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Quote1 Be quiet, Spider! Can't you see I'm trying to work! Now shut up... you lose! I'm in control of this body now! And, as my old friend Cletus taught me... it's time to start painting this town a lovely shade of red. Quote2
Carnage Symbiote[src]

The symbiote known as Carnage is the spawn of the Venom symbiote and is most often bonded to the sociopathic serial-killer Cletus Kasady. When the Venom symbiote came to rescue its host, Eddie Brock (who is also known as the super villain Venom), from jail, it left an asexually-produced offspring behind. The spawn bonded to Cletus through a wound in his hand, merging with his blood and becoming red-and-black in color.[8][29] Dubbing himself Carnage, Cletus became a deadly recurring enemy to both Spider-Man and Venom.[30]

When it was eventually separated from him,[31] Norman Osborn (also known as the super villain Green Goblin) took possession of the symbiote and became the Red Goblin. During his assault on his own family, he bonded an offshoot of the symbiote to his own grandson, Normie, turning him into the Goblin Childe. Spider-Man defeated Norman by tricking him into separating from the Carnage symbiote before immolating it. Traces of the symbiote remained inside Cletus' body and rejuvenated in an attempt to save him from atmospheric re-entry, but perished in the process;[32][8] leaving the Goblin Childe's symbiote as the only known remaining offshoot. It was eventually removed from Normie and left to be studied at Alchemax.[33]

The Carnage symbiote's codex still dwelled within its former hosts, and when Cletus consumed Scorn's codices it caused his then-current symbiote - an offshoot of the Grendel - to be indwelled by the revived consciousness of his original symbiote, returning it to life.[8] Eventually, they would have a falling out and Cletus would expel the symbiote from the Extrembiote, Carnage now pursuing its own quest to become a God Butcher, much like Gorr and Knull.[10]

History

Savage Genesis[]

Cletus Kasady (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 345 0001

Birth of Carnage

After a battle with Styx where the Venom Symbiote was presumed dead, its former host Eddie Brock was incarcerated in a prison for "normal" humans.[34] His cell mate was Cletus Kasady, a psychotic murderer serving eleven consecutive life sentences in Ryker's Island[29] with whom he developed an antagonistic relationship.[35] However, the Venom symbiote was not dead, merely incapacitated for a time, and after it recovered, it sought Eddie out and re-bonded with him, Venom departing to resume his quest for revenge against Spider-Man.[36] However, the Venom symbiote had been about to spawn as a response to Thanos seeking the Infinity Gems,[37] and left its offspring - the 999th of its lineage - behind.[38] The newborn symbiote sought out the nearest available host, latching onto Kasady and entering into his body through a cut on his hand, where it amalgamated with his blood.[36] Transformed into a black-and-red monster, the gestalt entity of Kasady and the symbiote dubbed himself "Carnage"; waiting patiently in prison for nearly a month, Kasady and his new companion, whom he nicknamed "Red", developed a friendship, and brainstormed what they would do upon breaking out. Viciously murdering a prison guard before making their escape, Carnage embarked on an extended killing spree, daubing "Carnage Rules" at the scene of his kills in his own blood.[39]

Eventually Carnage fought Spider-Man, and the wall-crawler was defeated. Realizing Carnage was another symbiote-powered villain, Spider-Man enlisted the aid of Venom (who had retired to a deserted island),[40] to defeat Carnage. After enlisting Venom's aid against Carnage, Spider-Man later defeated both father and son via the stage speakers at Madison Square Garden.[41]

Maximum Carnage[]

The Carnage symbiote was apparently killed, though it was eventually revealed that the symbiote had integrated itself into its host's blood, altering his physiology and metabolism. As a result, Kasady could generate a copy of his symbiote from his blood whenever it was exposed to open air.[42] Carnage teamed up with Shriek, Spider-Man's doppelganger, and later some other villains to go on a murder spree throughout New York. They were eventually stopped by Spider-Man, Venom, and a team of other super heroes.[43]

Later Rampages & Other Hosts[]

Following a confrontation with Venom,[44] Cletus pretended to be in a coma for some time.[45][46][47] When one of the invading symbiotes accidentally summoned to Earth by the Venom symbiote's primal scream came after him,[45][48] Cletus tricked it into releasing the Carnage symbiote from his bloodstream and absorbed it. Noticing he was stronger than before, Carnage started to absorb the other symbiotes, growing to gargantuan sizes in the process.[48] He was taken down by the combined efforts of Spider-Man, the Scarlet Spider, and Venom, whose symbiote screamed even louder to make all of the extra symbiotes commit suicide.[49]

Ben Reilly (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 410 0001

Spider-Carnage is born.

Recaptured and incarcerated within Ravencroft, the Carnage symbiote discovered an opportunity to escape, albeit without its beloved host: through the plumbing. Abandoning Cletus to spread chaos in his name, the symbiote absconded through the pipes and bonded to John Jameson, impersonating him perfectly for days on end whilst embarking on erratic murder sprees during the night. Following a confrontation at a nightclub with Carnage, Ben Reilly, now the new Spider-Man, attempted to tail Jameson, suspecting him of being connected to Carnage's mysterious slaughter spree; the symbiote proved him correct by transforming, tearing through the roof of Jameson's car to attack the wall-crawler. As Spider-Man beat the symbiote, attempting to stop it from massacring civilians, Jameson regained enough control to warn him of the symbiote's true goal: an even stronger host. The warning came too late as the symbiote jumped ship, transferring to Spider-Man and transforming him into the monstrous Spider-Carnage. Symbiote and superhero became locked in a tug-of-war for control of their shared body, as the Carnage symbiote fought to gain total dominion over its powerful new host, making many attempts to slaughter innocents only barely prevented by its host's willpower. Pushed to the brink, Spider-Man desperately fought his way into Ravencroft, seeking the advice of Cletus Kasady on controlling the murderous symbiote, only to find that Cletus didn't particularly care, instead being delighted at how it was torturing the hero. Unexpectedly, the symbiote then attempted to reject its new host and return to Cletus, who was wasting away without the symbiote to sustain him; Spider-Man attempted to contain it inside his own body to prevent it from reuniting with Kasady, but when the microwave emitters were activated in an effort to quell the raging symbiote it tore itself from him and fled through the pipes into Kasady's cell, merging with him to make Carnage whole once again.[50][4][51][52]

Norrin Radd (Earth-616) from Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 430 0001

The Carnage Cosmic.

Some time later, after Carnage escaped prison yet again, the symbiotic serial killer was confronted by Peter Parker, now back in the mantle of Spider-Man, and during their fight the Silver Surfer arrived to aid the webslinger; stricken with terror by genetic memories of the Surfer leading Galactus to devour a symbiote-infested world, the Carnage symbiote violently tore itself from Kasady and fled into the sewers in a panic. As the Surfer descended to pursue it, the symbiote composed itself and ambushed him, bonding with him to become the Carnage Cosmic. Now possessed of near-godlike power, the Carnage Cosmic began lashing out wildly as host and symbiote fought for control, eventually fleeing into deep space. After a protracted mental battle, when the Surfer revealed to the symbiote that Kasady was painfully dying without it, they agreed to cooperate in order to return the symbiote to him. Though Spider-Man at first attempted to stop the reunion, his guilty conscience forced him to acquiesce and allow Carnage to be reborn. Unfortunately for Kasady and his symbiote, the Surfer was unwilling to allow them to run free and promptly encased them in an unbreakable shell of energy to contemplate their crimes.[53]

Issues of Succession[]

Escaping the Surfer's punishment via unknown means, the symbiote was later seemingly killed for good when Venom, in an attempt to end the threat of Carnage once and for all, tore the symbiote from Cletus' body and devoured it.[25] However, remnants of the symbiote that remained inside Cletus compelled him to travel to the Negative Zone,[54] where he found a nigh-identical symbiote imprisoned in a capsule and bonded to it to become Carnage once more.[26] This second symbiote was apparently assimilated by the remnants of the original in Cletus' bloodstream.[16][55][56]

Some time later, Carnage began unwillingly preparing to spawn for the first time; disgusted by the notion, he fought viciously against Venom's efforts to preserve the spawn's life, ultimately attempting to destroy it upon birth by igniting a gas main. When this failed Carnage resorted to bonding the fledgling symbiote to a police officer named Pat Mulligan, intending to hunt him down to kill him and the infant after recovering. What Carnage found when he arrived, however, was Toxin, a powerful symbiote stronger than even his parent. After an unsuccessful attempt at destroying the spawn, Carnage reluctantly teamed with Venom -- who had initially intended to raise the spawn as a protégé but became unsettled by its strength and its heroic tendencies -- to kill it. Again, however, they failed, foiled by Toxin, Spider-Man, and the Black Cat.[57]

Family Feud[]

Carnage Vol 1 3 Textless

Bonded to Tanis Nieves

Incarcerated yet again, the symbiote and Kasady met their apparent end while escaping The Raft, a prison for super powered people. Carnage was flown into space by the Sentry and ripped in half, but the symbiote survived by going dormant and putting Cletus into a coma; trapped in orbit, the symbiote developed a respiratory recycling mechanism to perpetually convert the carbon dioxide breathed out by Cletus into oxygen, though the strain of doing so for months on end nearly killed it. Carnage was returned to Earth after being found by Michael Hall, who redirected the path of a satellite to allow the frozen symbiote to crash into it, decaying Carnage's orbit and forcing him to fall back to Earth; recovering the body, Hall had the symbiote extracted from Cletus and used it to create prostheses and super-soldiers - sustaining it by letting it feed on Shriek's hatred-inducing powers.[58]

Cletus Kasady (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Carnage Vol 1 4

Mass Carnage.

