Family… it’s meant to instill positive emotion. It’s meant to make you feel safe, secure and never alone. Not all families unfortunately can feel like this, in fact, some families…can be down right murderous. From “Married with Children” to “The Simpsons”, you’ve never seen a family, quite like Carnage’s, but this article is not about the “Maximum Carnage” story line, No, this is about what happened AFTER. What happens when a child is ripped out their mothers arms? What happens if one of those children is Carrion the living Death and the mother is Frances Louise Barrison – known more commonly as Shriek? How far would a mother go to be reunited with her family? How far would Shriek go?
“Shrieking” ran through the Amazing Spider-Man #390 – #393 and its a story about pain. The pain, Peter Parker feels at the still fresh loss of his parents… again. The pain of Shriek and the abuse she suffered as a child, the pain of Malcolm McBride whom whenever he closes his eyes, sees the mounds of corpses he’s left in his wake as Carrion and also the pain of Mary-Jane who is suffering alone, watching over Aunt May in the hospital. “Shrieking” is where Peter Parker is gone for good and all that remains is the Spider.
Amazing Spider-Man #390 opens with Spider-Man at the Osborn Mansion in Long Island, holding a goblin mask. He looks up at a 
painting of Norman and Harry and explodes with anger. With each hand, he grips the Osborn’s faces and rips them apart, screaming. Peter thinks to himself that its almost like Spider-Man and the Green Goblin exist independently from Peter and Harry and nothing, not even the grave can stop their dirty little war. Spider-Man cannot take the thoughts anymore and destroys the living room he’s in, being left with nothing but himself and a wreckage. He slumps to his knees and cries thinking, “Harry…you’ve destroyed me…”
Westchester County, home of Ravencroft Institute where many evil criminals reside. Even if they filled every wing of this facility with mentally imbalanced super-criminals, Shriek would still be Dr. Ashley Kafka’s most perplexing case. Dr. Kafka believes in her work with strong morality, as past cases have proven successful, for example Edward INSERT LAST NAME who was once the man-rat Vermin, now an orderly working for the Institute itself. There they both try to help Malcolm McBride, who is always joined by his loving mother Martha. Even with the therapy and meditation Malcolm has learned, he still cannot expel the thoughts and visions of death every time he closes his eyes. The fear of the Carrion virus taking him over again, turning him into a killer again.
At Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the residence of Mary-Jane and Peter Parker is an empty one. The only light you’ll see, is that of a flick of a match, lit by MJ, wanting a cigarette. She is pain also and knows she’s losing Peter more and more everyday, with the only way she knows how to cope is by dragging on cancer sticks. As she’s about to light one, she hears a noise, something she is not used to these days. She leaps up from the couch only to find her estranged husband Peter, sitting on their bed, looking out the window. Mary-Jane starts to yell at Peter but when she sees he doesn’t move, doesn’t even react, she just sits next to him. She reaches out and places her hand on his shoulder. Peter places his hand on hers. They look at each other and kiss as Mary-Jane lets go of the cigarettes.
At Ravencroft, Malcolm is confiding in Dr. Kafka again. He tells her that he’s insane, that he deserves to be dead. That it couldn’t have just been the Carrion virus that made him evil but something evil inside of him. Dr. Kafka grabs Malcolm by the arm and takes him to Shriek’s cell saying “You want to see evil Malcolm? You want to see insanity up close?” As they both watch Shriek screaming in mental agony, Kafka continues “That woman didn’t have what you had. No-one cared about her. They just used her and abused her till every cell in her body was screaming in pain. Listen to her scream Malcolm and then realize how blessed you are.” Shriek then turns around shockingly, places her white eyes on Malcolm and recognizes him. “My son?” she asks quietly. Kafka suddenly realizes the huge mistake she has just made and before she can react, Shriek screams in horror “MY SOOOON” and blasts her imprisoned doors apart. Shriek throws Kafka into a wall brutally and you can hear her bones break as she lands and Malcolm runs away in utter fear. Shriek leaps into the air allowing gravity to fail all around her, clutches Malcolm by the wrist, smashes through a window and flies off saying to her “son” ….”Mommy’s here now darling and she’ll protect you.” Down below Malcolm’s real mother Martha cries in horror.
Mary-Jane again awakens expecting to see her husband by her side, only to remember their lives of late. Peter is gone again, without saying goodbye. She looks at her cigarette packet again and throws them out the window defiantly. Outside on a web line, Peter swings into the night, knowing Mary-Jane needs him but unable to be there. He hates leaving her alone but every time he looks in her eyes, he panics, afraid something terrible’s going to happen to her, that he’s going to lose her too. The Spider takes over now. Peter Parker is not a safe man to be around but as long as he’s the Spider, as long he stays away from Peter’s world, she’ll be safe and so will he. Everywhere the Spider turns, he sees lies and betrayal everywhere. When even the people he loves seem to be one thing and turn out to be another. He simply cannot trust anyone, not even himself. Then he realizes he’s wrong. He can trust someone, the one person who’s helped him out before, when he was so lost that he thought he’d never find his way back, Dr. Ashley Kafka who’s now lying in a hospital bed.
