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An Axe To Grind is no longer a trope
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** One of his favourite means of attacking is morphing his limbs into bladed weapons, most commonly a [[AnAxeToGrind battle-axe]].
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** One of his favourite means of attacking is morphing his limbs into bladed weapons, most commonly a [[AnAxeToGrind battle-axe]].battle-axe.
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Disambiguation
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* TheBadGuyWins: One of the haunted house/scarezone themes called "Maximum Carnage" from [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's]] Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights in 2002 involved Carnage and many other supervillains brutally [[KillEmAll mass-murdering]] all of the Marvel heroes and taking over New York, turning the city into a warzone between a flourishing band of criminals against the Punisher and whatever remains of a hopeless police force.
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* TheBadGuyWins: One of the haunted house/scarezone themes called "Maximum Carnage" from [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's]] Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights in 2002 involved Carnage and many other supervillains brutally [[KillEmAll mass-murdering]] mass-murdering all of the Marvel heroes and taking over New York, turning the city into a warzone between a flourishing band of criminals against the Punisher and whatever remains of a hopeless police force.
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* HalfWittedHillbilly: He is sometimes portrayed as an uneducated Southern redneck who — while not stupid — is a sociopathic serial killer with a love for sadistically killing people, making him a [[HillbillyHorrors Half-Witted Hellbilly]]. As such, Spider-Man and Deadpool enjoy taunting him about being a hillbilly.
* HijackedByGanon: Carnage appears as the TrueFinalBoss of the ''Separation Anxiety'' game, despite not being featured at all in the storylines it's based on.
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* HijackedByGanon: Carnage appears as the TrueFinalBoss of the ''Separation Anxiety'' game, despite not being featured at all in the storylines it's based on.
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* HijackedByGanon: Carnage appears HillbillyHorrors: Some versions of him are portrayed as the TrueFinalBoss of the ''Separation Anxiety'' game, despite not being featured at all in the storylines it's based on.a Southern redneck, making him this.
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* LowerClassLout: Cletus is usually depicted as being from a trashy environment and was already a career criminal before becoming Carnage. Some versions even make him a stereotypical Southern redneck.
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** The third issue of ''ComicBook{{Carnage|2022}}'' Vol. 3 reveals that, having gotten a taste of Knull's power in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', Cletus was plotting to double-cross him and steal his power... only for Eddie Brock to beat him to it at the end of ''ComicBook/KingInBlack''. Cletus then [[ComicBook/ExtremeCarnage came up with a new plan]] to become a [[KillTheGod god-butcher]]... only to seemingly give up on it, leading the Carnage symbiote to decide that Cletus was holding it back and execute the plan solo.
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** The third issue of ''ComicBook{{Carnage|2022}}'' ''ComicBook/{{Carnage|2022}}'' Vol. 3 reveals that, having gotten a taste of Knull's power in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', Cletus was plotting to double-cross him and steal his power... only for Eddie Brock to beat him to it at the end of ''ComicBook/KingInBlack''. Cletus then [[ComicBook/ExtremeCarnage came up with a new plan]] to become a [[KillTheGod god-butcher]]... only to seemingly give up on it, leading the Carnage symbiote to decide that Cletus was holding it back and execute the plan solo.
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A psychopathic serial killer imprisoned for eleven consecutive life sentences, Cletus Kasady met Eddie Brock when the latter, separated from the Venom symbiote by the toxic touch of the supervillain Styx, became his cellmate. Learning of Brock's grudge against Spider-Man, Kasady tried to convert him to his nihilistic philosophy, mocking Eddie over his claims to have once been the supervillain Venom. Repeatedly rebuked, Kasady decided to murder his cellmate, but before he could the Venom symbiote entered the cell and rebonded to Eddie. Venom broke free, leaving behind a newly birthed spawn and a terrified and jealous Kasady. Sensing his desire for the power Eddie possessed, the spawn of the Venom symbiote dripped onto Cletus' hand and bonded with him, transforming him into the monstrous '''Carnage'''. As Carnage, Kasady proved stronger than Spider-Man and Venom combined, and his symbiote was not only less susceptible to sonics than its progenitor but infinitely more difficult to remove, having bonded to his bloodstream. In his first appearance, Carnage forced Spider-Man and Venom to [[EnemyMine call a temporary truce]] to defeat him. Years later Cletus would lose his symbiote in a conflict with the FBI's anti-symbiote task force.
