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We’ve seen what happens when a symbiote bonds with a good man and a man who struggles to do good, villainy is all too easy a lure with these alien beings, but what happens when one bonds with someone who has no qualms with murder. A serial killer given vast power that exceeds even Venom in strength and speed. Carnage is that horrific answer, born from Venom, possibly the most hated child in comics by their parent. How did this happen? Let’s find out!

Cletus Kasady was born to Roscoe and Louise Kasady and showed signs of sociopathy from a very early age. He would torture his mother’s dog when he was a child and even go so far as to kill his grandmother by pushing her down the stairs. His father showed him brutality was the norm when his father killed his mother when she tried to defend Cletus from his father’s abuse. Cletus would be sent to an orphanage where he would be abused by fellow orphans and staff alike. This made his anger grow and he would kill an administrator and a young girl before he would finally burn down the entire orphanage, with everyone in it.

Eventually, Cletus found himself in maximum security prison for all his murders that he would commit thanks to his developed philosophy in life. Anyone can murder, they just need the strength to commit to it. While in prison, he meets Eddie Brock who was separated from the Venom symbiote at the time until Eddie was broken out by the symbiote. Unknown to Brock at the time, the symbiote was pregnant and gave birth in the prison before they fled. Cletus discovered the new symbiote and it bonded with him immediately, forming the deadly Carnage.

Carnage would prove to be more powerful than Venom or Spider-Man and the two would have to work together to stop Carnage’s new killing spree. Using the shape-shifting of the symbiote with the murderous imagination of Cletus, Carnage made blades of all sizes to slice and dice his victims. His killing spree that went through out all of New York City was eventually stopped and he was put back into maximum security, with the hopes he would never escapes or that Cletus and the symbiote could combine again.

This being comics, Cletus would become Carnage again and again over the years. Sometimes going solo, well as solo as two beings bonded together can, and other times teaming up with other murderous beings. It was discovered that Carnage was more than just Cletus and the symbiote, when the symbiote was eaten by its parent, Venom, Cletus would be able to draw on some of the strength merely by believing in the symbiote until he was able to bond with another newborn symbiote, becoming Carnage once more. Carnage wasn’t just a bonding, it was a state of mind.

Like Venom, the Carnage symbiote would eventually give birth but would also realize that it did not want a child and would try to kill it. As a form of vengeance, Venom would try to take it under its wing so they could work together to fight against Carnage. The symbiote would go its own way and bond with a police officer and become Toxin, and fight against Carnage alongside Spider-Man to stop its parent’s murderous ways and throw it into the super-prison, the Raft. When a massive break out occurred, Carnage would escape only to be captured and used in an experiment to make prosthetics. This would grant Carnage the ability to spread itself across many hosts and become Mass Carnage. While most people would become taken over by Carnage and become one with it. One of the first prosthetic recipients, though, turned out to get an offspring instead of this hive mind Carnage and became Carnage’s other child, Scorn, who would also become an enemy of their parent. Scorn would help out a stop to Mass Carnage and return Carnage to their one host ways.

In the subatomic Microverse, Venom and Carnage would end up captured to be used to make an army from their symbiote abilities. Able to gain control of the army, Carnage would have to fight against Venom and Scarlet Spider to stop him from destroying the Microverse and the Earth itself. During this fight, Cletus would be knocked into a coma, meaning the symbiote was the only one in charge of Carnage now. The Carnage symbiote would run around trying to find anyone to bond with regardless of how they felt about it until Cletus was able to be resuscitated. During the Poison invasion, the Poisons would try to merge Carnage with Poison and a fight for control occurred, ending with Carnage tossed into space by Venom so that he couldn’t hurt anyone for now.

There you have it! Carnage quickly became one of Spider-Man and Venom’s deadliest enemies and begin a long line of symbiotic heroes and villains beyond Venom. He’s been animated many times and may eventually get a big screen treatment. What’s next for the red menace? We’ll have to wait and see! Until next time!

Suggested Reading
Amazing Spider-Man #344 & 361
Venom
Carnage

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net