Appearing in "Love Story"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Lucius Marius (First appearance) (Only in recap) (Bonds to a symbiote)
- Unnamed sorceress (First appearance) (Only in recap)
Antagonists:
- Cloak (Tyrone Johnson)
- Dagger (Tandy Bowen)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers)
- Iron Fist (Danny Rand)
- Deathlok (Michael Collins)
Other Characters:
- Shriek (Frances Barrison)
- Mars (Invoked)
- Doppelgänger (Cameo)
- Demogoblin (Cameo)
- Carrion (Malcolm McBride) (Cameo)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and recap)
- Symbiotes (Main story and recap)
- Olympians (Invoked)
- Mutants
- Living Fractals
- Demons
- Zombies (Only in recap)
Locations:
- Earth
- North America
- Europe (Only in recap)
- Unnamed city
Items:
- Lightforce
- Cloak's Cloak
- Spider-Man's Suit and Web-Shooters
- Carrion Virus (Behind the scenes)
- Captain America's Uniform and Shield
- Demogoblin's Demonic Bat Glider
Events:
Synopsis for "Love Story"
Reeling from being blasted by Dagger, Carnage wonders how a bunch of light could hurt so much before snarling that he's not going to let himself be taken down by something so immaterial. As his symbiote covers him again, Carnage turns to see Cloak hovering over him and rebukes the Darkforce-wielding superhero's assertion that his reign of terror and violence ends today; sneering that violence is human nature. As Cloak tells Carnage to stand down, saying that the monstrous serial-killer's team of villains has been defeated and Shriek is under the heroes' control, Carnage compares his relationship with Shriek to Cloak's relationship with Dagger; mockingly asking if Cloak wants to hear another love story.
Remarking that he's not sure where he first heard it -- having a voice in his head that whispers stories of warriors to inspire Cletus to greater acts of bloodshed -- Carnage takes Cloak as a captive audience and begins narrating the story of a Roman soldier named Lucius Marius, who was the sole survivor of a massive battle. Delirious and deranged, Lucius attributes his survival to a blessing from the god of war Mars and sets off to loot the city. Angered by the citizens not acknowledging his demands for food, drink, and women, Lucius rampages - compelled by a strange bloodlust - until he comes across a strange woman clutching a baby. Lucius grabs the baby from the woman intending to kill it, not noticing the woman grinning maliciously. Shocked and incredulous as the baby begins to undergo a transformation, Lucius demands to know what the creature he's holding is, and the woman replies that it's theirs. The baby is revealed to be a symbiote, which engulfs Lucius and bonds to him -- transforming him into a red-and-black monster. Hand-in-hand, Lucius and the woman exit the city and cross the battlefield, Lucius picking up a helmet and putting it on as the woman uses blood-magic to reanimate the corpses into an undead army.
Saying that like Lucius he needs to find his better half, Carnage calls out to Shriek, who regains consciousness. Carnage mockingly sneers that the heroes are deluding themselves if they think they're saving Shriek from him when she's just as bad as him -- if not even worse. Carnage and Shriek re-affirm their love for one another, Shriek telling Cletus that no matter where or when they are they'll always find one another, but Doppelgänger alerts them to oncoming heroes as Demogoblin and Carrion arrive. As Spider-Man arrives and Cloak summons Captain America, Iron Fist, and Deathlok, Carnage sneers that the heroes believe in immaterial nonsense like hope and the light, but that he and his twisted family dwell in the darkness. As Cloak tells Dagger to blast Carnage and his team with her light, Carnage sneers that light isn't alive and can't feel, and it certainly isn't stronger than him or Shriek or their twisted love.
Appearing in "End of the Trail"
Featured Characters:
- Carnage (Seth Strode) (First appearance) (Bonds to the Carnage symbiote)
Supporting Characters:
- Seth Strode's Horse (Bonds to the Carnage symbiote)
Antagonists:
- Carnage (Unnamed Bandit) (First appearance; dies)
- Carnage Symbiote (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Earl Hanson (Referenced) (Deceased)
- Trench Ward (Referenced) (Deceased)
- Wyatt Bowers (Referenced) (Deceased)
- Dusty Hilldrop (Referenced) (Deceased)
- Federal Marshals (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Horses
- Rattlesnakes (Referenced)
- Buffalo (Referenced)
- Bears (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Crows
- Symbiotes
Locations:
- Earth-TRN1024 (First appearance)
- Earth
- North America
- United States of America
- Montana (Referenced)
- Helena
- Great Northern Railway
- Helena
- New Mexico (Referenced)
- Saber (Referenced)
- North America
- Earth
Vehicles:
- Great Northern Railway train (Destroyed)
Synopsis for "End of the Trail"
Federal Marshal Seth Strode rides his horse through the Colorado grasslands, recapping that he's put down some of the most-dangerous outlaws in the West but has never seen anything like the monstrous serial-killer he's currently hunting. As he passes the mutilated and partially-eaten corpse of a grizzly bear, Strode recaps that the killer burnt down a church in Twin Hills, Kansas with the congregation inside; slaughtered a train's worth of passengers in Helena, Montana; and killed everyone in Saber, New Mexico - among numerous other bloody crimes. Unloading his weapons from his horse, Strode notes that men kill for many reasons - revenge, fame, women, and most of all money - but none of these reasons apply to the Carnage Killer, who has holed up in an isolated cave strewn with the bones and corpses of animals and humans alike. As a crimson tendril lashes out of the cave's darkness and knocks the star badge from his duster, Strode raises his rifle and opens fire; thinking to himself that men make up all sorts of stories to entertain themselves or make themselves seem tougher than they really are, but that something about the Carnage Killer seems too ravenous, bloodthirsty, and chaotic to be human.