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A psychopathic sociopathic serial killer imprisoned for eleven consecutive life sentences, Cletus Kasady met Eddie Brock when the latter, separated from the Venom symbiote by the toxic touch of the supervillain Styx, became his cellmate. Learning of Brock's grudge against Spider-Man, Kasady tried to convert him to his nihilistic philosophy, mocking Eddie over his claims to have once been the supervillain Venom. Repeatedly rebuked, Kasady decided to murder his cellmate, but before he could the Venom symbiote entered the cell and rebonded to Eddie. Venom broke free, leaving behind a newly birthed spawn and a terrified and jealous Kasady. Sensing his desire for the power Eddie possessed, the spawn of the Venom symbiote dripped onto Cletus' hand and bonded with him, transforming him into the monstrous '''Carnage'''. As Carnage, Kasady proved stronger than Spider-Man and Venom combined, and his symbiote was not only less susceptible to sonics than its progenitor but infinitely more difficult to remove, having bonded to his bloodstream. In his first appearance, Carnage forced Spider-Man and Venom to [[EnemyMine call a temporary truce]] to defeat him. Years later Cletus would lose his symbiote in a conflict with the FBI's anti-symbiote task force.
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Up To Eleven is a defunct trope
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* LeanAndMean: He's usually lanky as both Cletus and Carnage, though in ''Literature/CarnageInNewYork'' he's described as being massive and imposing. This is taken UpToEleven in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', where he's literally skeletally-thin as Dark Carnage.
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* LeanAndMean: He's usually lanky as both Cletus and Carnage, though in ''Literature/CarnageInNewYork'' he's described as being massive and imposing. This is taken UpToEleven in In ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', where he's literally skeletally-thin as Dark Carnage.
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Corrupt Hick was renamed Small Town Tyrant as it does not apply to villains that simply happen to be hicks. See this TRS thread
for details.
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* CorruptHick: Cletus is [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] given a [[DeepSouth Southern accent]] -- particularly when written by Cullen Bunn and Gerry Duggan -- which Spider-Man, Deadpool, and most other superheroes and villains [[BullyingADragon relentlessly mock him about]]. At the end of ComicBook/{{AXIS}}, he also requested a statue be built in his honor and draped in the Confederate flag. However, he hates that people think [[HalfWittedHillbilly he's stupid because of his accent and rural upbringing]].
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* CorruptHick: CountryMouse: Cletus is [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] given a [[DeepSouth Southern accent]] (despite having been born in New York's [[BedlamHouse Ravencroft Institute]]) -- particularly when written by Cullen Bunn and Gerry Duggan -- which Spider-Man, Deadpool, and most other superheroes and villains [[BullyingADragon relentlessly mock him about]]. At the end of ComicBook/{{AXIS}}, he also requested a statue be built in his honor and draped in the Confederate flag. However, he hates that people think [[HalfWittedHillbilly he's stupid because of his accent and rural upbringing]].
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* CountryMouse: Despite having been born in New York's [[BedlamHouse Ravencroft Institute]], Cletus is sometimes portrayed as having a [[DeepSouth Southern]] accent, and many of his opponents -- particularly Spider-Man and Deadpool -- have mocked Cletus by pointing out that his accent and overall attitude just ''scream'' redneck.
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** The third issue of ''ComicBook{{Carnage|2022}}'' Vol. 3 reveals that, having gotten a taste of Knull's power in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', Cletus was plotting to double-cross him and steal his power... only for Eddie Brock to beat him to it at the end of ''ComicBook/KingInBlack''. Cletus then [[ComicBook/ExtremeCarnage came up with a new plan]] to become a [[KillTheGod god-butcher]]... only to seemingly give up on it, leading the Carnage symbiote to decide that Cletus was holding it back and execute the plan solo.
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Updating Link
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** Since the opposition had a version of Venom on their side, [[ComicBook/{{Maestro}} the Maestro]] considered recruiting Carnage to his ''[[ComicBook/ContestOfChampions Contest of Champions]]'' team, but abandoned the notion after catching a glimpse of what Cletus was currently up to.
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** Since the opposition had a version of Venom on their side, [[ComicBook/{{Maestro}} the Maestro]] ComicBook/{{Maestro}} considered recruiting Carnage to his ''[[ComicBook/ContestOfChampions Contest ''ComicBook/{{Contest of Champions]]'' Champions|2015}}'' team, but abandoned the notion after catching a glimpse of what Cletus was currently up to.
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[[labelnote:Devil Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/absolute_carnage_2.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
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[[labelnote:Devil Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/absolute_carnage_2.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]jpg[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Dragon Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dragon_carnage.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[labelnote:Dragon Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dragon_carnage.png[[/labelnote]]]]
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!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #344; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #361 (as Carnage); ''Venomized'' #3 (as Carnage II and Poison Carnage); ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'' (as Dark Carnage); ''Absolute Carnage'' #4 (as Devil Carnage)
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!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #344; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #361 (as Carnage); ''Venomized'' #3 (as Carnage II and Poison Carnage); ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'' (as Dark Carnage); ''Absolute Carnage'' #4 (as Devil Carnage); ''Extreme Carnage Omega'' (as Dragon Carnage)
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* WorthyOpponent: Cletus initially saw Spider-Man as one, during their first encounter.
