Note that this page deals with the Carnage symbiote itself. For more information on the various hosts go to their respective pages.
Origin
When the Venom symbiote returned to bond with an imprisoned Eddie Brock again, it unwittingly left behind the symbiote’s offspring (The symbiotes reproduce asexually, once per generation. The children are then of no consequence to the parent. Thus, the Venom symbiote felt no need to inform Brock of the existence of the new symbiote). This Venom offspring got into a cut on Brock’s cellmate Cletus Kasady, an insane serial killer, thus bonding with his blood and transforming him into Carnage (also causing his symbiote to turn red). He escaped prison, and began a series of murders, and at the scene of each crime, he wrote “Carnage Rules” on the walls with his own blood.
Creation
Carnage was created by David Michelinie and Mark Bagley and first appeared fully in Amazing Spider-Man issue 361 (1992). He had however appeared before in a minor cameo one issue before, in Amazing Spider-Man issue 360 (1992).
Character Evolution
Carnage and Cletus were always like minded; they both share a love of killing. Cletus Kasady is in complete control of the symbiote, unlike Eddie Brock who still puts up some fights with his own alien. Unlike Venom, Carnage refers to himself as “I” instead of “we” because Kasady and Carnage have become one being literally to the point that the symbiote lives in his blood. Perhaps due in part to his insanity, Carnage’s strength and abilities far exceed those of his predecessors Venom and Spider-Man, and grows with his blood-lust.
Carnage was actually not the first choice of names from his creators, as revealed in the trade paper-back Spider-Man: Carnage, his original name was Chaos, but due to a DC character sharing that name, it was rejected. The 2nd choice was Ravage, but due to concerns of him being tied to Ravage 2099 that name was also rejected, Carnage was actually the third choice when it came to naming the character.
Story Arcs
A Web of Spiders
After his escape, Kasady embarked on a citywide killing spree. Kasady is later found by Spider-Man, at the burned down remains of St. Estes Home for Boys. However though the hero proves to be no match for the power of Carnage In desperation, Spider-Man makes a truce with Venom to fight Carnage.
Carnage is defeated with sonic weaponry, but the symbiote lives on (because he was merged with Kasady’s bloodstream at the time) to become Spider-Carnage, and the Silver Surfer (Creating the insane and vastly powerful Carnage Cosmic). Later, Venom decided to reabsorb the Carnage symbiote “for good.” Without the symbiote, Kasady retained the Carnage persona by costuming himself in red paint and continuing his killing sprees (albeit as a powerless human) but him being a regular man now Spider-Man had no problem webbing him up and sending him to jail. But soon after, Kasady was sucked into a black hole and straight into The Negative Zone war between Blastaar and the Living Bomb, Burst and the Super Hero called Dusk. Kasady teamed up with Blastaar, Cletus discovered that he had been called by another symbiote trapped in the Negative Zone. How this symbiote is an identical copy, or where it came from, has yet to be explained. So after a quick bonding, Carnage was back. However Blastaar quickly realized that annihilating Earth would result in the destruction of the entire universe and called it off. Carnage, on the other hand, was practically frothing at the mouth at the chance to wipe out trillions of lives and attempted to activate Blastaar’s universe destroying machine, but only send himself and Spider-man back to Earth, and was once again taken into custody by the police. So Cletus Kasady as Carnage was back to being one of Spider-Man’s deadliest foes and continued his rampage throughout Manhattan. However, the issues in which Kasady discovered the replica had references to the Spider-Man Unlimited TV series which had been airing at the time and which featured the Carnage symbiote as one of its villains. In this same issue, Spider-Man himself briefly gained the costume the animated version of him from that series wore.
Maximum Carnage
Perhaps the most famous storyline in which Carnage appears is the 1993 Spider-Man event Maximum Carnage. Carnage ends up escaping from an asylum and attacks the doctors and breaks out a super villain named Shriek in which the two start a romantic bond with each other. Later on, they get a whole Carnage “family” of psychotic super-villains (consisting of Demogoblin, Carrion and Doppelganger) and overtake New York in a twisted killing spree where he randomly kills hundreds if not thousands of innocent people and throws the city into mindless chaos. They are eventually driven back by Spider-Man, Venom, the Black Cat, Captain America, Nightwatch, Cloak And Dagger, Deathlok, Morbius and Firestar. His partnership with Shriek and the other villains would fade over time and later almost completely disappear in his big battle with Spider-Man and his allies. However, despite Carnage’s apparent death at the hands of Deathlok using his “Magni Illuminizer”, Carnage shockingly returns out of a lake just as Venom complains to Spider-Man that he wanted to kill Carnage himself. He had faked his own death (most likely by covering one of his victims in a mock symbiote outfit).
He fought the two viciously. As Venom hunts him down he begins suffering a complete mental breakdown leading him to revisit his bloody past at Ryker’s Prison, the St. Estes Home for Boys, dig up his mother at a cemetery in which a final fight between him and Spider-Man and Venom ensued. In the end, Venom dragged Carnage into a big explosion, defeating him.
Cletus was later hauled off to get cured from the alien symbiote which lived in his blood. He later escaped by scratching his tongue against a tooth which he filed down to a needle point in order to release the alien. Spider-man later shows up to stop him with a sonic gun, however Carnage uses two near by cops as a distraction to take out the gun for good, and shortly after kills the cops. Carnage then takes the police car and drives off to visit Billy, his first and maybe only friend of his life to kill him. Carnage figured that people would never expect him to go after a specific target, since all he does it random murder, this makes it all the more fun for him. Carnage told Billy about their first meeting and tells him why he is going to kill him. He says that “In a world of carnage and chaos there can be no enemies, only victims, making this the perfect example”. Spider-man tracks Carnage down when a battle to the death ruptured. Carnage nearly defeated the Web-Slinger, when Billy distracted him and trick him out of using his symbiote. Spider-man landed a punch square in the jaw which knocked the killer out cold. Kasady went back to Ravencroft, and as he sits in his cell he waits. He figures they expect him to escape, which is why he does the exact opposite, because doing the unexpected is what makes him free.
Web of Carnage
In the 1996 “Web of Carnage” storyline, the Carnage symbiote escapes from the Ravencroft Institute through the plumbing where Cletus Kasady is incarcerated, seeking a stronger host. It takes over Ben Reilly, who had recently replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man. Reilly has little previous experience with symbiotes, and is unprepared for an enemy that is immune to his spider-sense. Together, they become Spider-Carnage, and the symbiote attempts to force him, both mentally and physically, to kill Peter Parker (then powerless), and other innocent people. The symbiote’s will to kill is so strong that Reilly actually has realistic visions of him maiming and killing. In a desperate attempted to control the symbiote, Reilly goes to Ravencroft, to talk to the symbiote’s former host Cletus Kasady, who is dying of stomach cancer. When Kasady tells Reilly there is no way to control it, the symbiote tries to get to Kasady, to reform Carnage again. Reilly does not want this to happen and risks his own life, and sanity, to the symbiote, when he tells John Jameson to put him in a cell and lock him up. John then turns on microwave shields in the cell Reilly is in, to try and force the symbiote off. It works but the symbiote slithers off into a sink and goes through the plumbing to re-bond with Cletus Kasady
Venom vs Carnage
Carnage starred in the miniseries Venom vs. Carnage, in 2005. The Carnage symbiote spawned a “child” symbiote, which he tried to kill without success. The “child” later bonded with police officer Patrick Mulligan, which was the host Carnage chose because he was nearest at the time. Carnage had the opportunity to kill the symbiote child then and there however Carnage was exhausted because he tried to kill his offspring before it got birthed. Carnage felt nothing but hate for the young creature and attempted to kill it, while Venom defended it (oddly enough feeling protective of his “grandchild”). Venom named the new symbiote Toxin. Later Carnage yet again tries to kill Toxin and almost gets away till the Black Cat notices Pat Mulligan screaming hanging with an inch of his life on a building with Carnage veering close. Black Cat later stops Carnage and saves Pat Mulligun. Carnage yet again tries to kill Toxin and the Black Cat when Pat Mulligun’s symbiote starts to go over him and he stops Carnage. When Toxin realized the power he has, he went off to kill Cletus Kasady and almost succeeded but stopped because he didn’t want to sink to his levels. Venom then teams up with Carnage to kill Toxin once and for all, but are both stopped when Toxin, Black Cat, and Spider-Man team up to defeat them. Mulligan has since attempted to steer the symbiote towards heroism instead of murder.