Issue #391 begins in an office at Ravencroft, John Jameson, security chief sits alone pondering over his girlfriend and boss’s health, Ashley Kafka when he looks up at the roof and sees Spider-Man in the shadows. John’s initial reaction is one of anger, claiming Spider-Man has broken in but when Spider-Man pulls out his entry card and reminds John that he himself gave him the card, John calms down and apologizes saying he’s worried about Ashley. Spider-Man immediately asks what happened and John fills him in on the breakout of Shriek and the abduction of Malcolm. They decide to go visit her in the hospital and while John’s looking down, blaming himself for Ravencroft’s recent breakouts, he goes to confide in Spider-Man, only to find, Spider-Man has already left. Spider-Man is so full of anger, he has no time to listen to the why’s and how’s. He just wants to stop Shriek before she does more damage. Spider-Man starts to feel himself renounce Peter Parker again, the fragile, all-too human Peter Parker. He wants to just be the mask, a larger-than-life hero who can do what the average person only wishes he could, stop the chaos, quell the violence, with a fast quip and a faster fist. An inner voice has started to emerge within him. The voice whispers “Just be the Spider, shut down your heart, be strong, be safe.” The voice continues insistently saying “Be the Spider…bury the man.”
On the streets below, Martha McBride slowly drives in her car, searching the streets for any sign of her son. Tears roll down her face as she hopes her boy is alive and ok. Martha isn’t interested in vengeance or heroism, she doesn’t even think she has that much courage. She only knows that she loves Malcolm….more than life itself. She will not rest until her child is back in Ravencroft and out of evil’s clutches.
Malcolm screams at Shriek “Why won’t you leave me alone? Why are you doing this to me?” and Shriek floats above him. “Doing? I’m not doing anything. It’s that witch Kafka who was hurting you, Carrion…don’t you remember?”
“Stop calling me that! I’m not Carrion, I’m not” he tries to say back with anger but it comes across pathetic in the face of one such as Shriek.
“Oh, what have they done to you? When I first saw you, standing there outside my cell…..even I hardly recognized you but a mother can never forget her son. Whatever those animals did to you, my sweet darling, mommy will have you back to normal soon. ” Malcolm tried to flee but Shriek flies effortlessly towards him, throws him into a tree, picks him up again and flies towards a nearby house saying “Don’t ever give me reason to hurt you again! Mother simply couldn’t bear it.”
Inside the house a man deals with his own pain of his absent, alcoholic wife. He remembers when life was simple and not full of anger, not full of regret. He wished so badly to go back to those days and when Shriek simply lets herself in, he suddenly realizes his life wasn’t so bad. “Mister….ruuuun. Get out of here. she’s crazy…” Malcolm yells. Too little, too late. The man gets thrown through his own windows, crashing outside unconscious and Shriek turns to Malcolm saying “Why did you say that to him? Why did you tell him I was crazy?”
“Because it’s true…” he quietly mutters “Of course it’s true….but that’s our little secret. All families have their dirty secrets…their shameful lies….but that’s no ones business but our own! Oh darling, your poor brother’s dead (referring to Spider-Man doppleganger), your father’s….god knows where he is (carnage)…..you’re all I’ve got. Do you understand? Without the love of our family we’re empty….we’re…..nothing. So don’t turn away from me, Carrion…..if you do……I’ll die!”
Malcolm starts to shiver….he starts to get hot and cold flushes and realizes if he doesn’t go back to Ravencroft soon and take the drugs Dr. Kafka prescribed for him, he’ll change back into Carrion, something Malcolm would rather do dying, then experience again. Shriek tries to convince Malcolm that Carrion is who he really is but Malcolm won’t hear it, he starts to scream at her that he has a real family waiting for him and this angers Shriek causing her to lash out at him violently “I’m your mother, you miserable ingrate. Don’t you ever forget that!! I’m the one who suffered and almost died bringing you into the world, who sacrificed, time and again, so that we could have food on the table….a roof over our heads. Do you know how much better my life would have been if it weren’t for you??” Suddenly Shriek stops and pauses. She gathers her composure and starts apologizing frantically saying she didn’t mean anything she just said, that without him, she doesn’t know what she would do. She ends it by saying she loves him. Malcolm mutters back “If you really loved me, then I’m begging you, let me go.” Before Shriek can respond, Spider-Man shoots a web line at Shriek’s elbow and throws her across the room, smashing her into a wall.