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* WorthyOpponent: Cletus initially saw Spider-Man as one, during their first encounter. Still kinda does.
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** He massacres a diner in "Deadpool vs. Carnage", which is shown to have children inside. We don't actually see them die, but a news report says that over a dozen people died so [[AdultFear they likely didn't survive]].
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** He massacres a diner in "Deadpool vs. Carnage", which is shown to have children inside. We don't actually see them die, but a news report says that over a dozen people died so [[AdultFear [[DeathOfAChild they likely didn't survive]].
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* KnightOfCerebus: He particularly stands out among Spidey's colorful Rogues Gallery because he's not interested in money or power, but causing chaos and killing as many people as violently as possible.
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Updating Index
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[[Characters/VenomTheSymbiote The Venom Symbiote]] | [[Characters/VenomMainHosts Main hosts of Venom]] ([[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]]) | [[Characters/VenomOtherHosts Other hosts of Venom]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom]] | [[Characters/VenomSupportingCharacters Supporting Characters]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Rogues Gallery]]\\
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[[Characters/VenomTheSymbiote The Venom Symbiote]] | [[Characters/VenomMainHosts Main hosts of Venom]] ([[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]]) Brock]] | [[Characters/VenomFlashThompson Flash Thompson]]) | [[Characters/VenomOtherHosts Other hosts of Venom]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom]] | [[Characters/VenomSupportingCharacters Supporting Characters]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Rogues Gallery]]\\
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Believe it or not, he does have one, albeit a rather odd one even for him. In one issue where Carnage is [[DissonantSerenity casually considering who he should brutally kill next,]] he encounters a rude rich man who illegally parks in the handicapped zone. As Cletus makes clear, he not only despises those who think they're better than everyone [[RichBitch just because they have money,]] but he sure as hell dislikes them using resources meant for the disadvantaged.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Believe it or not, he does have one, albeit a rather odd one even for him. In one issue where Carnage is [[DissonantSerenity casually considering who he should brutally kill next,]] he encounters a rude rich man businessman who illegally parks in the handicapped zone.zone and rudely brushes off Cletus' objections. As Cletus makes clear, he not only despises those who think they're better than everyone [[RichBitch just because they have money,]] but he sure as hell dislikes them using resources meant for the disadvantaged. While it rings a little hollow considering the source, it's honestly amazing we even have this example from him.
-->'''Carnage:''' Hey mister, in case you didn't notice, that spot is reserved for the handicapped.
-->'''Businessman:''' Mind your own business shorty, I'm in a hurry!
-->'''Carnage:''' Shorty, moi? And here I was trying to save you from getting a ticket! Heyyy, I just got an even better idea! If you ''really'' want that space, '''I'LL CRIPPLE YOU ''SO YOU'RE ENTITLED TO IT!''''' I never could stomach a pompous fool like you! You think you're better than everyone else because you have a fancy car and a fat wallet!
-->'''Carnage:''' Hey mister, in case you didn't notice, that spot is reserved for the handicapped.
-->'''Businessman:''' Mind your own business shorty, I'm in a hurry!
-->'''Carnage:''' Shorty, moi? And here I was trying to save you from getting a ticket! Heyyy, I just got an even better idea! If you ''really'' want that space, '''I'LL CRIPPLE YOU ''SO YOU'RE ENTITLED TO IT!''''' I never could stomach a pompous fool like you! You think you're better than everyone else because you have a fancy car and a fat wallet!
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Believe it or not, he does have one, albeit a rather odd one even for him. In one issue where Carnage is [[DissonantSerenity casually considering who he should brutally kill next,]] he encounters a rude rich man who illegally parks in the handicapped zone. As Cletus makes clear, he not only despises those who think they're better than everyone [[RichBitch just because they have money,]] but he sure as hell dislikes them using resources meant for the disadvantaged.
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This trope only applies if characters in-universe express such an opinion.
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* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Cletus had a lousy childhood, but a lot of the things that happened he brought on himself. [[FreudianExcuseDenial Even he seems to think so.]]
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* ReligionOfEvil: The way he goes on about chaos, Cletus may as well be a disciple of [[Characters/TheIncredibleHercules Amatsu-Mikaboshi]]. By ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'', he actually ''is'' an apostle of the void god [[PhysicalGod Knull]].