Death?
Carnage was one of several super villains trying to escape from The Raft in New Avengers #1-2. However the Sentry flew Carnage outside the Earth’s atmosphere and ripped him apart. According to Iron Man ‘s computer Kasady might not have been inside the symbiote.
Return Of Carnage!
The Carnage symbiote once thought dead by the hands of Sentry is being held in a containment tank by an unknown organization, who kidnap Shriek and lead her to see it.
Shriek appears startled at first, but she may just be shocked that Cletus Kasady may still be alive. Wondering if maybe they will offer her the symbiote suit because of her having been near it longer than anyone else (besides Cletus Kasady) without being ripped to shreds. But so far, they are using Shriek to “feed” the symbiote her hate and lust for destruction, which she has the ability to do emitting and inducing in others. (like how she did in Maximum Carnage to drive the whole city insane with blood lust)
Later, Cletus Kasady makes a return. When the symbiote takes over Tanis Nieves it goes on a rampage, not bonding with her, still sensing Cletus Kasady’s presence. Spider-Man and Iron Man believe it to be going for revenge to kill the man who kept it locked up, but instead it went straight for Kasady, who has new bio-mechanical legs from being ripped in two. The bond between the symbiote and its host was so strong that the symbiote almost died in space just to keep Cletus alive. The symbiote bonded to Kasady once more and Carnage went on a murderous rampage after Michael Hall, but the security of Royal Blue and the rest arrive to stop Carnage. It is later revealed that Michael Hall used parts of the Carnage symbiote to build their suits. Carnage used a mental link to snap the bones and kill the wearers of the suits then he began to merge with the suits just as he did in Planet of the Symbiotes, growing larger and far stronger. Spider-man and Iron Man showed up, but by then it was too late.
The team tried hard to defeat Carnage but things got more difficult when Shriek and Doppleganger made it to the scene. Carnage seemed to not care much that Shriek was around and was much more focused on killing then thanking Shriek for saving him at one point. He almost killed Iron Man but was temped more to kill Spider-Man. He was stopped when a part of the symbiote took over Tanis and transformed into Scorn. Scorn made Shriek aim a sonic scream at Carnage, knocking him down. He was then beaten violently and torn into by Spider-Man attacking him with a street meter but managed to escape before Spider-Man could get through the giant suit.
Later it turns out Cletus is hiding in a beach house with Doppleganger watching TV and plotting a comeback.
Carnage USA
In the small American town of Doverton, Colorado, Carnage returns. After consuming all the meat and staff in the local meat packing factory, the symbiote infects the town by making its way through the sinks and drains. Cletus makes his demands by carving them into a hostage – he wants the town to become a symbiote state, his own country.
A team of heroes; Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye and Thing – are lead by Spider-Man to make contact with Carnage. When they arrive, they find Cletus holding all the towns people hostage, and his symbiote wrapped around all their necks. When the Thing uses a sonic weapon on Carnage, it results in the heroes becoming infected with the bloodthirsty symbiote, and facing off with Spider-Man.
With the heroes out of action, the government turns to its other contigency plans; Venom, Toxin, Hybrid, Scorn and Anti-Venom. Spider-Man escapes his symbiote infected allies, as Carnage uses them like puppets against him. He is rescued by the townsfolk who have avoided Carnage, and they use molotov fire bombs to make their getaway from the town center, to their base on a fenced in, private zoo.
Meanwhile the government send in soldiers who have been enhanced with symbiotes, and their mission is to stop Carnage and rescue the civilians before the town is bombed to save the world from Carnage’s outbreak. Scorn is also deployed to stop Carnage, but she spends time in her base melding her symbiote with mechanical devices around herself. Spider-Man rallies the un-infected towns folk, they are going to make an attack against Carnage in a last ditch effort to save the town. The symbiote-soldiers are already in the town, fighting off waves of symbiote infected people. As they are running out of ammo, Carnage and the Avengers team he is controlling come out to face them. It looks like the soldiers are doomed, but Spider-Man and the townsfolk arrive and attack Carnage with more molotovs.
While wrestling with Spider-Man, Carnage gains the upper hand and is about to carve out Spider-Man’s eyes, when Venom (Flash Thompson) jumps in and rescues Spider-Man by shooting Carnage with sonic bullets. Venom is winning the fight against Carnage, and is ready to kill him until Spider-Man stops him and Carnage gains control over the Avengers team again. Venom and Carnage are ready to fight again, but suddenly an improvised truck, controlled by the Scorns’ mechanically fused symbiote, catches both Venom and Carnage, and puts them both in a glass tank that removes their symbiotes. Flash recovers, and is left in his legless human form with Cletus Kasady standing over him with a shard of glass, ready to kill Flash.
The symbiotes go rogue, and manage to find zoo animals that escaped from a private reserve and bond to them. The Venom symbiote bonds to a gorilla, while the Carnage symbiote bonds to several monkeys, a few giraffes, and even a lion. Meanwhile, Cletus’s bionic legs fall apart due to the glass tank affecting the symbiotic circuitry. Flash and Cletus have a brutal fight, impaling each other with meat hooks and glass. With help from the Avengers and Scorn, the Venom symbiote gorilla makes it’s way back to Flash, leaving the gorilla and bonding to him again. Flash takes advantage of Cletus’s lost limbs and easily wins the confrontation, but doesn’t kill Cletus.
After the government changes plans from bombing the entire town to a localized assault – killing the zoo animal Carnage symbiotes – Scorn collects the last remaining remnant of the Carnage symbiote for an unknown second objective. The assault on the zoo animal symbiotes leaves the town devastated. Meanwhile, Flash brings Cletus in alive. He tells Captain America that if he had killed Cletus he wouldn’t be able to face Spider-Man, Cap assures him that Cletus was meant to be brought in alive. Cletus and the symbiote are then taken from the town and into custody.
Minimum Carnage
In Minimum Carnage, Carnage is made stronger (incorporating hybrid clones of himself and Venom from the Microverse into his symbiote). By the end of Minimum Carnage (Omega), the Carnage symbiote has full control of Cletus Kasady‘s body (because Kasady has become lobotomized). More details can be found on Kasady’s page.
Superior Carnage
While Carnage was in federal custody, the super-villain Wizard attempted to break him out to make him a part of his new iteration of The Frightful Four. However, during the ensuing chaos, Wizard discovered he couldn’t control the monster’s mind, because of Kasady’s lobotomization. Thankfully, Wizard’s longtime ally and fellow member of the Frightful Four Klaw attacked the symbiote with a sonic blast, preventing the symbiote from killing Wizard.
After attaching Kasady to a sound cage to prevent him from being able to morph into Carange, Klaw and Wizard decide how to control the beast: they will attach the symbiote to a mind the Wizard can control. The person they decide to use is Dr. Karl Malus, fellow scientist and fourth member of the Frightful Four. After dragging him from his wheelchair and forcing him to undergo a blood transfusion with Kasady, Malus morphs into Carnage and attacks Klaw and Wizard with the intent of killing them, thankfully for them, Wizard manages to take control of Malus’s mind and make him his servant: The Superior Carnage!
With his Frightful Four finally assembled, Wizard storms city hall with the intent of killing J. Jonah Jameson and taking control of NYC. Once they reached the mayor’s office, they discovered that the mayor was taken to a safe bunker and instead, they meet Spider-Man and his Spider-Minions.
