Even wilder! Because Deathlok’s here! I say there are way too many people on this cover that look, to varying degrees, like Spider-Man. Speaking of whom, he’s dragged all the heroes to the orphanage Carnage grew up in. The very one where Carnage writer “Carnage Rules!” in blood back in ASM 361, which is so silly, and even sillier, it’s still there! It’s no help, tho, as anyone could’ve guessed, so everyone is just recapping at each other. Venom points out they could try to use Reed Richards’ now storied sonic gun on Carnage, and Black Cat says they should recruit The Torch while they’re getting it. Spider-Man says the FF and The Avengers are out of town (NAT-urally), but maybe they could find Firestar. Why BC didn’t think they should get the whole FF and Spidey doesn’t think they should get the whole New Warriors, no one says. But Cloak says he can search for Firestar fastest, and teleports out. Spidey remembers he needs Dagger to teleport, tho (Does he?), and since she’s “dead”… Well. So the heroes are back down to 3, since Morbius apparently did leave last issue even though it seemed otherwise, and Spider-Man is now recapping his recent troubles with MJ. Oh, hey, on the next page…
I guess he DIDN’T leave, then. How confusing. We find Evil Team wrecking The Met, just ‘cuz, over Demogoblin’s already tiresome complaints. Some cops burst in, but then Carrion gets them.
Party on, Wayne! The explanation for Carrion being alive is Carnage responding, “Who knows, who cares?” Great! Very 2010s. Carrion officially joins the team despite never speaking. We briefly cut to MJ producing a big knife, saying she’s on her own since Peter won’t come home. Then we cut to Deathlok… sigh… IN CYBERSPACE, learning Carnage’s rampage and deciding it must be stopped. Then, back to the hero trio, on their way to Four Freedoms Plaza. Spidey spots a carjacking and drops down to stop it, but the owner thinks he’s trying to steal the car, too, and the mob mentality thing happens again. As the heroes just… leave… Black Cat berates Spider-Man for trying to help people, and Venom yet again brings up breaking Cat’s nose in ASM 315. 2nd time in this story. Then there’s an absurdly long advertising section for The Avengers and X-Men both celebrating their 30th Anniversaries. 16 pages! Then…
Why is Mary Parker sitting this story out? Every time we check in with the old folks, it’s just May & Richard. The baddies are doing their usual, Carnage is talking about the freedom to do whatever you want, it’s so stale already. Just the same thing over and over. Maybe “whatever you want” should include more than the same scene 3 times per issue for FOURTEEN ISSUES. Anyway, Deathlok shows up shootin’, all by himself. Carrion tries to death-touch him, but you can’t kill a corpse.
Doppelganger gets the droppelganger on Deathlok, who kicks him several blocks away. This upsets Shriek, and she zaps Deathy into a big sign, electrocuting him and messing with his computer. Carnage decides to make an example of the helpless hero. Shouldn’t he have tried to do that to the others every time they’ve met already? If he loves killing and hates them, why does he keep running away? Answer: because this dumb crap was scheduled for 14 issues. Anyway, Hero Team has to fight through FF security to get the gun since the team’s out of town, and then…
“Evil Team may have fought us to a standstill 6 times already, but now we have 2 weapon that we think will work on just one of them, and don’t know for sure, this is as good as over!” I mean, this is really horrible. No one is doing their best work. The writers are straining to make this crap take the designated amount of time and no artist not named George Perez does their best work in a book with 18 main characters. Ugh. Well, that’s the halfway mark. How can they make this last another 7 issues? We’ll see.