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* ReligionOfEvil: The way he goes on about chaos, Cletus may as well be a disciple of [[Characters/TheIncredibleHercules Amatsu-Mikaboshi]]. By ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'', ''ComicBook/VenomDonnyCates'', he actually ''is'' an apostle of the void god [[PhysicalGod Knull]].
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* RevenantZombie: His state in ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'' and ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'': [[spoiler:a reanimated, desiccated, maggot-infested corpse possessed by the [[SuperPrototype primordial Grendel symbiote]] and capable of thinking for himself, but willingly serving the will of [[PhysicalGod Knull]]]].
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* RevenantZombie: His state in ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'' ''ComicBook/VenomDonnyCates'' and ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'': [[spoiler:a reanimated, desiccated, maggot-infested corpse possessed by the [[SuperPrototype primordial Grendel symbiote]] and capable of thinking for himself, but willingly serving the will of [[PhysicalGod Knull]]]].
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** Cletus gave a piece of the symbiote to Mister Sinister, who spliced it with DNA samples taken from ComicBook/KravenTheHunter and the original five X-Men in order to produce "[[XMakesAnythingCool Xraven]]"
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** Cletus gave a piece of the symbiote to Mister Sinister, who spliced it with DNA samples taken from ComicBook/KravenTheHunter [[Characters/MarvelComicsKravenTheHunter Kraven the Hunter]] and the original five X-Men in order to produce "[[XMakesAnythingCool Xraven]]"
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** Cletus gave a piece of the symbiote to ComicBook/MisterSinister, who spliced it with DNA samples taken from ComicBook/KravenTheHunter and the original five X-Men in order to produce "[[XMakesAnythingCool Xraven]]"
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** Cletus gave a piece of the symbiote to ComicBook/MisterSinister, Mister Sinister, who spliced it with DNA samples taken from ComicBook/KravenTheHunter and the original five X-Men in order to produce "[[XMakesAnythingCool Xraven]]"
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Adding Venom character index to Cletus' page.
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[[WMG:[[center:[-''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'' '''[[Characters/{{Venom}} Main Character Index]]'''\\
''Venom''\\
[[Characters/VenomTheSymbiote The Venom Symbiote]] | [[Characters/VenomMainHosts Main hosts of Venom]] ([[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]]) | [[Characters/VenomOtherHosts Other hosts of Venom]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom]] | [[Characters/VenomSupportingCharacters Supporting Characters]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Rogues Gallery]]\\
''Symbiotes in General''\\
[[Characters/MarvelComicsSymbiotes Symbiotes]] | [[Characters/MarvelComicsSymbioteHosts Hosts to other Symbiotes]]\\
''Other Symbiotes''\\
[[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage (Character)]] ('''Cletus Kasady''') | [[Characters/MarvelComicsToxin Toxin (Character)]] | [[Characters/MarvelComicsScream Scream (Character)]]\\
''Comics Characters Pages''\\
[[Characters/{{Carnage}} Carnage Characters Page]] | [[Characters/{{Toxin}} Toxin Characters Page]] | [[Characters/ScreamCurseOfCarnage Scream Characters Page]]]]-]]]
''Venom''\\
[[Characters/VenomTheSymbiote The Venom Symbiote]] | [[Characters/VenomMainHosts Main hosts of Venom]] ([[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]]) | [[Characters/VenomOtherHosts Other hosts of Venom]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom]] | [[Characters/VenomSupportingCharacters Supporting Characters]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Rogues Gallery]]\\
''Symbiotes in General''\\
[[Characters/MarvelComicsSymbiotes Symbiotes]] | [[Characters/MarvelComicsSymbioteHosts Hosts to other Symbiotes]]\\
''Other Symbiotes''\\
[[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage (Character)]] ('''Cletus Kasady''') | [[Characters/MarvelComicsToxin Toxin (Character)]] | [[Characters/MarvelComicsScream Scream (Character)]]\\
''Comics Characters Pages''\\
[[Characters/{{Carnage}} Carnage Characters Page]] | [[Characters/{{Toxin}} Toxin Characters Page]] | [[Characters/ScreamCurseOfCarnage Scream Characters Page]]]]-]]]
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* ArchEnemy: To Venom and Toxin as well by extension it's hosts Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson.
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* ArchEnemy: To Venom and Toxin as well by extension it's its hosts Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson.
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* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Played for horror in ''ComicBook/{{Venomized}}''. The Poison Queen appeared to her subjects as those they held dear and closest to their hearts. In Poison Carnage's case, she took on the form of Cletus's ''victims''. Whatever that implies is probably incredibly disturbing.
