Absolute Carnage will be ’90s-level extra

With Absolute Carnage, Marvel is back to going overboard with the way it produces events.

In recent months, many Marvel fans have been happy with the way the company has handled War of the Realms. Yes, there are still a plethora of tie-ins connected to the publisher’s latest crossover event. But a number of these series are easily skippable; you don’t need to read Spider-Man & The League of Realms unless you’re a die-hard Spider-Fan.

Some of the tie-ins are worthwhile because they complement or progress the main story. Other series deserve recognition because they allow many characters, otherwise pushed to the periphery, to hold a somewhat meaningful place in the event. Again, it’s ultimately up to the reader’s discretion whether they check these books out or not.  As a result of Marvel’s publishing strategy surrounding War of the Realms, many fans have been hopeful that the company has finally found a balance between capitalizing on the inherent popularity of these events and showing some self-restraint.

Then, the solicitations for August came out. Many fans knew that Absolute Carnage begins that month. (The first issue will be on sale August 7.) According to Newsarama, the launch of several tie-ins will accompany the event. In August alone, Marvel will debut Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors, Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales, Absolute Carnage: Scream and Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety. It seems like a lot of Absolute Carnage, doesn’t it? But wait, there’s more!

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In September, the event will expand even further. Jamie Lovett of Comicbook.com revealed tie-ins from Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance, Absolute Carnage: Avengers and Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man. Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as Donny Cates’ Venom series, will also feature Absolute Carnage tie-in issues. Goodness gracious! That settles it; the amount of tie-ins for Absolute Carnage is too dang high.

War of the Realms was guilty of this excess, too. But it was forgivable because Thor is a founding Avenger and writer Jason Aaron had been building to the monumental event for roughly seven years. By comparison, Carnage is a byproduct of a more popular Spider-Man villain (Venom) who got popular in the ’90s and hasn’t aged well. Plus, in just the past few years, Marvel has produced a number of symbiote-centric events, from Venomverse (2017) to Venomized (2018). Do we already need another one?

With such a gratuitous publication plan for Absolute Carnage, it seems Marvel has not learned the priceless lesson that “everything is better in moderation.” Time and again, the publisher has inadvertently made it clear that producing more of anything isn’t always the right move. Additionally, even when fans show excitement or respond favorably to something, they don’t necessarily want more of it.

Think of your best (or worst) guilty pleasure. Maybe it’s chocolate cake. One slice can be pretty good, right? But if someone gave you a whole cake to eat by yourself, you’d probably notice that (A) you don’t want all of it or (B) it wasn’t nearly as satisfying after the third or fourth slice. If you do manage to eat the whole thing and enjoy all of it, more power to you. But by and large, the law of diminishing returns applies here, just as it does with comic book events. Pairing a tie-in or two with the main series typically works well. But when publishers go off the rails and release nearly ten tie-ins, they saturate the market and make it harder for fans to enjoy the central story.

Who knows? Maybe Absolute Carnage will end up like War of the Realms; it’ll be an enjoyable series with some connected miniseries that are solid, and others that are entirely skippable. Or maybe the latest symbiote-focused event will prove that it doesn’t deserve this aggressive launch of related material. Either way, in the words of Woody Harrelson in Venom‘s post-credits scene, “There’s gonna be Carnage.”