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How I Would Write the Scream Comic
Scream is my favorite of the Marvel symbiotes. By the time I started reading Spider-Man comics in the mid-90s, Venom and Carnage were already established. They were cool, but I had missed Maximum Carnage. The Clone Saga was my jam instead, and during that series, a new, female symbiote showed up with an awesome yellow, red and black color scheme and a head of magnificent symbiote hair.
She’s gorgeous!
Here was a symbiote I could get behind! And considering she appeared so rarely in comics, it became a bit of a game to track her random appearances across random comics as Marvel kept her alive and in the background. Did you know Scream once teamed up with Venom and Wolverine to fight an evil alien called “Dirtnap”? Good times.
Marvel recently brought Scream back from the dead as part of the Absolute Carnage story. She got her own tie-in mini-series, and is currently starring in her very own ongoing comic: Scream: Curse of Carnage. Being one of the only people on the planet who would say that Scream is their favorite of the symbiotes, I was really excited about this comic…but it hasn’t been very good. The main character doesn’t have focus, the storyline is annoyingly weird and the art is subpar. It mostly feels like Marvel is just banking on the “Carnage” name while they wait for the next big Venom story, where Scream will theoretically play a part.
Possibly Greg Land’s best work
Me being a creative guy, and this being my blog, and me not having any editorial oversight, I randomly started daydreaming how I would write a Scream comic in the wake of Absolute Carnage. The symbiote is back from the dead, she’s got a new host in Andi Benton and symbiotes are a big deal these days. How would I turn that into a fan-pleasing comic?
Join me after the jump to find out! Be warned, I think this got kind of long in my rambling/brainstorming. Just putting this out there!
My Favorite Symbiotes Are Coming Back!
There’s a whole bunch of stuff going on with Venom and Carnage in comics these days, and I’m not reading any of it. My interest in these characters only goes so far, and I’m not particularly interested in whatever weird new retcons are being established. Marvel retcons the origin of the symbiotes over and over again and I just don’t care about their origins.
Whatever the case may be, there’s a big Carnage-themed event coming to Marvel this summer, and it’s going to bring back Scream and the Separation Anxiety symbiotes!
Scream needs to fight Medusa
Scream is my favorite of the Marvel symbiotes. Venom and Carnage are great and all, but there was just something about the awesome look of the first female symbiote that stuck with me back in the 90s. I’ve got the action figure, I thought she should have been the villain in the Venom movie; Scream is really cool.
So it was a shame that she was unceremoniously killed a couple years back as part of yet another Venom/symbiote revival.
Apparently she’s going to get better…
Well now she’s coming back for a 3-part tie-in to this Absolute Carnage event, written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Gerardo Sandoval. That’s pretty neat. Considering how many times Cletus Kasady has come back from the dead, I wonder if they’ll bring Scream’s original host, Donna Diego. I’ll grant you that she’s barely a character, but as a comic book fan, I love what I love.
The twirly face thing is part of the new retcon
Along with Scream, the other four symbiotes from Separation Anxiety are also getting their own one-shot tie-in, from Clay McLeod Chapman and Brian Level. I love these symbiotes as well, though I mostly liked it when they combined to create the totally 90s-inspired Hybrid. Since then, those symbiotes have been part of a military strike team, then they came together again onto a dog, which was part of a Deadpool comic.
Now they’re back on their own again for this event!
Look everybody, it’s the star of the Venom movie: Riot! Which one is Riot? Please, like you even need to ask.
So we’ll see how it goes! I honestly think this is going to be another one of those Big Event comics from Marvel wherein I only read a couple of the tie-ins and not the event itself. I just don’t care what new retcon they’ve given Carnage.
Also, what’s with Marvel constantly resurrecting the 90s these days? Age of Apocalypse becomes Age of X-Man? Maximum Carnage becomes Absolute Carnage? Either that or just straight-up stealing ideas from DC Comics…
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Henchman-4-Hire 