This is a beautifully illustrated and well written conclusion that makes the entire series feel more like a prologue. Read Full Review

Absolute Carnage is epic and incredible. Venom's stock was already on the rise in the Marvel Universe and now it's through the roof. You might wonder how this can possibly be topped. Fortunately, we're given a glimpse at the terror on its way and I can't wait to see how writer Donny Cates tackles this next obstacle, not to mention Eddie's continued growth as a character and as a father. Read Full Review

Absolute Carnage has been one of Marvels most entertaining crossovers to date. Still, all of the various climaxes and reveals and emotional turns are beginning to get exhausting, to the point where the story has no time for falling action, and leaves various threads left dangling to be resolved in the main Venom title. Its been a good event, but it feels unfinished, and ends extremely abruptly. Read Full Review

A very good issue that will make many happy but for those looking for a clean break, this isn't the time. Read Full Review

The finale of Absolute Carnage features some of the series' strengths but it doesn't match the quality set by its predecessors. Read Full Review

This was a solid installment. It leaves a lot on the table for future stories. If this was a television show, this really feels like the end of season one. As far as the event as a whole, this was a fun read. Even if I couldn't put my gripes aside towards issue 5, there's still too much good writing to have this event's main story feel derailed. So the whole of my review is, Absolute Carnage was a fun ride and I would strongly recommend this entire five-parter as a buy. Read Full Review

At the end of the day Absolute Carnage #5 was exactly what it needed to be. Eddie Brock was elevated to be an even better character through his actions against Carnage and interactions with Spider-Man and Dylan Brock. At the same time, Donny Cates was able to put over the sadistic nature of Carnage and Cletus Kasady. With how things ended Cates and Ryan Stegman set a bright, albeit bleak in tone, future for the Venom series. Read Full Review

Visually stunning, this finale is entertaining mostly because it sets up so many stories going forward. As a standalone finale, however, I was left wanting, especially since it seems Venom simply had to use willpower to finish this fight. It's a convenient end that wraps things up too easily. Read Full Review

All in all, it's a good effort - it's not the kind of finale that will blow you away, but it serves its characters well and will have lasting consequences for Venom moving forward. Read Full Review

After a long wait, Absolute Carnage ends pretty abruptly. Read Full Review

Decent ending... more like an ending of an arc than an event. Without reading the tie ins other than Venom it feels like I missed a lot though. That is the biggest problem with these event tie-ins. You really have to invest in more of the other titles to get the big picture. I just don't have the funds. I'm po yo.

This was a really good finale.

A very enjoyable comic that just went by too quickly.

Dylan to the rescue!!! Needed to be longer!!

THE GOOD:

-A pretty good finale for a pretty good series.

-The art was good. Not sure why Stegman peaked so heavily with the first issue, but it was good enough here.

-A very action driven issue, so it's good the action was as fun as it was.

-I kept going back and forth with Carnage, but I ended up liking him. The creepy serial killer take was a lot stronger here and I liked it.

-I'm interested in the Knull storyline quite a bit.

-I liked the end. Simple, but effective.

THE BAD:

-I'm tired of openings like this. Good guy meets bad guy for the first time flashbacks are overused and lazy.

-The heroes from the tie-ins showing up to help at the last second didn't do anything for me. I was already rolling my eyes when Ben shouted, "There's too many." more

must have for collection. nice finish.

Prelude:
It's the conclusion to Absolute Carnage. Can Cates and Stegman stick the landing on this impressive event? Let's see.

The Good:
I like the brief look into Eddie before he was more heroic.

All the tie-in characters are here. Yes, they don't do much but it is nice to see them.

Interesting choice from Eddie here and creates the ending I did not expect to happen.

Absolutely wonderful art from Stegman by the way. Those Knull scenes were especially great.

We're going to have some fallout in Venom due to this event especially with Dylan.

The Bad:
Doesn't tie up fully but we've got Venom for that I guess. Still, a bit annoying.

