Scarlet Spider #10 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I'm going to go with a short-form review since this issue really isn't a "Scarlet Spider" issue.  In fact, I actually thought for a moment that Yost didn't write this issue, because the portrayal of Kaine is a little basic.  For example, we see him unnecessarily expositing the fact that he now has something to lose.  It's a common theme in "Scarlet Spider," but Yost seems forced to spell it out more clearly here than he usually does, likely for new readers, and it loses something in the translation.  Also, Kaine seems significantly more violent than he usually is (which, of course, is saying a lot).  I get that he's full of rage after failing to prevent Carnage from killing the scientists at the Space Center, but he's essentially reduced to screaming, "I'm going to kill you" over and over again.  Again, it's almost like another author is writing this series and, unaware of the progress Yost has made in developing Kaine's character, wrote him like he was the '90s version of Kaine.

Flash also acts uncharacteristically here randomly losing control of the symbiote for no particularly good reason that I can tell.  I'm not sure if the symbiote recognizes Kaine as a threat and is responding to some old beef with him or if it is simply agitated because of Carnage.  I guess we'll see where that goes.

We do get some more information about why Carnage was contacted by the "tiny people."  (In a great example of pet peeve #1, we learn that they're called Microns from the title page.)  It seems that the group that we saw last issue want him exactly for his homicidal impulses, though it's unclear why. They also appear not to have been trapped on Earth, but came specifically to get Carnage.  Meanwhile, after Kaine and Venom make the journey to the Microverse and get separated in the process, Venom finds himself saved by a different group of Microns, who seem likely to be in opposition to the other group.

All in all, it's a meh issue.  If it had been an issue of "Venom," I don't think that I'd be so disappointed.  But, this issue proves the fears that a lot of folks had about this cross-over event, that it would needlessly distract us from the infinitely more interesting stories that Yost was already telling in this title.  At least we only have another issue of it left before we return to the good stuff.