“The Spider has no clever quips, no witty banter, no jokes. That was Parker’s way of dealing with the danger, of keeping himself balanced…..sane….while he took risks, faced evil. That would have driven most men over the edge. There’s only the mask now. Only The Spider and The Spider doesn’t joke, doesn’t think. He just acts. Swift and strong. Hard and Terrible. No humor, no compassion, just bloody retribution. Stop the madness, pound it down, stamp it out, before it consumes him, before more innocents fall before…..” J.M DeMatteis
“NOOOOOOOOOOO” Shriek screams. She backs into a corner like a little girl seeing a fist for the first time, begging not to be hit anymore. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I was bad. I am, I am, pleaseohpleaseohplease…..DON’T HIT ME ANYMORE” and Spider-Man freezes for a second but that’s enough time for Shriek to blast Spider-Man back and call him an idiot. “Your just like that moron Kafka. All I have to do is act like a scared little girl and your guard goes down. I had plenty of time to explore the nature of my sonic powers. I can use them, manipulate them in all kinds of ways. I can dig inside you, I can find your darkness and I can echo it….amplify it, until in the end, you’re just like me.” She leaps on top of him and she can taste the darkness escaping his pores. It’s getting thicker and thicker and Shriek knows Spider-Man is nearly in her world. She keeps mentally pushing him, again and again until the epiphany presents itself to her. She suddenly jolts off Spider-Man and leaps at Malcolm “That’s how I can do it. That’s how I can save you. Use my psychic energies to dig deep, into the shadows where Carrion lives and call him up….draw him out….give him….” a psychic blast throws them both back “…..LIFE” Where Malcolm lay….now emerged the living virus Carrion. “Rest now sweet mother, In time, your strength will return, rest knowing your efforts were successful. Carrion lives again, free from the disease called ‘Malcolm McBride’ and forever grateful for your sacrifice. I could feel your pain as you gave birth to me. I know the agonies you experienced in the name of love….and in the name of love, I will repay your kindness, by destroying our enemy.” Carrion turns to Spider-Man and places his virused claw on his mask, (if Carrion touches you….you decay) ending Amazing Spider-Man #391
The cover above was a milestone for me based purely on the drama it brought with it. I wasn’t aware at the time this was a nod at a previous Amazing Spider-Man issue where it was the reverse (Spider-Man No More) but when I first looked at this cover, my heart sank with Peter. Now, one of the problems with reading comics sometimes, is the timeline and the reader making sense of what happened where. Unfortunately, “Shrieking” should have apparently been reviewed before “Live and Let die” and “Beware the Rage of a Desperate Man” (a mistake I hope to not make again but hey, these things happen) because the shocking ending to ASM #391 was Mary-Jane walking into Aunt May’s house, only to find her unconscious on her kitchen floor.
Amazing Spider-Man #392 is an issue FILLED with anger and torment. We see Spider-Man become terrifying and that’s a sentence most people wouldn’t believe. With Aunt May in hospital, Peter just can’t take it anymore. Destroying the hospital room and collapsing in a heap…..Peter’s mind snaps and the only way he can deal with things, is to literally cocoon himself in webs. Mary-Jane walks into their bedroom and see the creation her husband has made and stares for 5 infinite, unendurable minutes, then beyond tears, she turns and walks out of the room, out of the apartment, leaves him there, where he wants to be……..alone. “Someone died there in the cocoon. Someone soft and vulnerable. Someone brutalized and frightened but there’ll be no time for the deceased. No prayers. No requiems. Rest in peace, Peter Parker he thinks. Long may you rot. Now and forever….I AM THE SPIDER” J.M. Dematteis
Carrion and Shriek make their way across town, rob a clothing store for a new look and in the process, Shriek has a brief mental break. An episode that tends to happen on occasion randomly, due to the level of depth her psychic barriers have protected her from and her past memories. In this instance, Carrion jumps back and some of Malcolm’s memories return within him, remembering his real mother. Shriek senses this, she senses his confusion, senses her “child” slipping away and THAT realization pulls her back from the heart of her madness, because the thought of losing the one soul in the world who’s become the focus for her desperate need for love, is even more terrifying than the demons of her past. Carrion begs her to take him home to his real mother and even though, Shriek hates him for saying so, she does as she is asked and takes him home. When they arrive, Shriek politely knocks on the door and when Martha McBride answers and sees the last two people in the world she expected to see standing there, she has no time for the realization to sink in, as Shriek unleashes a psychic backdraft at her screaming “She’s not your mother…..I AM.” Martha crashes into the wall and Carrion looks on in horror and confusion….not knowing how to feel, to react. Shriek looks him deep in the eyes and says “Kill her….kill her my son…” and still Carrion doesn’t know what to do. Before he can decide, a crack of thunder smashes down outside, forcing all three to look in the same direction….at the door. Standing there……is The Spider. He is silent and it speaks volumes. “I am not what I was before” the silence says. “I am anger, I am madness, I am The Spider……and God help you if you get in my way……”
Amazing Spider-Man #393 is the conclusion to “Shrieking” and it opens with the, as of late, seen mystery man, placing roses at Gwen Stacey’s gravestone. We still don’t see his face……..but we will.
