Venom: Carnage Unleashed by Larry HamaMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Whew! This book is so 90s it hurts. It's not all bad, but the writing style and art are definitely different from what I am used to from more recent comics. Carnage Unleashed has a bunch of different Venom stories in it, many of which also feature Carnage. I remember watching the Spider-Man cartoon that came out around the same time as these stories were being published. It was one of my favorites and introduced me to the symbiotes. There is a bit of nostalgia for me reading this book even though it was the first time I picked up this particular set of stories.
One thing that these tales do very well is explore the relationship between Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. It's clear that they have goals that are odds with each other and it is interesting to see how well they work together when their goals align. Despite some relationship issues, Brock/Venom seem to have things pretty well together compared to Carnage! Most of this book actually seems like it would be pretty friendly to readers that don't know much or anything about these characters. There are a couple stories, particularly near the end of the collection, that had characters that I knew nothing about. I was still able to enjoy reading them though.
I touched a little on the art. It is very much a product of its time. It doesn't really compare to the look of comics from the 80s or more recently. The coloring is well done. This is such a large collection that it's worth checking out. There are some nice high points (even those had a few moments that made me cringe by how rooted in the times they are) that outweighed the lower ones for me.
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