Carnage (Marvel)

Carnage is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic book spublished by Marvel Comics, usually depicted as an adversary of Spider-Man and the archenemy of Venom. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (Apr 1992), and was created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley, although the first published artwork of Carnage was penciled by Chris Marrinan. Carnage belongs to a race of amorphous extraterrestrial parasites known as Symbiotes, which form a symbiotic bond with their hosts and give them super-human abilities. Originating as an offspring of Venom, Carnage is much more powerful than his parent symbiote because of the symbiotes' biology, and is in many ways a darker version of him. Like Venom, Carnage has had multiple hosts over the years, but his most infamous one remains his first, serial killer Cletus Kasady, whose sadistic personality perfectly matches that of the symbiote. Other hosts include Ben Reilly, Karl Malus, and Norman Osborn.

Since his conception, the character has been featured in various media adaptations, including films, television series and video games. Cletus Kasady made his cinematic debut in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters film Venom (2018), portrayed by Woody Harrelson. The character is set to return in the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), where he will become Carnage. In 2009, the Cletus Kasady version of Carnage was ranked as IGN's 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Cletus Kasady
When Eddie Brock's Venom symbiote soon returned to be bonded again, allowing Venom to escape prison, the symbiote left its offspring in the cell; due to its alien mindset, the symbiote felt no emotional attachment to its offspring, regarding it as insignificant, and thus never communicated its existence to Brock via their telepathic link. The new symbiote then bonded with Brock's cellmate Cletus Kasady through a cut on his hand, transforming him into Carnage. The bond between the Carnage symbiote and Kasady was stronger than the bond between Brock and the Venom symbiote. Cletus Kasady was also a serial killer and thought of as insane. As a result, Carnage is far more violent, powerful, and deadly than Venom. Kasady and the symbiote would then be a main antagonist in "Maximum Carnage" and Kasady would continually be the most recurring character to use the Carnage symbiote in many publications.

Spider-Carnage (Ben Reilly)
The Carnage symbiote eventually transferred itself to Spider-Man—Ben Reilly at the time—when Ben bonded with it in order to prevent it from hurting any innocent people, creating Spider-Carnage. Ben's willpower held out against the symbiote's murderous desires long enough for him to return it to Ravencroft. Reilly subsequently attempted to destroy the symbiote by subjecting himself to a potentially lethal blast of microwaves, but it escaped back to Kasady after the microwaves forced it to separate from him.

Superior Carnage (Karl Malus)
After Kasady was lobotomized, he was broken out of prison by the Wizard and Klaw, who intend to recruit him into the Frightful Four and turn him into their own version of Venom. After a failed attempt to control Kasady, Wizard transfers the Symbiote to Dr. Karl Malus. Dr. Malus was enraged and under the influences of the Symbiote tried to kill his teammates, but he was subdued by Klaw and controlled by Wizard, who renames him "Superior Carnage" and equips him with weapons.

The trio are confronted by the Superior Spider-Man and during their battle the Wizard loses his control over Carnage and he is fatally injured once Spider-Man accidentally drops him due to the shock of finding out Wizard read his mind and knows about Otto Octavius. Carnage, now free, goes on a rampage and starts to kill anyone in front of him. Klaw tries to stop him, but due to his weapon being damaged he fails and realizes that the only way is for the Wizard to take back control. Both Carnage and Klaw make their way outside. Carnage fights the Superior Spider-Man and admits that although he liked using weapons, for him ripping and slashing the bodies is better. Klaw tries to get the Wizard to control Carnage again, but is killed by Carnage and the explosion separates the Symbiote from its host, only to bond with the injured Wizard.

Red Goblin (Norman Osborn)
Following the events of Secret Empire, the Carnage symbiote was stolen from an old S.H.I.E.L.D. storehouse by the then-powerless Norman Osborn. He initially found himself overwhelmed by the symbiote's desire for mindless slaughter when he allowed it to merge with him, but he has been able to 'persuade' the symbiote to let him take control of Carnage's powers to show it something other than 'boring' mindless slaughter. Using this combination of powers during the "Go Down Swinging" storyline, Norman is easily able to tear through Human Torch, Clash, Silk, Miles Morales, and Agent Anti-Venom, with the combination of the symbiote and the Goblin serum rendering Carnage immune to its traditional weaknesses, eventually transferring part of the symbiote to his grandson Normie enough to turn him into a miniature version of Red Goblin. The Carnage symbiote is seemingly destroyed by Spider-Man when he hits it with an exploding gas tank, however, because the symbiote was attached to Norman when Peter destroyed it, he wonders what sort of effect that might have had on his old foe's mind. Later as Spider-Man visits Norman in Ravencroft, it's revealed that Norman's mind appears to have been completely fried and now believes that Spider-Man is actually Norman Osborn and he is Cletus Kasady. It's not clear whether or not he's faking it or if he had actually lost his mind. Meanwhile, Harry manages to remove the Carnage symbiote from Normie. Not all of it has gone.