Back at the McBride residence, The Spider stands in the doorway silent. Shriek starts to talk but none of it matters. Words don’t matter anymore. Bea McBride screams for Spider-Man to save her son. The Spider leaps onto Shriek and pounds her into unconsciousness viciously, causing Carrion to, in turn, leap onto Spider-Man. Mrs McBride again screams but this time, it’s to her son, pleading that he leave Spider-Man alone and now Carrion is really confused. He hears his mother’s words and recognizes the voice. He turns to Shriek, lying there hurt and the confusion starts to leave Carrion’s mind. He might not know who to love….but he sure knows who to hate, and again, leaps onto Spider-Man. The Spider laughs but it’s an ugly, humorless sound and when he finally does speak, his voice is bitter, venom dripping from every word “I turn New York upside down till I find you, risk my life against that lunatic, Shriek….AND THIS IS WHAT I GET IN RETURN?! Why do I bother?? Why should I care if that virus eats away at you until you die? Tell me that Malcolm….WHY SHOULD I CARE??”
Shriek awakens to hear Spider-Man ranting and………smiles. The Spider makes his way to Mrs McBride and in the past, she has been grateful for the comfort he’s offered her family but tonight there’s something in his voice, something cold, dark and angry. Suddenly, having him here in her house doesn’t seem comforting at all. His hands upon her make her skin crawl and she pulls away….frightened. The Spider sees the look of fright on Martha’s face and stops, holding Carrion in his hands and apologizes. With that moments hesitation, Shriek sends a sonic wave to him, knocking him down. “I knew it, I knew you were playing the big bad guy when underneath, you’re a pathetic weakling all along.” She turns to Carrion and stretches out her arm, extending it to him and says “Time to choose darling…whose child are you…her’s or mine?” Martha stands on his other side, looking at him with hope. Carrion cannot decide and instead turns his decaying power onto himself. Martha screams and runs towards him, attempting to pull Carrion’s claws away from his own face but Shriek stops her saying “Woman, are you as crazy as I am? If you so much as touch those hands, you’ll die.”
“Do you think my life matters? Do you think I wouldn’t sacrifice myself a thousand times over to save my child?” Martha shouts back. Shriek looks at her in shocking amazement “You…you really love him….it’s not an act….you really LOVE him. How can I hate you, when you love him so much? But I…..I love him too.” Shriek kneels towards Carrion and takes his claws of his face and replaces them with her own hands. She then absorbs the virus into herself and collapses in a heap. Carrion then changes back into Malcolm and Martha cannot believe what she has just witnessed, running towards her son with a smile. Shriek however….is now dying. “Let her die” The Spider whispers “If you don’t, she’ll be back, to hurt them and you” and it’s a convincing argument. One, that only 30 minutes ago, he might have seriously considered, but if this night has shown The Spider anything, it’s this……Peter Parker may be buried alive but he’s not dead yet. He picks up Shriek and slumps her over his shoulder, says to Mrs McBride that he’ll take her to the hospital and swings away into the night.
Midtown High. The former school grounds where Peter Parker went everyday, the mystery man wanders. Reminiscing. A security guard notices him and asks him if he’s ok. The stranger just nods and says he used to go here and was looking around. The guard nods back and says “Fair enough, just don’t get into any….” but as the guard turns back to face the stranger………..he’s gone.
Spider-Man returns home and hates himself for still feeling compassion towards Shriek. He feels stupid but he cannot help himself. He just wants to hold Mary-Jane again but when he enters their bedroom, he finds a note written by her explaining that she left.
“Alone and unmoving, he sits……staring down at the lights and the lives below. So many thoughts cry out for his attention. Thoughts of Malcolm McBride, reunited with his family……of Frances Barrison, who, even in the depths of her madness, found compassion and love…….of his Aunt May slowly fading…….his wife swiftly retreating. They cry and cry but he turns a deaf ear. Shuts them out. Pushes them down…..into the grave where they belong. Parker’s grave. Now and forever he vows I AM THE SPIDER.
Next week……..TYPHOID……BLOODY MARY……….then the week after that, The Clone Sage really begins with………….”POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY”
1 Response
Dove
Nice article, It was funny.