Yeah, I've been with Cates' Venom since #1 and haven't missed an issue. I love what he has done with both Eddie and the Symbiote character-wise. I feel like they have more depth than ever. Broken Eddie is someone you are really rooting for. So on that front it's all great and I'm interested to see how much more of that ties into Absolute.
As for the event itself, it really benefits to read a lot of the lead ups (Cult of Carnage especially sets the stage. And the last one featuring Mania has some really cool stuff.) I gotta hit the shop today for the new issues, but I'm loving all of the horror elements. I'm hoping Cates can work his magic here and hopefully expand on Carnage to make him more interesting.
Re: the redesign, I like spindly, lanky carnage. He's weaaring that dragon symbiote so it makes sense he would look different.