carnage

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Carnage
Cover of the Spider-Man: Carnage (June 1993) TPB. Art by Mark Bagley and Erik Larsen.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #360 (March 1992)
Created by	David Michelinie Mark Bagley
In-story information
Alter ego	Cletus Kasady
Partnerships	Maximum Carnage: (Shriek , Demogoblin, Doppelganger, Carrion), other symbiotes
Abilities	Alien symbiote

Carnage (Cletus Kasady) is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe. The character first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #360 (March 1992), and was created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley. In 2009, Carnage was ranked as IGN's 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.^[1]

Publication history

Writer David Michelinie created Carnage to be a darker version of Venom^[2] intending to have Venom's human alter ego, Eddie Brock, be killed off in Amazing Spider-Man #400 and have the symbiote continue to bond with a series of hosts. However, as Brock and Venom's popularity grew, Marvel would not allow him to be killed. Michelinie decided to create a new character; a total psychopath who unlike Venom had no sense of honor. The character was originally meant to be named "Chaos"^[3] and then "Ravage" before being settled on "Carnage." Carnage's human component, Cletus Kasady was designed by artist Erik Larsen who modeled the character after the DC Comics supervillain the Joker.^[4] Mark Bagley designed the Carnage symbiote.

Cletus Kasady was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #344 and first appears as Carnage in issue #360. He is the main villain in the 1993 "Maximum Carnage" crossover, a 14-part storyline crossover that spanned through all the Spider-Man titles. While highly popular, some fans contend that the storyline dragged on for too long and was nothing but a complete gore-fest with little value story-wise.^[5]

In 1996, two one-shot comics centered entirely around Carnage were released, entitled Carnage: Mind Bomb and Carnage: It's A Wonderful Life, both of which expand on his character.

Fictional character biography

Cletus Kasady has a troubled childhood, killing his grandmother by pushing her down a flight of stairs, and torturing his mother's dog who afterwards tries to kill him and is apparently beaten to the brink of death by his father, who receives no defense from Kasady during his trial. As an orphan, Kasady is sent to the St. Estes Home for Boys, where his antisocial behavior makes him the target of abuse from both the other orphans and the staff. Kasady gains revenge by murdering the disciplinarian administrator, pushing a girl who refused a date with him in front of a bus, and burning down the orphanage.

Kasady becomes a serial killer. He is captured and sent to Ryker's Island prison where he shares a cell with Eddie Brock, who had lost his alien symbiote. Brock's symbiote soon returns and bonds with him again, and unwittingly leaves behind the symbiote's offspring (the symbiotes reproduce asexually, once per generation; the children are then of no consequence to the parent, so the Venom symbiote felt no need to inform Brock of the existence of the new symbiote) which gets into a cut and bonds with Kasady's bloodstream, transforming him into Carnage.^[6] He escapes prison,^[7] and begins a series of murders, and at the scene of each crime, writes "Carnage Rules" on the walls with his own blood. He is found by Spider-Man, though the hero proves to be no match for Carnage's powers. In desperation, Spider-Man makes a truce with Venom to fight Carnage.^[8] Carnage is defeated with sonic weaponry, but the symbiote lives on because he is merged with Kasady's bloodstream.

Carnage goes on to recruit an army of psychopathic supervillains including Shriek, Demogoblin, Carrion, and Doppelganger to overtake New York City. They are driven back by Spider-Man, Venom, and a number of other superheroes.^[9]

Aside from Cletus Kasady, the Carnage symbiote bonds with Ben Reilly^[10] and later the Silver Surfer.^[11]

Venom eventually reabsorbs the Carnage symbiote into his own body "for good." Without the symbiote, Kasady retains the Carnage persona by costuming himself in red paint and continuing his killing sprees, but does so as a normal human, only for Spider-Man to easily defeat him in a fight. Kasady finds a replica of the Carnage symbiote in the Negative Zone.

The Carnage symbiote later spawns a "child" symbiote, named Toxin.^[12]

Carnage is one of several supervillains trying to escape from The Raft.^[13] Sentry finishes him off, flying Carnage outside the Earth's atmosphere and ripping him apart. According to Iron Man's computer, Kasady may not have been inside the symbiote when the Sentry ripped it apart.^[14]

Powers and abilities

The alien symbiote endows Cletus Kasady with enhanced physical strength greater than that of Spider-Man and Venom combined^[15] and shapeshifting abilities, project a web-like substance from any part of his body including the formation of a variety of weapons, and plant thoughts into a person's head using a symbiote tendril. Much like Spider-Man, Kasady has the ability to cling to virtually any surface. He can rapidly crawl, walk, or run across even slick surfaces. He is able to rapidly regenerate damaged bodily tissues much faster and more extensively than an ordinary human. It isn't known, however, if he can fully regenerate severed limbs or missing internal organs. Kasady is also immune to the effects of all Earthly diseases and infections as long as he remains bonded with the symbiote. For instance, Kasady's body itself is riddled with cancer, yet the presence of the symbiote negates any effects the cancer would normally have. Like Venom, the symbiote is vulnerable to intense sounds and heat, and is undetectable to Spider-Man's spider-sense. Unlike Venom, Carnage can launch parts of his symbiote at enemies in the form of weapons such as spears, knives, axes, etc., although they disintegrate into dust within seconds of leaving Carnage's body.^[16] Venom's costume cannot replenish itself and is a definite mass while Carnage is constantly forming new molecules.^{[volume & issue needed]} Carnage's symbiote is vampiric, feeding on and thus endangering his victims by mere touch,^[17] and also has the power to "see" from any part of itself and relay the visual information to Kasady.^[18] During the 'Maximum Carnage' storyline, Carnage reveals that his symbiote has developed an immunity to sonic attacks. It still retains a vulnerability to heat.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Character

