Carnage (comics)
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Carnage is a Marvel Comics supervillain, an adversary of Spider-Man and Venom. Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (April 1992).
Carnage is the result of a spawning of a separate extraterrestrial symbiote worn by Venom. This symbiote bonded with serial killer Cletus Kasady, creating one of Spider-Man’s most murderous adversaries.
Character history
Carnage was once serial killer Cletus Kasady, and became Carnage after merging with the offspring of the alien symbiote called Venom during a prison breakout. He was originally conceived as a purely villainous counterpart to Venom, who was becoming an anti-hero.
His past is uncertain. Kasady claims he killed his father, who apparently killed the boy's mother when she tried to kill him; however, he is unclear on the exact details ("...or is it the other way around?"). Kasady seemed to care for his mother, however, causing him to dig up her grave in Maximum Carnage. He also claims he killed his grandmother when he was younger, pushing her down a flight of stairs. Kasady tortured animals (including his own dog) when he was young. His largely self-invented past and chaotic personality are two of the traits he shares with the Joker.
Kasady has been separated from and re-bonded with the symbiote several times. The Carnage symbiote, attracted to stronger hosts, has attempted to bond with Ben Reilly (Spider-Man at the time) to become Spider-Carnage, and the Silver Surfer. Later, Venom decided to absorb the Carnage symbiote "for good." Without the symbiote, Kasady retained the Carnage persona by costuming himself in red paint and continuing his killing sprees (albeit as a powerless human). Soon after, Kasady found an exact replica of the symbiote in the Negative Zone. Why this symbiote is an identical copy, or where it came from, has yet to be explained.
Maximum Carnage
Perhaps the most famous storyline in which Carnage appears is the 1993 Spider-Man event Maximum Carnage. Carnage, and a cadre of psychotic super-villains, overtook New York but were driven back by Spider-Man, Venom, the Black Cat, and several other heroes.
Venom vs. Carnage
Carnage starred in the miniseries Venom vs. Carnage in 2005. The Carnage symbiote spawned a "child" symbiote, which he tried to kill without sucess and later bonded with police officer Patrick Mulligan. Carnage felt nothing but hate for the young creature and attempted to kill it, while Venom defended it (feeling protective of his "grandchild"). Venom named the new symbiote Toxin. Mulligan has since attempted to steer the symbiote towards heroism instead of murder.Death
Recently, in the pages of New Avengers, Carnage was one of several supervillains trying to escape from The Raft. The Sentry flew Carnage outside the Earth's atmosphere and ripped him apart.
Although Carnage has displayed a variety of death-defying feats in the past (false bodies, empty shells, etc.) it seems very unlikely that both the symbiote and/or Kasady survived this particular event. It has been stated that the symbiotes can die only by conscious degeneration (as revealed in the Planet of the Symbiotes arc) so it is likely that the symbiote, at least, will return.
It should also be noted, however, that some members of the New Avengers and fans say that the symbiote was devoid of Kasady when it was ripped apart, despite displaying qualities of him and being identified as Cletus in the course of the breakout. Therefore, Carnage may return.
Powers and abilities
The alien symbiote suit is made of tough, flexible fibers of organic polymer which have the ability to mimic any type of clothing whatsoever (typically colored black or red in Kasady's case). It also makes him undetectable (like Venom) to Spider-Man's spider-sense. Similarly, Venom's ability to "detect" Kasady's presence can be blocked by the suit.
In addition, the suit gives Carnage the ability to adhere to most surfaces with his hands and feet, a power which the symbiote inherited, via Venom, from Spider-Man. Also adapted from Spider-Man is the ability to project a web-like substance from his body. Unlike Venom, Kasady can also separate parts of the symbiote costume from himself and use them as weapons, but they crumble to dust after about ten seconds. Carnage's symbiote originally had the power to "see" from any part of itself and relay the visual information to Kasady although he appears to have lost this power.
The living costume endows Carnage with superhuman strength, sufficient to lift roughly 50 tons. Originally, he was stronger than both Spider-Man and Venom combined. Carnage also possesses levels of superhuman agility and reaction time comparable to those of Spider-Man.
Cletus Kasady is also a formidable hand-to-hand combatant as well as a merciless killer. Combined with the alien symbiote, Kasady is one of the most lethal and unpredictable of all Marvel supervillains.
Contradictions
Various stories often contradict one another as to whether the symbiote is permanently bonded with Kasady's DNA, due most likely to the symbiote's apparent death after its first appearance. In Maximum Carnage, it was stated that the symbiote had mutated Kasady's blood to allow him to produce a copy of the suit; later, the suit was again alive, but trapped in Kasady's body until he could release it from his bloodstream. During the Spider-Carnage arc, the symbiote chooses to leave Kasady and bond with Ben Reilly. Kasady, without the symbiote, (and, apparently, his blood) rapidly ages and his body quickly deteriorates. In this state, Kasady was barely able to function, having a hard time operating a sink, let alone being a threat. The symbiote bonded with him again in time to save his life. However, in the story arc where Venom ate the symbiote, Kasady did not deteriorate, as the symbiote had fully healed all stomach cancer. He was later to gain another symbiote in the Negative Zone, but this story was quickly forgotten. The symbiote that spawned Toxin was clearly the original Carnage symbiote.Ultimate Carnage
The Ultimate Marvel Universe version of Carnage is almost completely different from the Marvel Universe version, although both incarnations were initially designed by Mark Bagley.