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* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Played for horror in ''ComicBook/{{Venomized}}''. The Poison Queen appeared to her subjects as those they held dear and closest to their hearts. In Poison Carnage's case, she took on the form of Cletus's Cletus' ''victims''. Whatever that implies is probably incredibly disturbing.
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--> '''Cletus:''' My name is Cletus Kasady and I kill people and I love it. I know nine million ways to kill a body and I love every single one of them. All dull day every day right up until I hit the hay I think of bodies. Bodies burst. Bodies slit right up the middle and shared across a hundred nice little gardens. And when I sleep I dream of ways to kill a body that ain't nobody thought of yet.
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--> '''Cletus:''' It was almost impossible for me to hear my wonderfully intellectual classical music tapes[[note]]It was Mötley Crüe[[/note]]--Beethoven, Mozart, and Mantovani--because of Brocko's loony lip!\\
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--> '''Cletus:''' Dreaming of [[TakeOverTheCity taking over cities]]... [[DimensionLord conquering tiny universes]]. Thought I was thinking big! But those kinds of ambitions... they're ''lies''. Now the cataracts have been peeled from my eyes! I can see clearly! Back to the basics! Simple... beautiful... ''random'' ...Carnage!
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--> '''Eddie:''' Sometimes I wish I didn't have to live with a foul serial killer like you.
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--> '''Carnage:''' Ain't no clues!\\
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* CurbStompBattle: Inflicted on Spider Man in their first encounter. Spider Man was desprate that he resorted to allying with Venom in order to defeat Carnage. The two initially seemed to have Carnage beat but then he [[IAmNotLeftHanded revealed he was just toying with them]] and overpowered them both.
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* CurbStompBattle: Inflicted on Spider Man Spider-Man in their first encounter. Spider Man Spider-Man was desprate that he resorted to allying with Venom in order to defeat Carnage. The two initially seemed to have Carnage beat but then he [[IAmNotLeftHanded revealed he was just toying with them]] and overpowered them both.
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---> '''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}:''' See, pal, you may be a homicidal maniac. But when it comes to crazy, you're simply outclassed.\\
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---> '''Maestro:''' An Eddie Brock from a world where he was smart enough--or crazy enough--to actually kill his Earth's Spider-Man. Heh. Let's go with crazy. Which makes me wonder. If crazy gets results... who's crazier than Venom...? (observes Carnage's latest rampage through a portal) On second though, there's such a thing as too crazy...
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---> '''Mass Carnage:''' Metal feels funny next to their bodies, heh heh. This isn't the first time I've worn dead bodies as clothes... might be the most fun I've had though. Makes the top three at least.
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--> '''Spider-Man:''' [[http://38.media.tumblr.com/a08f942e10b53fdb66901b99f9651bb4/tumblr_nel8e2phMR1rdffpvo3_1280.png Now that is really disturbing...]]
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--> '''Rick Spears:''' He's trying to be good but he's terrible at it and makes some pretty [[http://abload.de/img/axis-carnage002-010jmfsh.jpg horrible]] [[http://abload.de/img/carnage41ze17.png mistakes]].
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--> '''Mr. Sinister:''' [[NoSell You can't hurt me, Mr. Kasady]]. I will get what I want, with or without your cooperation. But I would prefer this go smoothly. Work with me, and I can help you.\\
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* TheJuggernaut: Among Spider Man's villains, he's almost invincible. Spider Man and Venom working together can barely slow him down.
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* TheJuggernaut: Among Spider Man's Spider-Man's villains, he's almost invincible. Spider Man Spider-Man and Venom working together can barely slow him down.
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--> '''Carnage:''' Symbiote... covered her... disguised her... tricking me into... but they tried to warn me... tried to tell me... if I'd listened... no!
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--> '''Carnage:''' There ain't no clues! Everything I do... from here on out... is random. I can't be stopped! Can't be caged! Can't be tracked! My every action is a tribute... an offering... to the almighty--\\
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---> '''Cletus, through the symbiote:''' She screams her pain as death and hatred. She kills for me. I like it. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When it gets boring, I'll put her down like my mother's dog]]. I am Carnage. Killing someone I love will make me happy. So happy.
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--> '''Detective:''' Cell's not even locked. He could walk right out.\\
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--> '''Carnage:''' Gee, Webster, I dunno why Eddie ragged on ya so much! I think you're kinda ''fun!'' I mean, I could really get into reunion battles, grudge bouts! Too bad I gotta cut this short -- -- by killin' ya now!
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* DraconicHumanoid: In ''Absolute Carnage'' #4, [[spoiler:Dark Carnage assimilates the Venom symbiote and transformes into a demonic-looking form with horns and retractile draconic wings]].