Eddie Brock
Following the defeat of Cletus Kasady, Carnage and the gestalt symbiotes were absorbed by Eddie Brock who later is given an offer to join the Avengers, but in the middle of his big day Carnage is able to overcome Venom and takes over. Eddie leaves before things get out of hand leaving the Avengers with strange reactions. Eddie gets back home and tries to quiet the Carnage in a way he has done before with Venom, heavy medication. Eddie passes out and has a vision of Knull. This causes Eddie to take off and head towards the island where he long ago had thought he had killed Spider-Man and where he remained until the emergence of Carnage. But Carnage catches on to Eddie's thoughts and causes the plane to crash land. Separated from the Carnage symbiote, Eddie is ready to face it off, but after a narrow escape that cost him his left hand,Eddie was eventually rescued by the Avengers who promptly nuked the island to finally eradicate the symbiotes still on it. Meanwhile, in order to find his father, Dylan discovers a unique ability he has to track and control symbiotes, which he uses to find Eddie and learns a terrible truth: Eddie never left the island at all. Instead, he has been bonded against his will to Carnage. Using the Venom symbiote, Dylan tries to separate his father from Carnage but only allows the Carnage symbiote to take Dylan to his father's mindscape. There, Dylan is able to finally free himself and Eddie from Carnage's control, but the symbiote survives the ordeal and is able to leave the island too by bonding with a shark.

Other hosts
There have also been other, shorter-term hosts for the symbiote.

John Jameson
Though bonded to Kasady's bloodstream the symbiote found a way to ditch its host by travelling through the Ravencroft Institute's water pipes overwhelming Ravencroft's chief, John Jameson. Carnage used him to commit further murders before eventually bonding with Spider-man, who was Ben Reilly at the time.

Carnage Cosmic (Norrin Radd)
During a subsequent rampage, the Carnage symbiote briefly attempted to take control of the Silver Surfer, who was visiting Earth at the time to welcome the Fantastic Four after their return to life following the battle with Onslaught. As it turned out, Galactus had consumed a planet that many Symbiotes lived on, and the species had made it a race memory so that each future Symbiote could remember it, as well as the Surfer who had been Galactus's herald at the time. Upon seeing the Silver Surfer, the Carnage Symbiote abandoned Kasady and bonded with the Silver Surfer, becoming the Carnage Cosmic. Spider-Man and the Surfer managed to return the Symbiote to Kasady, who was dying from stomach cancer, and then the Silver Surfer proceeded to seal both host and Symbiote in an unbreakable prison in an attempt to force him to reflect on his sins for eternity.

Scorn (Tanis Nevies)
After Carnage was ripped in half by the Sentry outside the Earth atmosphereit is later discovered that, although the host was presumably killed, the symbiote survived by becoming dormant and returned to Earth, where it was discovered by Michael Hall, a competitor of Tony Stark. He brought Shriek and her doctor, Tanis Nevies, so he could use Shriek to keep the symbiote alive in order of using the properties of the symbiote, to create prosthetic limbs and exo-suits which respond in the same ways as a symbiote. One such person, Dr. Tanis Nieves, is outfitted with one of these prosthetic arms after she is caught in an attack by the Doppelganger, who tried to rescue Shriek. When near the symbiote, her arm goes wild and forces her to kill several scientists before the symbiote forcefully bonds to her, becoming the new Carnage. After the symbiote uses Tanis to break into a Hall Corporation facility, it is revealed that Kasady is alive (although both of his legs have been severed), his body preserved by the symbiote and repaired by Hall's prosthetics. Kasady reclaims the symbiote and becomes Carnage once more, attempting to avenge his captivity while Spider-Man and Iron Man struggle to stop him. It is then revealed that Carnage was once again pregnant, and the suit's spawn briefly bonds to Tanis, but she removes it from herself and the symbiote bonds to Shriek before being torn from her. Scared of Shriek's malice, the symbiote arm then rebonds to Tanis, creating a new hero, Scorn, who defeats Shriek and forces her to use her sonic shriek to weaken Carnage, but he escapes.

Wizard (Bentley Wittman)
Ultimately, Spider-Man brings out Kasady's body to successfully draw the symbiote into it, which immediately devours Dr. Malus and then prepares to finish off the Wizard. However, Klaw ephemeral spirit focuses his sound manipulation powers one last time for a split second to create a powerful sonic blast that disables Carnage, allowing the symbiote to be recaptured. In the epilogue it is shown that the symbiote has managed to repair the Wizard's and Kasady's brain damage.

Carla Unger
After the symbiote had died in captivity, a sample of the symbiote was being examined by Dr. Carla Unger, until the sample entered into her body. When she went home, the symbiote formed around her and then she with the symbiote killed her abusive husband. After that, the symbiote consumed her and went to other hosts to get back to Kasady. When the symbiote arrived to an injured Kasady, a scientist, who wanted the symbiote for himself tried to kill Kasady, but the symbiote rebonded to Cletus.

Goblin Childe (Normie Osborn)

 * Main article:

Iago PUC

 * Cletus Kasady / Carnage is the secondary antagonist in Avengers: The Symbiote War, voiced by Robert Englund.
 * A version of the Carnage Symbiote appears in Marvel: All New, All Different Chronicles. This version is a clone of the Venom Symbiote which is corrupted by a Hydra virus containing the Red Skull's Super Soldier DNA.