The two sides immediately attack each other, with Carnage slaying the spider-minions and then goes after Spider-man himself. During the fight, Spider-man throws Wizard out of the window and out into the street below. Now free from Wizard’s control, Carnage attacks Klaw, temporarily disposing of him while he goes to kill Spider-Man. During the fight between Carnage and Spidey, Klaw recovers and attacks Spider-man to protect his friend Wizard. While Klaw is blasting Spider-Man with his sonic scream, Carnage stabs Klaw through the back with a vibranium blade. This pierces his suit and causes him to explode into a sonic boom
The sonic boom from Klaw’s explosion caused the Symbiote to abandon Malus and attach itself to Wizard. Given the power of Carnage, Wizard goes on a rampage and throws a car at Spider-Man and the now powerless Dr. Malus. Spider-Man stops the car and fights the new Carnage one-on-one! This new Carnage taunts Spider-Man by telling him that he knows he is really Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man continues to fight Carnage, trying to buy Dr. Malus time to escape, but Malus is handicapped and can’t even walk. So Carnage “helps” his former host by ridding him of his pesky legs, ripping them off of his body.
Out of options, Spider-Man uses his last resort, and wheels out the body of Cletus Kasady, the original host of Carnage. The symbiote abandons its current host and attaches to Kasady, becoming whole once more. For some reason unknown, Carnage reattaching itself to Kasady healed his brain and he was now once again at his pre-Minimum Carnage level of intelligence. Kasady was subsequently struck by lightning from the surviving essence of Klaw, and Spider-Man brought Carnage back into custody
Deadpool vs Carnage
After the events of Superior Carnage in which the symbiote healed Kasady’s mind, Carnage is back on one of his murderous rampages in which he attacks a small café. After believing its his destiny to defeat Carnage, Deadpool goes after him. Although his first attempt would have been a success, Shriek prevents Wade from completing his mission but, after a couple of attempts, Deadpool is finally able to beat Carnage with the help of four other symbiotes. At the end of the series, Carnage swears he will get his vengeance.
Axis
Carnage is one of the villains who responds to Magneto‘s request for help against Red Onslaught but, after Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom perform a spell, his personality is inversed and he wishes to become a hero. After performing a number of “heroic” deeds in New York, Carnage joins Spider-Man and a number of other inverted heroes against the inverted heroes. He is seen sacrificing himself by rapping the symbiote over a bomb that is set to kill everyone on the planet who wasn’t a mutant.
Post-Axis
Cletus was able to survive the gene bomb’s explosion, though he lost his legs in the process. Cured of his inversion after a counterspell was cast and disgusted by his behavior as a hero, he went to Carefree, Arizona, to pay a visit to a new friend he’d made during the time he was inverted, a friend he was willing to “help”, Sam Alexander aka Nova. Cletus left a message signaling his return in the form of murdering a random bystander who he had asked where to find the boy as proof that he was reverted to his natural moral axis.
After learning that Sam’s mother worked at a local diner, Cletus took her hostage there in order to get his attention, but, tired of waiting, Cletus decided to kill her. Nova arrived before he could do so and took him away from the diner to an empty area in order not to hurt anyone. While fighting, Nova tried to convince him that he wasn’t Sam Alexander, but Cletus didn’t believe him. After being wounded by the Nova Force, Cletus fled to let his symbiote heal him as the police arrived. The next day, already healed from his burns, Cletus attacked Sam again, this time at his school. While attacking Sam, Carnage saw Nova flying around the area, thus making it impossible for the boy to be Nova (unbeknownst to him, that was Sam’s mother wearing his helmet). Enraged, Carnage followed the false Nova, but lost sight of her. He then started to attack innocent people to try and get Nova’s attention, provoking a new battle between them.Carnage was taken by Nova to the sky and then punched into the parking lot below, the impact setting off the cars’ alarms, dizzying Cletus and his symbiote. Cletus was then thrown by Nova, who had already realized Carnage’s weakness to loud sounds, into an Anthrax (a heavy metal band which Cletus was a fan of) show nearby. As the symbiote screamed in pain, Cletus fled to the road, but was attacked by Nova again. He threw a car at Nova, who caught it midair, and took advantage of it to punch him. As he was about to finish his opponent off, Carnage was hit by a truck. He was then tied in metal plates by Nova, and left by his symbiote as he revealed he wanted to kill Nova because he wanted to erase any memory of his good deeds from the time he had his moral axis inverted from anyone who remembered it. He was left by Sam in Ryker’s Island.
The Darkhold
Having escaped from Rykers, Carnage was lured to Grey Ridge Mine in West Virginia by the FBI upon learning its chief of security, Manuela Calderon, was the sole survivor of Kasady’s first mass murder. A task force that included FBI agent Clarie Dixon, Army soldier John Jameson (aka Man-Wolf) and Eddie Brock (the latest host of the Toxin symbiote) attempted to capture Carnage, but the plan fell apart when Carnage and several FBI agents fell through a fracture into a played-out section of the mine, an occurrence set up by the owner of the mine, Barry Gleason, who turned out to be a member of the occult group known as the Darkholders. Gleason lured Carnage deeper into the mine until he reached a secret temple, where Gleason and the Darkholders attempted to sacrifice Carnage in a ritual that involved the Darkhold, a book of ancient times that made reference to Carnage as the “Red Slayer.” The ritual resulted in the unexpected enhancement of Carnage’s powers, prompting Kasady to take the Darkhold with him when he slip away from the FBI’s task force.
Carnage would soon make his way to an uncharted island where he could unlock the Darkhold’s powers. On his way there, he hijacked a freighter a group of Darkholders planned to use to bring Carnage to said island, and learned in the process the Darkhold’s connection to Elder God Chthon. The FBI’s task force followed him to the ship, now joined by Darkhold expert Victoria Montesi, and tried to stop him. Carnage used the Darkhold on Claire Dixon, turning her into his own symbiote-possessed puppet named Raze. In an attempt to destroy Carnage, Raze and the Darkhold, the task force blew up the freighter. Carnage survived, and was found adrift at sea by young sailor Jubulile van Scotter. Carnage infected Jubulile with a symbiote, which created a psychic connection between the two, but she managed to escape and was later found by the anti-Carnage task force.
Once he reached the island and reunited with Raze, Carnage delved deeper into its territory until he found the Chthonic temple and the altar. He performed a ritual that summoned Chthon to the world with the intention to destroy it. Kasady attempted to have Chthon reward him with more power, but failed. Having tracked down Carnage to the island and subsequently the temple, the task force confronted him. Chthon was confronted by Jubulile, who was empowered by her symbiote, the Toxin symbiote absorbed from Brock, and the Raze symbiote absorbed from Dixon. Jubulile was given more power when Montesi took the Darkhold from Carnage and fed her psychic energies from all over the world, allowing her to become powerful enough to banish Chthon. Montesi also used the Darkhold on Carnage, casting a spell that stripped Kasady of his symbiote and reshaped it into a cage that detained him. The members of the task force later parted ways, with Calderon and Jameson deciding to deliver Kasady to the FBI.
Kasady was subsequently stripped of the Carnage symbiote, with it having been kept separate from him at the Lock Box before being stolen and delivered to Norman Osborn. Osborn ultimately ripped the Carnage symbiote off when he realized that Cletus would get the credit if he killed Spider-Man while bonded to it, but the symbiote installed a copy of Cletus’ psyche into Osborn’s mind when it was killed in the process of bonding to him, giving him a new split personality.
The Poison Invasion
Kasady was re-incarcerated in Ravencroft, placed in a specialized cell that kept him immobilized and suspended off the ground. When the Poison Hive attacked Earth-616, Kasady was approached by Poisoned incarnations of Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and Lady Deathstrike, who mocked how pathetic he was without the Carnage symbiote or his legs. Pleased that Kasady’s insatiable bloodlust was intact, the Poisons brought him onboard their flagship and offered him the chance to become Carnage again if he allied with them. Kasady – unaware that the Poisons intended to consume him before he became a threat and use the ensuing Poison Carnage as a weapon of mass destruction – eagerly accepted, believing they would return his beloved symbiote to him. He was instead used as a test subject and forcibly bonded a new symbiote that the remnants of the Carnage symbiote in his blood attempted to reject, causing him excruciating pain in the process. Upon breaking free, he began to rampage but was quickly consumed by an unbound Poison. Despite Poison Doom’s precautions, Cletus’ psyche was able to mostly-resist being consumed, and Poison Carnage only pretended to be loyal to the Hive. He attacked Alchemax alongside Poison Doctor Druid, Poison Killer Thrill, the Poison X-Force, and Poison Thundra; but was angered when informed their mission wasn’t to fight but to bolster the Hive’s ranks.