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* DraconicHumanoid: In ''Absolute Carnage'' #4, [[spoiler:Dark Carnage assimilates the Venom symbiote and transformes transforms into a demonic-looking form with horns and retractile draconic wings]].
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[[folder:I- ]]
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--> '''Carnage:''' If you've injured Shriek... If you attempted to harm her... I swear I'll have you squealing beneath my claws!\\
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---> '''Cletus:''' How could you let him beat us? A kid? A whelp? Barely a week old!\\
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---> '''Shriek:''' Where are you going? You didn't say anything about [[TwoFaced my new face...]]\\
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--> '''Carnage:''' I kill because it makes me feel like I'm on T.V., with my own personal soundtrack. Like JFK, brains on the leather and pretty blood on his pretty wife. JFK. NBK. KKK. And his pretty wife, now think of it, all wet and humiliated, crawling in front of the whole world--I like that, too. When I was a kid, my favorite movie was the [[UsefulNotes/ZapruderFilm Zapruder film]].
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* SmarterThanYouLook: Cletus Kasady is an impulsive crazed serial killer of limited education, is sometimes portrayed as a stereotypical Southern hick, and is [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a metalhead with few cultural interests]]. As such, any time he does take up the role of BigBad, the heroes tend to be caught off-guard by his quick-witted and sometimes downright analytical opproach. This becomes especially apparent in ''Absolute Carnage'' , where Cletus masterminds an operation that could be deemed global or even universal in its scale and wages war against the heroes on a dozen different fronts, culminating in him using a BatmanGambit that allows him to reach his objective regardless of the choice the heroes make. The story even takes the time to contrast Cletus with Norman Osborn -- who at the time had been brainwashed into believing he is Cletus Kasady as well, and behaved exactly like Cletus' usual impulsive self -- and shows how different Cletus can play the game if he really wanted to.
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* SmarterThanYouLook: Cletus Kasady is an impulsive crazed serial killer of limited education, is sometimes portrayed as a stereotypical Southern hick, and is [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a metalhead with few cultural interests]]. As such, any time he does take up the role of BigBad, the heroes tend to be caught off-guard by his quick-witted and sometimes downright analytical opproach.approach. This becomes especially apparent in ''Absolute Carnage'' , where Cletus masterminds an operation that could be deemed global or even universal in its scale and wages war against the heroes on a dozen different fronts, culminating in him using a BatmanGambit that allows him to reach his objective regardless of the choice the heroes make. The story even takes the time to contrast Cletus with Norman Osborn -- who at the time had been brainwashed into believing he is Cletus Kasady as well, and behaved exactly like Cletus' usual impulsive self -- and shows how different Cletus can play the game if he really wanted to.
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** "Amazing Spider-Man #362" shows him '''defenstrating a baby.''' Thankfully, Venom saves it.
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** "Amazing Spider-Man #362" shows him '''defenstrating '''defenestrating a baby.''' Thankfully, Venom saves it.
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'''Carnage:''' *sigh*
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'''Carnage:''' *sigh*''[sighs]''
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---> '''Carnage''': Now jus' who the hell is this Sentry buck? [[WorthyOpponent He's a strong one.]] Yeehaw! Fast too! [[OhCrap Wait, are those my...]] Heh heh... that shouldn't be funny, should it? Aw... Where you goin'? Don't leave me up here! [[BloodKnight It was just gettin' good!]] ... Guess I'm dyin'. Hope it's as fun as it looks.
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--->'''Carnage''': I was hollowed out inside... Empty... Just like [[TheSymbiote my other]]. We were both sick... Because we were incomplete... But not anymore. We healed each other... Made each other whole. Neither one of us can survive without the other. Forget host. Forget symbiote. There is only Carnage.
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---> '''Boy:''' Mister... your girlfriend don't look so good. I think she might be dead.\\
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---> '''Cletus, through the Symbiote''': She screams her pain as death and hatred. She kills for me. I like it. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When it gets boring, I'll put her down like my mother's dog]]. I am Carnage. Killing someone I love will make me happy. So happy.
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---> '''Cletus, through the Symbiote''': symbiote:''' She screams her pain as death and hatred. She kills for me. I like it. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When it gets boring, I'll put her down like my mother's dog]]. I am Carnage. Killing someone I love will make me happy. So happy.
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* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Cletus had a lousy childhood, but a lot of the things that happened he brought on himself.
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* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Cletus had a lousy childhood, but a lot of the things that happened he brought on himself. [[FreudianExcuseDenial Even he seems to think so.]]