When Dr. Tanis Nieves was brought to the facility, wearing one of Hall's advanced symbiote-infused protheses, the Carnage symbiote remotely seized control of it, forcing her to smash its containment pod; bonding to Nieves and briefly skirmishing with Iron Man, the symbiote morphed a set of wings and fled, seeking Hall's main office uptown. Scornfully berating Nieves for her weakness after failing to convince her to join it in revenge, the symbiote separated from her to rejoin the still-alive Cletus Kasady, who had been given prosthetic legs much like Nieves' arm. The triumphant Carnage battled Iron Man and Spider-Man, utilizing the symbiote's newfound ability to control offshoots of itself to kill and assimilate the cyborg symbiotes of Hall's super-guards, the Iron Rangers, transforming into a hulking "Mass Carnage" form. Nieves' prosthesis was revealed to be a new spawn of Carnage, which turned her into a new symbiote called Scorn. Scorn forced Shriek to use her sonic attack to debilitate Carnage, who was revealed to have already escaped with Doppelganger.[59]

Carnage U.S.A.[]

Steven Rogers (Earth-616), Clinton Barton (Earth-616), Benjamin Grimm (Earth-616), James Howlett (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Carnage, U.S.A

Following an idea coined by the Carnage symbiote, Cletus journeyed to Doverton, Colorado, infiltrating a slaughterhouse and devouring four thousand head of cattle to provide it additional biomass. Carnage subsequently infected the population with offshoots of the symbiote, proclaiming the city to be the new capital of a new Symbiote sovereign state. When the Avengers arrived to stop him, Cletus infected Captain America, Hawkeye, the Thing, and Wolverine with the Carnage symbiote's offshoots, letting Spider-Man be the only hero left standing. After Scorn used a sonic weapon to separate Cletus from the Carnage symbiote, it also affected Venom and it left Cletus against an invalid Flash Thompson. The two rogue symbiotes started fighting, bonding to animals from a local businessman's private zoo -- the Venom symbiote to a gorilla and the Carnage symbiote to every other available animal. Thanks to interference from Spider-Man and his allies, however, the Venom symbiote returned to its host faster, and the Carnage symbiote was mostly incinerated by an airstrike. Defeated, its remaining biomass was captured by Scorn, while Cletus was taken into custody in a Quinjet.[60]

Minimum Carnage[]

When Cletus was put into custody in the Thunderbolts Mountain, the symbiote biomass on his person was destroyed - though it used the traces of itself in his blood and DNA to regenerate. Kasady was contacted by beings from the Microverse, who managed to see inside his mind and offer him a deal: they would give him the Microverse to get a whole new universe to kill in exchange for his services. After escaping to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Texas, Carnage and his new allies used new technology to escape to the Microverse, even after Scarlet Spider tried to stop them.[61]

Agent Venom, who was tracking him down, and Scarlet Spider followed Carnage into the Microverse,[62] where he betrayed his allies, who wanted to bring him to their master, Marquis Radu, in order to create a symbiotic army, and killed most of them.[63] When fighting the Scarlet Spider, Marquis Radu's army appeared and took Carnage prisoner along with Venom, who was captured along with his allies, the Enigma Force in another place.[62]

The symbiotes of Venom and Carnage were replicated and merged with the Body Banks to create a powerful army which would destroy the Microverse. Carnage took control over the symbiotic army[64] and used it to escape to the regular universe, where he was finally defeated by the combined efforts of Venom and Scarlet Spider, and a special weapon given to them by the Enigma Force. After being lobotomized by the Scarlet Spider's stingers, Cletus was left in a catatonic state with the symbiote assuming full control of his body, although it was put in custody once more and sedated.[65]

Karlin Malus (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Superior Carnage Vol 1 3 001

Bonded to Karl Malus

Superior Carnage[]

While Cletus was in a catatonic state, the symbiote took full control over his body, but it didn't have any intelligence and instead rampaged, devouring everyone it came across when not subdued. The Wizard and Klaw freed Carnage from prison; the Wizard intending to mind control Cletus into becoming his ally. After several failed attempts due to Cletus' brain damage,[17] he decided to instead transfer the symbiote to Dr. Karl Malus, someone he could control.[66] The symbiote was enraged at having been separated from Cletus, with only the Wizard's tenuous control over Malus keeping it at bay. With his new "superior" Carnage, The Wizard and Klaw attacked the City Hall, only to find Superior Spider-Man waiting for them.[67] During the battle, The Wizard lost control over Carnage, and the symbiote gained full control over Malus. Carnage proceeded to stab Klaw with a Vibranium blade, but this caused a massive explosion which separated the symbiote from Malus.[68] The symbiote bonded to the Wizard and devoured Malus, and Spider-Man decided he could use the symbiote's preference for Cletus in order to make it abandon the Wizard by taking Kasady to the scene and containing the alien before it could merge with its original host.

However, the mission failed, and Cletus became Carnage once more as the Spiderlings failed to contain the symbiote. Carnage rampaged through the scene until Klaw, whose sonic body had been dispersed, managed to redirect lightning to Carnage and separate him from Cletus. Both beings were taken separately to custody. Unknown to Spider-Man, the symbiote's rebonding with Cletus fixed the villain's brain, who was now no longer lobotomized.[56]

Superior Spider-Man sent a chemically-neutered sample of the symbiote to Morse Laboratories while Cletus was imprisoned at Kramer Penitentiary, where he was reintroduced into the general populace as a model prisoner. When Cletus was stabbed by a prisoner hired by his psychologist Dr. Jenner, who wanted to become the Carnage symbiote's new host, the main body of the symbiote weakened and perished. A portion of the sample sent to Morse Laboratories escaped and jumped from host to host, rejuvenating by consuming them from the inside out until it reached the prison. The symbiote vehemently refused Jenner's request and bonded to Cletus' corpse, resuscitating him and becoming Carnage once more.[69]

Magically Altered[]

Following Cletus's blood, which contains its biomass, being spilled onto the pages of the Darkhold, the Carnage symbiote was altered by the eldritch magic.[70] As a result, it traded its vulnerability to sonics for a weakness to Chthonic magic,[71] and gained an altered version of its former ability to control others by infecting them with offshoots of itself.[72] The symbiote's eldritch augmentation was exploited when Victoria Montesi used the Darkhold to strip it from Cletus, who was subsequently taken into custody.[31]

Despite being separated from Cletus Kasady, traces of the Carnage symbiote remained in his blood and unsuccessfully attempted to prevent a new symbiote from bonding to him. Despite concerns that these trace remnants would have to be extracted,[73] the new symbiote managed to overcome them and bond to Cletus, and was subsequently consumed to give rise to Poison Carnage.[74]

Rise of the Red Goblin[]

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 799 Textless

Bonded to Norman Osborn

After the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Carnage symbiote was secured in the Lock Box, a privately-run vault at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Agents Krane and Coleman infiltrated the Lock Box and stole the symbiote, delivering it to their employer, Norman Osborn.[75] After receiving the symbiote, Osborn bonded with it to become the new Carnage, hoping it would be the key to regaining his Green Goblin persona.[76] While the symbiote initially seized control of him, Norman offered to teach it more nuanced and sadistic ways to kill; an offer the symbiote eagerly accepted. The symbiote turned over control to its new host, restoring his appearance and purging his body of the nanites preventing him from augmenting himself with Goblin formula. Osborn used the symbiote to kill Phil Urich; and after pretending to be mortally wounded in a rematch against Spider-Man as the Green Goblin, unveiled his new partner by transforming into the monstrous Red Goblin.[77] Osborn used the symbiote to great effect, incapacitating Spider-Man's allies and loved ones, and bonding a portion of it to his grandson Normie Osborn to turn him into the Goblin Childe.[2]

When Spider-Man taunted him by saying that Carnage - Cletus Kasady - would get the credit for his death, Osborn ripped the symbiote off, and Spider-Man immolated it when it tried to rebond to him. Being in contact with the symbiote at the moment of its death destroyed Osborn's psyche, making him believe that he was Cletus Kasady and that Spider-Man was Norman Osborn. The part of the Carnage symbiote that was bonded to the Goblin Childe was subsequently extracted by Alchemax and secretly placed into containment in a secure location to be studied - though not all of it was removed.[27]

"Death" and Rebirth[]

Following the death of the Poison Queen, Poison Carnage perished and its consumed symbiote disintegrated. As Cletus was pulled into the Earth's atmosphere, the remnants of the original Carnage symbiote in his body emerged and attempted to use its Darkhold augmentation to shield him, but was incinerated by the re-entry plasma and perished -- although the portion of the symbiote contained within Alchemax remained unaccounted for.[8]

Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Cletus Kasady (Earth-616) from Web of Venom Carnage Born Vol 1 3 004

The Grendel's offshoot being taken over by the Carnage symbiote

When Cletus' corpse was taken by the authorities, a Knull-worshipping cult led by Scorn slaughtered them to recover his body. The cult had also obtained a small sample of the deceased Grendel symbiote dragon from the Maker's Project Oversight laboratory, as well as stealing his data and theories regarding symbiote codices. Seeking to turn Carnage into an avatar for Knull, Scorn bonded the sample of the Grendel to Cletus, reanimating him. Psychically connected to Knull, Cletus' consciousness struggled for control against the dark god until their connection was severed when he tore out Scorn's spine and consumed it; assimilating the Carnage symbiote codex which had been left within Scorn's body caused the Carnage symbiote's consciousness to reactivate within Cletus's body, taking control of the Grendel symbiote to return to life. Intrigued by the power the symbiote god possessed, Carnage then decided to free Knull from Klyntar, and was told that to do so he would have to consume enough symbiote codices to fully restore the Carnage-ized Grendel symbiote offshoot's connection to the Symbiote Hive. All the while, the resurrected Carnage plotted to kill Knull once he was freed, and seize the god's eldritch powers for himself.[8][78]

Cletus Kasady (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Absolute Carnage Symbiote of Vengeance Vol 1 1 001