Conclusion:
A masterful finish to Absolute Carnage. Wonderfully done in every way. The only problem I have with it, is that it feels like the event isn't fully tied up. more

Well that ended suddenly but fantastically. Kind of feels like the end of a story arc, rather than an event, which makes sense as Donny Cates has said that originally Absolute Carnage was just another arc in Venom, until editorial told him to make it an event. And what a fun event it was!

great book! now what happens when he arrives

" In fact, i think you and me could have a bright... Beautiful... Future ahead of us. "
- CLETUS KASADY

This was a masterpiece and a near perfect ending for this event as a whole! This conclusion was well-done and I was not disappointed. The heroes are heavily outnumbered with massive swarm of carnageized civilians, but then the heroes from all the tie ins come to the rescue, although we didn’t really get to see them in action. But Venom vs Carnage was the biggest the highlight for this last issue. The battle and flashback story were so well done with Carnage forcing Eddie to make a choice: let Cletus take Dylan’s codex and so he can awaken knull or so that Eddie can have a chance of beating him without awakening knull, OR kill Cletus to save Dylan, but awaken knull in the process of doing so. In the end Eddie chose door number 2, and I don’t blame him. The ending was left a bit unfinished with Dylan asking, “Did you say I was your son?” But luckily, we do have Venom #20 for that and that’s not a big issue has it is more essential than most of the other tie ins to be honest.

Overall, Donny Cates & Ryan promised to deliver the definitive Carnage story, the greatest Carnage story ever, and they absolutely did not disappoint. I believe that in every way. Donny Cates’ writing, Ryan Stegman’s artstyle, and Frank Martin’s colors gave is an extremely well paced, well-written, and well-drawn story. It’s the culmination of all that has come before it and was able to expand the Venom lore as a whole. This duo did not disappoint. That being said, while I absolutely agree with Donny Cates about Absolute Carnage being the definitive and greatest Carnage story ever, it is not without its flaws, specifically its tie ins. While not all the tie ins aren’t bad, they are more mediocre or average tie ins than there are great ones. And those that are good are barely connected to event in some shape or form. But the one thing I’ll give them credit for is expanding the event. We’ve been told that Carnage’s plan was to find every single character that has ever worn a symbiote and take their spines which hold a tiny piece of a symbiote called the codex so that he can awaken the God of the Symbiotes, Knull. In the main story, we don’t even see Carnage do that at all, so most of the tie ins are a way of showing him trying to reach his goal as we saw some blood, gore, violence, people getting their spines torn out, etc. In fact, the only tie in series, that I think is the most essential to the event is Venom #16 through #20, as they show this event from Dylan’s perspective, and frankly they can’t be read through without reading AC.

Overall, while Absolute Carnage is not a perfect event altogether, I can say that it’s my favorite Carnage story ever. It’s the culmination of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s run on Venom up until this point. It took the lore of Venom and expanded upon. They had some great call callbacks to older Venom series, characterized Eddie and Venom and humanized them, and it also set up a potential arc with Eddie’s son, Dylan, now that he finally knows that Eddie is his father. Donny Cates & Ryan did not disappoint us with this event. more

This Events strengths are its weaknesses. It has moments that are so good you cant wait for more but it wont give you more... like Venom Hulk. Its ideas are fantastic but the hard questions this title throws at our heroes are answered too easily. That last page was great dont get me wrong, Venom sword was badass and I loved the way Carnage died and Knull was awoken. But Damn if Carnage didnt seem like an easy final boss. For all that threat and powering up Eddie took him out too easily. Just felt like the scariest toughest moments were in issue one and there is something wrong with that.

Negatives aside, this is where its at for Venom Heads. Visually stunning.
All the Main Players in the Venom world are here and they are presented fantastically.
This is hands down one of the best things to happen to the character since Remender made him Agent Venom.
Excited for the future and Overall very pleased by this Venom Event. more

What we got was very good but it just felt like it ended very quickly. And now it seems like knull is going to be a problem again.

A real page turner. A little disappointed w/the ending.

After all the wide-ranging conflict, Absolute Carnage comes down to a heinous Morton's Fork and Eddie is singularly ill-prepared to find a "real win" third option. This issue was another very strong art showing and it had some nice, tough dialogue. I was surprised by how utterly inconsequential all the tie-ins and guest-stars were in the end, though. I think this *should* have just been a big arc in Venom rather than a crossover event.