Curt Connors created a rejuvenating organism using the DNA of himself & Peter Parker, as well as work stolen from Peter's late father, who was involved in the creation of Venom. The creature escaped and started to absorb other people's vitality and DNA to survive, reducing its victims to mummified corpses. One of the creature's final victims was Gwen Stacy.
Unlike the original Carnage, the Ultimate version does not bond with anyone. Also, despite the title of the arc being "Carnage", the creature is not called Carnage in the story. In addition, while the original Carnage is a homicidal maniac, the Ultimate one is a mindless creature that kills to sustain itself. Ultimate Carnage is a blending of the Lizard (its slightly reptilian appearance), Venom (its appearance, powers, and the need to absorb DNA to survive) and Peter's blood (its "flashbacks", and its red and orange coloring)
Cletus Kasady's name did appear on a list of known burglars at one point, but has yet to appear in this universe.
In the video game Ultimate Spider-Man, another Carnage (this universe's Spider-Carnage, although not named such in the game) is formed when the small amount of Venom that was not removed from Spider-Man takes over his body with the help of a modified sample of Eddie Brock's suit made by Trask Industries. This Carnage is later absorbed by Venom, whose host, Eddie Brock, then gains full control of the Venom suit. This Carnage has the perfect blend of Venom's strength and Spider-man's speed, rendering it a tough foe.
Recently there was an announcement of new plans for Ultimate Venom and Carnage in the future [link].
Carnage in other media
Carnage in Television
In , Carnage's creation was orchestrated by the evil demon Dormammu. The Venom symbiote had previously been launched into space aboard a probe by Spider-Man, but, learning that it was on the verge of asexually reproducing, Dormammu had his agent, Baron Mordo, bring the probe back to Earth. When the recently-arrested Cletus Kasady witnessed Brock's reunion with his symbiote, he was soon offered the chance to merge with the symbiote's spawn. Becoming Carnage, he was sent out to capture enough "life energy" from human beings to provide Dormammu the strength to enter our world. This version of Carnage was quite noticeably tamer and less violent than his appearances in the comics, merely draining life from his victims, which was later restored, rather than killing them outright (although he still took a perverse pleasure in the action, and referred to it as if it were feeding). He was eventually defeated by Spider-Man and Venom, as he, Venom and Dormammu were sent hurling through a dimensional vortex. He was voiced by Scott Cleverdon.
In the series finale of the show, a Carnage symbiote - perhaps the original, perhaps not - emerged from a dimensional portal into an alternate reality, and bonded with the extremely emotionally unstable Peter Parker of that world. The joining of the two created the insane Spider-Carnage, who was threatening to destroy all reality and thus all existence using an invention mixing the dimensional warp generator and a huge bomb to destroy every dimension consecutively. The real Peter Parker, assisted by several other Spider-Men from other universes, were able to convince Spider-Carnage to fight the symbiote off. This was done by bringing in Peter's Uncle Ben from a reality where he was not murdered. Peter knew the symbiote was influencing Spider-Carnage to commit this genocide since they were in fact the same person and Peter could never kill another human being. Uncle Ben was able to convince Spider-Carnage he could still be a hero as long as he had the courage to reject the symbiote. However, the Carnage symbiote was too powerfully bonded and despite Spider-Carnage's best efforts he could not get rid of it, so he threw himself into a dangerously unstable warp hole where he was killed.
Carnage in Film
There was a rumor that May Parker, the aunt of Peter Parker, would take on the role of Carnage after the IMDB listed Rosemary Harris, who plays the aunt, as having the dual role of Aunt May/Carnage. This was later proved to be another one of the many cases of internet vandalism which the site is known to suffer from. [link]Defunct Venom Film
An aborted Venom film, written by David Goyer for New Line Pictures, would have featured Carnage as the primary antagonist, but the script was never produced and the rights for the Venom character reverted to Sony. According to Goyer, "Venom wasn't a great guy but, in the script, his enemy Carnage was infinitely worse." Spider-Man was not involved in the story. [link]Carnage in Video Games
Carnage appeared in and its sequel, as the final boss.In the PlayStation Spider-Man video game, Carnage was again one of the final bosses. He functioned as a subordinate of Doctor Octopus while Ock maintained the appearance of a reformed Dr. Otto Octavius. Spider-Man deduced that Ock was lying and engaged both Carnage and Ock at the conclusion of the game. After Spider-Man defeated both men, the Carnage symbiote joined with Ock and created the hybrid of the two, called 'Monster-Ock'. Spider-Man fled both Ock and the explosive destruction of Ock's base. The fire was sufficient to disable the hybrid villain and the symbiote slunk back to Kasady.
See also
External links
- [Carnage Rulz-A page of the Marvel World Order site, (informative though difficult to read)]
- [Carnage's Profile from the Villains of Marvel Comics site]
- [Brief bio at Insania 1998]
- [Brief bio at Spiderfan.org]
- - Marvel Database Project
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