Spider-Man: Carnage in New York is a 1995 superhero novel written by David Michelinie, published by Berkley. The story follows Spider-Man who has to stop Carnage, who’s brought to New York to neutralize his powers, but escapes with a vial filled with a serum that can cause a mental breakdown and make a person go insane with just one drop.

Would’ve liked there to have been more to the story than just the generic superhero story. Cletus Kasady has escaped confinement and now Spider-Man must stop him from killing people and causing chaos. That’s pretty much it next to same Spider-Man subplots such as Aunt May struggling to pay her bills and him struggling to juggle his superhero life with his normal life. Loved the focus of Peter and MJ’s relationship and how although MJ supports his alter ego it does effect their relationship. It’s a good story though and getting inside the heads of Spider-Man and Carnage makes for an interesting read. (3 out of 5)

The characters are true to their comic book counterparts and to an extent it does work but it doesn’t offer anything new. Peter Parker is Peter Parker, Mary Jane is Mary Jane, and Carnage is Carnage. If you’ve never heard of Carnage, you’ll see him up close in this book. He’s menacing, he’s unpredictable, he’s psychotic beyond reason. You do have many characters from Spider-Man’s supporting cast and they help flesh out the main characters and the story itself. (3 out of 5)

David Michelinie keeps the novel faithful to the comics doing a great job of capturing the world and characters, but I will say not to compare this to Maximum Carnage because this is similar but completely different. The writing can get pretty violent and the fights are really intense. The action sequences are plentiful and translation to words is done effectively enough to paint a good picture.

Would’ve liked to have seen more of Carnage’s killing spree and the public’s fear of him. Loved the insight into Carnage’s psyche. There’s one moment where Spider-Man picks up on Carnage with his Spider Sense when Carnage is suppose go be immune to it which I thought was pretty weird. Still, the writing is good enough to give a solid read. (3 out of 5)

In the end, Spider-Man: Carnage in New York is a solid read for fans of the superhero. Outside of its by-the-numbers story its characters, setting, and writing is done really well. It’s not only a good Spider-Man story but a good superhero story. Spider-Man: Carnage in New York gets 3 out of 5.