We open on Peter and Curt staring at the thing, Peter demanding to know how it kills people. Curt has no idea, it’s pretty different from the last time he saw it. Then it starts to grow a face, like it did for Gwen.
That last panel seems designed to keep you from wondering why the neighborhood isn’t out here looking at this, but I’m not so convinced. Peter starts fighting it through the streets, trying to lead it to Curt’s lab, beating himself up for all this because he gave Connors permission to create this thing. He thinks “with great power comes great responsibility,” and that he’s failed. Then they get separated and the thing bolts. I don’t really think of it as Carnage. Carnage was a guy. This is a thing.
The Carnage-thing throws Peter away, then drains the 2 cops in front of him, becoming more human. But then, on the very next page…
Bendis once again does his “climax-as-flashback” thing. It just never, ever works for me. I know Spider-Man isn’t gonna be killed by some goo monster, but now I know he lived before you even show me how. It just deflates the whole thing.
The flashback continues to show how Peter led it to a smokestack and tricked it into falling in. Which is fitting, as this is kind of sort of a clone thing. He tells Curt he stopped thinking. That he knew this thing wasn’t really alive and didn’t belong in the world. So he destroyed it.
Random appearance by a police detective who looks an awful lot like Powers’ Christian Walker again.
That’s pretty understandable, really. But wait, there’s another thing:
Curt has the vial labeled “Parker?” So much for confidentiality! Man, that guy sucks in this universe. No good can come of this lab, it seems. And with that, with the shortsighted death of Gwen and Peter more self-flagellating than ever, this book sinks into its one and only low point. My recollection is USM doesn’t really start cooking again until around issue 79. But like I said before, for a 160-issue run, less than 20 rough issues is a pretty good percentage. It’s strange they all run in a clutch, tho. One wonders if Bendis was just not sure where to go in this period. Even in 2004, 65 issues by the same creative team was quite rare. Bendis’ Daredevil reached a point where, to me, it seemed he’d kind of hit his ending, and then kept going. After over 30 incredible issues in a row, the book came to feel aimless and unfocused. It was never bad, and he pulled it together by the end, but it read like he wasn’t sure where to go. And so does USM, for a bit. But there’s so much cool stuff coming after this lull that I don’t even mind too much.