He's a near-unstoppable force of evil so dangerous that on multiple occasions, Spider-Man and Venom
have been forced to set aside their differences to put an end to his wrath. Let's take a look
at the chaotic mind and twisted motivations of Carnage, one of Marvel's deadliest villains.
Carnage is the product of the bond between a member of the symbiotic alien race known
as the Klyntar and Cletus Kasady, a deranged serial killer who pushed his
own grandmother down a flight of stairs as a child. Casady was sent to an orphanage,
which he burned down. So he developed a lust for pure chaos and mayhem long before he ever
came into contact with the symbiote. So when artists Erik Larsen and Mark Bagley were seeking
inspiration for the character's appearance and traits, they didn't have to look far.
Writer David Michelinie conceived of Carnage as the closest thing to an irredeemably malevolent
force as could exist in the Marvel Universe, so the artists modeled Kasady on the Joker,
who has long filled just such a role in the DC Universe.
"I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I
caught it. You know, I just do things."
Eddie Brock, separated from his Venom symbiote and sent to prison for his crimes,
was Kasady's cellmate. While waiting for the symbiote to spring him,
Brock developed an antagonistic attitude toward the depraved Kasady,
beating him mercilessly on more than one occasion. The Venom symbiote did eventually manage to free
Brock. But in the process, it spawned a new symbiote, leaving it behind in Kasady's cell.
This technically makes Carnage Venom's son. Unlike the contentious bond Brock shares with Venom,
in which the two sometimes duel for control, Carnage sees its relationship with Kasady as more
than symbiotic. It entered Kasady's body through a cut, so the symbiote was able to bond with his
bloodstream, making the two extremely difficult to separate. Unlike Venom, Carnage does not refer
to itself as "we." It's one entity. Venom's hatred of Carnage is so intense that it even
overrides his hatred of Spider-Man. And as far as Carnage is concerned, the feeling is mutual.
It might be tough to separate Carnage from Kasady, but it has happened a few times.
And when it has, Carnage had no problem bonding with other hosts. Its unpowered
victims through the multiverse have included Gwen Stacy, John Jameson, and Dr. Tanis Nieves,
the psychiatrist of Carnage's "girlfriend" Shriek. Carnage has also bonded with superpowered people,
a truly terrifying proposition. For one, it bonded with Ben Reilly, Spider-Man at the time,
to create Spider-Carnage. The symbiote also once briefly bonded with the extremely powerful Silver
Surfer to become Carnage Cosmic. In one of Peter Parker's worst nightmares come true,
Carnage also once bonded with Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, to become the Red Goblin.
Already greatly enhanced by his Goblin serum, Osborn became exponentially more powerful with
Carnage. Obsessed not just with killing Spider-Man but crushing his very soul, the Goblin threatened
to slowly and painfully kill everyone Peter held dear unless he gave up his crime-fighting ways.
After a brawl that left the Daily Bugle offices in shambles and Flash Thompson dead,
Parker revealed his desperation by allowing the Venom symbiote to bond with him for one
last shot at victory over the Red Goblin. On the brink of death, Peter was able to convince
Osborn that Carnage, not the Goblin, would get all the credit for killing Spider-Man.
Driven by ego, Osborn shredded the symbiote, which led to the villain's sound defeat.
Klyntar are generally indifferent or antagonistic toward their offspring,
and Carnage is no exception. During the brief time the symbiote was in control of Dr. Nieves,
it used her to find Kasady, abandoning her for his original host but leaving its spawn behind,
growing on her arm. Horrified, Nieves took drastic action and cut her arm off. But
symbiotes don't give up easily, and it eventually re-bonded with her to become the heroic Scorn,
who has been a thorn in the side of her "father" on multiple occasions.
Another of Carnage's offspring was outright rejected. Carnage, disgusted
and enraged by its spawn, implanted it into New York police officer "Paddy" Mulligan
during a chance encounter. Resolving to kill it before it could reach maturity,
Carnage attacked Mulligan and his family, but was foiled by Spider-Man and Black Cat.
Mulligan tracked the Cat down for answers, but the pair once again came under attack by Carnage.
This time, the new symbiote made its presence known. Calling itself Toxin,
it single-handedly took down both Carnage and Venom, and resolved to become a hero.
The virtuous Mulligan had trouble containing the symbiote's homicidal urges, however, and after the
officer was killed in battle, Toxin briefly bonded with Eddie Brock, and finally with Bren Waters.
Venom and Carnage have battled countless times, with the latter's superior strength usually
giving him the upper hand. But Venom has often outsmarted him. At one point, Kasady was being
held in a special prison designed to contain Carnage when Venom paid his "son" a visit.
Kasady could only gibber helplessly as Venom ripped the symbiote from his body and devoured it.
Kasady escaped and attempted to resume his reign of terror by painting himself red and
embarking on yet another killing spree as a makeshift "Carnage." He was easily defeated
by Spider-Man, but Kasady was given new hope. A failed invasion of Earth by the
interdimensional beings of the Negative Zone reactivated dormant traces of the
symbiote within his bloodstream. Finding his way through a portal to the Negative Zone,
Kasady was mysteriously guided to a second symbiote, apparently identical to his first,
and enthusiastically allowed it to bond with him, becoming Carnage once again.
During the events of the Avengers/X-Men AXIS crossover event, the moral alignments of a
number of heroes and villains were magically switched. This had a profound effect on Carnage,
who found himself saddled with an overwhelming desire to help people and do good despite having
literally no idea how. He abducted local reporter Alice Gleason to tutor him in the
ways of being a hero after barely restraining himself from killing a couple of random thugs.
But even under her strict guidance, Carnage tended to get his wires crossed.
