Carnage: Black, White and Blood #1 Review

by Nick Devonald on March 24, 2021

Love Story

Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Ken Lashley
Colours: Juan Fernandez

End of the trail

Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Sara Pichelli
Colours: Mattia Iacono

You Are Carnage

Writer: Al Ewing
Pencils: John McCrea
Colours: Mattia Iacono

Letters: VC’s Joe Sabino

Carnage: Black, White and Blood is an anthology series based around the vilest symbiote to have walked the Earth. This first issue has three stories from some of the top talent at Marvel. And if you’re wondering where the subtitle, Black, White and Blood comes from? The entire comic is coloured in just those three colours. Carnages red against the back and white back drop makes for an incredibly stylish comic that looks fantastic.

First up is Love Story, a flash back to the classic Maximum Carnage event, with action that flits between a fight between those classic characters and Carnage telling a love story. The story he tells ends up a little confusing and unclear, but that’s kind of the point. Carnage is insane, the tale he tells is perfectly in keeping with that. Ken Lashley does a great job with the art, each panel looks fantastic. With Juan Fernandez colouring everything in black, white and red the contrast of Carnage and the blood looks incredible and elevates the already good art to another level.

The next tale is End of the Trail, written by Benjamin Percy who decides to reimagine Carnage in a Western. It’s an interesting take on the character and is a really stylish comic, helped by the art from Sara Pichelli which looks great. Mattia Iacono uses the red a lot more sparingly than the previous story, which really adds to the style of the comic.

Our third and final story, You Are Carnage, is a novel concept from Al Ewing. He recreates the old Choose Your Own Adventure stories, albeit in comic book form. The basic premise is simple. You are bonded with Carnage in a top secret extension of the agent venom programme. All you need for this story is a simple 6 sided dice, and away you go. Each panel is numbered, and your dice rolls will determine how well you do in each panel and what direction the story takes. It’s definitely a bit different from typical comic book fare and makes for a fun 10 minutes as you roll the dice and try the story out in a few different ways.

The basic description of a Carnage anthology should be enough to decide if this comic will appeal to you. If you love Carnage and any excuse to spend more time with the evilest of symbiotes appeals to you then you’ll love this comic. Anthologies of short stories don’t appeal to everyone, but having some real talent involved means most of the stories are above average quality. The choose your own adventure comic is a real highlight.

Our Score:

7/10

A Look Inside