Saturday, April 28, 2007

Friday, April 27, 2007

Venom Begate Carnage Begate Ubiquity


since Spider-Man 3 hits theaters next week, which will see the big-screen debut of Venom, i thought i'd delve into Carnage, the twisted offspring of Venom's symbiote.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

from SpiderFan.org;

Appearance

Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 190 lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
Features: As Carnage, elongate jaw & "teeth", ever moving tendrils from various parts of his body, both of which are a part of the alien that is his costume.

Summary
Created By: David Michelinie, Mark Bagley, Randy Emberlin
Real Name: Cletus Kasady
Current Aliases: None
Former Aliases: None
Dual Identity: Publicly Known
Current Occupation: Prisoner/patient, Ravencroft
Former Occupation: Serial Killer
Citizenship: U.S.
Legal Status: Mostly Dead
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Mother (killed by father), Venom (symbiote parent), Father (deceased), Grandmother (killed by Cletus)
Known Confidants: Shriek
Known Allies: Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin, Carrion II
Major Enemies: Spider-Man, Venom, Cloak & Dagger
Usual Bases: Ravencroft Institute
Former Bases: Former site of the St. Estes Home for Boys, Brooklyn, New York
Current Groups: None
Former Groups: None
Education: High School

Powers & Paraphenalia
Strength Level: Unknown, shown to be significantly stronger than both Venom and Spider-Man
Powers: Has a symbiote costume simalar to Venom, but seems to be more powerful, possibely due to it's incubation on Earth. Kasady's symbiote can, like Venom's, mimic any type of clothing, but unlike Venom, Carnage has not been seen useing the costume as camoflage. The symbiote has augmented all of Kasady's physical abilities to super-human levels apparently higher than that of Venom's.
Abilities: Carnage animates his costume to create snares, swing line, and most often bladed weapons. Carnage can hurl these "blades" from anywhere on his body. They disinetgrate after about thirty seconds after they are thrown. Carnage also posses wall-cralwing abilities similar to Venom's. In some unknown manner, the symbiote can dampen both Spider-Man's spider-sense, & the Venom symbiote's in born ability to track its spawn.
Equipment: None
Weapons: None
Limitations: The symbiote is vunerable to both sonics(to a much lesser degree than it's parent) & heat based attacks (to a much greater degree than its parent).



Background
Cletus Kassady was born into an ultra-violent home. Or perhaps he was just a bad seed in a good and loving family. He likes to taunt his psychiatrists and enemies with a changing story. In one version, he watched his father murder his mother with a drill. His father was sent to prison and Cletus was sent to live with his grandmother. Cletus killed the old woman's dog and when she came running to the basement, Cletus pushed her down the stairs. The police called it an accident and Kassady was sent from foster home to foster home. He was repeatedly abused by his foster families, further deepening his belief that a human being is nothing more than a bag of blood that is good for nothing more than dying and making more bags of blood.

Cletus became a scourge to everything around him. He burned down St Estes Home for Boys, pushed a girl in front of a bus after she refused to date him and was generally a very unpleasant person. Kassady was serving 11 consecutive life terms in prison for murder, in which he was Eddie Brock's (AKA Venom) cellmate. When the alien symbiote came to break Eddie out of jail, it left behind a "child" that bonded with Kassady, creating Carnage. Kassady then broke out of jail in attempt to spread his message of chaos. His thought being, if you have the guts, you can do anything. Up to, and including murder.

Spider-Man eventually encountered him, but was unable to stop him. Going against his better judgement, Spider-Man decided to return Venom to New York after Spidey faked his death on a deserted island. He and Brock had an uncomfortable alliance, but both were commited to ending the greater evil of Carnage. After defeating Carnage, Spider-Man broke his promise to let Venom go free and the symbiotic madman was captured by the Fantastic Four.