Dark Carnage

Carnage began with those who had once been bonded to a symbiote in the past, conquering the Underground City and infecting its inhabitants with offshoots of his symbiote. Over the next seven months, Carnage consumed consuming hundreds of codices, acquiring a skeletal appearance, increasing in size, and manifesting a white dragon emblem on his chest. In order to simultaneously discredit Eddie and target Lee Price - who was the host of the Maniac symbiote, Cletus impersonated Eddie and allowed himself to be arrested; killing Price and several other inmates to frame Eddie for the murders.[79] Carnage unleashed chaos in the city and transformed most of the people he had infected with pieces of his symbiote into four-armed monsters that resembled the Doppelganger.[80]

The Maker had created the S.C.I.T.H.E., a machine capable of extracting people's codices without harming them, and used it to extract remnants of the Carnage symbiote from some of its former hosts. After Carnage overpowered the Venomized Hulk and assimilated the Venom symbiote to complete his apotheosis,[81] Eddie amalgamated the codices gathered in the S.C.I.T.H.E. into a gestalt symbiote and bonded to it. Cletus revealed he had anticipated this and forced Venom to kill him to take back the Venom symbiote and save his son Dylan, absorbing the Carnage symbiote in the process and thereby unleashing Knull.[82]

Venom Island[]

Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Venom (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Venom Vol 4 22 002

Fused with the Venom symbiote

A few weeks later, the Carnage symbiote --still inhabiting the Grendel's biomass alongside Cletus' codex from the Symbiote Hive-Mind - revealed it had survived being assimilated and attempted to force Eddie to kill the Avengers when he was offered a membership by them. Eddie silenced it with antipsychotic pills and chartered a Quinjet to the Isla de Huesos in order to kill the reborn Carnage symbiote once and for all; when the pills wore off the symbiote awoke, causing the plane to crash and stripping Eddie of the Venom symbiote, assimilating it.[83] While Eddie fled to an abandoned bunker to arm himself, the Carnage symbiote bonded with all the animals on the island.

When Eddie confronted the Carnage symbiote, it tried to bond to him and declared its intent to make him watch as it used him to destroy the world. Eddie, determined to do anything to get the Venom symbiote back, cut his left hand off to escape.[21] The Carnage symbiote later found Eddie climbing a radio tower at the peak of Isla de Huesos' mountain and bonded to him, mockingly asking if he intended to radio the Avengers for help. Eddie told it that he came to pray to the one god he knew could stop it, Thor Odinson, as the tower was struck by a bolt of lightning, blasting the symbiote off him. Separated from Eddie and the Venom symbiote, the Carnage symbiote re-bonded to Eddie and tormented him with a vision of his worst fears: the Venom symbiote being killed when the Isla de Huesos was annihilated by a nuclear missile, Dylan being taken away from him, and Knull attacking Earth.[84] By the time Eddie saw through the vision, the Carnage symbiote had already taken over his body, reiterating its intent to use him to slaughter everyone on Earth -- starting with Dylan Brock.

Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Venom (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Venom Vol 4 25 001

The Carnage symbiote, controlling Eddie Brock, fights its parent on Isla de Huesos.

Before it could escape the island, it was attacked by the Venom symbiote - which was being remote-piloted by Dylan in the form of a Tyrannosaurus rex.[85] Initially caught off-guard, Carnage quickly overpowered Venom and began psychically torturing Dylan - who had tapped into the Hive-Mind to rescue his father. Carnage seized control of its offshoot and attempting to take over Dylan as well, but Eddie encouraged Dylan to not give in to the darkness and that they would figure things out together. Dylan destroyed his offshoot of the Grendel symbiote and blasted the Carnage symbiote's main body off Eddie, though it later reconstituted itself and bonded to a great white shark to escape the island.[22]

Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Carnage Black, White & Blood Vol 1 2 001

The Crimson Leviathan

Spending several weeks as the ocean's top apex predator, the Carnage symbiote came across a whaling ship that harpooned the shark it had bonded to. Pulling one of the whalers into the ocean, the symbiote transferred to him and took him over before boarding the ship. Before Carnage could slaughter them and join the ongoing symbiote invasion, the dome of living abyss covering the planet dispersed with the dark god's death at the hands of Eddie Brock, raining countless symbiotes down into the ocean and onto the ship. Venom, now the new god of symbiotes and King in Black, telepathically sentenced Carnage to execution and had the symbiotes attack him. Knocked into the ocean, Carnage was subsequently devoured by countless symbiote-controlled sharks.[7]

Extreme Carnage[]

A piece of the original symbiote survived -- still co-piloted by Cletus' codex, and having apparently absorbed the Grendel offshoot's deific power -- and bonded to a passing fish, transferring to another shark and making its way to the Indian Ocean, where it took over a Somali pirate in the employ of a local warlord. Devouring the crew, the warlord, and his militia, the symbiote bonded to an arms-dealer employed by Alchemax and returned to New York; devouring the plane's crew, a driver, and eventually consuming its host from the inside.[23] With his ambitions of usurping Knull's throne foiled by what Eddie had done, Cletus came up with a new plan to attain godhood - or failing that become a slayer of gods.[78] Using the power Knull had granted him to exert influence over the symbiotes left behind on Earth, Cletus corrupted many of them to form a new splinter-hive. Learning of Senator Peter Krane's exploitation of anti-extraterrestrial sentiment, Carnage hunted him down and bonded to his sociopathic son Arthur Krane - in whom Cletus found a kindred spirit. Alerted to this by the trail of mostly-eaten bodies left in Carnage's wake, Iron Man recruited Agent Anti-Venom - who Carnage had unsuccessfully tried to take control of - to put a stop to him, Carnage tricking them into assuming he had bonded to Senator Krane and was plotting to assassinate the President.[23]

Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Extreme Carnage Omega Vol 1 1 001

Merged with the Extrembiote

Once all his soldiers were in place, Carnage killed Senator Krane on live television at one of his rallies and directed his Hive to slaughter as many attending civilians as possible, but was opposed by Agent Anti-Venom, Silence, Toxin, and Sleeper. When Iron Man arrived and used his Extrembiote - a symbiote-dragon mutated by Extremis - to separate Arthur from the symbiote, Cletus infected the Extrembiote with his will and assimilated it into the Carnage symbiote. Gloating that he had accomplished his goals, Carnage transformed into a symbiote-dragon and flew away, later sending Agony and Gemma Shin to keep an eye on Arthur Krane and ensure he remained a loyal pawn.[86]

God of Carnage[]

Carnage Vol 3 1 Textless

Without a host

When Cletus' codex seemingly decided against acting on his plan to apotheosize into a god-butcher, he and the Carnage symbiote had a falling out that saw it expelled from the Extrembiote. Deciding that Cletus had been holding it back and determined to forge its own path and test the limits of its abilities without a host, the Carnage symbiote decided to carry out the plan by itself.[78] Carnage sought out Morris Bench and infiltrated the maximum security prison where he was being kept, blackmailing one of the guards into helping it. Morris assumed that the symbiote had come to take him as its new host and eagerly agreed, walking it through how to deactivate the security measures on his cell before asking how it intended to bond to him giving his aqueous physiology. Impaling Hydro-Man with several tendrils, the Carnage symbiote revealed it didn't want him as a host, only to steal his powers to augment itself, and tore him apart while assuming a more bulky humanoid form.[87]

Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Kenneth Neely (Earth-616) from Carnage Vol 3 2 001

Carnage with reluctant student, Kenneth Neely

Carnage later sought out serial killer Kenneth "The Artist" Neely because it noticed he'd been creating Knull's symbol with his victims. Neely explained that he wanted to get the symbiote's attention so it would make him its next host, Carnage contemplating just killing him before deciding to instead take him to the warehouse where it had left the mutilated but still-living Hydro-Man wrapped in its tendrils. Explaining to Kenneth that it was no longer interested in taking hosts because it didn't want them to distract it from its own objectives,[10] Carnage ripped out Hydro-Man's core and assimilated it, causing Hydro-Man to destabilize into a vortex of energy and explode. Noticing Detective Jon Shayde hurl himself through the vortex, Carnage stopped him from shooting Neely, bonded him to a piece of itself to stabilize his deteriorating body, and challenged him to do whatever it took to hunt it and Neely down.[88]

Escaping to a motel, Carnage mocked Neely over his jealousy of Shayde getting a taste of the symbiote's power and threatened to abandon him, but decided to take him along to hunt its next victim. A few days later, Carnage and Neely broke into the laboratory of its next target, the Spot.[88] Rebuking the Spot's offer to simply help it, Carnage attacked and overpowered him, slicing off one of Neely's hands when he intervened to distract Ohnn. Ripping Ohnn apart, Carnage assimilated one of his spots to gain access to the Spotted Dimension, using it to warp itself and Neely to the Fuertes Astronomical Observatory, slaughtering all the scientists there save for Doctor Halliday. When Neely - angry over losing his hand and Carnage's continued disdain towards him - demanded to know what its plan was, Carnage explained what its goals were while using Hydro-Man's core to supercharge Doctor Halliday's wormhole machine. Offering to take Neely with it to bear witness to its deicidal ambitions, Carnage was interrupted by Shayde's sudden arrival.[78]

The wormhole's activation warped Carnage and Neely to Svartalfheim, leaving Shayde stranded in deep space in the process; and Carnage revealed its knowledge of the Ten Realms to the despondent Neely. Intent on hijacking a Black Bile Clan rite of passage to obtain a wolf-god cub, Carnage killed one of the dark elf hunters participating and tasked Neely with proving himself by killing a one-handed dark elf named Zeiste.[89]

Leaving Neely to his own devices, Carnage continued hunting down the dark elf hunters, one by one, and infecting their bodies with symbiote offshoots, turning them into puppets. After all of the elves had been brought under its sway, Carnage proceeded to the den of the wolf-god, slaying all but one of them. Afterwards it met up with Neely, who had fulfilled its orders and slain Zeiste; upon being questioned as to why they were carrying out these tasks, Carnage unveiled its new pet -the lone surviving wolf-god cub, now bonded to a symbiote offshoot and dubbed "Spike"- and explained it had sent Neely to murder Zeiste because Zeiste metaphorically represented Neely's self, a self he needed to move past. Taking a moment to further reflect on its relationship with Cletus, and its desire to evolve beyond its past limitations, Carnage set out again with Neely and Spike in tow, declaring its next destination: Hel.[90]

