Spider-Man: Death Spiral

Death Spiral kicks off with the Free Comic Book Day Amazing Spider-Man / Ultimate Universe split issue. It acts as a small tease. Eddie Brock is Carnage, Peter Parker feels something huge on the horizon, and the Venom symbiote is bonded to an unknown host, desperately trying to convince itself it does not miss Eddie. Meanwhile, some mysterious entity promises this messed up Spider-family is going to die.

The first official issue, Amazing Spider-Man / Venom: Death Spiral #1, sets the stage. Mary Jane is now Venom, and Eddie is operating as a Dexter style Carnage who vows only to pursue serial killers. However, if you have not been religiously following the main ASM run, this intro does a very poor job of filling in the blanks. I am a firm believer that comic events should be as self contained as possible for new readers. If a writer is going to reference a massive status quo shift, they should explain it. This issue dives deep into current continuity without explaining anything.

The main focus is just catching up with everyone: MJ, Peter, Eddie, Eddie's son Dylan, MJ's ex Paul, Flash Thompson, and a new, unidentified big bad. In the background, folks are dying in seemingly natural ways, but something bigger is at play. All the victims are Spider adjacent, bearing names like Reilly, Parker, and Brock. In the end, we get the reveal that Carnage is secretly texting these targets to a villain named Torment while Eddie sleeps. I have to mention that there is also something off about the art here. The coloring feels very reminiscent of early 2000s Flash animation. It has improper gradients, an overly saturated palette, and looks entirely too pop art for a dark symbiote story.

Part two sees Peter trying to reassemble his life yet again. Aunt May is angry with him, MJ reveals she is Venom and is angry with him, and Eddie is missing in action as Carnage and is also angry with him. Things are not good. While Eddie is on the hunt for Torment, Torment is hunting something else. They track down Shocker, revealing he actually has some Watson lineage in his family tree, leaving a bloody murder scene in their wake.

Part three focuses on the Carnage problem. After Carnage kills both heroes and villains, the community questions what to do with him. At this point, MJ offers up information on how to kill symbiotes. Yes, Venom literally tells everyone their own weakness. Sigh. But Carnage is not the real problem. Torment framed him, and the villain is currently at Eddie's dad's place waiting to confront Brock.

Part four sees the hunt for Torment converge. MJ and Peter have to team up to track Carnage, who is busy tracking Torment. When everyone finally catches up, Carnage traps MJ and Peter to reveal an unconscious Brock trapped under his symbiote, apparently helping Torment all along.

Part five steps up the artwork, trading out Jesus Saiz for Pere Perez. Along with the visual upgrade, the story gets a jolt as Carnage tries to finish off his double cross, but Eddie comes to his senses to stop it. We also learn a bit more about Torment's twisted rules. He claims the "spirals" are not tight enough yet to finish off Peter and Eddie. Brock, MJ, and Peter put aside their massive issues to find Aunt Anna and Aunt May, only to realize that Eddie's son Dylan is the actual target, and they are too late. Peter also picks up on the fact that MJ is falling for Flash, and he actually understands it. However, something is really off about the writing of MJ here. I cannot say exactly what it is, but it simply does not feel like the traditional Mary Jane.

Part six sees Torment kill Paul, Dylan's guardian, in what should have been a massively important and emotional moment for all parties. Instead, it is boiled down to two pages and wiped away nearly instantly. Peter even says it does not matter right now because they have to get back to the search for Torment and Dylan. Oddly, the Venom symbiote acts more upset about the potential danger to Dylan than Eddie does, and Eddie is the boy's actual father. The writing here is inexcusably poor. Thankfully, the art gets a major upgrade with Carlos Gomez stepping in, even if the script remains sub par. The final pages see Carnage completely turn on Eddie, jumping ship to bond with Torment.

Part seven proves Carnage and Torment's bond is not as rosy as anticipated. Carnage just wants blood, but Torment insists on sticking to the spiral. Venom and Eddie make it to the hospital. Eddie tries to atone, but neither the symbiote nor MJ want to hear it. His words echo her abusive father. They leave, telling Eddie they never want to see him again. Torment and Spidey finally throw down, but the fight is short lived once Torment realizes Aunt May and Aunt Anna are next on the hit list.

Part eight has Torment and Carnage tracking down the aunts, but the two villains cannot coexist. Torment turns on Carnage, blasting him with Shocker's gauntlets until there is almost nothing left. He also impales Peter, leaving him for dead before turning his attention back to the aunts. Carnage, in a final desperate plea, asks to bond with Peter. It is described as the most amazing thing the symbiote has ever felt.

Part nine brings the epic conclusion with the battle of "Sparnage". Torment gets picked apart slowly, but Carnage wants to end it permanently, pushing himself to the forefront of Peter's consciousness. He degloves Torment and moves in for the kill. While Peter and the symbiote bicker for control, MJ shows up, Torment sneaks off, and Eddie sneaks in to shock Carnage. With Carnage out of commission, Peter decides to sit the rest of the fight out and rely on his friends. What the hell is that? That is fundamentally not Peter Parker.

MJ battles Torment in a bloody dust up and eventually bests him. Torment insists that when he breaks out of whatever box they put him in, he will come for them again, saving Peter for last. So, MJ kills Torment by throwing him off a rooftop. Meanwhile, in the sewers, Carnage jumps from a bug to a rat.

Ominously, Peter's cousin makes an appointment to have his genetics tested.

The epilogue gives a little backstory on why Torment is the way he is, but it is way too late for that to matter. It reveals that Torment had a girlfriend, and he murdered her family just to set her free. The final panel shows her at Torment's funeral, and she is seeing a spiral.

Overall, Death Spiral got slightly better with time, evolving from a terrible and boring event into a moderately satisfying conclusion. We really did not get any meaningful backstory on Torment until the very end. Carnage is still out there with presumably zero consequences. Eddie, MJ, and Peter are all stuck in the exact same situation they started in. The writing was decent but suffered some major stumbles, and the art was hit or miss. Will Death Spiral be remembered as one of the better or more important Spider-Man storylines? Absolutely not. But it was an entertaining enough distraction for a comic series that has really been struggling lately.