Carnage's second rampage through New York was to be his most infamous. Escaping from Ravencroft with a fellow inmate, Shriek, Carnage went on a mission of mayhem across Manhattan. Along the way, he teamed with the mindless Spider-Man Doppelganger, Carrion II and Demogoblin. This bloodthirsty gang forced a team up of various vigilantes consisting of Spider-Man, Venom, the Black Cat, Captain America, Morbius, Deathlok, Iron Fist, Cloak and Dagger and Nightwatch. After several days of rioting, Carnage and the others were captured.

Carnage has escaped several times in attempt to spread his message. Most notably, his symbiote blended with both Silver Surfer. After bonding to the Surfer, it was revealed that the symbiotes were a space traveling species that act as locusts. The Surfer arrived as the symbiotes consumed the inhabitants of a far off planet. Disgusted by the creatures, the Silver Surfer summoned his master, Galactus. The world devourer quickly destroyed the planet, an event which traumatized the symbiotic race. It became a "genetic memory" and each symbiote desired to kill the Silver Surfer.

Recently, Carnage lost his symbiote when Venom re-absorbed it. But Mackie couldn't let a character actually change, that would be too much like long-term plot development, so he had him discover another one just the same, in the Negative Zone.

Eventually a writer came along who had the courage to get rid of this overused character. In a 2004 story, Brian Micheal Bendis decided that it was time for Carnage to walk the plank. As Carnage attempted to escape from prison and drain the life force out of the people around him (hmm... that's a new ability, perhaps Bendis didn't quite do his homework) he was beaten by a vigilante known as the Sentry who then who then flew him into outer space, tore him in half, and abandoned him. Of course, for a space-creature maybe that isn't fatal... but at least he's out of the picture for a while!

from Wikipedia:

Ultimate Carnage

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Ultimate Carnage on the cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #62. Art by Tom Lyle.
Ultimate Carnage on the cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #62. Art by Tom Lyle.

The Ultimate Marvel Universe version of Carnage is very different from the Marvel Universe version, although both characters were designed by Mark Bagley. The title of the arc, Carnage, referred only to the path of murder the creature embarked upon; the creature is never named.

Curt Connors had created a rejuvenating symbiotic suit using the work of Spider-Man's late father Richard Parker: the Venom "suit". After a series of mishaps, the suit went missing, and Connors worried that years of work had been destroyed. But a new opportunity presented itself. After an injury, Peter Parker sought out Connors' help in treating his wounds, and Connors ended up with a sample of Spider-Man's genetically altered blood. He used the blood to create a new organism based partly on the Venom project. Using DNA from himself, the Venom project, and Peter, Connors developed a unique, self-regenerating form of life. This blood-red creature grew from a few inches long to the size of a child very rapidly, and quickly escaped. The creature drained the fluids from several victims, rapidly increasing its mass and strength.

Remembering memories from Peter, the Carnage creature went to the Parker residence. It surprised and killed Gwen Stacy. Soon afterwards, it found itself in combat with Peter Parker. Reasoning that the creature was not actually alive (and alarmed at its gradual resemblance to his own father), Peter threw it into a smokestack, where the Carnage creature apparently met its end.

In the video game Ultimate Spider-Man, another Carnage creature was created when hostile scientists activated the dormant Venom particles in Peter's body. The particles overtook him, and he battled Venom. The Carnage suit is quickly absorbed by Venom, whose host, (Eddie Brock) gains full control of the Venom suit.

Recently, someone claiming to be Gwen Stacy returned. She retained no memory of her death, only remembering waking up in a hospital room. When a small army of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spider Slayers arrived to take Peter into custody, the new 'Gwen' became agitated and transformed into Carnage, or a creature similar to it. She (or it) then attacked the gathered Spider Slayers. After a prolonged and destructive rampage through the Slayers, the AI on the Slayer drones manage to adapt to Carnage's biological data, and neutralize the creature by changing it back into 'Gwen' with a series of power energy blasts. Notably, this 'Gwen' version appeared to have white teeth in a similar manner to the 616 Venom rather than Carnage's traditional black, red or yellow fangs. This version, or one like it, was also seen in Ultimate Spider-Woman's flashback to the labs where she was created; Carnage, referred to as "The Stacy Experiment" by a fleeing scientist, caused enough panic for all of the Spider-Clones to escape.