Emerging from a Spot portal into Niffleheim, Carnage and its companions were immediately set upon by a horde of draugar, who had seemingly been awaiting their arrival; unbeknownst to Carnage, Hela was tracking its progress through the Realms, intrigued by its efforts. Fighting back against their undead assailants, Carnage's menagerie was then attacked by the Rosvelg, a dragon-bird deity who recounts and feds upon the sins of those damned to Hel. Neely was brought to his knees by the weight of his sins, now aware he was never an artist but merely a sadist making excuses for his gruesome murders. Seeing this, Carnage mockingly challenged the Rosvelg to try the same on itself, and, snaring the Rosvelg in symbiotic tendrils, plunged one into its head. Bombarded with a never-ending deluge of Carnage's gruesome memories and the sheer weight of its evil, the Rosvelg gouged out its own eyes in a fit of madness, collapsing into a coma. Moments before, however, the deity received a vision of one sin yet to come: the horrors Carnage would wreak on its ultimate destination, Nidavellir.[91]

With the Rosvelg broken, Carnage offered Neely a blade and the chance to kill the god, as it promised him. As Neely hesitated, shattered by the revelation that he was just a cruel murderer and afraid of ending up in Hel after his death, Carnage explained that only Vikings went to Hel, and that the Rosvelg merely sought to scare Neely by, effectively, holding up a mirror. As Neely slew the stricken god, Carnage boasted that the Rosvelg never anticipated meeting someone abhorrent beyond their own reflection, and noted that Neely was now capable of understanding who Cletus was and closer to understanding what it meant to be Carnage's host.[91]

Carnage's musings on Cletus rapidly turned sour, however, as they located Malekith's bindings shattered and empty. Carnage deduced that it was Cletus who was responsible, as no-one else knew of its scheme, but Spike the Hellhound detected the scent of a human and Cletus had been far from human when he and Carnage had last seen one another. Neely fearfully guessed it must have been Shayde, following them into Niffleheim; Carnage confirmed this, expressing its admiration of the detective, and headed off with its companions to hunt down the wayward detective and Malekith as they attempted to escape from Hel.[91] Striking a deal with Hela to be taken to Malekith's location, Carnage duelled and subdued the dark elf warlord, revealing its goal wasn't to kill him per sae but to extract the codex left behind in his body when the Venom symbiote had bonded to him during the War of the Realms.[92] Arriving in Nidavellir, Carnage attacked a dwarf prison, slaughtering the guards while mocking Neely's growing disenchantment towards it. Freeing Drorin Runehewer, a master blacksmith and brother of King Eitri, Carnage ignored his protests that the forges should be destroyed and demanded the dwarf use the codex as a template to forge a modified replica of All-Black the Necrosword.[93]

Carnage Vol 3 6 Textless

Carnage with All-Blood.

Drorin and Neely -- who had become disenchanted by Carnage's megalomania -- attempted to immolate Carnage using the heat of the stars used to smelt the uru, but Jon Shayde unwittingly freed it using his offshoot of the symbiote. Using knowledge gleaned from Drorin's triumphant boasting, the Carnage symbiote consumed the corpses of the dwarves left in the wake of the God of Hammers' rampage, assimilating the trace amounts of uru in their flesh, blood, and bones. Undergoing apotheosis, Carnage manifested a Necrosword he dubbed All-Blood, killing Drorin and bonding to Shayde in mocking thanks for him saving it. Carnage declared its intent to torture Neely to death for betraying it, but its treacherous companion fled using Drorin's teleportation cube to seek aid from the one being who might hope to stop it: Cletus Kasady.[24]

Carnage in the Venomverse[]

Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Sergei Kravinoff (Earth-31) from Web of Carnage Vol 1 1 001

Carnage spares the Hunter-Spider.

Traversing the Superflow, Carnage mentally tortured Shayde in an attempt to break him.[94] Pulled off-course by the Web of Life and Destiny, Carnage found itself on Earth-31, where it encountered the Inheritor Morlun, deranged and delirious after having been stabbed by a totemic dagger. Intrigued by Morlun's talk of what the Inheritors were capable of, Carnage decided to seize the power for itself and had Morlun lead it to Earth-31's Spider-Totem, Kraven the Hunter-Spider, who was battling his universe's iteration of Venom, hosted by Cletus Kasady. However, Carnage's attempt to kill Kraven was impeded by Shayde, who wished to pursue Kasady instead, and vocally intended to make life difficult for the symbiote; already growing bored of its temporary host, and now irritated by his interference, Carnage abandoned Shayde, chiding him for butchering a Nietzsche quote, and pursued Kraven. Despite the Hunter-Spider's best efforts, even blasting apart the symbiote with a grenade meant to kill Venom, Carnage overpowered and prepared to devour him; however, Morlun intervened, viciously stealing back his lost power from Kraven. Carnage, disgusted by Morlun's ravenous addiction to totemic essence, realized that the Web of Life had been attempting to trick it into shackling itself by claiming the power and the addiction it came with. Allowing Morlun and the Hunter-Spider to leave with their lives, Carnage returned Shayde back to Earth-616 and set out to continue its crusade to become the King in Black solo,[95] travelling to several universes and killing their Venoms.[96][97]

Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Agent Venom's Symbiote Squad from Death of the Venomverse Vol 1 3 001

The Symbiote Squad faces god-slayer Carnage.

Tracked by Agent Venom, who assembled a squad of Venom variants to oppose it, Carnage killed and assimilated the symbiotes of a variant of Mania to obtain her Hell-Mark, a Venomized Electro to absorb his electrokinetic powers, a variant of Shriek to become immune to sonics, and an Anti-Carnage to become immune to its cleansing powers. Subconsciously testing itself by expelling its absorbed powers and fighting their manifested codices, Carnage reabsorbed them and departed for a world where Knull was invading Earth. Knull and Carnage proved evenly matched, Carnage noting that under different circumstances Knull would've made a worthy host, but the Symbiote Squad's intervention distracted the King in Black long enough for Carnage to get in a killing blow. Consuming Knull and absorbing his symbiote, Carnage easily defeated the remaining members of the Symbiote Squad, forcing Agent Venom to give up and evacuate the survivors -- though not before it killed her son Dylan.[98]

Gospel of Carnage[]

Cletus Kasady (Carnage Clone) (Earth-616) and Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Carnage Vol 4 1 001

Bonded to a clone of Cletus Kasady

Despite now possessing incredible power the Carnage symbiote remained uncertain about its readiness to achieve its goal; seeking answers, it attacked Omnipotence City, to question the Lord Librarian on what it meant to be a god. The Lord Librarian responding by asking Carnage a series of questions before declaring it was incomplete without its other half, forcibly teleporting the symbiote away in the process. Warped to the same cell on Ryker's Island where it had first bonded to Cletus Kasady over a decade prior, the Carnage symbiote messily devoured the current inmate. Restructuring the consumed biomass into a replica of the human DNA woven into its own genetic material, Carnage regurgitated a clone of Cletus Kasady, as he'd been when it had first bonded to him. Imbuing the clone with the original Cletus' memories, the Carnage symbiote tasked him with helping it find answers to the questions the Lord Librarian had posed. As its bond with the clone of Cletus deepened, the Carnage symbiote set out alongside him to develop the Gospel of Carnage. The Carnage symbiote, for its part, was mostly content to sit back and allow the clone of Cletus to formulate the gospel, instead revelling in the human experience it had been denying itself on its quest for godhood, and relishing the spree of violence it enacted with its 'new' host.[18]

While the Cletus clone busied himself with laying a trail of breadcrumbs for inquisitive social media addicts to follow -- a trail leading to nowhere, with there being no deeper goal than to trick observers into believing there to be a deeper goal -- the Carnage symbiote began to grow frustrated with their slow progress and his host's proclivity for long-windedness. Consequently, they changed targets and set off to the town of Newmarket, to seek out the original Cletus Kasady and allay the symbiote's concerns its original host may stand in their way.[99]

Locating Cletus in the sewers beneath Newmarket, the Carnage symbiote engaged its old host in conversation, taking over for the clone; after a brief, bitter trading of barbs, Cletus ignited a gas main, attempting to blow up his former friend. Enraged but unharmed, Carnage devoured Cletus whole, attempting to absorb him, only to begin choking -- Cletus, correctly predicting Carnage would try to eat him, had injected himself with a great quantity of antibodies, in emulation of Anti-Venom, to try and poison it. Though they failed to kill the symbiote, the antibodies forced it to vomit a half-digested, but still alive, Cletus back up. Destabilising and in pain, the symbiote was forced to allow the clone of Cletus to take charge, reconstituting itself as the clone exsanguinated the original Cletus to remove the antibodies. Taking back control, Carnage devoured his original host's brain, absorbing his mind and spirit. Whole again, Carnage elected to move ahead into the next stage of the clone's scheme, moving to lure the man hunting it into a trap.[13]

Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Eugene Thompson (Earth-616) in the Dark Dimension

Carnage seals Flash Thompson within the Darkforce Dimension

Drawing Flash to a suburban home and tricking him into setting off a death trap for the man imprisoned in the basement, Cletus began verbally tormenting him, revealing his other activities: he had been, in secret, visiting Rose Thompson, Flash's mother at the Rose Manor Wellness Center; when Flash arrived he discovered his mother in the throes of radiation sickness, inflicted by a fatal dose of Polonium-210. Carnage confronted him there, waiting until Flash had drained the Anti-Venom symbiote's strength healing his mother of the damage wrought to her body, and engaged him in combat; to Agent Anti-Venom's confusion, however, Carnage barely fought back, allowing himself to be burned by Flash's caustic touch. This, Carnage revealed, was part of his plan: in order to rid himself of his weakness to Anti-Venom (the symbiote having somehow lost its immunity after its other adventures) he intended to force Flash to weaken himself, then slowly absorb his symbiote and gain immunity to his power over the course of several days. Enraged, Agent Anti-Venom attacked the murderous symbiote, accidentally allowing Carnage to partially merge with his symbiote and gain access to his memories; there, Carnage discovered that Flash lacked the knowledge he sought: the location of the King in Black, Eddie Brock. However, he did know the current host of the Venom symbiote, prompting Carnage to use the powers stolen from the Spot to seal Flash away in the Darkforce Dimension, before setting off to hunt down his latest target: his little brother, Dylan Brock.[100]

