#mjwatsonedit

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger:

ASM #378

As bad as Maximum Carnage is there are aspects of it I actually like, at least conceptually.

This sequence is one of them.

It’s a neat idea, juxtaposing the heroic couples in Peter/MJ with the villainous couple in Carnage/Shriek.

It’s extra juicy because Carnage and Shriek are so obviously a toxic relationship yet their argument ends with them back on good terms, whilst Peter and MJ’s argument isn’t toxic at all (albeit very stressful) and ends poorly with no real resolution reached.

I just think it was a small and modestly clever sequence is all.

If you want to go deeper, I guess you could argue Maximum Carnage was a rebuttal to the breakdown or changing of the perceived norms of the time, the institution of marriage/family being one of them. So having the hero’s marriage be in a bad place whilst the villains’ relationship is an extremely warped depiction of the traditional nuclear family does play well into the themes the story was going for…however poorly it tried to reach those themes in other parts of the story