Solicitations for the Epilogue of The Ultimate Clone Saga - issue #105 - stated that the fate of 'Gwen Stacy' will be decided by Nick Fury. Within this issue, Fury inspects Stacy, who is held in containment next to Ultimate Scorpion, turns to the Geneticists in charge of the project, and tells them to 'Get to Work'.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to me, Carnage is the quintessential 90s comic book character. he's little more than a rip-off of Venom with some of the Joker thrown in. the one comparison that rings true to me when it comes to this character is this;

Carnage is to Venom what Kane is to the Undertaker.

a hollow retread with nothing to say and a very limited shelf life, but due to a chance combination of a toyetic appearance and a gratuitous mean streak that bloodthirsty fanboys mistake for "bad-ass", the character can experience a certain level of popularity. Kane appeared in a film, Carnage had a video game that centered around him, complete with an action figure tie-in and a rare red cartridge.

being a ten year old fanboy who ate up anything related to Spider-Man, especially if Venom was somehow connected, i bought into it. i believed the hype that made Carnage out to be everything Venom would be, but now Venom was a good guy and Carnage took his spot on the bad-ass alien villain ladder.

how wrong we were.

Venom was actually a CHARACTER. he represented the dark half of both Spider-Man and his alter ego Peter Parker. he knew all of Parker's secrets. he was immune to the Spider-Sense. he spoke in gory monologues that suggested he would dine on Spider-Man's cranial contents. he looked like the version of Spider-Man that JJ Jameson tried to push on the public; a hulking drooling fanged menace out for blood. had Spider-Man kept the black costume, Venom is what he very well may have become.

Carnage? well he killed people and was red and made weapons from his arms. he had one big crossover and than aside from cool looking action figures, not much else worth noting. the whole thing reminds me of an episode of Ren and Stimpy, where Evil Ren split himself in half to create Hideously Evil Ren. "Sure, Venom is big and scary, but Carnage will be even scarier and violenter and bad-asser!" Scary and Violent wasn't all that Venom was. Carnage may have been good for one story, but beyond that he's useless. it doesn't matter how fucked up to the EXTREEEME a character is if that's the only thing he has going for him. Venom wasn't just Eddie Brock gone slightly mad, it was as if two beings were sharing the body (hence the "We are Venom" speak), which is pretty interesting and makes for a conflict within the character that can make for good story telling. there is no conflict with Carnage. Kassady is Carnage. that's an interesting concept to play with, the fact that Kassady excepts his accountability and seems to enjoy his power, where as Brock insists that there are 2 minds at work. unfortunately no writer explored that philosophical discussion on even the most rudimentary level, and we're left with a Beavis and Butthead approved creation with the depth of a scary metal band's album cover.

i like the Ultimate take on the character, in that he's an Anti-Character. he's a virus, science gone bad. the underlying message is that the original Carnage was just that; a one-trick pony that hit an unreal stride of popularity due to clever marketing and a cool look. Carnage was everywhere, hell i remember some books where Carnage begate an entire army of symbiotes, including two female ones, that were even more one-dimensional and useless than he. Carnage is what happens when marketing takes precedence over story telling. The Ultimate version of Carnage reinvents him while taking a piss on the character, which i find to be pretty ingenious.

why all this then?

well even 15 years since the debut of the character, many still find Carnage and Venom to be synonymous. that where one goes, the other follows. and since Venom will be in Spider-Man 3, i can't help but think that Carnage may peak around in Spider-Man 4. that could be the end of the franchise, at least in many people's interest in the franchise. i ran out of interest in Spider-Man right around Carnage's overexposure (the Clone Saga cemented my disinterest that remains to this day).

there is some potential amid all the baggage that is attached to the character, and hopefully should he appear in the live-action film series, the writer's craft a definitive version of the character, making him rise above being a stunt character, which is what he became.

wow i am a fucking geek.


