Wrapping up the “Carnage Reigns” crossover event that spanned Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Red Goblin, and Carnage, Carnage Reigns: Omega hits shelves today and was written by Cory Ziglar, with Julius Ohta and Rogê Antônio on art, Erick Arciniega on colors, and Cory Petit doing the lettering. The issue covers the final battle with Cletus Kasady and Kenneth Neely on one side, and Miles Morales, Iron Man, the rag tag team of unlikely heroes (Agent Gao, Scorpion, Hightail, and Red Goblin) on the other.

As the story begins, we’re immediately dropped into battle with a brilliant double-page spread featuring Miles, in his new Iron Spider suit, and Tony Stark, in his anti-symbiote suit, swinging/flying through the city sky. This visual is pure money — it is definitely my favorite panel of the issue and might be one of my favorite panels in a Marvel book this year. The artistic details on both suits is epic and Arciniega’s coloring for Iron Man’s boosters is top notch. I’ve never seen Miles look more badass than in this suit and Tony’s new suit is an homage to dragon-fighting knights with an Iron Man motif. It’s all immediately captivating and gets the reader ready for the non-stop action that takes place throughout the majority of the issue.

Beyond their brilliant designs, the two heroes have great chemistry together throughout the issue and Ziglar does a fine job highlighting Miles’ ability to co-lead a mission, even if Tony has other ideas. It’s obvious Tony respects Miles, though he admits it’s hard for him to admit as much, and I appreciated Miles acting as if he belongs in the middle of things. It was a really well constructed relationship in the overall story arc that came together quickly and felt natural.

Another highlight for me was the design of Kasady’s followers who emerge as some type of symbiote/Iron Man hybrid that look like they’re straight out of a zombie horror movie. They aren’t featured extensively, but they look extra creepy when they appear on page. I definitely got goosebumps the first time they appeared to rise from the dead.

Petit’s lettering shines throughout the issue as the sound effect text does a fun job of adding depth to the endless action scenes. You can tell Petit was having fun working with this assignment. There are two panels featuring Hightail in action that were particular standouts for me where Petit included multiple variations of “thwump” to great effect.

If I had two small complaints on this issue, it would be that it ends up being a bit too dependent on Iron Man, a character whose own title wasn’t even included in the crossover event, and that some of the panels featuring close-ups of Kasady’s evolved Extrembiote felt like they were being reused from previous panels. I think it might have been due to the lack of different facial expressions used for those specific panels — it always seemed like it was depicted as a dead-eye, mouth agape visual looking back at you.

With Web of Carnage #1 right around the corner, the ending “reveal” that the Carnage symbiote is still around, even if it isn’t currently attached to Kasady, felt a tad flat. Overall, “Carnage Reigns” has been a fun, if inconsequential run for it’s main characters as they are all about to get new story arcs within their respective titles. Carnage Reigns: Omega was a fitting conclusion worthy of the entire of the run.

Rating: 8/10