Stepping into the cave, Strode spots a silhouette in the darkness and shoots it, only to see it's a corpse being used as a decoy. As Strode notes that sometimes evil wins and chaos rules, Carnage - a crimson monster with fangs, claws, and large white eyespots - drops from the roof of the cave. Strode opens fire at it, but Carnage shrugs off his gunshots and reforms its head when a point-blank shot takes it off. Sent flying into the wall of the cave, Strode pulls out his hunting knife in a last act of defiance as Carnage looms over him; thinking to himself that the depths of space have a lot in common with the frontier, both being lawless places where darkness thrives. Taken over by the symbiote, Strode exits the cave and reclaims his badge - now realizing that the symbiote had lured him into a trap to claim him as its host. Bonding his horse to an offshoot of the symbiote, Strode transforms into Carnage and rides off to write the history of the West in blood.
Appearing in "You Are Carnage"
Featured Characters:
- Agent Carnage (Unnamed Soldier)
- Agent Carnage (Unnamed Soldier) (Death)
Antagonists:
- Carnage Symbiote
- Ani-Men
- Elephant Man
- Giraffe Man
- Boar-Man
- Carnage Symbiote
- Ani-Men
- Elephant Man
- Giraffe Man
- Boar-Man
Other Characters:
- US Army
- Unnamed General
- Sym-Soldier Program
- Agent Venom (Eugene Thompson) (Mentioned)
- US Army
- Unnamed General
- Carnage (Cletus Kasady) (Referenced)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Mentioned)
- New York City Police Department
- Unnamed police officers (Deaths in bad ending)
- New York City Police Department
- Unnamed police officers (Deaths in bad ending)
- John Hurt (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-TRN1025
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Top-Secret Military Bunker
- Manhattan
- New York City
- New York
- United States of America
- Earth-TRN1026
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Top-Secret Military Bunker
- Manhattan
- New York City
- New York
- United States of America
Items:
- The Elephant Man (Referenced)
Synopsis for "You Are Carnage"
At a top-secret underground bunker, a soldier is chosen for a top-secret offshoot of Project Rebirth 2.0 and bonded to a sample of the Carnage symbiote. The general in charge lectures Agent Carnage to keep the bloodthirsty symbiote on a tight leash, something that will take a lot of willpower, before sending him out to fight crime.
Web-swinging over the city, Agent Carnage hears police sirens and deliberates whether or not to follow them - the symbiote sneering that it has a better idea.
If the soldier has the willpower to force the symbiote to obey, Agent Carnage finds a bank in the process of being robbed by a trio of Ani-Men resembling a boar, an elephant, and a giraffe. The symbiote wants to sit back and watch the chaos, but should the soldier do so either to indulge it or observe the situation, the symbiote's bloodlust is piqued and it decides to take part in combat after all. Should the soldier force the symbiote to comply, Agent Carnage engages the Ani-Men in combat and is initially overwhelmed due to having to struggle to keep the symbiote from killing them. Should Agent Carnage keep the symbiote under control, he trips the elephant with tendril-webbing and then slams the giraffe into the boar -- knocking all three out cold. Should the soldier fail to suppress the symbiote or choose to unleash it, Carnage devours the boar, transforms his hand into a toilet and drowns the elephant, and rips out the giraffe's spine. Upon emerging victorious from the bank, Agent Carnage is held at gunpoint by the police. Should he resist the symbiote's urge to go berserk, Agent Carnage tells the police that it was touch-and-go for a little while but that he is in-control of the symbiote. As Agent Carnage web-swings away, the Carnage symbiote begrudgingly submits to the soldier and accepts him as its new master.
Should Agent Carnage choose not to pursue the police sirens, the symbiote takes the reins and pays a visit to a nearby hospital's maternity ward, drooling over the wailing infants and declaring its intent to eat them. Should the soldier reassert control, Agent Carnage pursues the police sirens to the bank robbery and confronts the Ani-Men.
Should the soldier's willpower run out, he will succumb to the symbiote's bloodlust and Carnage will embark on a rampage before being subdued, returned to base, and contained in a stasis tank. With a haunted expression, the general says that he just resigned and should have known from the start that taming the Carnage symbiote was impossible. Covering his face with one hand, the general remorsefully states that he doesn't know if the soldier can even hear him but hopes the soldier wasn't conscious for the atrocities the symbiote committed. Its stasis tank under guard by armed soldiers, the Carnage symbiote consumes its host and sloughs away from his bones.
Solicit Synopsis
CARNAGE RULES!
Witness the cerebral chaos caused by CARNAGE, brought to life by some of the greatest creators at Marvel!
But beware, True Believers, true to their titular character’s namesake, these spine-chilling tales are not for the faint of heart and presented in BLACK, WHITE AND BLOOD!Notes
- "Love Story" appears to be set between the events of Spectacular Spider-Man #203 and Spider-Man Unlimited #2, as Carnage is blasted by Dagger at the end of the former.
- It is unclear if Lucius Marius was a person who existed within the Marvel universe or a product of Cletus' twisted mind, but if he did exist then him bonding to a symbiote contradicts the timeline established by Venom (Vol. 4) #4 and King in Black #1.
Trivia
- It is unclear if "You Are Carnage" is meant to be canon to Earth-616, but could be intended to reveal the fate of the sample of the Carnage symbiote taken by Scorn at the end of Carnage, U.S.A. #5.
- Agent Carnage enlarging his head to devour the Boar-Man in "You Are Carnage" resembles some of Carnage's attacks from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.
See Also
- 27 image(s) from Carnage: Black, White & Blood Vol 1 1
- 2 reprint(s) of Carnage: Black, White & Blood Vol 1 1