Carnage (character)

• 1. Introduction

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  Carnage, the Marvel Comics supervillain, has a favorite calling card: the words "Carnage Rules," written in blood for others to follow. The character is a symbiote, an amorphous alien parasite that bonds with a living host and grants super-human abilities. It made its first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #361, in April 1992. Spider-Man is its usual adversary, and Venom, the symbiote's own parent, is its archenemy. Yet the two have occasionally joined forces when their goals lined up.

  A creature like this raises hard questions. Why did its creators want something worse than a villain who was already feared? What kind of human being could suit a parasite built for slaughter? And how does a symbiote survive across decades of defeats, prisons and impossible odds, passing from one body to the next? The answers run through writers' meetings, a serial killer's cell, outer space and the open ocean.

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• 2. Naming a Monster

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  Chaos was the name first chosen for the new villain. That plan fell apart when a different company released a character with the same name. The next candidate was Ravage, but writer David Michelinie then learned that Ravage 2099 was about to be published. Finally, assistant editor Eric Fein suggested Carnage, and the name stuck.

  Michelinie derived the symbiote and artist Mark Bagley designed it. The first published artwork of the character was penciled by Chris Marrinan. The creators saw Carnage as a darker version of Venom. They did not want a replacement for Eddie Brock as Venom, and the character also owed its existence to Venom's immense popularity with fans.

  Stan Lee, Marvel's co-founder and chairman, weighed in on the character's attributes. He pushed for a villain far darker and more vicious than Venom, because Venom's character development had been more scrupulous. Lee also came up with the name of the human host, Cletus Kasady.

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• 3. Cletus and the Cut

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  In a prison cell, the Venom symbiote was drawn back to Eddie Brock, which let Venom escape. It left behind its offspring. The parent's alien mindset gave it no emotional attachment to the newborn, which it considered insignificant. It never even mentioned the offspring to Brock through their telepathic link.

  The abandoned symbiote found Cletus Kasady, a serial killer widely thought of as insane. It bonded with him through a cut on his hand, and the result was Carnage. Within the story, the bond was not as strong as the one between Brock and Venom. Even so, Kasady's sadism made Carnage far more violent, powerful and deadly than Venom.

  Lee's idea for the pairing was a host who was a remorseless psychopath. Kasady would say "I" where Venom says "we." That choice signaled that this symbiote had little agency of its own. It acted as a weapon and an extension of his will, helping him murder in creative and gruesome ways.

  The will behind it has been shaped, the comics say, since Kasady was 8 years old. He sees chaos and random, undirected violence as reality, and he considers order and virtue to be illusions. He takes an almost artistic pride in his mayhem. He is also recklessly willing to take on the most dangerous and powerful opponents. The comics frame all of this as revenge on the whole world for the torments of his childhood, both real and imagined.

  On rare occasions, Kasady has spared someone on purpose so that a witness could tell others. One such person was Martha, the wife of Joe Robertson, during the Savage Rebirth storyline. His most famous showcase remains "Maximum Carnage," in which Kasady and the symbiote were the main antagonist.

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• 4. Borrowed Bodies

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  The symbiote's first escape from Kasady ran through the plumbing of his cell. It travelled through the water pipes of the Ravencroft Institute and overwhelmed the institute's chief, John Jameson. Using him, it committed further murders. Then Ben Reilly, who was Spider-Man at the time, bonded with it on purpose to stop it hurting innocent people. The result was Spider-Carnage.

  Reilly's willpower held out against the symbiote's murderous desires long enough to return it to Ravencroft. He then tried to destroy it by exposing himself to a potentially lethal blast of microwaves. The blast forced the two apart, and the symbiote slipped back to Kasady.

  Its next host was a stranger one. During a rampage, the symbiote tried to seize the Silver Surfer, who was visiting Earth to welcome the Fantastic Four back after their battle with Onslaught. The comics explain that Galactus had once consumed a planet where many symbiotes lived, and the species kept this as a race memory. On seeing the Surfer, who had been Galactus's herald, the symbiote left Kasady and became Carnage Cosmic. Spider-Man and the Surfer returned it to Kasady, who was dying of stomach cancer. The Surfer then sealed host and symbiote in an unbreakable prison, hoping to make them reflect on their sins for eternity.