Poison Carnage threatened Poison Doctor Druid into teleporting him and the other Poisons back to their ship. Once there, Poison Carnage battled both Venom and Spider-Man, nearly decapitating the former and impaling the latter. He was ultimately tossed into space by Venom and Danger.
Prophet of the Void
After the Poison Queen’s death, Poison Carnage’s crystalline exoskeleton and consumed symbiote crumbled to reveal Cletus Kasady somehow restored to humanity. As gravity took hold of Cletus, the remnants of the original Carnage symbiote emerged in an attempt to shield his body from the reentry plasma but perished despite its Darkhold-augmentations, leaving him badly burnt. Cletus crash-landed in the desert and died from his severe injuries, his body being recovered and ID’d by authorities.
The Cult of Knull, an apocalyptic cult dedicated to worshiping Knull and led by a corrupted Scorn, attacked the convoy transporting Cletus’ body to retrieve it, and later stole a sample of the primordial Grendel symbiote from the Maker’s Project Oversight laboratory. Scorn bonded the piece of the Grendel symbiote to Cletus, intending to turn him into Knull’s new vessel. Reanimated by the primordial symbiote, Cletus was psychically connected to the dark god, fighting against his will for control of his now-undead body. Cletus’ connection to Knull was broken when he ripped out Scorn’s spine to consume the trace remnants – or codex – of the Carnage symbiote left over from her time as its host and consumed it. Altering the piece of the Grendel symbiote to match the appearance of the Carnage symbiote, Cletus decided to help free Knull and set out to hunt down and consume the codices of the other symbiote hosts, living and deceased. Assuming leadership of the cult, Carnage subsequently conquered San Francisco’s underground city — which Venom had once guarded as the Lethal Protector — and used his newfound abilities to infect the inhabitants with symbiote “brain worms” – maggots infected with the Carnagized Grendel symbiote – sending them to hunt down those who possessed symbiote codices.
Recruiting Shriek and Doppelganger once more, Carnage returned to Doverton, Colorado and claimed the codices of the Carnage symbiote left in its populace; infecting John Jameson with the Carnagized Grendel symbiote so that he could act as a sleeper agent. Carnage — now sporting Knull’s spiral emblem on his forehead — traveled to Philadelphia to claim Andi Benton’s symbiote codex, killing her aunt Sarah and the Monsters of Evil, though Andi used the demonic powers of her Hell-Markto escape. Carnage returned to Manhattan, but during the War of the Realms he opted to sit out the combat and chaos rather than reveal himself prematurely; establishing a lair in the sewers and subways under Grand Street, and infecting more homeless people and animals with the Carnageized Grendel symbiote to act as his minions. After the war’s end, Carnage began sending his minions out to hunt for codices, and resurrected Emil Gregg to torment Eddie. Carnage and his followers also exhumed the bodies of every deceased people who’d bonded to a symbiote, harvested their codices, and left the desecrated bodies in a mass grave in the shape of Knull’s spiral.
Greatly empowered, Kasady was transformed into “Dark Carnage” — a thirteen foot-tall skeletal monster with Knull’s spiral on its forehead and a white dragon/spider emblem on his chest. Harvesting the codices of the Weapon V super-soldier program and Leonard Elkhart, a one-time host of the Venom symbiote, Dark Carnage traveled to Nicaragua and attacked Alejandra Jones, whose Spirit of Vengeance had at one point melded with the Venom symbiote and transferred a codex into her. Despite interference from another Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, Dark Carnage ripped out Alejandra’s spine and ate it, temporarily absorbing her Spirit of Vengeance. Delighting in his new demonic powers, Dark Carnage battled Ketch but was retrieved by his followers when they started to fade. Chastised for losing sight of the cult’s goals, Dark Carnage lashed out at them before resuming the hunt for codices.
Upon arriving in Manhattan, Dark Carnage attempted to break into the old Avengers Tower, impersonating Eddie Brock and allowing himself to be arrested. Kasady informed the police of his resurrection and plan to unleash Knull in such a way as to make Brock look like a raving lunatic, and was imprisoned in Ryker’s Island. Still posing as Brock, Kasady was confronted by Lee Price – who had formerly hosted the Venom symbiote and was currently the host of the Mania symbiote – in the prison cafeteria. When Price threatened him, Kasady ripped the Mania symbiote out of him and bonded to it, destroying the security cameras in order to frame Brock. Transforming into Dark Carnage, Kasady slaughtered the inmates in the cafeteria and broke out of the prison; making his way to the mainland and selecting Spider-Man as his next target.
Noticing Eddie Brock and his son Dylan, Cletus pursued them into the subway and pushed Eddie and Dylan in front of an oncoming train – in mockery of what Eddie had once done to Spider-Man. The Venom symbiote rebonded to Eddie and derailed the train to save him and Dylan, and Cletus transformed into Dark Carnage; laughing off Venom’s attacks and attempting to rip the Venom symbiote off Eddie so that he could absorb it. Eddie managed to incapacitate Dark Carnage by grabbing onto the third rail – exploiting the Carnagized Grendel symbiote’s vulnerability to electricity – but Cletus quickly recovered. Setting his sights on Norman Osborn, Cletus made his way to Ravencroft and activated John Jameson to keep Spider-Man and Venom – who has shown up to protect Osborn – occupied. Cletus infected the inmates with the Carnagized Grendel symbiote – turning them into four-armed red-and-black monsters resembling the Doppelganger – and sicced his army on Spider-Man and Venom before throwing Spider-Man through the door of Osborn’s cell. Amused by Osborn believing himself to be Cletus Kasady, Dark Carnage bonded him to the Carnageized Grendel symbiote and turned him into a duplicate of his original Carnage form – much like what Norman himself had done with his grandson, Normie Osborn, to transform him into the Goblin Childe.
Taking over the asylum and indoctrinating the inmates into his cult, Dark Carnage claimed Shriek’s codex and resurrected Demogoblin using her corpse as a vessel. After Deadpool interrupted the cult’s gathering and burned down Ravencroft, Kasady marked him as a priority target due to him having the codex of the Hybrid symbiote. Growing increasingly annoyed by Osborn’s delusion of being Cletus Kasady, Dark Carnage returned to his lair underneath Grand Street and unleashed his horde on the city: sending the symbiote-doppelgangers to rampage and flush out former hosts in-hiding; “Demagoblin” and Man-Wolf after Misty Knight; the Knull-corrupted Riot, Agony, Phage, and Lasher after Normie to claim his Carnage codex; and Osborn after the Scorpion to claim his Venom and Mania codices; and the resurrected Knull-corrupted Scream after Andi Benton to claim her Mania codex. He also sent Will o’ the Wisp, Conundrum and Freak after Deadpool, with Osborn arriving soon after. When Scream betrayed him, Dark Carnage personally killed its host – Patricia Robertson – though the Scream symbiote transferred to Andi Benton, who escaped.
Again disguising himself as Eddie Brock, Dark Carnage snuck into the warehouse where Eddie, Spider-Man, and a number of other former symbiote hosts were hiding in to use a machine called the S.C.I.T.H.E, which could non-fatally remove codices. Approached by Spider-Man, who fell for his disguise, Cletus learned that Dylan Brock was Eddie’s son. When the real Eddie arrived, accidentally revealing that Spider-Man was Peter Parker, Dark Carnage unveiled himself and summoned a horde of Carnage Doppelgangers to attack the warehouse. The Venom symbiote, tired of Eddie’s refusal to face Dark Carnage for fear of orphaning Dylan, decided to bond with Bruce Banner, though Carnage killed him in the middle of it. However, as Dark Carnage had no idea who Banner was, he was shocked when Banner resurrected as the Savage Hulk and completed the bonding, delivering a powerful blow that he actually felt.
As they battled, Dark Carnage sensed the One Below All’s power and wondered what would happen if he forced open the Green Door and merged it with Knull’s eldritch darkness; though the Venomized Hulk rebuked his offer of an alliance. Stabbing tendrils into the Hulk’s brain, Dark Carnage forced him to revert into Bruce Banner and then ripped the Venom symbiote off of him. Assimilating it, Dark Carnage transformed into an even more powerful form sporting draconic wings and horns, and pauldrons and arm-wraps resembling Knull’s. With the Carnageized Grendel symbiote now powerful enough to free Knull from his prison, Dark Carnage took off; pursued by Eddie Brock – who had merged the codices harvested using the S.C.I.T.H.E. into a duplicate of the Venom symbiote.