Carnage justifies his acts of murder with an absurdist philosophy, based on the idea that the universe is essentially chaotic and that law and order are a perversion. He believes that even the average person can be like him, provided he has "guts". According to Kasady, all human beings are basically evil; most just won't admit it. His ultimate goal is for a society based on murderous hedonism and nihilism, with no law or moral order, and for people to have the freedom to do whatever they want.^[19] Carnage seems to have little interest in such typical supervillain desires as wealth and world domination. He kills mainly for his own pleasure, but also sees it as a form of "art". Kasady takes pride when his actions gain media attention, saying "I'm not inspired by the media... I inspire the media."^[20] He once told Demogoblin, in response to the demon's assertion that the universe is made of patterns and plans, that "Life is meaningless! Chaos! The universe has no center! Its creator is a drooling idiot!"^[21] Like Venom, Carnage has threatened to devour some of his victims, such as threatening to tear Spider-Man's arms off and eat them in the novel Carnage in New York.^[22]

Other versions

Exiles

The Earth-15 psychotic Peter Parker and Carnage combine to become the "Spider-Carnage", and becomes a member of Weapon X in Exiles.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Intercompany crossover

Carnage teams up with and later turns against the Joker during Spider-Man And Batman #1.

MC2

In this future timeline, Carnage bonds with Spider-Girl's friend, Moose Mansfied.^[23]. He also infects Spider-Girl little brother, Ben turning him into a miniature version of himself.^[24]. Spider-Girl uses the sonic blasters of the villain Reverb to destroy all traces of the symbiote. ^[25]

Ultimate Carnage

In the Ultimate Marvel series, Carnage is a self-regenerating form of life based on the symbiotic suit research of Richard Parker, created by Curt Conners and consists of his own DNA and that of Peter Parker. When Carnage was first introduced, he was a monster of instinct, with no intelligence or self awareness, with his only aim to devour the DNA of others to sustain himself. After "devouring" Gwen Stacy, this incarnation of Carnage has gone on to mimic her "essence" and now believes itself to be Gwen Stacey. Ultimate Carnage's appearance is based on Venom, Peter Parker, Curt Conners, and Gwen Stacy. In its monster form, Carnage copies Venom's general appearance, such as its large eyes and fangs, as well as the Lizard's claws. In its 'human form', Carnage resembles Peter in its first appearance, and Gwen in its second. The Carnage symbiote was absorbed by Eddie Brock, leaving Gwen and returning her to a healthy duplicate of the original.^[26][27] In one Ultimate Spider-Man comic book, Cletus Kasady is seen on a list of known cat burglars.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Other media

Television

• Carnage makes several appearances in Spider-Man: The Animated Series voiced by Scott Cleverdon. Due to being a Saturday morning cartoon, Carnage was not allowed to kill people, and an episode instead featured the character absorbing the life force out of people.^{[citation needed]} Cletus/Carnage is first introduced in the episode "Sins of Fathers" episode: "Venom Returns".^{[citation needed]}
  

  

  Carnage about to destoy Spider-Man in Spider-Man: The Animated Series

• Carnage appears semi-regularly in Spider-Man Unlimited voiced by Michael Donovan.^[28]

• Cletus Kasady makes a cameo appearance in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Reinforcement." He is shown as a patient wearing a Santa Claus hat in Ravencroft, during a group therapy session, when Kraven the Hunter attacks.

Film

• Carnage was originally supposed to appear in a Venom film as a villain. The film would have been released by New Line Cinema. However, a script was never written and the rights to Venom switched to Columbia Pictures.^{[citation needed]}

Video games

• Carnage is a boss character in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man X-Men Arcade's Revenge, The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes and Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage and its sequel Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety.
• Carnage is a boss in the 2000 Spider-Man video game voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. He assists Doctor Octopus in a plot to establish a symbiote invasion. After Spider-Man defeats Carnage, the symbiote attaches itself to Doctor Octopus turning him into the Monster-Ock. It destroys much of the underwater base when chasing Spider-Man. When the base exploded, the symbiote had protected Doctor Octopus from harm. The Carnage symbiote then detaches itself from Doctor Octopus and heads back into the underwater base, where it is presumably destroyed along with Cletus.
• Carnage appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game. This version is Peter Parker who was injected with micro-symbiotes by Adrian Toomes. It breaks free and fights Venom. After being defeated, Venom absorbs the Carnage symbiote into himself.
• Carnage is a playable character in the PSP version of Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. At the end of the game, Nick Fury dubs the research of the meteor shards "Project: Carnage."

Attractions

The Universal Orlando Resort's 2002 Halloween Horror Nights featured a haunted maze entitled "Maximum Carnage". The maze was designed to be a trip through Carnage's hideout and contained all his henchmen and the remains of various superheroes. The house was located in "Island under Siege", formerly Marvel's superhero island. Carnage also was the icon chosen to represent that specific island for the event. The event's main icon, "The Caretaker," chose him based on his disregard for life and desire to see total chaos.^[29][30][30]

Music

The song "Carnage Rules" by Green Jellÿ which is featured as the first song on their album "333" is written about the character and is used as the theme song for the Maximum Carnage video game.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Carnage at Marvel.com
• Brief bio at Spiderfan.org
• Carnage Checklist at thevenomsite.com