Hey guys!
Welcome back to Top 10 Nerd, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Venom and Carnage are two of Spider-Man’s greatest villains… and two of his grossest.
These two fight each other again and again, but despite their philosophical differences,
they really are quite similar in a bunch of ways.
Let’s talk about some of the most important similarities between these two badboys.
So get ready, it’s time for the Top 10 Similarities Between Venom and Carnage!
Number 10: Species.
Both Venom and Carnage are symbiotes called the Klyntar, originating from a planet of
the same name.
They’re part of an alien race that bonds with a host, granting the host a number of
abilities while creating a symbiotic relationship with them.
The Venom symbiote was corrupted by his first host, who unfortunately used it to commit
genocide on his home planet.
This corruption, as well as the hate towards Spider-Man the symbiote gained when bonded
with Eddie Brock, led it to become rather violent.
This corruption was passed onto Carnage, and combined with the fact that Carnage’s host,
Cletus Kassidy, was a serial killer.
And if you’re wondering how Venom passed anything onto Carnage, wonder no more!
Number 9: They’re part of the same family!
This will no doubt be known by a lot of you but for those of you who aren’t well-versed
in the comics this could be useful.
The Klyntar can reproduce asexually, with eggs inside them that can be used to create
offspring.
At Ryker’s island, Eddie Brock shared a cell with Cletus Kasady, the serial killer.
When Brock left, the symbiote unknowingly left behind an offspring, which went ahead
and bonded with Kasady’s blood, turning red and becoming Carnage.
So is Cletus, like, Eddie’s brother in law now?
We need to nail down our symbiote family terminology.
Number 8: Villainous beginnings.
When these two characters were introduced, they were both antagonists of Spider-Man.
They certainly took different approaches to their villainy, since Carnage was so much
more insane and murderous, but they both spent most of their time screwing things up for
Spidey.
Venom was still something of a lethal protector of the innocent in the beginning, but both
he and Carnage endangered a number of innocent people in their battles with Spider-Man.
In recent years, these two have split up somewhat in terms of villainy, with Venom turning to
anti-heroism and maybe even heroism while Carnage remains his jerk self, but their villainous
origins are quite similar.
Number 7: Hate of Spider-Man.
This is probably unsurprising since most of Spider-Man’s villains hate him.
Really, most villains hate their respective heroes.
But this is particularly relevant to Venom and Carnage, because hate of Spider-Man is
what drives them to do some pretty terrible acts, particularly Venom.
Without his hate for Spidey, Venom would probably have been a pretty good dude; he even helped
people from time to time.
Luckily, Venom was able to set this hate aside to work with Spidey when Carnage came on the
scene, because Carnage was a REAL jerk.
Kids these days…
Number 6: Connection to Spider-Man.
Not only are these two connected to Spidey in that they’re both his villains, they
also share a strong bond with him.
This is because Peter Parker was one of Venom’s first hosts, and was believed to be his FIRST
host for some time, before there were mentions of a Deadpool host, and the later retcon to
the genocidal first host.
When the symbiote attached to Peter, it gained a portion of his powers, which it brings with
it to other hosts like Eddie Brock.
For that reason, it takes on the appearance of Spider-Man’s suit, and can’t be sensed
by Spider Sense.
This holds true for Carnage as well, who benefits from Venom’s bonding with Spider-Man, receiving
many of the same powers that Venom gained when attached to Peter Parker.
Speaking of powers…
Number 5: Power set.
If you’re a comic fan, you’ll know that because of their shared ancestry both biologically
and in terms of past hosts, they have pretty similar abilities.
Because Venom bonded with Peter Parker, both he and his offspring have powers similar to
Spider-Man’s.
They can create web-like strings and climb on walls like Spidey, but can also use create
weapons by molding the symbiote as they see fit.
They’re both crazy strong, and although they differ in the amount of raw strength,
they do have one thing in common: Number 4: They’re both stronger than Spider-Man.
One thing that always made these guys particularly difficult for Spidey to deal with is that
they were quite a bit stronger than him.
It’s hard to get a great estimate on their strength since it varies from comic to comic,
but a lot of people would guess it was roughly like this: Spider-Man can lift about 25 tonnes,
Venom can lift about 30 tonnes, and Carnage can lift about 50 tonnes.
These are my best estimate after comparing a few sources, but if you have a better source
please let me know in the comments down below!
Number 3: Appearance.
I alluded to it before but honestly this is the one thing that most non-nerds know about
these two: they both look quite similar.
Aaaand they both look quite gross.
It isn’t surprising that they look similar, seeing as they are of the same species, are
both bonded to humans, and have both been affected by the powers of Spider-Man.
A lot of people wonder why the symbiotes all seem to look like Spider-Man, even those who
hadn’t actually bonded with Peter, but it’s because the genetic memories of the Venom
symbiote were passed onto his offspring, including Carnage.
Neat!
Number 2: Bad luck with hosts.
By now if you’ve been watching our Venom videos, you’ll know that he had a pretty
rough experience with his first host, being used to commit genocide on his host’s home
planet.
Carnage’s first host was also not the most enjoyable, and led to further corruption of
the symbiote.
Cletus Kassidy was already an insane serial killer before he even bonded with the Carnage
symbiote, so that one was doomed from the start.
If only Venom hadn’t bonded with that first jerk, maybe they would have been okay, but
then Carnage getting stuck with a serial killer was the icing on the cake.
These aliens really have bad taste in men.
Number 1: They can both travel in unconventional ways.
I’ve talked about this before but not everyone watches all the videos and it really tells
you a lot about the symbiotes (and about the 90s).
Way back in the 90s, we saw a few rather strange things happen with the symbiotes, where they
travelled through wires.
They’ve been known to travel through phone wires both to access the internet (and, inexplicably,
actually show up on the big screen) but also to travel through the wires to bond with another
person.
This is one that’s kind of unfortunate that they both share, because it’s pretty stupid.
How do they find their way from point a to point b?
I dunno.
It’s a comic.
I need to move on.
But it’s so dumb!
That’s it for today!
Hope you guys enjoyed, if you did please smack that thumbs up button and subscribe to Top
10 Nerd for more videos!
Who do you like more: Venom or Carnage?
Let me know in the comment section down below!
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Top 10 nerd.
Later nerds!