As they fought in midair and on the rooftops, Dark Carnage gloated that he was on the cusp of victory and could see his horde about to kill Eddie’s allies, telling Eddie to give up and let himself be consumed. Caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of Cloak, Dagger, Iron Fist, Firestar, Morbius, Deathlok, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, and Scream turning the tables; Dark Carnage was tackled through the ground and into the tunnel where Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn were hiding.
Snaring Dylan, Dark Carnage mockingly told Eddie that he had tricked him into claiming the remaining codices and that he now faced a decision in which both choices — letting Dark Carnage kill Dylan or killing Dark Carnage to save Dylan — would lead to Knull reawakening. Manifesting a Necrosword from his symbiote, Eddie impaled Dark Carnage before cutting him in half, Cletus’ corpse falling apart as the merged Grendel and Venom symbiotes left him for Eddie.
Posthumous Activities
Despite the death of his physical body, Cletus’ consciousness was apparently preserved within the Symbiote Hive-Mind via his codex, enabling him to posthumously control the Grendel symbiote’s offshoot. When the Carnage-ized Grendel symbiote bonded to Eddie Brock, Cletus dragged Eddie’s consciousness into the Hive-Mind and tormented him with nightmares of his worst fears come to life, intending to control his body and use it to pick up where he’d left off.
Powers & Abilities
The symbiote of which Cletus Kasady is a host to provides him with various superhuman powers as a result of bonding with the symbiote. Most of Carnage’s powers are similar to those possessed by Spider-Man and Venom, though a few are more developed, as Venom, explained, the Carnage symbiote was born with abilities even more singular than those of its progenitor as a result of it being gestated and it’s incubations in an alien environment to it such as the Earth environment as well as the maniacal will and insane worldview that Cletus Kasady has had from the age of 8 years old onward. Spider-Man has always needed help in fighting Carnage, Fighting Spider-Man and Venom at the same time. Kasady possesses various superhuman attributes as a result of bonding with the Carnage symbiote. Most of his powers are similar to those possessed by Spider-Man and Venom, however some of his powers are unique only to himself. For example Carnage can see out of every bit of his symbiote. If the Venom symbiote was linked to Brock in the nervous system, the merger of Cletus and his symbiote was effected down to a cellular level, linking human blood cells and symbiote cells. With the symbiote bonded to his bloodstream and it becoming a part of him, not only can the symbiote not be separated from Kasady by traditional means, but it’s been shown that the Carnage’s symbiote can also hide in Cletus Kasady’s blood stream and that it even caused a mutation in Cletus Kasady’s blood so that when the symbiote was seemingly destroyed, Cletus Kasady can “regenerate” his symbiote costume from scratch by simply bleeding. One drop of blood would be all it takes to strengthen the alien. However, that diminished later on as the symbiote could be separated from its host and leave him powerless.
When Kasady is a host to the symbiote, Carnage possesses a great amount of physical superhuman strength as originally he was strong enough to physical lift about 50 tons of weight as he has demonstrated being stronger than both Spider-Man and Venom combined. As of right now, Carnage can physical lift about 80 tons of weight. Carnage’s superhumanly strong legs allow him to run and move at speeds that are greater and superior to that of the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete and Carnage has stated that he is more than ten times faster than normal humans. Carnage’s reflexes, agility, balance,reaction time, and bodily coordination, are all enhanced to a level that is far beyond and far superior to that of the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete and are even superior to Spider-Man’s making him sufficient enough to dodge gun fire.
Carnage can fight, run, and perform other physical activities that will allow him to physically exert himself at peak capacity for about 24 hours on end before the build up of fatigue toxins in his bloodstream begins to impair him and affect his overall capabilities. Carnage can withstand high caliber bullets, falls from a great height of over several stories, enough volts to fry a normal human in seconds and powerful energy attacks while sustaining little to no pain or physical injury as well as also withstanding powerful impact forces and blunt force trauma from direct physical blows from superhumans as strong as Spider-Man, Venom, or Toxin with far less physical injury than that of what would instantly kill normal humans or what lower level super humans would receive.
Carnage is able to rapidly regenerate and heal damaged bodily tissues with much greater speed and efficiency than that of what normal humans are capable of allowing him to regenerate and heal from large amounts of damaged or even destroyed bodily tissue that would be fatal to normal humans within a matter of moments. Carnage’s symbiote has even shown the ability to repair brain damage, as it had done for both the Wizard and Cletus Kasady himself. However, it isn’t known, although or not, if Carnage can fully regenerate severed limbs or missing internal organs although he has appeared to have regrown the lower half of his body and while in the Microverse, Carnage was capable of reattaching his severed head after being decapitated by Venom. However, should Cletus Kasady lose his limbs and not be able to heal them, the symbiote can also replace them by forming legs of its own as long as Cletus Kasady has his symbiote. Carnage’s regenerative healing factor extends to his immune system as well rendering him to be immune to the effects of all known Earthly diseases, infections and illnesses that even current human medical care cannot care such as cancer as long as Kasady remains bonded with the symbiote.
Like with all symbiotes, Carnage possesses limited shape-shifting abilities which Kasady has full control over the size, shape, color (usually red and black), texture, and hardness of his symbiote (and any part thereof) and can use it in a verity of ways including:
Like Venom, the symbiote possesses limited shape-shifting abilities in the sense that it is capable of immediately mimicking the appearance and texture of any form of normal clothing, or garment that Kasady wishes (which he has done on rare occasion), as well as camouflaging with its surrounding environment rendering himself almost invisible.
Carnage can generate tentacle-like appendages from various parts of his body and warp his appendages into different arms, legs, and even wings, which he often uses either in combat situations or to restrain someone and can also use the same substance comprising the symbiote in the form of constituent red matter or goo, and uses it in this method for lethal force against criminals. Carnage can send a part of the symbiote and direct its movements into a victim’s body, smothering them from the inside. It can also convert ingested organic materials such as flesh and blood into additional biomass. While in small American town of Doverton, Colorado, Kasady was able to vastly increase the symbiote’s size and mass by consuming all the meat of over four thousand head of cattle and the staff in the local meat packing factory making symbiote copes.
Carnage can morph sections of his body, such as his hands or feet, into bladed weaponry and blunt instruments such as spikes, blades, shields, swords, giant talons, harmers or claws, or axes from his own mass and using them to stab or shred any innocent person he sees. This is shown on several occasions when Carnage mutates his fingers and arms into what look like large swords. Unlike Venom, Carnage can also detach parts of his symbiote at enemies in the form of solid weapons such as darts, spears, knives, axes, etc., if he chooses to. For example, Carnage has often forms spikes that he expels from his body. Whatever the weaponry, however, they will disintegrate into dust after being separated from his body after a period of about 30 seconds after leaving Carnageâs body. Carnage has also shown being able to infect others, taking over their body against their will. After consuming all the meat of over four thousand head of cattle and the staff in the local meat packing factory in small American town. Carnage almost took over a small town including Captain America, the Thing, Wolverine, and Hawkeye all becoming infected with the bloodthirsty symbiote copes after increasing it’s size, and all being used as puppets against Spider-Man.
The symbiote is also able to rapidly adapt itself and its host to new environments. Carnage is capable of surviving in harmful areas for long periods of time such as being underwater or in toxic gases, by having the symbiote filter breathable air for Kasady and when Kasady was taken into space by Sentry, the symbiote was able to save his life by growing small sacks around his mouth that converted carbon dioxide into oxygen, allowing Kasady to stay alive long enough for him to be recovered.
Although it’s widely known that the Symbiote can stretch and deform itself, recently it was able to perform this ability during bonded with a human host allowing Carnage to be able to stretch his limbs and once sent his symbiote costume through a telephone line by reducing it to a cellular level. After consuming all the meat of over four thousand head of cattle and the staff in the local meat packing factory in a small town. Carnage was able to infect the town by making the symbiote find its way through the sinks and drains.
