Absolute Carnage

Absolute Carnage
Name	Absolute Carnage}
Reality and Participants
Others	Anti-Symbiote Task Force, Aberrant Crimes Division, Misty Knight
Publication Details
Creators	Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman
First	Unknown
First	Unknown

Synopsis

Prelude

Resurrected by a cult dedicated to the worship of Knull and bonded to the deific primordial Grendel symbiote, Cletus Kasady begins hunting everyone who ever bonded to a symbiote in order to claim their codices - trace remnants of symbiote left in their bodies. Over the course of several months, "Dark Carnage" conquers the Underground City that Venom had once protected and sets up a Spire of living abyss to serve as an amplifier for his new hive-mind; and claims the codices of the city of Doverton, Alejandra Jones, Leonard Elkhart, and countless deceased former hosts whose desecrated bodies the cult deposits in a mass grave.

During the War of the Realms, Dark Carnage sets up a lair underneath Manhattan, establishing a second Spire. Succumbing to Knull's corruption, the Riot, Agony, Phage, and Lasher symbiotes take over a family of four and set out for New York. The theft of the corpse of Thaddeus Ross draws the attention of the Hulk, who begins investigating out of concern that something more sinister might be involved and discovers the mass grave, reporting it to the authorities.

Absolute Carnage in New York

Infiltrating Ryker's Island, Dark Carnage kills Lee Price - attempting to frame Eddie Brock - before hunting Eddie and his son down. Despite rebonding to the Venom symbiote, Eddie is outmatched and only able to escape by exploiting the Grendel symbiote's weakness to electricity. Reluctantly allying with Spider-Man, Eddie contacts the Maker - who has built a codex-extracting machine in Rex Strickland's Warehouse and wants to test it on Normie Osborn, one-time host of the Carnage symbiote. Peter and Eddie refuse and set out to retrieve Norman Osborn - who had bonded to the Carnage symbiote as the Red Goblin and now believes himself to be Cletus Kasady - from Ravencroft Institute before Carnage can do so. Anticipating this, Dark Carnage has John Jameson - who he had infected with the Grendel symbiote while slaughtering Doverton - kill the staff and set up a trap. Attacking the institute, Dark Carnage infects the inmates with pieces of the Grendel symbiote to turn them into a horde of four-armed Carnage Doppelgängers, and bonds Norman Osborn to an offshoot of the Grendel symbiote to turn him into a replica of his original Carnage form.

Spider-Man and Venom barely manage to escape and begin searching for the various heroes, antiheroes, and villains who have bonded to symbiotes. Dark Carnage claims Ravencroft Institute as a base of operations and sacrifices Shriek to resurrect the Demogoblin. Misty Knight - who had been captured by Jameson - manages to escape and contacts Iron Fist - who rallies the other heroes who opposed Carnage during his first attempt to conquer Manhattan and rescues her, freeing Jameson from Carnage's control. Deadpool, seeking psychiatric help, comes across Dark Carnage's cult and burns the institute down - forcing Dark Carnage to relocate to his lair under Manhattan.

As Dark Carnage's Carnage Doppelgängers rampage across the city, devouring or infecting everyone they come across, Venom barely rescues Scorpion from Osborn but is unable to save Miles Morales from being infected by a symbiote and turned into a six-armed Carnage Doppelgänger. Contacting Captain America, Wolverine, and the Thing, Spider-Man joins them in disabling the Spire underneath Manhattan, while Hawkeye infiltrates the Underground City in San Francisco and disables its Spire. Hunted by the symbiote-infected Freak, Conundrum, and Will O' The Wisp, Deadpool kills them but is attacked by Osborn. Deadpool is saved by Spider-Man, who he allows to be captured in order to follow Osborn back to Dark Carnage's lair - blowing himself up and losing the lower half of his body in an attempt to kill Dark Carnage. The Scream symbiote is resurrected by Dark Carnage and sent after Andi Benton, bonding to Patricia Robertson. When Scream breaks free from his control and protects Andi, Dark Carnage hunts them down and kills Patricia; the Scream symbiote bonding to Andi and helping her escape.

While this occurs, Rex Strickland's Warehouse is attacked by Riot, Agony, Phage, and Lasher - who have taken over a family of four. Dylan and Normie are rescued by Sleeper, who attempts to bond to Dylan but is captured by the Maker. To save Sleeper, Dylan frees the Life Foundation symbiotes; which merge into Hybrid and take over the Maker. Dylan and Normie are saved by the arrival of Spider-Man's team, and Bruce Banner completes the Maker's machine, killing the Hybrid symbiote in the process.

