The new Carnage crossover event series has seen several deaths, but one of the biggest is coming this week and it is one that fans should love. Deaths in comics are often tragic, but for some characters, it is a death that many fans have dreamed of and, in many cases, celebrated thanks to how much the character is hated. In the new storyline, a new mysterious villain named Torment is tormenting Eddie Brock, who is currently bonded with the Carnage symbiote. What Eddie learns is that Torment has been killing people in the Brock family line, and he sets out to find out why, without realizing that Carnage seems to be secretly behind it as well.
The most disturbing moment happened when Torment killed Eddie Brock’s father and he couldn’t get there in time to save him. However, in next week’s Venom #256, Torment kills Paul Rabin, arguably the most hated supporting character in Spider-Man comics.
Paul’s Death Has Been a Long Time Coming in Spider-Man Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel
Paul Rabin made his Marvel Comics debut during Zeb Wells’ run on The Amazing Spider-Man. At this time in Marvel history, Peter Parker was planning on asking Mary Jane to marry him, something fans anxiously waited for since One More Day ended their marriage to begin with. However, Mary Jane ended up trapped in an alternate dimension for four years, and while she was there, she met and fell in love with a man in that dimension named Paul Rabin. Similar to when Magik was trapped in Limbo, only a short time passed in this world before she was back.
In Mary Jane’s case, it was a matter of weeks, and when she returned and Peter found her, she had been with Paul and helped raise his children, although they were later revealed to be mystical creations. Because many fans believe Peter and Mary Jane are the destined end game, and should be together, it caused a widespread hatred for Paul. It got so bad that the comics even referenced it more than once. Mary Jane and Paul broke up a while back, and while she still has no intention to return to Peter, it hasn’t stopped the hate for this character. In fact, Mary Jane is considering dating Flash Thompson, and Marvel fans still hold their hate for Paul Rabin.
In the current “Death Spiral” storyline, Torment is killing anyone connected with his targets, spiraling in on the main target in the end. He had already killed Eddie Brock’s dad, and it looked like he was heading to kill Eddie’s son Dylan next. Humorously, the last thing people saw of Paul was when Dylan was lashing out at him, almost saying what fans think. “I hate that you simp around like Mr. Tryhard Topknot, hoping people are gonna like you,” Dylan said. “But I don’t care about you enough to hate you. I don’t care about you at all.” That is when Torment showed up.
As the leaked pages from the next issue of Venom shows, it wasn’t Dylan that Torment killed. Instead, Carnage (Eddie Brock) and Spider-Man showed up and saw that Torment had killed Paul Rabin. Even more humorously, Spider-Man just said Paul was “a guy” and then said they needed to head out to find Torment. It was a death that many Spider-Man fans wanted to see coming, and the way it was done was perfect based on his reputation.
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