Like with all symbiotes, Carnage possesses certain telepathic abilities as it enables him to plant thoughts into a person’s head using a symbiote tendril. In Carnage: Mind Bomb, a psychiatric specialist named Matthew Kurtz attempted to treat Carnage. Thinking he has Kasady under control, Kurtz ends up having a symbiote tendril drilled in his head. Kasady then proceeds to pump mental images into Kurtz’s mind to show him how he sees the world. As a result: Matthew Kurtz is driven mad and runs amok only to be gunned down by Ravencroft guards.
Symbiotes have a genetic memory, allowing them to exploit their parents’ knowledge through ancestral recall. Upon seeing the Silver Surfer, Carnage remembered and felt the trauma of Galactus devouring a word populated by symbiotes.
The Carnage symbiote is capable of psychically detecting and tracking its offspring, however with effort this ability can be blocked So that Venom can’t track him.
Due to being Venom’s son, Carnage possesses other powers that are common with Spider-Man
Much like Spider-Man and Venom, Carnage has the ability to cling to virtually any surface by controlling the flux of inter-atomic attraction between molecular boundary layers. Carnage can rapidly crawl, walk, or run across even slickened surfaces.
Carnage can shoot strands of the alien’s substance in the form of webbing. Carnage can project this powerful, organic web-like substance similar to the webbing Spider-Man has which at high pressure can reach up to a distance of over 70 feet (21.336 meters) and the strands possess the tensile strength of over 125 pounds per square millimeter of cross section. Carnage typically uses this webbing to swing from building to building or as a means of immobilizing someone. The webbing is exceptionally strong, much more so for even the finest normal human athlete to break.
Carnage also possesses an extrasensory ability similar to Spider-Man’s spider-sense. This response is not as complicated as Spider-Man’s inherent sense since the alien costume can detect danger from every direction or angle and conduct Kasady in plenty of time for incoming threats. It’s a lot more efficient than Spider-Man’s spider-sense because it takes less time to sense the danger, and Kasady’s reflexes are faster than Spider-Man’s, because they are enhanced by the alien costume for instance Carnage can dodge a gunshot or a barrage of bullets.
Due to the Carnage symbiote being a child of the Venom symbiote which Spider-Man was its first host, Carnage can’t be detected by Spider-Man’s sixth sense, his Spider-Sense. As such, Carnage is capable of attacking Spider-Man without alerting him, making Carnage a deadly foe.
In some interpretations, the Carnage symbiote is vampiric, feeding on and thus endangering his victims by mere touch. If Venom is a symbiote with a limited mass, Carnage on the contrary, constantly forms new molecules and so has inexhaustible reserves it finds in its victims, like a vampire, feeding on them with mere touch.
Cletus Kasady is a Schizophrenic enabling him to activate extra-terrestrial episodes of paranoia and delusion to transform into the demonic alien symbiote of Carnage, converting negative emotions into biomass. It would also seem that when Carnage consumes or eats other symbiotes as he did in Planet of the Symbiotes storyline, Carnage would grow in size, growing gigantic as he devoured so many symbiotes, that his height grew up to 100 feet.
The symbiote has also shown the ability to call back parts of itself back to the main symbiote, adding it to the parts that already make up the symbiote. It can also send commands that cannot be resisted to parts of itself that are in technology, used to break the bones of the Iron Rangers when they challenged Carnage while wearing symbiote enhanced technological exo-suits. Using these last two abilities, Carnage absorbed the five Iron Rangers, and consequently grew to an enormous size and assumed the color blue.
Following being experimented on by Hall Industries, the symbiote developed the ability to create duplicates of itself that could be controlled by its main body.
Though he has had no formal training, the natural abilities granted to Kasady by the symbiote along with Carnage’s homicidal urges make him an erratic and dangerous opponent who’s highly erratic and unpredictable. Even without the symbiote, Kasady is capable of killing people without hesitation.
Weaknesses
The Carnage symbiote, like all others of its kind, is extremely vulnerable to both extreme heat (to a much greater degree than Venom) and sonic (to a much lesser degree than Venom) based attacks. They can cause the symbiote physical pain and discomfort, where as “more powerful” attacks might be completely ineffective, however Carnage doesn’t mind the heat as long as he’s the one making it as he has made a camp fire.
Without his symbiote. Kasady is just a normal human. However, the degree of fusion of Cletus Kasady and his symbiote is such that he has become physically dependent on the symbiote. Thus, when the symbiote merged with Ben Reilly, Cletus Kasady began aging fast and early as his body was rapidly deteriorating, being incapable doing the simplest actions such as operating a sink. Once the symbiote returned, Cletus found health. Subsequently, it appeared that this weakening of Cletus was linked to a stomach cancer which was held in check by the actions of the symbiote (as in the case of cancer Venom and Brock ) once the symbiote was fully treated, the cancer Cletus had, Cletus Kasady could survive without his symbiote, which is shown when Venom eventually absorb it.
Cletus Kasady has been diagnosed with a severe mental illness called schizophrenia. Even without the symbiote, Cletus had insanity from his criminal ways.
Due to a recent run in with the Scarlet Spider. Cletus Kasady has been left in a paralyzed state forcing him to become dependent on the Carnage Symbiote for mobility.
Statistics
- Height: 6′ 1″(Kasady); 6’9 1/2″ (Variable, with symbiote)
- Weight: 190 lbs (Kasady); 300 lbs (Variable, with symbiote)
- Eyes: Green, White (Carnage)
- Hair: Red, None (Carnage)
- Place of birth: Brooklyn, New York
Alternate Realities
Earth-1610 (Ultimate)
The Ultimate universe version of Carnage came into being when Curt Connors combined the DNA sequences found in a sample of Spider-Man’s blood with DNA sequences found in Richard Parker’s research (presumably on the project that created the original Venom symbiote) as well as his own. The result was, initially, a stabilised clone of a human as a fetus, but then quickly developed and mutated, escaping the confines of the lab. However, it had to drain all fluid from its victims to stay alive, due to the fact that the DNA of the creature was severely damaged, explaining how it looked so dramatically different from the individuals that it was cloned from. When Carnage escapes from the lab it begins making its way towards Peter Parker’s home. In it’s wake it leaves a trail of corpses that have been completely drained of their blood. Upon finally confronting Peter Parker, it begins to take a new shape, revealing a face that is not unlike Peter himself. After escaping, Peter figured out that the creature was, essentially, unstable, and was looking for a host that was compatible with the Parker genes that it was created with: absorbing Peter would in theory make the clone complete as the missing fragments of DNA would be restored.
Peter then battles Carnage and eventually tricks the being into throwing itself down a smoke stack into the fire below. While Peter was happy that the rampage was over, he lamented that in the end, it was just a confused and scared clone that ultimately just wanted to live, but in the end Peter reasoned that it was essentially nothing more than a mindless creature without a brain, through this was implied to not be the case (as the Carnage creature could recall Peter’s memories and seemed to be capable of reasoning, through to a very limited extent). Carnage is not seen again until one of its victims, Peter Parker’s friend Gwen Stacy is found alive again.
With her reappearance, a series of Peter Parker clones appear. Nick Fury mobilizes the Spider Slayers to bring the situation under control and in the confrontation, the new Gwen Stacy reverts into Carnage and is shot by the Spider Slayers. This was ultimately uncovered as a CIA project done with leftover Carnage samples, nicknamed “The Stacy Project” in which Ben Reily (Connors assistant) and Octavius created multiple clones by infusing the Carnage symbote with Gwen’s DNA, creating a far more stable clone of her that could also mutate into a form not unlike Carnage at will, through she struggled to control it properly. This power would be removed after the Stacy clone (while in Carnage form) would attack Venom, resulting in both of them combining. This would leave the Stacy clone perfectly intact but without the symbote, while Venom would mutate further and grow stronger as a result of the absorption.
Earth-15
An alternate reality where following discovery that Chameleon had being manipulating him with robotic versions of his parents. When Spider-Man was at his lowest ebb, he accepted the Carnage symbiote and bonded fully with it leading to him renaming himself The Spider and becoming a psychopathic killer. He was sentenced 67 consecutive life sentences in prison.