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* AxCrazy: Cletus believes that chaos is the natural order, and expresses this belief through wanton violence.
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* AxCrazy: Cletus believes that chaos is the natural order, and expresses this belief through wanton violence. This was BEFORE he bonded with the symbiote.
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!!Cletus Kasady
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26017e5ffcc5c7d534b74749fef17f38.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Carnage]]\\
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:''Venomized'' Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carnage_iii_7.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Poison Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poison_carnage_4.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Dark Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_carnage.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Devil Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/absolute_carnage_2.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Carnage; Poison Carnage; Dark Carnage; Devil Carnage
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #344; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #361 (as Carnage); ''Venomized'' #3 (as Carnage II and Poison Carnage); ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'' (as Dark Carnage); ''Absolute Carnage'' #4 (as Devil Carnage)
A psychopathic serial killer imprisoned for eleven consecutive life sentences, Cletus Kasady met Eddie Brock when the latter, separated from the Venom symbiote by the toxic touch of the supervillain Styx, became his cellmate. Learning of Brock's grudge against Spider-Man, Kasady tried to convert him to his nihilistic philosophy, mocking Eddie over his claims to have once been the supervillain Venom. Repeatedly rebuked, Kasady decided to murder his cellmate, but before he could the Venom symbiote entered the cell and rebonded to Eddie. Venom broke free, leaving behind a newly birthed spawn and a terrified and jealous Kasady. Sensing his desire for the power Eddie possessed, the spawn of the Venom symbiote dripped onto Cletus' hand and bonded with him, transforming him into the monstrous '''Carnage'''. As Carnage, Kasady proved stronger than Spider-Man and Venom combined, and his symbiote was not only less susceptible to sonics than its progenitor but infinitely more difficult to remove, having bonded to his bloodstream. In his first appearance, Carnage forced Spider-Man and Venom to [[EnemyMine call a temporary truce]] to defeat him. Years later Cletus would lose his symbiote in a conflict with the FBI's anti-symbiote task force.
\\\
When the Poisons invaded Earth-616, they sent a strike team to retrieve Cletus and offered him the chance to become Carnage again if he allied with them. Thinking they would reunite him with his beloved symbiote, Cletus accepted... but was instead bonded to a new symbiote, causing him excruciating pain as it came into conflict with the remnants of his original symbiote. Furious over having been tricked and tortured, Cletus rampaged -- intent on escaping and reuniting with his original symbiote -- but was quickly ambushed by an unbound Poison, which consumed him to become '''Poison Carnage'''. However, Cletus' bloodlust let his psyche mostly-withstand being consumed, and he faked loyalty to the Hive -- ultimately being tossed into space by Venom. However, his body floated through the emptiness of space and returned to Earth -- shattering the Poison and restoring his human form in the process. The Carnage symbiote sacrificed itself to protect Cletus as they reentered Earth's atmosphere, but Cletus died upon landing.
\\\
Cletus' body was spirited away by the authorities, only to be grabbed by an apocalyptic cult who saw him as the key to contacting and awakening the symbiote god Knull. Thanks to a piece of the ancient Grendel symbiote they had stolen from the Maker, Cletus was [[RevenantZombie reanimated]] and transformed into '''Dark Carnage''' by devouring Scorn's "codex" -- trace remnants of symbiote left in hosts' bodies. Wanting more of the experience he'd had, he was told that if he absorbed more "codexes" from other previous symbiote holders, he could even resurrect Knull.
----
* AndIMustScream: After running afoul of the ComicBook/SilverSurfer, Carnage was imprisoned in a statue-like state - able to think, but in no way able to move or talk. He later got better, though.
* ArtificialLimbs: Cletus was briefly equipped with cybernetic legs [[OrganicTechnology derived from his symbiote]], although they were destroyed by a sonic machine. He regrew his legs while in the Microverse, but apparently loses them again after sacrificing himself in ComicBook/{{Axis}} since the robot legs are [[SeriesContinuityError inexplicably]] back in ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}''.
* ArchEnemy: To Venom and Toxin as well by extension it's hosts Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Claims to have done this following exiting the Microverse, though he's quickly subdued by Agent Venom and Scarlet Spider.
* AxCrazy: Cletus believes that chaos is the natural order, and expresses this belief through wanton violence.
--> '''Cletus:''' My name is Cletus Kasady and I kill people and I love it. I know nine million ways to kill a body and I love every single one of them. All dull day every day right up until I hit the hay I think of bodies. Bodies burst. Bodies slit right up the middle and shared across a hundred nice little gardens. And when I sleep I dream of ways to kill a body that ain't nobody thought of yet.
