On Ewing & a Prayer! Immortal Thor #1 (2023), Realm of X #1, Jean Grey #!1 | CBH Live! August 26, 2023
  • Angela Reading Order August 26, 2023
  • 2004 Pt. 4: Secret War & The Pulse August 21, 2023
  • Spider-Gwen & the Trans Subtext of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse August 18, 2023
  • Breevort on X-Men! Uncanny Avengers #1 (2023), Dark X-Men #1, & More! | Comic Book Herald Live! August 17, 2023
  • Extra Issues – Superhero Subversions, ep 5: Miracleman August 15, 2023

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and I hope you like some of what's going on here.

Most people that come here are looking for my (WIP) Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my columns.

If you like what you see, let's connect on Facebook or Twitter. Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Join!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • Hickman on Ultimate Spider-Man! Fall of the House of X & Rise of the Power of X | CBH Live!
  • Extra Issues – Superhero Subversions, ep 6: Sleeper
  • 2004 Variant Cover C: We Declare This Episode Public Domain!
  • Is Krakoa Over? Al Ewing’s Venom #25 & X-Men Red #15! | CBH Live!
  • “The Fifth Beatle” w/ Vivek Tiwary | CBH Interviews #113

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in