Eventually he got unhinged in time and placed on the Weapon X team by the Timebroker, because the original Weapon X members were killed. He was generally rude and very much disliked the team leader, Sabretooth.
When Spider and Weapon X arrived on the home universe of David Richards (an alternate version of the villain called Hyperstorm), he noticed that the Exiles had arrived there as well. Unlike those who comprised The Exiles, Spider was not shocked to discover that there was another reality hopping team like Weapon X, though he was surprised to learn that Sasquatch was a woman named Heather Hudson. He had no problem showing his identity as Peter Parker, as he was seen moving around without a mask. Spider helped the Exiles with rescuing this kid named David Richards. After they rescued the boy and all of the other children, Sabretooth was having a fight with Deadpool about killing David Richards. Spider told everybody that both teams will stay if they don’t kill David Richards and it would be their best interest to kill him and get on with everyone’s lives. When Sabretooth abandoned the team and killed Deadpool, Spider ordered the rest of Weapon X to kill him, which quickly erupted into an all-out battle between Weapon X and The Exiles. It was then that The Timebroker appeared, hoping to end the conflict, only to be assaulted by Spider. However, Mimic managed to halt Spider’s attack before Spider could “kill” him. The Exiles then proposed a compromise; Sabretooth was to stay and raise David Richards in the hopes that he could prevent him from becoming another Hyperstorm and both teams move on with their missions.
An alternate reality Gambit was made the new leader of Weapon X, something that did not please Spider at all. Spider’s next big mission was in reality where Iron Man ruled as a dictator. Their mission was to help Iron Man in destroying the Inhumans. The problem was that Attilan was protected by an energy shield and the only key to penetrate it was in the hands of Wonder Man. But the Wonder Man of this reality was far different from any other incarnation they might have encountered before, he had absorbed gamma particles when Hulk died and his strength grew enormously. Weapon X infiltrated his mansion and planed to steal the device to lower Inhumans’ shield, but were discovered. A fight quickly broke loose; Spider thought to convince Wonder Man to surrender by threatening Scarlet Witch, his wife. That however made Wonder Man angry, and he Hulked-out. Now seeing no other option, Gambit activated portable Negative Zone portal. When Wonder Man still hanged on, Gambit ordered She-Hulk to push him in, reassuring that Spider will toss her a web. Spider however refused to do so, and both Hulks disappeared into to portal. When Gambit lashed out at him for abandoning She-Hulk, Spider defended himself by saying that the combined weight of She-Hulk and the hulked-out Wonder Man would have resulted in him being dragged into The Negative Zone as well. Spider also pointed out that it was Gambit, not he, who had promised to cast She-Hulk a lifeline. Following Spiders explanation, a new member arrived to take She-Hulk’s place, namely Colossus, but the time for mixing and mingling would have to wait for they had a job to do. After handing the device over to Iron Man, they supervised the attack on The Inhumans, but did not see the trap that had been prepared for their arrival until it was too late. However, before any harm could come to them, Spider and his teammates were spirited away to another reality.
Sometime later on one specific mission to kill Bruce Banner, where Spider had been placed in charge of keeping the soldiers from entering the facility while Ms. Marvel (who had replaced The Angel at some point during their journey) proceeded with killing Bruce Banner. Colossus protested against the killings and wanted to seek other options to complete the missions. Spider and Colossus began to argue over their way of doing things but both were stopped by The Vision, who ended the debate once and for all by stating that killing their targets was the only way to ensure that they truly completed their missions. As this occurred Gambit was comforting Storm; who had been mortally wounded during an earlier fight, and was desperately trying to keep her alive. But she soon gave into the darkness and with her last breath, asked to be buried in a forest and not left behind in the factory amongst those they had killed. With the crunch of Banner’s skull, Weapon X was then spirited away to another reality to complete yet another mission, apparently leaving Storm to rot in the factory, not that Spider or anyone else other than Gambit cared.
Upon arriving in a ruined version of The Xavier Institute, Spider and Weapon X found their newest member, King Hyperion, waiting for them. Their new assignment was to kill the last ten Mutants who managed to survive the Mutant Holocaust instigated by an army of Sentinels under the control of The United Nations. Hyperion opposed those orders and wanted to rule the world instead, a proclamation that made even Spider take a minute to think about. Spider then spoke up and asked if he would be allowed to kill ten humans, Hyperion said that he could kill as many as he wanted so long as he remained loyal. Spider immediately sided with Hyperion and became very attached to the ex-God Emperor. Together they tried to convince the mutants of that reality to side with Hyperion and aid him in conquering the world, but most of them refused. It was only after the deaths of Wolverine, Mystique and Magneto that everyone including a reluctant Storm agreed to join Hyperion in his quest to conquer the world. There was a minor problem though, Magneto had sent a massive asteroid to Earth a few hours prior to his encounter with Hyperion and had refused to stop it even after being tortured by Hyperion. Despite Hyperion’s attempts to halt the asteroid’s descent, he failed and the Earth died. With Earth dead, Hyperion saw that it was pointless to remain in that reality and began systematically killing all of the Mutants off. Spider managed to strike Vanisher through the heart and was attacked by Gambit who, along with Storm, teleported to another side of Asteroid M with the dying Vanisher.
Spider later reappeared at Hyperion’s side, opposite of Ms. Marvel, along with the two newest additions to Weapon X: The Hulk and Firestar and commended Gambit for “seeing the light.” As their journey progressed, Gambit started to lie to Hyperion about the mission objectives and tricked him into thinking that the worlds they had traveled to were not worth conquering thus compelling them to complete the missions. But Hyperion eventually caught on and blasted Gambit’s arm off with his atomic heat vision in an attempt to take The Tallus for himself. When The Hulk tried to kill Hyperion, Spider managed to latch a web onto his arm and pulled his attention away from Hyperion long enough for the madman to recover. With Spider and Ms. Marvel’s aid, Hyperion overwhelmed the two and then moved onto bigger targets like The Fantastic Five and The Avengers. Spider later built a large web in Times Square from which the corpses of Earth-4400’s heroes and the semi-conscious Hulk and Firestar were strung up on for all to see and was then sent on a reconnaissance mission to find The Exiles. When The Exiles appeared, Spider rushed back to Hyperion’s side and told him of their arrival. Later, when he learned that only six survivors would be allowed to move onto the next reality, Spider tried to kill Firestar despite Hyperion’s protests and was incinerated. His ashes along with the corpses of Magik, Ms. Marvel, Firestar, Hulk and Hyperion were brought to The Panoptichron and sealed away inside a wall of crystal containing the bodies of every Weapon X and Exile member who had ever died or been rendered comatose such as Heather Hudson, Thunderbird and, surprisingly enough, King Hyperion).
When Exiles discovered that the bodies can be released from the crystal wall, they sent all of them back to their own reality. Spider’s body was buried in the prison graveyard.
Earth-985
In this reality the Carnage symbiote bonded with Silver Surfer. The Surfer fought Spider-Man, the Avengers and Firestar. When she managed to injure the symbiote, Norrin gained enough control of himself and realize what is happening. When he knew that the Carnage symbiote will likely to control him again, he flew towards the sun, destroying them both.
Earth-982
In the MC2 universe, Spider-Girl accidentally released the Carnage symbiote from its containment being care by SHIELD. It bonded to May’s friend Moose Mansfield. Carnage later kidnapped May’s father and baby brother, Peter and Benjy, respectively, who was later become possessed by the symbiote and became a little version of Carnage. Spider-Girl manage to kill the symbiote by using a sonic weapon of Reverb, but also caused his little brother to become deaf. May blamed herself for her little brother being deaf, but she was given hope when Normie Osborn opted to pay for the operation to fix Benjamin’s ears.
Other Media
Novels
Spider-Man: Carnage in New York
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Spider-Man: Goblin’s Revenge
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Video Games
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
This 1994 side-scrolling fighter for the Sega Genesis gaming system featured Carnage as the main villain, drawing its story directly from the comic book arc and featuring some of the comic book art. Players could play as both Spider-Man and Venom throughout the game.
Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety
In the sequel to Maximum Carnage, the symbiote family teams up to defeat Carnage. The game’s title is misleading, as the events more closely follow the Venom: Lethal Protector story arc.
