Better event: Absolute Carnage vs Spider-Verse

[Wall-Crawler]

Which Spider-Man related event did you enjoy more ?

Absolute Carnage by Donny Cates vs Spider-Verse by Dan Slott.

[Lukmendes]

I'd say AC is better, on the basis that it's not Spider-Verse.

I'm only half joking, I kinda hate Spider-Verse.

AC started pretty fun, but gradually got worse, and it ended as just okay at best, mediocre at worst, its consequences can be interesting to see though.

[Chubistian]

Spider-Verse was better. I can't stand stories that focus on symbiotes (there're exceptions like ASM #300 and Venom by Remender). I thought maybe Cates's writing and Stegman's pencils could get me to stand them. I was dead wrong

[Jman27]

absolute carnage i enjoy the character moments between peter and eddie alot I see them as Brothers now. But in spider-verse they had a few moments like Peter telling Otto he was superior but I thought Slott would've made Peter a little more special like how during Turtles Forever when the 2003 and 1987 turtles met the old comic variant. I wanted a moment like that but no he is just a Spider who lucky manage to beat Morlun nothing else.

[Frontier]

Spider-Verse is a pretty low bar comparison-wise.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Neither is great but Absolute Carnage has more interesting character beats and advanced the story and plot of venom.

[SuperiorIronman]

Absolute Carnage is the superior book.

It felt shorter, I didn't need to read a tie-in, Revamp Carnage is a much better villain than a family of lame steam-punk vampires, and it felt like there was genuine stakes for our heroes. Sure some things don't quite work but we didn't have things getting pulled out of its ass last minute like Spiderverse and it doesn't sell you on nostalgia and the gimmick of watching your favorite characters die horribly (killing Spider-man and his Amazing friends accomplishes what exactly?).

[Huntsman Spider]

Absolute Carnage is the superior book.

It felt shorter, I didn't need to read a tie-in, Revamp Carnage is a much better villain than a family of lame steam-punk vampires, and it felt like there was genuine stakes for our heroes. Sure some things don't quite work but we didn't have things getting pulled out of its ass last minute like Spiderverse and it doesn't sell you on nostalgia and the gimmick of watching your favorite characters die horribly (killing Spider-man and his Amazing friends accomplishes what exactly?).

Sums it up just about perfectly, and like Revolutionary_Jack said, it actually advanced the protagonist's story and character.

[RD155]

I never read Spider verse but did enjoy the hell out of Absolute Carnage. It just felt like every issue got slightly worse. It never hit the heights if that first issue. Honestly that first AC issue one one of the more chilling intense reads I’ve had in a long time. If Gates could have maintained that theme through out it could have been so much better. Missed potential. You could have had a 5 issue horror/mystery series with Carnage stalking Venom and Spider-Man through out.

Still a fun series....just a ton of potential missed.

[PCN24454]

Depends.

The tie ins for Spider-Verse were great, but the main story was poor.

For AC, the opposite was true. Ultimately, I would say AC because it wasn’t as filler-y as Spider-Verse. That’s just my opinion.

[Inversed]

Spider-Verse is the better event/standalone story.

Absolute Carnage is the better arc in connection to its overall story.

I feel like S-V was a story that was meant to be more of a fun celebratory event that stood on its own, that anyone could jump in or pick up solo, with the tie-ins acting as good enhancements to the universe.

AC doesn't really work as well divorced from the rest of Cates' Venom run, but as part of it and the next big step in this major storyline, then it greatly succeeds. Also, outside of the prelude set-up stuff, the tie-ins for AC felt moreso like an obligation rather than adding anything substantial to the core story.

[Frontier]

I feel like S-V was a story that was meant to be more of a fun celebratory event that stood on its own, that anyone could jump in or pick up solo, with the tie-ins acting as good enhancements to the universe.

I didn't really get a "fun, celebratory" vibe with how they handled Peter and all the shock value deaths. I mean, the amusing stuff was mostly just Slott's style of humor more then anything else.

I definitely think the core story worked fine without the tie-in's for the most part, especially compared to Clone Conspiracy.

[Ultimate Captain America]

Please add a poll

[Spidey_62]

Absolute Carnage is the better event story, no question. It has its goal, it has effective appropriate dark atmosphere, and gets to the finish line with interesting twists along the way. Spider-Verse comic was a good concept but dropped the ball trying to do way too much, took itself way too seriously and was not as fun as it should have been.

[Fan of Mystery]

Absolute Carnage for sure. I'm not usually a fan of big symbiote events, but I thought this one was a lot of fun.

Spider-Verse...not so much. I thought it was a tedious slog with more characters than it knew what to do with.