Guest Appearances - Silver Surfer in Amazing Spider-Man #431

Picking up from the previous installment, it's part two of The Silver Surfer's battle with Spider-Man and Carnage, in a tale that has come to be known as "The Amazing Spider-Man #431".

When last we left things, the Surfer had just been bonded with the Carnage symbiote, and become "The Carnage Cosmic", a name that's still as bad as it was 3 months ago when I started this thing...

Realising that basically everyone is screwed if he's taken over by Carnage, SS takes off in to space.

The Carnage Cosmic (ugh) in space actually looks pretty cool.

And here we find out why Carnage has such a mad-on for Chrome Dome: While he was still Herald for Galactus, he found a planet full of the (marauding!) symbiotes.
Poor emo-symbiotes. All they wanted was some love. What did he give them?

Galactus.

This of course pissed the symbiote species off, as genocide of your species tends to do. Never mind that they had already taken over the original inhabitants of the planet, and should basically be the last ones to point fingers. Their hate was so strong, it was burned in to racial memory. That's some serious hate.

A psycological battle ensues, where we see what a black void Kassady (the regular Carnage host) has for a soul, compared with the compassion the Surfer tries to offer his foe. I suppose Carnage decides that being bonded to a big silver pussy isn't much of a career move for a killing machine, so it's back to earth to rejoin the old host.

Spider-Man isn't thrilled with the prospect of his old foe returning, clearly not having thought through how much worse The Carnage Cosmic (ugh) would be. More hitting follows, while the Surfer tries to reason with him.

Peter eventually sees the logic, and allows the change to take place, much to the delight of Carnage, who decides the best way to thank them would be to kill lots and lots of people. Always the thoughtful symbiote.

He's about to get owned though, because, like the Cylons, the Surfer has a plan.

He basically freezes Carnage.

Which, when you consider how much the Silver Surfer is against killing, is actually a pretty brutal solution. Not that he doesn't deserve it, but something like, I dunno, banishment to the Negative Zone, would be much more humane than rendering someone unable to move for the rest of their life.

But what do I know.