For example, when Carnage and Alice came across a bank being robbed, the symbiote heroically
thwarted the robbery — before attempting to burn down the bank to prevent future robberies. While
apparently developing romantic feelings for Alice, Carnage was constantly distracted by fantasies of
her dying. During a climactic battle in New York, Carnage apparently sacrificed himself for the good
of the city. But of course, such deaths are almost always temporary in the Marvel Universe — and
it wouldn't be long before Kasady appeared once again, back to his old homicidal ways.
Marvel's Ultimate line of comics, which began publication in 2000,
updated some of its most popular characters and storylines for a new generation of readers. It
took place in a different continuity than the mainstream Marvel Universe,
and while it is now defunct, some of its more popular original characters, namely Miles Morales,
managed to survive the destruction of their home universe, and have come over to the main Marvel U.
"So I'm Spider-Man. I'm not the only one."
In the Ultimate universe, symbiotes weren't an alien race. Instead, they were the result of
a genetic experiment by Peter Parker's father, Richard, and Eddie Brock, Sr. The first of these
symbiotes was Venom, and its relationship to Peter and Eddie Jr. played out much the
same way it did in the main continuity. Carnage, however, was created in a lab by Dr. Curt Connors,
who had the bright idea to combine some of Peter's DNA with a sample of Venom,
along with his own Lizard-mutated DNA. The result was a fearsome beast which could only
survive by feeding on humans, and was obsessed with consuming Spider-Man to complete its DNA
sequence. It even ate Gwen Stacy, then created an exact genetic replica of her
to serve as its host. This version of Carnage was itself eventually consumed by Venom.
On a couple of the rare occasions in which Marvel has teamed up with rival publisher
DC for crossovers, Carnage has been involved. He notably teamed up with his inspiration, the Joker,
for the 1995 one-shot "Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds." The teamup was short-lived;
although they seem like the perfect evil pairing, Carnage butted heads
with the Clown Prince of Crime early and often due to the Joker's tendency toward
theatrics and his own preference for wanton slaughter. Carnage found the Joker's methods
to be tedious and unsatisfying, while the Joker found Carnage to be a hack.
Carnage also made his presence known in the Amalgam line of comics, an imprint in which Marvel
and DC heroes and villains were combined to create new mashup characters. Carnage was mashed up with
Superman nemesis Bizarro to create Bizarnage. The creature wreaked indiscriminate havoc until it was
eventually tricked and defeated by Spider-Boy, himself a mashup of Spider-Man and Superboy.
Carnage's surprise cameo in the 2018 "Venom" feature film promised that...
"There's gonna be carnage."
It raised the character's profile, so Marvel brought him back to the comics page with
the "Web of Venom: Carnage Born" one-shot. Its story deals with a cult attempting to resurrect
the villain after his death in the "Venomized" storyline. And if that's not dark enough, it's
implied Kasady was a cannibal before fusing with the symbiote. The issue's solicitation states,
"A cruel cannibal obsessed with death and murder,
few mourned Cletus Kasady after he seemingly died in VENOMIZED."
With the second Venom movie subtitled "Let There Be Carnage," it's no surprise
Marvel comics giving us a revamped and even darker version of the character.
Though it should be noted Carnage had some pretty dark comics appearances well before.
"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" is primed to give us a cinematic villain for the ages,
and it certainly doesn't hurt that the great Woody Harrelson is filling the role.
Carnage has starred in plenty of miniseries, one-shots, and even line-wide events based on
his bloody exploits, but the release of 2016's "Carnage" #1 gave the crazed symbiote his first
ongoing monthly series. It also marked the Marvel return of writer Gerry Conway,
his first work on a regular Marvel series since the '90s.
The series finds the title villain lured to Grey Ridge Mine with Manuela Calderon — the
sole survivor of Cletus Kasady's very first mass killing — as bait. But when the owner of the mine
turns out to have his own agenda, Carnage and some of the agents tasked with capturing him fall into
the mine. Calderon, Eddie Brock, John Jameson, and FBI Special Agent Claire Dixon follow Carnage
into the depths, where a strange cult called the Darkholders wait with their own plans.
Most of the series' 16 issues revolve around an unexpected mystical and prophetic connection
between Carnage and an ancient Lovecraftian god. Before the end, Carnage gets a power boost,
and one of the heroes chasing him becomes part of the violent symbiote family.
In the "Venom" series that debuted in 2018, it's revealed the Klyntar symbiotes are not
just an alien species, but parasites created by the eldritch god Knull to do his bidding.
So after the Cult of Knull resurrects Carnage in "Web of Venom: Carnage Born,"
they reveal that every human on Earth to ever bond with a symbiote has what they
call a "codex" embedded in their DNA. If Carnage collects all these codexes,
he will become the vessel for Knull on Earth and be able to conquer the world.
After a lot of bloodshed, including the deaths of a superhero or two, Venom kills Cletus in
2020's "Absolute Carnage" #5. But in doing so, ensures the eventual assault on Earth by Knull.
Venom has to resolve that in the "King in Black" event, where Carnage plays only a small role.
Carnage became a meal for sharks in "Carnage: Black, White and Blood," but "Extreme
Carnage Alpha" #1 reveals that a piece of the symbiote survived at the bottom of the ocean.
It bonds with a fish and works its way up the chain to eventually bond with xenophobic Senator
Peter Krane, who's seeking an end to "harboring" any and all extraterrestrial aliens on U.S. soil.
Carnage uses Senator Krane's voice to seize the wills of various symbiotes
over the television airwaves. Standing against them are Flash Thompson — now
Agent Anti-Venom — and Andi Benton, the former host of the symbiote Scream.
After crippling her symbiote with hellfire to stop it from following Carnage's orders,
she rebonds with an altered version of the symbiote, now calling itself Silence.
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