Spider-Man (2000 video game for Playstation and Nintendo 64)
In the 2000 Spider-Man video game, Carnage helped Doctor Octopus spread symbiotes all over the city. When you fight Carnage you must pull him into the sound barrier with your webbing and attack him while he is weakened. At the end of the game you have to run away from monster Dr. Octopus that is the new host to the Carnage symbiote upon defeating Kasady. He was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
Ultimate Spider-Man Game
In the Ultimate Spider-Man game, Carnage is actually Peter Parker. A man named Trask is trying to control the Venom symbiote and at some point he realizes that Peter’s blood has bonds with the Venom serum (since his father used his own DNA to make the serum). Trask sets the suit free in hopes of it capturing Spider-Man. When they find Venom and Spider-Man they capture them by sending Silver Sable after them, who shoots them both with strong tranquilizer darts. When Peter wakes up he is strapped to a table and a man named Tooms is talking to him. He explains that the serum is part of Peter and that they are going to speed up the growth process by injecting more of the serum into Peter’s blood. When the serum gets injected into Peter he screams in pain then suddenly bursts free from the table, becoming Carnage! Playing as Venom you must battle it out with Carnage. After a long fought battle Carnage is cornered in a room where the R.H.I.N.O suit was being designed. Venom and Carnage continue to fight while maintaining life by feeding on the various guards in the room. Venom finally beats Carnage and immediately feeds on him, stripping Peter of the Venom particles in his system and giving Eddie control of the Venom suit.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Carnage was a playable character via downloadable content on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Carnage has many neat attacks in the game: he can throw axes, enlarge his head, and send tendrils out to attack enemies. You rank up for killing enemies. Carnage also had a rather animalistic semi-quadropedal movement style. As of December 31, 2010, Carnage will no longer be available for download because Activision allowed its rights to Marvel’s intellectual properties to lapse. He was voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Ultimate Carnage is the final boss for the Ultimate universe. The level opens with Ultimate Spider-Man reaching out to SHIELD to see if they can help locate the last fragment of the Tablet of Order and Chaos. Instead, he discovers that Carnage has just escaped from the SHIELD prison and is using the fragment to turn SHIELD agents into symbiotic zombies. Spider-Man must pursue Carnage through the facility, fighting off Carnage’s minions and the few SHIELD units that remain. During the initial fight with Carnage, it is revealed that the symbiote is vulnerable to fire. After dodging a crashing SHIELD helicarrier, Spider-Man must climb to the top of a tower for the final showdown against Carnage, where SHIELD units help by providing fire support. He was once again voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
Other Video Game appearances:
- Super Nintendo Spider-Man: Lethal Foes
- Spider-Man (Sega Genesis, Sega CD)
- Spider-Man (Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo)
- Spider-Man (Nintendo 64, Playstation, Playstation 2)
- Marvel VS Capcom (Dreamcast, Arcade)
- Spider-Man: Animated series (Sega) (1995 year)
- Spider-Man (playstation)
- Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem.
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
- The Amazing Spider-Man 3
- Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge.
- Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (psp version)
- Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Television
Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Carnage appears as Cletus Kasady but is seen as a mad man more then a serial killer. He later gets sent to Ravencroft where he meets Eddie Brock who was in Ravencroft due to his actions as Venom. Cletus later witnesses the symbiote rescuing Eddie and turning him into Venom. Later on Cletus gets a visit from Baron Mordo who tells Cletus he will give him power like Eddie if he works from him in his efforts to free Dormammu. Cletus says yes and Mordo turns him into Carnage. Carnage then steals the life force of various victims and uses them to free Dormammu from his dimension. He later ends up fighting Spider-Man, Iron Man and Venom in which he is defeated by being thrown into Dormammu’s dimensional portal along with Venom.
Later in the series when Spider-Man was on a mission to save Mary Jane with the help of Mysterio, Spider-Man was attacked by a robot version of Carnage which was easily defeated.
Towards the end of the last storyline in the series, in an alternate reality, the Carnage symbiote is seen escaping a dimensional portal and bonds with Ben Reilly creating Spider-Carnage. Eventually Spider-Men from different dimensions, including Peter Parker, are commissioned by the Beyonder and Madamme Web to go on a mission to defeat Spider-Carnage. They ultimately end up stopping the super-poweful Carnage possessed Ben Reilly from destroying all of reality with the help of Uncle Ben. Possibly out of grief, Ben Reilly jumps into the inter-dimensional vortex, killing himself and the Carnage symbiote, at the last second before the vortex disappears into oblivion. He was voiced by Scott Cleverdon, with Spider-Carnage voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes.
Spider-Man Unlimited
Carnage appears as one of the main villains in the series and is working with Venom. They had a plan to get the world infected with symbiotes. Later in the series Venom, and Carnage fuse together but are later beaten by Spider-Man. He was voiced by Michael Donovan.
Spectacular Spider-Man
Cletus Kasady only appears in a small cameo here. He is never seen as Carnage. During the second season, he is at Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane in a group seminar with other super villains such as Electro and Doctor Octopus.
Ultimate Spider-Man
The Ultimate version of Carnage appears in an episode of the same name. In the show, the Carnage is created after the Green Goblin kidnaps Peter Parker (who he does not realize is Spider-Man) and forcibly bonds him to the Venom symbiote. Carnage battles Iron Fist, White Tiger, Nova and Power Man before the creature leaves Parker and bonds with Harry Osborn. At the end of the episode, the symbiote is removed from Osborn and taken by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. for examination.
In the fourth season, the symbiote bonds with Mary Jane Watson, creating a new villain known as Carnage Queen. The heroes are able to remove the symbiote and restore Mary Jane to her senses, but it’s discovered that traces of it remain in her body. Using the remains of the symbiote, she becomes the heroine Spider-Woman.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
The Carnage symbiote appears in “Back in the New York Groove” and “Drive My Carnage,” which are part of a crossover with Marvel’s Spider-Man. Many years ago, the Carnage symbiote was one of the Klyntar beings experimented on and weaponized by Thanos. It was placed inside of an asteroid that eventually ended up in the care of Avengers Compound on Earth, where it breaks free and attacks Ant-Man and Iron Man. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man team up to pursue the symbiote, which eventually frees Thanos from his prison beneath the Earth and bonds with him. With help from the Venom symbiote, the heroes are able to take down Thanos and Carnage.
Film
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
Carnage appears as the main antagonist of the movie, with Cletus Kasady portrayed by Woody Harrelson.
Broadway
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Carnage appears in the 2011 musical as a member of Green Goblin’s Sinister Six. In this reality Carnage was created by Green Goblin in a lab.
Attractions
The Universal Orlando Resort’s 2002 Halloween Horror Nights featured a haunted maze entitled “Maximum Carnage”. The maze was designed to be a trip through Carnage’s hideout and contained all his henchmen and the remains of various superheroes. The house was located in “Island under Siege”, formerly Marvel’s superhero island. Carnage also was the icon chosen to represent that specific island for the event. The event’s main icon, “The Caretaker,” chose him based on his disregard for life and desire to see total chaos.
Music
The song “Carnage Rules” by Green Jellÿ, which is featured as the first song on their album 333, is written about the character and is used as the theme song for the Maximum Carnage video game.
Merchandise
- Carnage was featured in many of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man toy lines in the 90’s.
- Carnage was featured in Toy Biz and Hasbro’s Spider-Man Classics lines.
- Diamond released a Carnage figure for their Marvel Select line.
- Hasbro released a Carnage figure for the Marvel Legends Ultimate Green Goblin Build-a-Figure wave. An updated version with an alternate Cletus Kasady head was later release as part of the Monster Venom Build-a-Figure wave.
- The later Ben Reilly Spider-Man figure from the Marvel Legends Absorbing Man Build-a-Figure wave came with interchangeable accessories that could allow it to be transformed into Spider-Carnage.
- Carnage was featured in a Lego kit along with Miles Morales.
- Carnage was featured in Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai line.
- Statues of Carnage have been released by various companies like Sideshow Collectibles and Kotobukiya.
- Hasbro released a Marvel Legends Carnage figure based on his Absolute Carnage design as part of the Venompool Build-a-Figure wave.