Saturday, April 21, 2007

Martin Scorsese's Sesame Streets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiKBoLXg5Cw
NP: Marduk - Plauge Angel

Editors: Are you looking for any new writers? I am the youngest published science fiction novelist in America and I am very into comic books. My first novel, Dragons: Lexicon Triumvirate, will soon be a comic book itself. Furthermore, I am highly interested in the philosophy of comics, having published a few articles myself. Kenneth Eng, novelist

Ummm... seriously dude, all of us write novels so we can get the hell out of here. We don't have any more freelance money, unfortunately. -Hil

Hilary: Yeah, but my novels are cooler than yours bitch. Don't contact me again. KE

Let's talk about Kenneth Eng.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK4fjMhGn-I


Kenneth Eng is Asian.
Kenneth Eng hates white people.
Kenneth Eng hates black people.
Kenneth Eng thinks dragons are real.
Kenneth Eng likes comic books. (http://www.sequart.com/articles/?article=1003)
Kenneth Eng posted a video on YouTube praising the Virginia Tech Killer for killing white and black students. the video was mysteriously taken down when it was revealed that asian students were also gunned down.
Kenneth Eng is the youngest published sci-fi writer. his work contains deeply philosophical undercurrents and serious discussion on metaphysics. work like this;



from Amazon.com;

Rifts in time during the Middle Ages allow humans to summon powerful prehistoric beasts and future technologies in this fantastic novel about the influence of perception on reality and the role of political power on the conversion of knowledge into ideology. Under the auspices of the hominids, dragon king Drekkenoth has attempted to use knowledge to corrupt the minds of all the dragons in his kingdom but is stymied by the existence of a single source of uncorrupt knowledge: a tome of omniscience known as the Lexicon. Dennagon, a lowly dragon sentry, takes it upon himself to discover this lexicon, an act that leads to his expulsion from the mainstream world of worms and humans and the creation of a band of dissident dragons who wage war on the corruption of Drekkenoth and his human masters. During his seemingly endless quest to find the Lexicon, battles with cyborg technodragons and bewildering encounters with the enigmatic forces of time provide Dennagon with insight into the ephemerality of omniscience and the instability of the temporal as he discovers that there is more to life than the lore he has so desperately been searching for.

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Triumvirate-Kenneth-Che-Tew-Eng/dp/097487650X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1398718-4946347?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177176984&sr=1-1

the green dragon has not only a sword and a gun...BUT ANOTHER GUN STRAPPED TO HIS BELT. not to mention ANOTHER GUN STRAPPED TO HIS BACK.
the smoke dragon also has a sword. plus...he has ANOTHER SWORD.
then there is the pink-robot-dragon with the Mega-Buster on his right arm. no sword, though.

oh yeah...METAPHYSICS.

most if not all of the good reviews on Amazon.com were written by Eng himself under pseudonyms that are almost as ill-concieved as everything else the guy has said or done. if you click on the "see all my reviews" links of the positive reviews, you'll notice that more often than not there is only the one review (except in one case where a negative review of a Harry Potter book is present, in which Eng's book is shilled). he goes as far as to beg Hollywouldifshecould to make a film of his half-baked epic.

I see a movie, August 5, 2005
Reviewer:
Josh Powers "Nuclear Man" (Tampa Bay) - See all my reviewsYeah, a lot of people say they liked this book as a book, but I see it more as a movie thing. There was so much description in it that screamed Wachowski Bros. Anime that I just wanted to rent the video instead of reading it. I gotta say tho the story itself is awesome. Rivals normal anime on so many levels.

entertaining, February 6, 2006
Reviewer:
HungDaddy (Springfield, USA) - See all my reviewsNot what I expected from a ski fi book. There were a hell of a lot of action sequences and philosophy dialogues. It felt like I was reading a boxing match and Plato's republic at the same time, but you know what? I loved it. I would have to say that a movie would be better tho because then I can actually see the fight sequences instead of just reading them. The characters were also pretty cool. They had a crystal dragon fighting a dragon of fire. That's original. The story had a surprise ending too that was much better than those endings in M Night Shyamalan's increasingly crappy films. The only bad thing I can say is that the cover art doesn't do this book justice.