Tracking Dylan down in short order, Cletus and Carnage began psychologically tormenting him to bait him into a confrontation; accosting his landlady, butchering the son of a policeman murdered by Eddie -- and by extension, the Venom symbiote -- years prior, stringing up the corpse in Dylan's own apartment, and massacring his fellow employees at his workplace, all within minutes. Cletus left clues to where Dylan could find him and arrived at Our Lady of Saints, killing the parishioners and hanging the priest by a noose from the same bell where the symbiote and Eddie had their fateful encounters with Spider-Man, using the noise to weaken Dylan when he arrived. Tipped off by an audio recording left behind, Venom soon arrived to face Carnage at Our Lady of Saints, where Cletus needled host and symbiote about their mutual pasts, trying to pry loose Eddie's location from Dylan, before revealing the priest hanging yet still alive. As Venom weakened from the tolling whilst saving the man, Carnage transformed and viciously attacked him; as Venom fought back, enraged by Carnage's gloating about the symbiote's baleful effects on Eddie's life and its hand in the death of Anne Weying, Dylan's mother, Carnage grabbed him and forced his way into Venom's mind. Rifling through host and symbiote's memories in search of Eddie's location, the symbiotic killer pried open the tragic memories of the pain Eddie and Anne felt from the symbiote's actions, shattering Dylan's trust in his companion, and was able to tear the boy free of the symbiote with little resistance. The Venom symbiote was forced to watch in horror and anguish as, in an act of cruel mercy, Carnage impaled his little brother through the heart.[101][102]

Battle for the Throne[]

Carnage (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Venom Vol 5 30 001

Carnage bursts out of Meridius

As Dylan died, his latent symbiotic powers activated; to the shock of Carnage, host and symbiote were torn apart, leaving Cletus naked and bewildered on the church floor, and flinging the symbiote, biomass and all, into the void. Trapped in the inky abyss and struggling for freedom,[101] Carnage perceived a vision of a floating, jet-black disembodied hand, which it correctly concluded to be a god; fighting to break loose and pursue the entity, Carnage instead manifested far into the future, in the Garden of Time. Emerging into a battle royale between Eddie Brock and his temporal duplicates by violently bursting through the chest of Meridius's temporal duplicate, Carnage assumed the horns and chest symbol of the seemingly-dead King in Black, now glowing with absorbed power and gloating to Eddie about its godly status -- albeit somewhat perplexed about its arrival. Space Eddie, the earliest of the assembled Brocks, concluded that Carnage was responsible for a massacre he'd witnessed and attempted to attack it, proclaiming himself to be "Nitch" if Carnage was God; effortlessly impaling him through the chest and chiding him for his butchering of "Nietzsche", Carnage expressed its disappointment in his pitiful state and obliterated him permanently, to the horror of the assembled Kings in Black. Professing that its murder of Dylan had been infinitely more satisfying, Carnage gleefully prepared to duel the assembled Eddie Brocks.[103]

Iterations and Offshoots[]

While the Carnage symbiote was assumed to be deceased following Cletus' first defeat at the hands of Spider-Man and Venom, it survived due to its uniquely strong bond with its host - which enabled it to regenerate within Cletus' bloodstream.[42][8] Following being experimented on by Hall Industries, the Carnage symbiote developed the ability to create and control offshoots of itself.[104][105] Combined, these two abilities have resulted in several copies of the Carnage symbiote existing separately from each other:

  • Hall Industries' Prosthetics and Armor - After recovering Cletus Kasady's body from space, Michael Hall extracted the Carnage symbiote and used samples to create biomechanical prosthetics and suits of powered armor.[106] Of the known equipment created using samples of the Carnage symbiote, Tanis Nieves' prosthetic arm was assimilated by the Scorn symbiote, the Iron Ranger armor was temporarily assimilated by the Carnage symbiote and fused together to form "Mass Carnage",[104] and Cletus Kasady's prosthetic lower body was destroyed during his attempt to conquer Doverton, Colorado.[20]
  • Doverton Offshoots - After learning he could create and control offshoots of his symbiote,[104] Cletus fed the Carnage symbiote the contents of a slaughterhouse to increase its biomass and used it to conquer the city of Doverton by bonding most of the populace, Captain America, the Thing, Wolverine, and Hawkeye to offshoots of the Carnage symbiote.[105] Most of the symbiote's offshoots were incinerated by an airstrike, though Scorn captured a surviving sample of it under orders from General Brandon Duggan,[20] with the whereabouts of this sample being currently unknown.
  • Superior Carnage - Following Cletus' incarceration in the wake of the Doverton Incident, the remnants of the symbiote on his person were removed and incinerated, but it regenerated inside his body.[61] This iteration of the Carnage symbiote was used by Marquis Radu to create an army of clones that were then hybridized with clones of the Venom symbiote.[64] Following Cletus being rendered comatose, the symbiote puppeteered his body until it was removed from him by the Wizard and bonded to Karl Malus - creating the "Superior Carnage".[66] The symbiote broke free of the Wizard's control, devoured Malus, and took over the Wizard before being reunited with Cletus, but was separated from him again by Klaw.[56] The Superior Spider-Man contained the symbiote on Spider-Island, where it remained dormant for several months until sensing that Cletus was in mortal peril. It attempted to breach containment, but perished when Cletus was mortally-wounded by another inmate.[69] Malus somehow survived being eaten, and managed to reconstitute himself inside the symbiote at some point, absorbing part of it to be reborn as a human/symbiote hybrid.[107]
  • Chemically-Neutered Offshoots - Following the defeat of Superior Carnage, the Superior Spider-Man sent several "chemically neutered" samples of the symbiote to various labs to be studied. After the death of the main body of the symbiote, one of these samples - sensing that Cletus was still in danger - broke containment and bonded to scientist Carla Unger, rejuvenating itself by consuming her and several other interim hosts from the inside out. Eventually making its way back to Cletus, the symbiote resuscitated and rebonded to him.[69] This iteration of the symbiote was later augmented by the Darkhold, all-but eliminating its vulnerabilities to fire and sonics,[72][8] but was eventually stripped from Cletus using the cursed tome's eldritch magic.[70][31] The fate of the other samples remains unknown.
  • Darkhold-Augmented Offshoots - After being augmented by the Darkhold, the Carnage symbiote regained a version of its ability to create offshoots of itself - though this required an alter to Chthon to work properly. Cletus experimenting with this ability to create numerous symbiote-human hybrids - most of which either died or were slain; and also produced two Darkhold-augmented offspring: Raze, which he bonded to bond FBI Special Agent Claire Dixon;[108] and an unnamed spawn he bonded to Jubulile van Scotter.[109] Jubulile later absorbed the Raze symbiote and amalgamated it with her own and the Toxin symbiote; and all three symbiotes seemingly perished after a battle with the eldritch god Chthon - disintegrating into pink mist.[31]
Absolute Carnage Vol 1 3 Codex Variant Textless
  • Red Goblin - Desperate to reawaken the dormant madness of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn hired mercenaries to steal a sample of the Carnage symbiote from the Lock Box,[75][110] and bonded to it. While the symbiote initially tried to seize control of him,[76] Norman brokered an alliance with it; augmenting it with Goblin Formula to become the Red Goblin.[77][111] Spider-Man was able to goad Osborn into separating from this portion of the symbiote and immolated it before it could fully rebond to him, the psychic backlash shattering Osborn's psyche and temporarily overwriting it with a copy of Cletus Kasady's.[27]


Norman Harold Osborn (Earth-616) from Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 30 Codex Variant cover 001
  • Kasady's Last Remnants - Remnants of the Darkhold-augmented symbiote remained inside Cletus' body, unsuccessfully attempting to fight off a new symbiote forcibly bonded to him by the Poison Hive.[32] After the destruction of Poison Carnage, the last remnants of the Carnage symbiote attempted to shield Cletus from atmospheric re-entry using its Darkhold augmentations, but perished in the process and crumbled into red ash.[8]
  • Jon Shayde's Offshoot - Amused by NYPD detective Jon Shayde's obsession with capturing or killing serial killer Ken Neely, even at the cost of his body being disintegrated by the energy unleashed by the dying Hydro-Man, Carnage bonded Shayde to an offshoot of itself and challenged him to do whatever it took to accomplish his goals. The offshoot healed Shayde's injuries, granted him superhuman abilities common to the Carnage symbiotes,[88] though he was loathe to draw on its power.[91] The symbiote possessed a copy of Cletus Kasady's memories and personality, speaking with the serial killer's voice and calling itself by his name, though it noted it was not the real Cletus Kasady.[89] Carnage later reabsorbed the offshoot, before bonding to Shayde as "thanks" for him accidentally saving it from Drorin's trap.[24] After separating from Shayde, a small piece of the symbiote remained bonded to him.[95]
  • Dark Elf Offshoots - Five offshoots bonded to the corpses of warriors from the Black Bile Clan by Carnage, to aid in fighting the newborn Hounds of Nyaz, presumably reabsorbed afterwards.[90]
  • Spike's Offshoot - An offshoot bonded to a Hound of Nyaz dubbed "Spike" by Carnage.[90]
  • Anti-Carnage Offshoots - As a result of attempting to absorb Anti-Carnage, all of the Symbiotes and hosts Carnage had absorbed were released as offshoots, now both Carnageized and Anti-Carnagiezed. They were all re-absorbed by Carnage after a brief fight.[114]

Dark Carnage Offshoots: Like the Grendel symbiote, the Dark Carnage symbiote developed the ability to create offshoots of itself. Despite having the consciousness of the original Carnage symbiote, Dark Carnage's offshoots behaved like the original Grendel's offshoots rather than the original Carnage's offshoots. This meant that while they could be produced and controlled by Cletus Kasady (in emulation of Knull), these offshoots had their own distinct consciousness and were not just extensions of the main symbiote. Unlike the main body of the Dark Carnage symbiote while it was bonded to Cletus Kasady, these offshoots were still vulnerable to heat and sonics. These offshoots are listed separately from the original Carnage symbiote's offshoots to reflect their separate biological origin, and only those directly inhabited by Kasady or the original symbiote's consciousness are listed on this page; all other offshoots can be found here.

