This story continues from AXIS #3….

The Sin-Eater has been reborn in New York City and he is now resuming his cause. He targets a popular news anchor as he goes on a date in a trendy bar. The Sin-Eater appears before him and shoots the anchor for his sins.

Meanwhile, the serial killer known as Carnage has returned to the city after being hit by a magic spell that has inverted the personalities of all who were caught in it.[1] Now Carnage suddenly feels the need to become a hero and do good deeds. As he swings across the city he happens upon a man playing rough with a woman on the street. Carnage swings down and punches the man in the face so hard one of his eyeballs pops out of his head. The woman he saved is more frightened of Carnage and what did than the man who was treating her rough. A second man tries to stab Carnage from behind, but the maniac whirls around and slices off his hand. Carnage figures he is trying too hard and feels bad for causing so much violence. That’s when the woman starts hitting him with one of her high heel shoes because the second man Carnage attacked was her pimp.

Realizing that the woman is a prostitute he decides to punish her for her crime and gently punches her out. Carnage then pats himself on the back for not causing her eyeballs to pop out. By this point, a crowd has appeared on the other side of the street and they have been recording everything. Carnage tries to explain he is a hero now but is forced to retreat when the police arrive.

Meanwhile, another reporter Chris Rollins goes to an Asian massage parlor for a rub down with a happy ending. Instead of his usual girl, the Sin-Eater enters the room seeking to kill him for his sins. When Rollins recalls that the original Sin-Eater was a copy, this Sin-Eater calls him an impostor who is dead.[2] In the ensuing struggle, a candle is knocked over setting the room on fire. Chris manages to grab Sin-Eater’s mask and pull it off. Rollins is horrified to see that a green glowing skull underneath the mask. The Sin-Eater then shoots Rollins at point-blank range.

Chris Rollins murder is picked up by the news station he works at, CVN, and reporter Alice Gleason gives the report. This report is viewed by Carnage who can feel Alice’s emotions and thinks she is a good person. After the cameras stop rolling, Alice stops the waterworks and when her producer comments on her performance she tells him not to read much into it, she and Chris were screwing and he meant nothing more. She then demands Chris Rollins old beat, which was super-heroes. Her producer is shocked that she would ask for the job when Rollins body hasn’t even grown cold. She doesn’t care and insists on it. He has decided to assign police protection to all of his reporters in case this nut job is targeting journalists and tells Alice to earn the right to follow the super-hero beat by finding a good story about a cape.

Alice and her police protection soon return to her apartment. She offers him a drink while she goes into her bedroom to get changed. The officer accepts as long as it’s just one. That’s when he notices someone hiding behind the curtains. This turns out to be the Sin-Eater who kills the police officer, blowing the cops head off with his shotgun. The Sin-Eater then absorbs all of the sins from the dead officer’s body. That’s when he notices that Alice has been filming the whole thing on her phone. He can smell the sin on her as well and declines her offer to make him a star. That’s when Carnage comes crashing in through the window and uses his tendrils to pull up Sin-Eater’s sawed-off shotgun and makes the vigilante blow his own head off. Carnage then grabs the screaming Alice Gleason and swings away. Moments after their gone, the Sin-Eater’s glowing skull regenerates and he gets up off the floor.

When Alice Gleason wakes up she discovers that Carnage has her webbed up to the side of a building. Carnage tells her that he wants to be a hero but has no idea how and asks her for her help. Alice responds by screaming.

Recurring Characters

Carnage, Sin-Eater, Alice Gleason

Continuity Notes

1. The central premise of the Axis storyline was that a spell causes good guys to go bad and bad guys to go good. See Axis #1-9.

2. Stanley Carter wasn’t an impostor, he was the real Sin-Eater. He was active from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110. He was later killed in Spectacular Spider-Man #134-136.

Who is This Sin-Eater?

The primary villain in this story is an undead version of the Sin-Eater who is a glowing skeleton under his clothes. This story is somewhat ambiguous about who he is.

Per Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110, the original Sin-Eater was Stanley Carter. During that time, Emil Gregg was a mentally ill man who took credit for the Sin-Eater’s crimes and misled law enforcement as well as reporter Eddie Brock until Carter was captured as the real Sin-Eater. Carter was later killed in Spectacular Spider-Man #136. Gregg is later discovered to have been homeless after this and died prior to the events of these series.

There was another Sin-Eater, Michael Engelschwert who appeared and died in Venom: Sinner Takes All #1-5.

However, this Sin-Eater could only possibly be Emil Gregg. When Gregg’s dead body was found, he had been dead for days, suggesting he died sometime prior to the first issue. Also, in the 3rd issue, the Sin-Eater called Carter an impostor and claims ownership of the Sin-Eater’s original murder spree. This is exactly how Emil Gregg acted back when he took credit for the Sin-Eater’s crimes.

Moreover, the original Sin-Eater was more recently resurrected in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #37. Amazing Spider-Man: Sin Rising Prelude #1 looks into what happened to Carter after his death and leading up to his resurrection. He has no memory of being a ghostly Sin-Eater (also, the Sin-Eater in Axis claims he is someone other than Carter)

Mind you, Gregg was also briefly resurrected in Venom (vol. 4) #16, but he was beaten to death by Eddie Brock before it could be learned if he was the ghostly Sin-Eater seen in Axis.

One could argue that it was Engelschwert because he became delusional as well and was influenced by Emil Gregg’s own delusions.

However, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that it is Emil Gregg, because he outlived Engelschwert. He was homeless, so him setting up his Sin-Eater shrine in the sewers prior to his death would make sense. It would also make the most sense that he would become this undead Sin-Eater than say a third unknown individual or an afterlife entity (demon, angel, whatever) taking on the Sin-Eater identity. This is all too personal.

So until there is some kind of clarification from Marvel, I’ve chosen to assume that this is Emil Gregg.