  Later, after Kasady was lobotomized, the villains Wizard and Klaw broke him out of prison. They meant to recruit him to the Frightful Four as their own version of Venom. When they failed to control Kasady, Wizard moved the symbiote to Dr. Karl Malus. Malus, enraged, tried to kill his teammates, and Wizard renamed him Superior Carnage and equipped him with weapons.

  The plan fell apart in a fight with the Superior Spider-Man. Wizard lost control and was fatally injured, and Carnage went on a rampage. Carnage said that he liked weapons, but that ripping and slashing bodies suited him better. Klaw tried to get Wizard to take control again and was killed instead. The resulting explosion separated the symbiote from Malus, and it bonded with the injured Wizard.

  That was not the only host after Kasady's capture. Once the Sentry ripped Carnage in half beyond the Earth's atmosphere, the symbiote survived by going dormant and returned to Earth. Businessman Michael Hall found it. Through contact with the symbiote, Dr. Tanis Nieves and her prosthetic arm became a new Carnage, and later Scorn. Elsewhere in the comics, a sample examined by Dr. Carla Unger entered her body and helped her kill her abusive husband.

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• 5. The Red King of Darkness

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  After the events of Secret Empire, the then-powerless Norman Osborn stole the Carnage symbiote from an old S.H.I.E.L.D. storehouse. At first he was overwhelmed by its craving for mindless slaughter. Eventually he managed to "persuade" it to let him control its powers, to show it something other than "boring" slaughter. The combination became the Red Goblin, and part of the symbiote passed to his young relative Normie Osborn, turning him into a miniature version.

  Spider-Man seemingly destroyed the symbiote with an exploding gas tank. But it was attached to Norman at the time, and the damage showed afterward. Visiting him in Ravencroft, Spider-Man found that Norman now believed Spider-Man was Norman Osborn and that he himself was Cletus Kasady.

  A stranger fate awaited Eddie Brock. After Kasady's defeat, Brock absorbed the Carnage and Grendel symbiotes and received an offer to join the Avengers. On the day of the offer, Carnage overpowered Venom and took over, and Brock fled. A vision of Knull drove him to the island where he had once believed he killed Spider-Man. Carnage read his thoughts and crashed his plane. He escaped at the cost of his left hand, and the Avengers rescued him. They later nuked the island to eradicate the symbiotes still there.

  But Brock's son Dylan, who could track and control symbiotes, discovered that Eddie had never left the island. He was bonded to Carnage against his will. Dylan, in the form of a Tyrannosaurus created with the Venom symbiote, entered his father's mindscape and freed them both. The symbiote survived, however, and escaped by bonding with a shark.

  In another run, Carnage tried a comeback by bonding to Senator Arthur Krane, who was running a campaign to rid Earth of aliens. It also infected the leftover symbiotes Phage, Lasher, Riot and Agony. Its failed attempt to corrupt the Anti-Venom symbiote alerted Flash Thompson and Iron Man.

  The shark became the center of a darker tale. Carnage, riding a great white, prowled the ocean for months as the "red king of darkness." It captured one of a boat's whalers and bonded to him. It planned to take its place as the Red Right Hand of the King in Black. At that moment Eddie Brock killed Knull, and the dome of symbiotes around Earth shattered. Symbiotes rained down, bonded to the crew and declared themselves Venom. Eddie, now the new King in Black, ordered Carnage executed. Swarming symbiote-controlled sharks devoured it until it vanished into the darkness of the ocean.

  The title Eddie Brock: Carnage points to the pairing continuing. After the Venom War storyline, Eddie bonds with Carnage to survive, and Carnage joins the New Avengers.

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• 6. What the Symbiote Can Do

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  Strength greater than Spider-Man and the Venom symbiote combined is only the start. As Eddie Brock explained, the Carnage symbiote was born with unusual abilities because it gestated on Earth, an environment alien to it. Because of the symbiotes' biology, it is much more powerful than its parent. It can shape-shift and project a web-like substance from any part of the body, including weapons. A tendril lets it plant thoughts in a person's head.

  Because Venom bonded with Peter Parker, who passed on some of Spider-Man's power, Carnage has Spider-Man's wall-crawling and a version of his spider-sense. The symbiote relays information from every angle, letting Kasady "see" in any direction. Carnage, though, is undetectable to Spider-Man's own spider-sense.

  Kasady regenerates damaged tissue faster and more extensively than an ordinary human, even after losing any part of his body. He is immune to Earthly diseases while bonded. Sound and heat can hurt the symbiote. It is vulnerable to sound to a much smaller degree than Venom, and to heat to a much larger degree.