Chewbacca Sassy Danvers (Earth-58163) and Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Absolute Carnage Captain Marvel Vol 1 1 001
  • Chewie's Offshoot - Seeking Carol Danvers' codex from when she'd been bonded to the Venom symbiote, Cletus infected her pet Flerken, Chewie, with an offshoot of the Dark Carnage symbiote.[118] When Danvers returned from a mission in space, Cletus remote-piloted Chewie to attack her. Danvers attempted to rip the symbiote off Chewie like she once did to the Venom symbiote when it was bonded to Mac Gargan, but Chewie overpowered Danvers and swallowed her whole. Using the symbiote to create an avatar, Dark Carnage battled Captain Marvel within the Flerken's inner world; but Danvers managed to free Chewie from the symbiote. This offshoot of the Dark Carnage symbiote attempted to take over Captain Marvel and nearly succeeded, but was immolated by her Binary powers just before it could assume full control of her body.[119]


Norman Osborn (Earth-616) and Miles Morales (Earth-1610) from Absolute Carnage Miles Morales Vol 1 1 001
  • Norman Osborn's Offshoot - Amused that Norman Osborn believed himself to be the real Cletus Kasady after his stint as the Red Goblin,[120] Dark Carnage bonded him to an offshoot of his symbiote - turning him into a replica of Cletus' original appearance as Carnage.[121] Despite some friction between them over which of them was the real Cletus Kasady, Norman - as Carnage - served as Dark Carnage's lieutenant during his attack on Manhattan.[120] Sent after his grandson Normie Osborn to get his codex, Norman was instead met by his son Harry Osborn, who was aware of what was going on and attempted to keep his father occupied. Norman's original personality tried to reassert itself, though Cletus' persona remained in control. Eventually, Harry exploded the apartment, causing Norman fall into the sewers. Angered by Norman's hesitation, the symbiote berated and threatened to leave him, with Norman insisting he was the real Cletus Kasady. The Carnage symbiote, speaking through the offshoot, tried to abandon him and bond to a utility worker, Norman killing him and his partner. Satisfied that Norman was embracing his new persona, stating that he killed them for no reason much like the real Cletus would do, the symbiote returned to him. After Dark Carnage revealed to Norman that he was the real Cletus Kasady, Norman sought the help of Dr. Treadwell, who had worked at Ravencroft and tried to help Norman resist Cletus' persona. While Treadwell insisted that he give up the symbiote in order to get the help he needed, the Carnage symbiote emerged from Norman and killed him. The symbiote ordered Norman to rest and let it assume control from now on.[122] By the time Dark Carnage's attack on the city commenced, Norman's Cletus persona reasserted itself and was subsequently sent after the Scorpion and Deadpool to claim their codices.[120][123] When Dark Carnage attacked Rex Strickland's warehouse, where the heroes had holed up, Carnage was sent after Normie Osborn and Dylan Brock.[124] When Norman was knocked unconscious by Spider-Man thanks to the help of Kindred,[125] his symbiote - controlled by Dark Carnage - separated from him to finish the job. Before it could attack them, Dylan used his newly awakened powers to blow it apart.[15]
Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Venom Vol 4 22 001
  • Dylan Brock's Offshoot - A sliver of the Norman Osborn's offshoot of the Dark Carnage symbiote was retrieved by Dylan Brock, who secretly kept it as a souvenir. However, this drew the attention of the dark god Knull, who began haunting Dylan's dreams through his Dylan's nascent connection to the Symbiote Hive-Mind.[21] When Sleeper confronted Dylan over it and rebuked his belief that he could tame it, Dylan sought to use it to amplify his connection to the Symbiote Hive-Mind so that he could confront Knull. The piece of the Dark Carnage symbiote tried to bond to him but was repelled and psychically tortured.[84] Witnessing Eddie Brock getting taken over by the Dark Carnage symbiote through the Hive-Mind, Dylan used his piece of the symbiote to open a portal into the Symbiote Hive-Mind and remote-piloted the Venom symbiote in an attempt to save his father.[84] However, Dylan was overwhelmed by Dark Carnage, who seized control of the offshoot and attempted to use it to take over him. With Eddie's encouragement, Dylan was able to resist Dark Carnage's will and ripped the offshoot off before using his powers to destroy it.[22]
Carnage IV (Symbiote) (Earth-616) and Venom (Symbiote) (Earth-616) from Venom Vol 4 22 001
  • Island of Bones Offshoots - In its grudge-match against Eddie Brock after assimilating the Venom symbiote, the Dark Carnage symbiote bonded offshoots of itself to all the wildlife on the Isla de Huesos;[21] though these offshoots re-amalgamated in order to take over Eddie.[126]

Personality

Quote1 G-g-give it up! There's no "I" here! And green's out! There's only red! We're making everything red! They'll be soaked in it! Drenched in it! And we are -- Carnage! Quote2
Carnage Symbiote[src]

As a consequence of its gestation within an Earth atmosphere,[5] the Carnage symbiote possesses unusual neurochemistry compared to other symbiotes. One such consequence of this unique makeup is its extraordinarily powerful mental bond with its original and primary host, Cletus Kasady. So strong is this bond that the symbiote contains an exact copy of Kasady's memories and personality, which not only shaped the fledgling symbiote into a mental near-duplicate of its host, but allows it to create replicas of Kasady as well.[27][88][18] Since then, the Carnage symbiote's personality has developed and diverged from its host in various, subtle ways, but it nevertheless retains an extreme similarity to Kasady, comparable to a twin brother.[127] This resemblance is close enough that even when the Carnage symbiote operates independently of Kasady, it is near impossible, even for people familiar with Cletus, to discern his absence unless informed as such.[128] To date, no other symbiote has demonstrated as close a bond as that between Cletus Kasady and the Carnage symbiote.[23]

The symbiote considers Cletus to be its ideal host, calling him its family, and loathes being separated from him.[69] Despite this, it has willingly abandoned him on multiple occasions, usually to bond to more powerful hosts like Ben Reilly and Norrin Radd. However, these instances were temporary, with the symbiote willingly returning to Cletus -- even abandoning the cosmic powers of the Silver Surfer when it learned he was dying without it. If forcibly separated from Cletus, the symbiote seeks to reunite with him at all costs and punish those responsible, killing anyone who gets in its way.[56][69] For instance, when the symbiote was removed from Cletus' body and transferred to Doctor Karl Malus by the Wizard, who seemingly killed the comatose Cletus, Malus told Klaw that the symbiote was full of rage and the moment the Wizard's control slipped it would take over him to exact revenge, which it later proceeded to do.[129] During the period that Cletus was lobotomised, the Carnage symbiote took possession of his catatonic body, ceasing to verbally communicate and massacring anyone and anything it could get near, utterly consumed by vengeful rage for what was done to its host.[65][17] Disembodied by the rampaging symbiote, Klaw hypothesized that its behavior is like a human teenager, striving for independence from its host while at the same time craving attention and affection, though he later realized that the symbiote was actually separating from Cletus of its own volition to become more powerful and mold Cletus into the truly perfect host.[56]

The Carnage symbiote, much like Cletus, harbours a great need for familial connection and a strong fear of abandonment, a consequence of its being abandoned by its parent.[36][56] However, it is unclear how far beyond Cletus himself this longing extends, as the symbiote has not vocally shown interest in the other members of Cletus's adoptive family, nor does it share Cletus's romantic inclinations, going so far as to be willing to kill an alternate counterpart of Shriek, Cletus's main romantic interest.[130] However, given the Carnage symbiote's reaction to alternate versions of Cletus -- referring to them as 'not my Cletus' -- it is likely that this attitude is exclusive towards alternate counterparts. Its reaction towards its own spawn, conversely, is nothing but undiluted hatred, seeking to kill them whenever possible; the lone exception being its youngest spawn, Raze, who remained an -- albeit possibly unwilling -- ally to her parent.[131]

After being rejected by its original host for disagreeing on the pursuit of godhood, Carnage's love for its host transmuted into bitterness, seeking to prove it could live without him and attempting to push its limits in his absence; the symbiote refuted its passion for murder and malevolence, hypocritically citing it as Cletus's interest alone whilst visibly revelling in the mayhem it carried out. Despite this, however, the symbiote remained affectionate towards Cletus, fondly recalling their time together and referring to him as 'my Cletus' when confronted by a Kasady from another Earth.[95] Eventually, the symbiote would come to terms with exactly how much it missed its former host and sought to reunite with him, first by creating a clone to bond with, and later seeking the original Cletus to merge with the clone, willingly or not. After accepting Cletus back into its life and how much it needed him, the symbiote ceased denying itself from indulging its interests beyond pursuing its goals, thrilled at the simple pleasures of enjoying a burger, and once again revelling in the experience of killing.[132]

Attributes

Powers

Symbiote Biology: The symbiote covers its host in red and black biomass and grants them superhuman strength, reflexes, and agility. It also grants its wielder the ability to stick to walls, create web like substance, tendrils and (hypothesized to be a result of its incubation on Earth) to create bladed and blunt weapons from its own biomass. It also grants limited shape-shifting, demonstrated by its above abilities and the ability to mimic any form of clothing. As it is bonded to Cletus Kasady's bloodstream, it is almost impossible to forcibly separate them and it can regenerate even if seemingly destroyed.[66][61]