allegedly, a lot of the bad reviews were deleted by Eng, but here's one that made it to the featured review section;
Clearly, dragons are superior to pathetic white and black humans, because they can wield metal., March 9, 2007
Reviewer:
Hooper_X "ruder than you, most likely." (THE LAND OF SKA AND HONEYS) - See all my reviewsKenneth Eng is an author for our times, and "Dragons: Lexicon Triumverate" is a novel for our times. Concerned with heady concepts like the nature of reality, logical evolution, and how dragons are totally wicked sweet, Eng's book is a tour-de-force of barely-constrained fetishism, and an observant reader can imagine precisely when Eng's hands left the keyboard to begin frenetically masturbating over his own furious fantasies of being a mighty scaled warlord and totally slaughtering tons of humans. Basically what you wind up with is a fantasy novel as penned by your average MySpace user; disjointed, full of ridiculous concepts and pseudo-intellectual rhetoric, all wrapped up in a tight bundle of self-righteousness and topped off with a delicious cherry of incoherence. I've seen heavy metal album covers that had more substance. -hx

oh....here's his "Yellow Skull Organization".; http://www.geocities.com/yellowskullgod/YellowSkull.html

yeah...probably not a good idea to call your Asian Supremecist Society "Yellow" anything. i can picture the society's crest; a Yellow Skull complete with a fu manchu, buck teeth, a Rayden hat, squinty eyes behind a pair of black rim glasses...sitting atop a pile of rice in front of a gong.

anyway...the group, which is headed by the guy who wrote the book about robot dragons controlling the universe, wants to "finally make those big-eyed fuckers suffer. ." preferably with a Pink Mega-Buster that shoots sword wielding smoke-monsters at you.

suddenly William L. Pierce is looking less like a dummy. the Turner Diaries is a ludicrious piece of hateful paranoid sub-literacy, but at least Pierce didn't use PINK ROBOT DRAGONS WITH MEGA BUSTERS to prove his philosophical and political points. at least that moron attempted to have some tact. Eng is just a delusional blowhard who thinks Spider-Man is real.

i feel stupid for giving this clown-shoes any more attention, but whatever.

Lord of the Rings COULD HAPPEN.

NP: Oxbow - an Evil Heat

Friday, April 20, 2007

http://bricksaredelicious.blogspot.com/

that's my writing blog. it's where i'm going to workshop lyrics, prose, etc. whatever.
MP3 reviews from 2 of my 3 most anticipated releases of the summer (the third being Oxbow's the Narcotic Story, to which they have yet to release a sneak peak);

band: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
album: In Glorious Times
track: "Helpless Corpse Enactment"
consensus: love it. has that amazingly warm and heavy tone that's unique to them. pretty much a perfect example of what makes SGM such an awe-inspiring band. the structure of the song is that mega-bizzare prog-metal...in fact it may be the most metal song SGM has ever done, while still retaining the haunted gypsy quality that's prevelant in all their material. Carla sounds ghostly and gorgeous on the track, the male vocals sounds venomous, and the instrumentation/production is thunderous.

band: Pig Destroyer
album: Phantom Limb
track: "Loathsome"
consensous: seems to pick up where Terrifyer was headed. much more of strong crossover-thrash element, with a really compelling arrangment that gives it a really cryptic edge that compliments the increasing strangeness of their material. GREAT breakdown around the 2 minute mark which bleeds into a very creepy metal riff with JR ghostly shouting "This is My Escape Art". drums are very unique. riffs are awesome. vocals sound more organic than previous releases. sounds to me like PxDx delivered what they promised; a strange-ass metal record.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

level the middle ground and all you have is the two sure things

so April has not only been sucking cock, but tractor-pulling cock. diseased cocks. with warts and tatoos of bearded dragons roped around the shaft and prince alberts that leave the head infected, purple and puffy.