  Unlike Venom, Carnage can launch pieces of itself as darts, spears, knives or axes. They disintegrate into dust within ten seconds. It can also warp its appendages into different arms, legs, and even wings, often swords. Kasady controls its size, shape, color, texture and hardness. The color is usually red and black. It can pass as ordinary clothing, and he can regenerate the costume from scratch just by bleeding. It also blocks Venom's ability to sense and track it.

  The symbiote adapts quickly. When the Sentry carried Kasady into space, small sacks grew around his mouth and converted carbon dioxide into oxygen, keeping him alive until he was recovered. In some versions, it is vampiric and endangers victims with a touch. It can recall detached pieces, and send commands to parts of itself in technology. That ability broke the bones of the Iron Rangers in symbiote-enhanced exo-suits. Carnage absorbed all five, grew enormous and turned blue.

  When the symbiote joined with Norman Osborn, the result was immune to the usual symbiote weaknesses of sound and fire. Anti-Venom's touch was still dangerous.

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• 7. Alternate Worlds

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  On Earth-65, home of Spider-Woman, Mary Jane Watson was forcibly bonded with Carnage. The symbiote drew power from her secret love-hate and envy for Spider-Gwen Stacy. In the alternate Ultimate Marvel continuity, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson were also hosts.

  Some versions are stranger still. In the Amalgam Comics universe, Bizarnage is a composite of Carnage and the DC Comics character Bizarro. On Earth-15, Carnage bonded with Spider-Man and joined Weapon X. In the unified Marvel 2099 reality of Earth-2099, it is a modified Venom symbiote.

  In the MC2 future timeline, Carnage is Specimen 297. It bonds with Moose Mansfield, a friend of Spider-Girl, who hopes to use it to cure his father's cancer. In a later timeline, samples are used to create living weapons called Biopreds.

  The Ultimate Marvel version has a different origin. It is a self-regenerating vampiric organism created by scientist Ben Reilly from DNA samples of Spider-Man and the Lizard, plus samples from Richard Parker's symbiotic suit research. That version has had a long afterlife on screen.

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• 8. Screens and Stages

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  In 2009, the Cletus Kasady version of Carnage was ranked 90th on IGN's list of the greatest comic book villains of all time. In 2020, CBR.com placed Carnage 2nd in a list of dark Spider-Man villains. In 2022, CBR.com ranked the character 1st among the most violent Spider-Man villains, and Screen Rant included it in a list of villains smarter than they seem.

  In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Scott Cleverdon voiced Kasady's Carnage, and in the finale a Spider-Man clone becomes Spider-Carnage and tries to destroy the multiverse. In Spider-Man Unlimited, Michael Donovan voiced the character, who helps unleash a hive mind of symbiotes on Counter-Earth. Dee Bradley Baker voiced several versions in Ultimate Spider-Man, one of them created when the Green Goblin injected Peter Parker with a symbiote sample.

  The first live-action appearance came in the 2021 film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, with Woody Harrelson as Kasady. He had already played a cameo as Kasady in Venom, from 2018. In the film, Kasady bit Eddie Brock's hand and absorbed part of the Venom symbiote. After escaping San Quentin State Prison, Carnage rampaged through San Francisco with Frances Barrison, and captured Detective Patrick Mulligan and Anne Weying. Daniel Lewis, Anne's fiancé, weakened the symbiote with flaming gasoline, and Venom ate it. In Venom: The Last Dance, a symbiote based on the Ultimate Marvel version, nicknamed "Lava" by the visual effects supervisors, helps Venom fight a Xenophage until it is devoured.

  Video games kept it busy. Carnage was a boss in Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, and in Spider-Man (2000), the symbiote merges with Doctor Octopus to create Monster Ock. Carnage is a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and a tie-in update brought Carnage-themed cosmetics to Fortnite. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 even fuses Venom and Carnage into a creature Spider-Man dubs "Carnom."

  The comedy rock group Green Jellÿ released a song called "Carnage Rules" on its album 333. It later became the theme of the 1994 Maximum Carnage game.

  In 2002, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure featured a haunted maze called "Maximum Carnage." It was a trip through the villain's hideout, filled with henchmen and the bloody remains of Marvel heroes. The event's main icon, "The Caretaker," chose Carnage to represent the island because of his disregard for life and desire for total chaos.

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