Carnage (Cletus Kasady): The original human host of Venom's spawn was the sociopathic serial killer named Cletus Kasady. Kasady's insatiable bloodlust bestowed the symbiote with power surpassing those of its progenitor,[74] making Kasady much stronger than Venom and Spider-Man combined.[5] Over the years the Carnage symbiote has underwent a host of mutations and alterations which have served to increase both it and its host's powers.[133] However, the portion of the symbiote bonded to Cletus Kasady was ultimately destroyed when it tried to shield him from atmospheric re-entry.[8]

  • Superhuman Strength: Cletus Kasady was an individual of slightly above average conditioning.[134] After bonding with his symbiote, he acquired physical strength exceeding that of Spider-Man and Venom combined,[5] letting him easily lift in excess of 80 tons.[135] Additions to the symbiote's biomass make both the Carnage symbiote and its host infinitely stronger as it grows in size and gains in bulk.[136] It can also be strengthened by feeding off the negative emotions of others around it, causing it to grow larger and exponentially stronger.[58][69]
  • Superhuman Durability: The Carnage symbiote's biomass can withstand high caliber bullets, great impact forces, explosions, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining significant physical injury.[70][137]
  • Superhuman Stamina: The Carnage symbiote augments its host's musculature and stamina well beyond peak human capacity, enabling Cletus to survive - albeit comatose - in the vacuum of space after his battle with the Sentry.[138] It is able to survive in oxygen-less areas for long periods of time such as underwater or in toxic gases, the symbiote filtering breathable air to the host.[138]
  • Regenerative Healing Factor: The Carnage symbiote possesses regenerative capabilities that enable it to fully regenerate from a few cells.[69] It is capable of rapidly healing its host from would-be fatal injuries as severe as being torn in half,[65][56][69] being decapitated,[64][139] and healing the neurological injuries sustained by both the Wizard and Cletus Kasady after bonding to them for only a short period of time.[56] It was also able to fix Osborn's deformities caused by excessive plastic surgery, restoring his original visage.[140]
  • Genetic Memory: All symbiotes possess the genetic memories of their ancestors, a rudimentary replica of the symbiotes hive-mind.[141] For instance, the Carnage symbiote possesses genetic memories of Galactus destroying a symbiote-conquered world,[142] and of the symbiote invasion of the Microverse.[63]
  • Wall-Crawling: Like its forebearer, Kasady's alien costume also replicates Spider-Man’s ability to cling to walls by controlling the flux of inter-atomic attraction between molecular boundary layers.[5]
  • Telepathy: Carnage, like all symbiotes, has vast yet undisclosed psychic abilities it has yet to fully grasp.[142] A unique property Carnage uses of it, is the ability to download the insanity and evil of both its host and the symbiote into another sapient mind through use of its tendrils.[143] It can also force Cletus Kasady's memories onto its hosts in order to torture and corrupt them.[138]
  • Technological Symbiosis: Due to its biomass being used in the creation of Tanis Nieves' prosthetic limb and the Iron Ranger suits, the Carnage symbiote was able to seize control of them, temporarily assimilating the latter to become "Mass Carnage".[144] It was also able to reach into and upload its insanity into Tony Stark's Iron Man armor when the latter tried to hack the Hall Industries biotech.[104]
  • Webbing: The symbiote can project a powerful, organic web-like substance similar to Spider-Man and Venom have. Typically using this viscous substance to swing from building to building or as a means of immobilizing someone. The webbing is exceptionally strong, much more than even the finest human athlete can break.[5]
  • Fangs & Claws: While bonded to a host, the symbiote frequently manifests fanged jaws and razor-sharp claws on its fingers and occasionally toes; which can be used as weapons in combat.
  • Constituent-Matter Generation: The Carnage symbiote is capable of forming tendrils and tentacles of its amorphous red-and-black biomass, using this to strangle or impale opponents. The symbiote can also convert ingested organic materials such as flesh and blood into additional biomass.[105]
  • Constituent-Matter Manipulation: The Carnage symbiote possesses the ability to shapeshift its biomass into various shapes and forms.[138] This is most-commonly utilized to create bladed armaments such as swords, spikes, bludgeons, knives, claws and axes; though the symbiote once morphed its host's arms into a pair of bat-like wings.[106] The symbiote can also discharge its biomass as projectiles, though these projectiles only last for approximately 30 seconds before crumbling into dust.[145]
  • 360-Degree Senses: While lacking a spider-sense, the Carnage symbiote possesses a form of full-body receptory system,[145] in that each individual cell is capable of acting as an eye, ear, mouth, nose, or tastebud.[146]
  • ESP Immunity: The Carnage symbiote is able to bypass Spider-Man's Spider-Sense, and can also suppress its presence to evade Venom's ability to detect its offspring and strike at him without triggering alarm.[147]
  • Camouflage Capabilities: The symbiote is capable of mimicking the appearance of any form of clothing, camouflaging with its surroundings, and even mimicking other people.[27] Kasady's clothing is largely red due to the symbiote's biomass coloration.[148]
  • Digital Immersion: Carnage once figured out how to spread his symbiotic biomass into the Internet by splicing his molecules through Ethernet cables to travel between hard-wired computers systems.[149]
  • Symbiotic Expansion and Psychic Control: 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.[150] The symbiote's excess biomass can be remotely piloted through large communities or vast expanses to take control over countless individuals with but a gesture.[19] This power was initially lost after the Superior Spider-Man had the creature chemically neutered;[69] but the symbiote regained an altered version of this lost facility via exposure to The Darkhold - though this required an altar to Chthon to work properly.[151] After bonding to Norman Osborn, the Carnage symbiote regained this ability in full, transferring part of its biomass to Normie Osborn to turn him into the Goblin Childe.[2] It acquired a variant of this ability after inhabiting the Grendel symbiote, being able to create offshoots by splitting off portions of that symbiote's constituent matter; unlike the Carnage symbiote's offshoots, which are simply extensions of itself, these offshoots become full-fledged independent symbiotes with the potential to form minds of their own, and even turn against their progenitor. After the Grendel's mass was devoured by symbiote-possessed sharks, Carnage lost this ability, regaining its original version of the power.
  • Symbiote Assimilation: A trait shared with other symbiotes, the Carnage symbiote is capable of assimilating others into its own constituent mass in order to vastly increase its size and strength;[48][65] and seemingly used this ability to restore itself after the majority of its biomass was devoured by Venom, and after being incinerated by atmospheric re-entry.
  • Vampirism: The Carnage symbiote is rarely depicted with vampiric abilities resembling those of its Ultimate counterpart. Its very touch is said to be caustic to others, making prolonged contact fatal to any unlucky recipient within the symbiote's grasp.[152]
  • Stretching and deforming: Even while bonded to a host, the Carnage symbiote can grow and expand to any size as long as it has the additional bodily mass to supplement its growth.[65] The symbiote is also able to get inside of small areas such as electric wires and the insides of cars to completely disable them.[150]
  • Parasitic Inheritance: The symbiotes can copy the powers and abilities of other beings by interfacing with their genetic code. The symbiotes are also capable of recalling that information from previous hosts and imprinting it upon its current wearer, granting them a host of copied and assimilated powers.[153]
  • Empathic Empowerment: The Carnage symbiote can take any form of negative emotions around it and turn it into a fuel source both for the purpose of sustenance and a power boost.[154][106] The Carnage symbiote's unusual power compared to other symbiotes has been attributed to it feeding off and amplifying Cletus Kasady's insatiable nihilistic bloodlust.[74]

Superior Carnage (Karl Malus): Following the Wizard bonding the Carnage symbiote to the crippled Doctor Malus after breaking Carnage out of prison.[155] Wittman utilized his neurospsychic technology in order to control the psychotic symbiote through its host, creating a three way rapport that gave Carnage a much greater degree of personal control over its amorphous substance as the Wizard made both the symbiotes and its host his sub-servant dreadnought.[67]

  • Body Storage: When Karl Malus bonded to the symbiotes, he used it to hold and store multiple munitions, armaments, and other items and equipment on his person through dimensional apertures within it's biomass.[68] He was able to extrude these objects through the biomass while maintaining an otherwise sleek, aerodynamic profile.[67]
  • Attribute Absorption: The Carnage symbiote can adapt some of the stored objects' unique properties, as shown when Karl Malus once absorbed some Vibranium into the suit and incorporated it into one of its Constituent-Matter blades.[68]
  • Repetitive Hosting Empowerment: The Wizard and Klaw both erroneously surmised that symbiotes are weakest without a proper host to be bonded to.[66] After being dissipated, Klaw realized that the Carnage symbiote is more autonomous than many others of its kind, and by bonding to multiple hosts over time the symbiote has become more powerful.[56]

God Butcher: Following its falling out with Cletus, the symbiote pursued its own goals to rise into power and become a God Butcher, intending to kill Eddie Brock and seize the King in Black throne to itself. It proceeded to assimilate as many powers as it could, throughout the Marvel Universe and the Multiverse, killing many Venoms until facing an alternate Knull and becoming a King in Black itself. Eventually, it burst out of Meridius's temporal duplicate's chest and assimilated his powers as well. His powers include:

  • Assimilation: Carnage can absorb both living and nonliving substance into itself, primarily absorbing other symbiotes in order to empower itself.[121] It was able to absorb Uru by consuming the corpses of deceased dwarves, using it to withstand the stellar heat of the Godforge and create All-Blood the Necrospear.[24] During his ascension into a God Butcher, Carnage assimilated multiple different incarnations of Venom and Carnage from across the multiverse, including: Ant-Venom, Anti-Carnage, Venomized Wolverine, Samurai Venom, Venoman-Thing, Venomized Electro, and alternate versions of Shriek and Mania, giving him the ability to use all of their powers.[114]
  • Power Absorption: Carnage can somehow absorb the abilities of beings even if they do not have a symbiote by integrating the source of their powers into itself.[10]
    • Transformation - Water: The ability of Hydro-Man, stolen by Carnage when he absorbed his Soul Molecule. Under Carnage's usage this ability gives his symbiote biomass greater fluidity and the ability to augment its humanoid form.[87][10]
    • Darkforce Manipulation: By tearing off and absorbing one of Johnathon Ohnn's spots, Carnage became able to draw on the Darkforce.[78][13]
      • Portal Creation: The ability to open portals to the Spotted Dimension, enabling Carnage to redirect attacks, teleport, and access other realms.[159][127]
    • Power Cosmic: Stolen from the Silver Surfer, after killing him Carnage stole his board and coated it in symbiote matter, adding the Surfer's powers to his own.[160]

Abilities

As its father was bounded to Peter Parker, Carnage and its siblings are immune to Spider-Man's Spider Sense. At one point, it granted Kasady the ability to "see" through its costume, but this ability seemed to be lost. 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.

