Maximum Carnage part 3: Amazing Spider-Man #378

So far I have to say, Maximum Carnage has been pretty damn good. Granted, I'm only 2 issues in, but we've had a few good battles, great pacing, and a quick Spidey/Carnage skirmish. This issue looks to give us the much anticipated Venom vs Carnage battle. The one thing I will say that I'm a bit worried about with this event is the fact that we're getting so many big moments early on... There's 14 parts to this thing, are the various writers going to be able to continue to keep things exciting as we carry on? I don't know, but I think it's time to find that out.

Maximum Carnage part 3: Amazing Spider-Man #378:

Summary: We kick things off with Venom arriving in New York and ranting at a newspaper with Carnage on it.

Dude, it's a newspaper!  Chill out!

Cloak freaks out at Spidey and vanishes, leaving Spidey to head home to a very angry Mary Jane, who doesn't want Peter to end up like Harry Osborn did... You know, dead! Carnage and his crew smooth over their disagreements regarding Shriek “killing” Spidey, and head to Central Park to kill everybody there. Spidey disregards MJ and heads back out, where he runs afoul Demogoblin, who is preparing to kill Spidey, but gets distracted by a priest... Wha?!

This is either the bravest or dumbest priest ever.  I'm leaning towards the latter...

Spidey uses the distraction to turn things around, but Demogoblin flies away, with Spidey much to wasted to stop him. Realizing that he needed rest, Spidey heads home. Meanwhile, Venom hears about Carnage's attack in Central Park, and heads out there, only to get jumped by Carnage and his allies. Or so I assume, since we don't even get to see any of that fight... Which according to the cover is the selling point of this issue! What the hell!?! This issue ends with a beaten Venom arriving at Peter and MJ's front door.

Ya think, MJ?

Thoughts: Well, this was definitely the weakest of the Maximum Carnage issues thus far. We got mirroring relationship issues between Peter and MJ, as well as Carnage and Shriek, as well as Spidey getting into a fight with Demogoblin, only to be saved by a cross-toting priest... I don't know what the hell that was all about, to be honest. And to top it off, we never even see Venom and Carnage touch each other(well except for the sweet cover to this issue). Venom just show up beaten at Spidey's door. And not only that, he politely knocks on the door! I'd have expected him to crash through the window or something, but nope, even in his beaten state, Venom still has good manners. Ah well, let's see if things pick back up come part 4.