The Good
This new spin on the Cletus Kasady may not be all that original (we've seen heroes become villains and villains become heroes time and time again), but writer Rick Spears is making this story an absurd amount of fun! Whenever Carnage is on the page, the dialogue and interactions kept me laughing and wanting to see more. In his struggle to be a hero, Carnage has become legitimately likable and we want to see him put his own crazy twist on crime fighting. For the fist time in God knows how long, Cletus has a conscious and wants to do the right thing. But being a hero isn't easy and we watch him learn that by trial and error. A damsel in distress! He can solve that by giving the attacker a single punch to the face, but he forgets just how much strength he's packing behind his punches. Let's just say the strike made it so the guy can do a pretty legit Nick Fury cosplay. Watching Cletus constantly slip up as he tries and tries to be a good guy is constantly amusing and hilarious. Witnessing this violent and frightening killer try to apply restraint is full of comedic potential and Spears and making it a total blast. Who would have thought a book about Carnage could have so much charm?
I'm really enjoying artist German Peralta and colorist Rain Beredo's pages. Sure, some of the pages and character work outshines the rest of it, but the work on Carnage is terrific (and not to mention smoothly colored) and the panels do a more than excellent job sending the message Spears is trying to get across. From lighthearted bits like Carnage striking a Spidey-esque pose to an intense grapple as flames rage on in the background, these two make sure the book is consistently good looking and do a more than satisfactory job balancing the humor with the intensity. There's a few creative angles which do an excellent job selling the weight of the developments, too.
The Bad
Sin-Eater's new direction is interesting enough (it takes his name quite literally...), but the bits with Cletus are so fun that you can't help but feel like these Sin-Eater sequences are the weak points of the issue. I understand the need to open and close with him, but seeing as the Carnage scenes are so engrossing, you can't help but wish the Sin-Eater scenes were trimmed so we could have more space dedicated to Cletus' journey.
Minor gripe: Who would have thought Carnage would be the only likable character in a comic?
The Verdict
I'll be totally honest with you, Carnage has never been one of my favorite Spider-Man villains. Am I interested in the red symbiote? Sure, but he's never ranked up there with the likes of Eddie Brock or Kraven the Hunter. This first issue though? It made me fall in love with the character and kept me entertained. Yes, many of us have event fatigue, but AXIS is exactly what this Spider-Man foe needed. Watching him try to be a hero is priceless and it kept me smiling whenever he was on the page. I'm really looking forward to more of this because AXIS: CARNAGE is a twisted delight.