As the Maker's machine extracts the assembled heroes' and villains' codices, Dark Carnage infiltrates Rex Strickland's warehouse disguised as Eddie Brock, learning Spider-Man's civilian identity in the process, and summons his horde to attack. Frustrated by Eddie's refusal to fight Dark Carnage, the Venom symbiote leaves him and bonds to Bruce Banner, who transforms into the Hulk after being killed. Eddie tasks Spider-Man with escorting Dylan and Normie to safety, arming himself with Captain America's shield and a Jury armor gauntlet. While Spider-Man fights Osborn in the tunnels below, Eddie frees Miles from his symbiote and learns that Dark Carnage is nearly strong enough to free Knull. Dark Carnage defeats the Venomized Hulk and rips the Venom symbiote off him, absorbing it to assume a new demonic form. Initially despairing, Eddie frees the extracted codices from the Maker's machine and bonds with them in order to pursue and stop Dark Carnage.

List of Codices Claimed

These are the known symbiotes assimilated and hosts whose codices were harvested as part of this event and its leadup:

• Scorn (Tanis Nieves) - Carnage and Scorn codices fatally harvested by Grendel
• Stephanie Morrell - killed by Carnage, body exhumed and Carnage codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• George Miller - died of natural causes, body exhumed and Carnage codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Entire populace of Doverton, Colorado - Carnage and Grendel codices fatally harvested by Carnage and the Church of the New Darkness
• Eric Morrell - Grendel codex fatally harvested by Doppelganger
• Venom (Angelo Fortunato) - killed by Venom, body exhumed and Venom codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Agony (Leslie Gesneria) - killed by Scream, body exhumed and Agony codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Phage (Carl Mach) - killed by Scream, body exhumed and Phage codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Lasher (Ramon Hernandez) - killed by Scream, body exhumed and Lasher codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Riot (Trevor Cole) - killed by Scream, body exhumed and Riot codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Toxin (Pat Mulligan) - killed by Blackheart, body exhumed and Toxin codex posthumously harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Thaddeus Ross - killed by Foreigner, body exhumed and Venom codex posthumously harvested by Carnage and the Church of the New Darkness
• Ghost Rider (Alejandra Jones) - demonically-augmented Venom codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Leonard Elkhart - Venom codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Robert Urquhart III - Weapon V symbiote codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Ezra Sheppard - Weapon V symbiote codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Matthew Johns - Weapon V symbiote codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Bob Russell - Weapon V symbiote codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Dr. Andrew Breen - Weapon V symbiote codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Unknown number of Weapon V personnel - Weapon V symbiote codices fatally harvested by Carnage
• Venom (Lee Price) - Venom and Maniac codices fatally harvested by Carnage
• Mania Symbiote - assimilated into the Grendel symbiote by Carnage
• Shriek (Frances Barrison) - Scorn codex fatally harvested by Carnage, resurrected as Demagoblin
• Unknown number of Ravencroft inmates - Grendel codices fatally harvested by the Church of the New Darkness
• Scorpion (Mac Gargan) - Venom and Maniac codices non-fatally harvested by Carnage
• Scream (Patricia Robertson) - killed by Carnage; "Venom" and Scream codices postumously harvested by Carnage
• Lasher (Sadie) - Lasher codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Phage (Billy) - Phage codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Agony (Tess) - Agony codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Riot (Tess' Husband) - Riot codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Sleeper (Tel-Kar) - died of unknown causes; Sleeper codex posthumously harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Goblin Childe (Normie Osborn) - Carnage codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Captain America (Steve Rogers) - Carnage and an unnamed symbiote codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett) - Tyrannosaurus, "Venom", and Carnage codices non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• The Thing (Ben Grimm) - Dreadface, Carnage and Hive-altered symbiote codices non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• Hawkeye (Clint Barton) - Carnage codex non-fatally harvested by the S.C.I.T.H.E.
• The Hulk (Bruce Banner) - Venom codex fatally harvested by Carnage
• Venom symbiote - assimilated into the Grendel symbiote by Carnage

Issues

Absolute Carnage #1

Absolute Carnage #2

Absolute Carnage #3

Absolute Carnage #4

Absolute Carnage #5

Notes

• Absolute Carnage originated as the third arc of Donny Cates' Venom run, but was reworked into an event. Marvel's editorial department additionally refused to let Donny Cates kill off certain major characters.
• Marvel released "post-credit scenes" in the issues part of Everyone Is a Target as a build up for the event.

See Also

• 9 minor appearance(s) of Absolute Carnage
• 22 mention(s) of Absolute Carnage
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Absolute Carnage
• 55 article(s) related to Absolute Carnage