every shitty fucking thing that could fucking happen has fucking happened. don't even wanna mention them. the only highlights have been Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, all the porn a cable modem can d/l, and seeing Rwake and Made out of Babies at Midway this past Monday. speaking of MOOB; Julie Christmas is one of the best frontpeople i've ever seen. even drunk off her cute behind, she sounded like revenge of the raped. Wounded but ready for fucking war. the band was loud and furious as well.

as you can tell, this whole Virgin(ia) Tech Massacre has enveloped almost all my attention. i'm glad i'm not in school anymore, cause if i know people (and fuck you i do), i would've had more eyes on me than tits in a prison. it happened w/ Columbine when i was in high school and i know it would've happened at Hofstra. i'd like to think my cryptic ramblings had a bit more merit than the rambling of the latest I'm-About-To-BREAK-ite to strike fear into the hearts of the normals, but what do i know? i'm a quiet loner who likes fucked up shit.

i guess the difference between me and these people is that i can fucking laugh about most of this shit. yeah, i can overwhelmed and flip out...but for the most part i'm pretty regular. despite my best efforts or best intentions or best judgements... i'm not really a danger to anyone. i'm a little pussy-bitch with some morbid fascnations and a sardonic world view. dime a fuck dozen.

well...May should prove somewhat better. Communion's got a nice weekend of shows coming up. LORAZEPANZRAM is making it's debut (for the audience and themselves), i got the MDF over the Memorial Day weekend, Venom is making his big screen debut which should satisfy the drooling ten year old inside of me (as for the drooling ten year old I am inside of....that remains to be seen), and by the end of May/June there will be new albums from Oxbow, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Pig Destroyer.

and also i didn't get shot, so that's a plus.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

An Insult to Both Criminally Insane Mental Defectives and Literate Misanthropes


http://news.aol.com/virginia-tech-shootings/cho-seung-hui/_a/mr-browstone-page-4/20070417142409990001

that seems to have taken to the heart of this Virgina Tech Massacre...the killer was *gasp* a LONER...with DISTURBING WRITINGS.

care for a segment?;

JOHN:
I just said his name sounds like kidney stone of the ass and that that's why he is always gruffy and angry. His shit is so thick and so oddly shaped that he can't go and all his shit are piled up in his intestines all the way up to his chest. He probably rips his sphincter to relieve a single gram of turd after two hours of pushing, sweating, teeth clenching, screeming in frustration, and holding breath for a half gram of green mold shit.


that's just stupid. not to mention poorly written and completely devoid of anything resembling sense. not shocking...not interesting...just lazy inane nonsense that's disturbing not only for the sake of it but as means to cover-up a complete lack of genuine insight or imagination. there are people who take lurid subject matter and present it in a compelling fashion, making it something valuable. this guy has no grasp on how to do that. he just wants to shock you shock you. the only truly "disturbing" thing about his writings is the fact that a degree-granting institution would let this sub-mental anywhere near one of their writing classes. he was reportedly kicked out of the class because he made the students uncomfortable. i would've kicked him out because his output would diminish the value of the entire class, student and professor. i would've flunked his sorry ass for submitting sub-standard trash that clearly shows a lack of effort and interest in the craft of writing, which is crucial if you're a ASS-FUCK WRITING MAJOR. if this guy didn't go poop-lips crazy and slaughter a bunch of innocent people he would've been laughed at of the workshop, like any other idiot with delusions of creativity. but now his writings are considered "chilling and dark" instead of poorly developed, callow, and affected, which is what they really are.

i would've LOVED to be in the same class with this dingleberry. but than i probably would've gotten shot. that would suck for a little bit...and then i'd be dead.

reportedly....Cho Seung Hui listened to this song on repeat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP3yeqkkYBE

i know when i hear that song i wanna kill people.

i'm going to d/l that song right now.

THAT'S chilling.

...too soon?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/

for posterity's sake...

here's the old blog. http://dirtpoet.blogspot.com/

"Lighter Side of Self Loathing" is Dead

this is the new shit-bomb.

I'll just be picking up where i left off. it was time for a change. lasted nearly a good five years(right..."good"), but times do a change, whether we want them too or not.

yeah today sucked, but it could be worse. i could be this guy: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html