Spider-Woman made a controversial decision, and now she is paying the price for it. In this week’s new Spider-Woman 50th Anniversary Special #1, there are two stories. The first is a story from the past called “Then” by Ann Nocenti and Stefano Raffaele, while the second takes place in the current day, with “Now” by Dan Watters and Andrea Broccardo. While the first story had Spider-Woman battling Flying Tiger in a misunderstanding, the second story had her facing a new villain named Francis Nero, one of the Jackal’s research assistants who had mutated into a spider-like creature. However, this fight went in a very dark direction for Spider-Woman.
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While told mostly in flashback, Spider-Woman lied to Ben Urich about how the battle ended because she is still hiding a dark moment that occurred in the final issue of The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity series.
Spider-Woman Is Bonded to Carnage
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Carnage is now bonded with Spider-Woman. In The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #5 by Jordan Morris and Joe Kelly, Carnage showed back up, and Norman Osborn tried to bond with him to save Spider-Girl, who Carnage bonded with first. This caused him to become the Red Goblin and lose control of himself. By the end, Spider-Woman used her venom blasts to blow the symbiote out of Norman, and it seemed all was good. However, there was a twist at the end of the issue. While it looked like Carnage was gone, Spider-Woman actually took the symbiote into herself and decided to keep it as a weapon she could use in the future.
That was a terrible decision, and this new story shows how much trouble it is going to cause Spider-Woman. In this new story, Spider-Woman is working angles for Ben Urich to help save lives while she gets him information about something major going on in the underbelly of the city. In this situation, she finds six construction workers who had gone missing, and they are strung up in webbing, and she soon learns it is one of the Jackal’s former associates who abducted them. This led to the two having a battle, and then its end was left in question, as Spider-Woman simply told Ben that Francis Nero fell from a rooftop during their battle and died.
Ben immediately knew that she was lying, and he asked if something had happened to her. She lied and left, but then the issue showed what really happened. Francis was strangling Spider-Woman, and then Carnage came out and attacked. Francis was terrified, but then Spider-Woman kicked him off the ledge, killing him. This was very similar to something that happened during the “Death Spiral” crossover when Venom threw the serial killer Torment. That issue left it up in the air about who was responsible and whether Mary Jane consciously made the choice.
This time, Spider-Woman seemed shaken by the murder, but in the end, she told Carnage to only come out when she called him because she is the one in control. Whether Carnage committed the murder or Spider-Woman did, while influenced by Carnage’s base desires, remains a mystery. Spider-Woman did blame Carnage, but the very last panel showed her taking off her mask and showing her face, with scars around one eye, making it look like she might not be in control at all.
Carnage Has Never Been Controllable
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
This is nothing new, and Spider-Woman should know better. In The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #5, Norman Osborn believed he could control Carnage to save the young spider-heroes, but he couldn’t, and Carnage immediately took over Norman’s psyche, bringing out his worst. Before that, Eddie Brock took on the Carnage symbiote because he believed he could control it, and he only killed murderers to satisfy the symbiote’s hunger. Even with Eddie offering Carnage the chance to kill, the symbiote still betrayed him by working with Torment when Eddie was sleeping. Even after years of working while bonded to Venom, Eddie couldn’t control Carnage.
When Carnage was born, he attached to serial killer Cletus Kasady, and that turned the symbiote into an emotionless killing machine that has an insatiable thirst for murder. He bonded with John Jameson and killed people at night. He bonded with Ben Reilly and Silver Surfer, but neither of them had good control of the symbiote either, and it kept returning to Kasady. Even when Spider-Man bonded with Carnage while trying to get it off Eddie Brock, it started to corrupt him before he rid himself of it. Spider-Woman thinking she could control Carnage just using daily venom blasts was a mistake, and she is physically and mentally paying for it now.
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