Minimum Carnage

Carnage: Minimum Carnage by Cullen Bunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A scientist in Houston builds another Prometheus Pit, a gateway to the Microverse, just in time for Carnage and some new allies to use it. Fortunately, Agent Venom and the Scarlet Spider chase him into the Microverse but can they stop a madman from using Carnage to destroy the Microverse and our universe with it?

Since I've been fairly obsessed with the Micronauts the past couple weeks, I googled the Prometheus Pit and this popped up. Thanks to Marvel Unlimited, I gave it a shot.

For what it was, a story about a very derivative and overused villain, it was pretty good. Some baddies from the Microverse let Carnage loose and take him to the Microverse to use him as a weapon. The "half-assed heroes," as Carnage calls them, go down the Prometheus Pit after him. After meeting up with the Micronauts Marvel has the rights to, Carnage ensues. Pun intended.

Scarlet Spider and Agent Venom do some bickering and kick some symbiotic ass. Rann, Marionette, and Bug were in fine form, although they didn't do all that much. I like how they brought in Acroyear without ever calling him Acroyear or showing much of him without the bandages. Scarlet Spider actually showed some brains in the end instead of doing the endless "let's haul him off to jail again so he can escape and go on another killing spree" routine.

It takes more than a trip to the Microverse to tell a good story, though. The Micronauts' inclusion was a glorified cameo and beyond that, it was pretty much good guys punching bad guys. Maybe I was expecting too much.

All things considered, it wasn't bad. It was good to see The Micronauts in a comic that was made after 1986. Agent Venom had a little more depth to him than I thought and I liked the Scarlet Spider's inner turmoil.

Minimum Carnage wasn't a must-read by any means but was a fun, if a little shallow, story. Three out of five stars.

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