Weaknesses

Like most other Symbiotes, it is vulnerable to sound and fire. However Carnage doesn't mind heat as long as it's the one making it.[67] After being exposed to the eldritch power of the Darkhold, the symbiote has lost its vulnerability to sonics,[72] though it is still vulnerable to heat and has gained a vulnerability to Chthonic magic.[71] After being dosed with the Goblin Formula, the Carnage symbiote has lost its weakness to heat as well, though it remains vulnerable to Anti-Venom's caustic touch.[2] After possessing a sample of the Grendel symbiote dragon, Carnage inherited its weakness to electricity, which it has since lost after restoring its original biomass. After absorbing a quantity of Uru, Carnage regained its invulnerability to sonics and fire, to the point it could withstand a bombardment of ionised plasma from a star.[24]

Paraphernalia

Weapons

  • The Carnage symbiote uses its fangs jaws, talons, and tendrils as weapons.
  • All-Blood the Necrospear: A bident forged from uru and Carnage's own biomass in emulation of All-Black the Necrosword. This weapon possesses the power to destroy worlds and can seemingly bypass immortality and healing factors to kill beings as powerful as gods.[163] When channelling All-Blood's full power, Carnage assumes a horned armored appearance with tassels bearing Asgardian sigils.[24][114]

Transportation

Notes

  • While created as a character related to Spider-Man and Venom, Carnage was later tied to the Cthulhu Mythos version of the Marvel Universe, first associated to Chthon and the Darkhold in Carnage (Vol. 2) (in which the Elder God is presented as one of the Great Old Ones and depicted more than ever as a Mythos-like entity), then to Knull, an elder god with references to Hastur and Carcosa, in Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1.
  • King in Black Handbook #1 refers to the Toxin, Scorn, and Raze symbiotes as the offspring of the Negative Zone symbiote rather than the original, which contradicts the contents of the comics themselves.
  • When asked why Absolute Carnage referred to the Carnage-ized Grendel symbiote as being the "Carnage symbiote" when it was bonded to Cletus Kasady, writer Donny Cates stated that any symbiote that Cletus Kasady bonds to becomes the "Carnage symbiote" due to him having been the one who first came up with the alias.[164] However, as of Extreme Carnage and Carnage (Vol. 3), the Carnage-ized Grendel symbiote is treated as the original Carnage symbiote resurrected and empowered by Knull.[23]
  • The symbol on Dark Carnage's chest is meant to be a white version of Knull's dragon emblem, though numerous artists have mistakenly drawn it as Venom/Mania's spider emblem.[165]
  • When asked about whether the separation between Cletus in his new symbiote body and the Carnage symbiote, and the reason for doing so, would be shown on-page, Ram V stated he believed the separation took place in Extreme Carnage; this is a continuity error, as the separation did not occur on-page during that series -- the Extremebiote was absorbed into the Dark Carnage symbiote, rather than replacing it.[166]

Trivia

  • The Carnage symbiote's only goal in life is to destroy and kill.[76] Kasady is the perfect host for the symbiote because he seeks destruction as much as the symbiote itself.[69]
  • The symbiote has a considerably stronger bond with Kasady than its father has with its hosts.[5] This is indicated by the fact that Kasady has predominantly used the term "I,"[42] as opposed to his father's use of "we."[167]
  • In Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 360, Carnage seeks out his first victim by selecting a "really stupid" name out of a phone book; in the previous issue, whilst having a discussion with the Carnage symbiote, Cletus is seen agreeing with a suggestion it makes, calling it "the first thing [we'll] do". Whilst the exact suggestion is not audible, it indicates the idea of picking a victim from the phone book was the Carnage symbiote's idea.
  • Under Haze Mancer's symbiote classification system, Carnage would likely be categorized as a "slasher" due to its tendency to form bladed weaponry.[168]
  • According to the Maker's theory regarding symbiotes spawning, the Carnage symbiote was spawned in response to Thanos creating the Infinity Gauntlet and beginning his hunt for the Infinity Gems.[37]
  • Following it giving birth to Toxin, Cletus briefly referred to the Carnage symbiote using female pronouns.[138][69] Prior to this, he referred to it using male pronouns, reverting to them not long after.[52][109] Notably, however, the Carnage symbiote itself has only ever referred to itself as male.[169][170]
  • The symbiote is apparently a fan of the thrash metal group Anthrax, often making Cletus listen to it with headphones.[171]
  • Carnage's immense strength and abnormal abilities are stated to be a consequence of its gestation within Earth's atmosphere.[5] However, its siblings born at the Life Foundation do not share that same degree of strength. This is likely a consequence of their being forcibly extracted from the Venom Symbiote and artificially matured in a sterile environment.[172] Sleeper, Venom's youngest offspring, was also gestated within Earth's atmosphere and displays a similarly unusual level of power to Carnage.[173]
  • When designing the Carnage symbiote's appearance as "Dark Carnage", Ryan Stegman had several unused concepts -- including a version that was merely emaciated rather than being skeletal, and one that lacked eyes and only had Knull's spiral sigil on its face.[174]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. Amazing Spider-Man #431
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Amazing Spider-Man #799
  3. 3.0 3.1 Amazing Spider-Man #798
  4. 4.0 4.1 Amazing Spider-Man #410
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Amazing Spider-Man #362
  6. 6.0 6.1 Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance #1
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2
  8. 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1
  9. Cates, Donny (9 July 2019) DONNY CATES on Twitter: "This is actually a REALLY good look at the new design for “Dark Carnage” Complete with carnage face, Cletus face, and corpse face. He’s uh...not a good dude.." Twitter. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Carnage (Vol. 3) #1
  11. Stegman, Ryan (16 October 2019) ryan stegman on Twitter: "@Exastiken DEVIL CARNAGE. I just made it up but yeah." Twitter. Archived from the original on 16 October 2019.
  12. Griffin Sheridan, Ryan Stegman (27 October 2019) ABSCARN BOIZ! w/Donny Cates: “Absolute Carnage” #1- Chapter Two Director’s Commentary PodBean. Retrieved on 3 November 2019.
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  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 Carnage (Vol. 4) #1
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  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 Carnage, U.S.A. #5
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  40. Amazing Spider-Man #347
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  47. Venom Super Special #1
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  49. Web of Spider-Man Super Special #1
  50. Sensational Spider-Man #3
  51. Spider-Man #67
  52. 52.0 52.1 Spectacular Spider-Man #233
  53. Amazing Spider-Man #430431
  54. Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #13
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  57. Venom Vs. Carnage #14
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  59. Carnage #25
  60. Carnage, U.S.A. #15
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  64. 64.0 64.1 64.2 Venom (Vol. 2) #27
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  71. 71.0 71.1 Carnage (Vol. 2) #8
  72. 72.0 72.1 72.2 Carnage (Vol. 2) #5
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  79. Free Comic Book Day 2019 (Spider-Man/Venom) #1
  80. Absolute Carnage #12
  81. Absolute Carnage #4
  82. Absolute Carnage #45
  83. Venom (Vol. 4) #21
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  85. Venom (Vol. 4) #24
  86. Extreme Carnage Omega #1
  87. 87.0 87.1 Carnage Forever #1
  88. 88.0 88.1 88.2 88.3 Carnage (Vol. 3) #2
  89. 89.0 89.1 Carnage (Vol. 3) #4
  90. 90.0 90.1 90.2 Carnage (Vol. 3) #5
  91. 91.0 91.1 91.2 91.3 Carnage (Vol. 3) #6
  92. Carnage (Vol. 3) #7
  93. 93.0 93.1 Carnage (Vol. 3) #9
  94. Carnage (Vol. 3) #1113
  95. 95.0 95.1 95.2 Web of Carnage #1
  96. Extreme Venomverse #14
  97. Edge of Venomverse Unlimited Infinity Comic #34
  98. Death of the Venomverse #15
  99. Carnage (Vol. 4) #2
  100. Carnage (Vol. 4) #4
  101. 101.0 101.1 Carnage (Vol. 4) #5
  102. Venom (Vol. 5) #31
  103. Venom (Vol. 5) #30
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  105. 105.0 105.1 105.2 Carnage, U.S.A. #1
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  108. Carnage (Vol. 2) #10
  109. 109.0 109.1 Carnage (Vol. 2) #6
  110. It is unclear whether this sample was the one taken by Scorn or the one separated from Cletus by the Darkhold, as those were the only known surviving copies of the Carnage symbiote by the events of Amazing Spider-Man #795.
  111. Red Goblin: Red Death #1
  112. Absolute Carnage #3
  113. Cult of Carnage: Misery #1
  114. 114.0 114.1 114.2 114.3 114.4 Death of the Venomverse #4
  115. Venom (Vol. 5) #25
  116. Red Goblin #5
  117. Free Comic Book Day 2022: Spider-Man/Venom #1
  118. Captain Marvel (Vol. 10) #8
  119. Absolute Carnage: Captain Marvel #1
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  123. Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool #3
  124. Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #30
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