Review by Andy Williams

Marvel Comics in the 1990’s were caught in a downward spiral of endless crossovers, grim and gritty relaunches of classic characters and glitzy cover gimmicks. Cast into this creative wasteland, where every four-colour hero needed a big gun, a grimace and an attitude, is a fourteen-part story, spread over five separate titles with four different writers and at least five artists. That the result is a complete mess shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

The premise, such as it is, involves the homicidal Carnage – a crimson-hued off-cut from the similarly violent and deadly Venom – on a killing spree across New York with only Spider-Man in a position to stop him. Carnage enlists various villains into his murderous mission: Shriek, an abused woman with a powerful sonic scream; Doppelganger, a monstrous eight-limbed version of Spider-Man; Carrion, a living corpse with a death touch; and Demogoblin, a religious fanatic with Green Goblin/Hobgoblin vibes. Like Carnage himself, they just want to kill a bunch of people for no apparent reason.

The death toll rises as ordinary people fall under Shriek’s psychic spell and turn on each other, forcing Spider-Man to team up with an odd bunch of heroes, anti-heroes and even the aforementioned Venom himself. Some of Spidey’s allies have strong links to the Webslinger (Black Cat, Morbius, Cloak and Dagger), but others (Deathlok, Iron Fist, Captain America, Firestar and the Spawn-a-like Nightwatch) seem tenuous and increasingly random.

There is little coherence to the plot, with the cadre of writers (Terry Kavanagh, David Michelinie, J. M. De Matteis and Tom DeFalco) each adding new elements only for the next scribe to disregard them while adding their own. Characters are thrown in with no rhyme or reason and discarded just as swiftly. The art is inconsistent with the legion of artists (Alex Saviuk, Mark Bagley, Tom Lyle, Sal Buscema and Ron Lim) producing a workmanlike 300+ page punch-up.

Differentiating the Marvel Epic Collection version from earlier publications of Maximum Carnage is the inclusion of an equally awful Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth one shot written by Terry Kavanagh with art from Scott McDaniel. Low on plot, character development and impressive visuals, it makes a suitable companion piece to the main event.

This may have been the definition of cool three decades ago, but such a poor attempt to reimagine Spider-Man as an edgy anti-hero is just juvenile and silly. Muddled, chaotic and close to unreadable, it seems even the previously (and subsequently) good creators weren’t able to polish this editorially-mandated nonsense. Maximum Garbage!