* BackFromTheDead:
** Cletus was murdered by his psychologist Dr. Jenner, who wanted to become the symbiote's new host. It turned him down, resuscitated and rebonded to Cletus, and the reunited Carnage paid Jenner back with interest.
** In ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'', [[spoiler:a cult dedicated to Knull resurrects Cletus so that he can free the dark god of the symbiotes from his prison in Klyntar. A SubvertedTrope, as he [[RevenantZombie isn't technically alive again, but reanimated]]]].
* TheBadGuyWins: One of the haunted house/scarezone themes called "Maximum Carnage" from [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's]] Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights in 2002 involved Carnage and many other supervillains brutally [[KillEmAll mass-murdering]] all of the Marvel heroes and taking over New York, turning the city into a warzone between a flourishing band of criminals against the Punisher and whatever remains of a hopeless police force.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: When Knull tries to take over his body, Cletus fights back and overcomes him by consuming Scorn's codex.
* BigBad: Of the ''Maximum Carnage'', ''Carnage USA'', ''Minimum Carnage'' story arcs, his own series, and some of ComicBook/{{Venom}}'s stories. Basically, Carnage is the most recurring villain in Venom's rouge gallery, as well as having a number of miniseries focused solely on him.
* BigBadEnsemble: With The Maker and Knull for the 2018 ''Venom'' series.
* BigEater: Between himself and Doppelgänger, Cletus ate a meat processing plant's supply of cattle ''and'' the workers stationed there to increase the symbiote's biomass and let him take over Doverton.
* BladeBelowTheShoulder:
** One of his favourite means of attacking is morphing his limbs into bladed weapons, most commonly a [[AnAxeToGrind battle-axe]].
** As Poison Carnage, his arms appear to be permanently stuck in the form of sword-like blades.
* BlackEyesOfCrazy: As Knull's prophet, his eyes have black sclera, red spiral-shaped irises, and no pupils.
* BlatantLies: He's brought in [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/bd339d358e0527399c1618b4043da41d/tumblr_mjv349eNgT1s5gls9o1_500.jpg as a witness]] for the prosecution in ''Venom: The Trial''. His testimony regarding his and Eddie's time together as cellmates is as believable as you'd expect.
--> '''Cletus:''' It was almost impossible for me to hear my wonderfully intellectual classical music tapes[[note]]It was Mötley Crüe[[/note]]--Beethoven, Mozart, and Mantovani--because of Brocko's loony lip!\\
'''"Flashback" Eddie:''' As a serial killer, you are some chump, Kasady. You got convicted on eleven counts. You must have been begging to get caught. I PUT DOWN MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY AND THEY'RE NEVER GOING TO MAKE ANYTHING STICK TO ME!
* BloodKnight: While Cletus prefers flat-out killing more than actual combat, he still enjoys a good fight and actually complained that "it was just gettin' good" when the Sentry left him to die after ripping him in half.
* {{Bomb Throwing Anarchist|s}}: Cletus espouses a nihilistic philosophy of lawlessness, randomized murder, and chaos.
* BookDumb: Kasady is uneducated, having burnt his school to the ground, but is not an idiot, and prior to getting the symbiote had cleanly gotten away with a number of murders; worse, since he doesn't hold the same intense grudge against Spidey the same way his other enemies do and he doesn't have as sensitive an ego, he's not as vulnerable to Spidey's [[YouFightLikeACow usual psychological tactics]]. Carnage is ''focused'' on his mission, and that mission is killing as many people as he can.
* BreakoutVillain: Just like Venom, Carnage is easily one of Spider-Man's most popular villains.
* BroughtDownToNormal: Venom once ate the symbiote, though Cletus was able to find a duplicate of it in the Negative Zone. There have also been times it's left him for stronger hosts.
* CameBackStrong: In ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'', [[spoiler:Cletus is resurrected and not only has the Carnage symbiote restored, but is bonded to a piece of the ancient Grendel symbiote as well -- making him more powerful than ever]].
* CardCarryingVillain: He kills people ForTheEvulz, and that's just about all there is to him.
* CardboardPrison: Breaks out of prison on a semi-regular basis.
* CharacterDevelopment: Following his return from space, Carnage started becoming increasingly megalomaniacal, taking over Doverton, Colorado and later trying to conquer the Microverse. This... didn't turn out so well for him, and in ''Superior Carnage Annual'' he decides to get back to basics. As Dark Carnage he becomes more methodical and cunning, to the frustration of Norman Osborn -- whose mind was taken over by a copy of Cletus' original self.
* CharacterRerailment: [[invoked]] After breaking out of prison in ''Superior Carnage Annual'', Cletus reflects on the foolishness of his past megalomaniacal escapades and decides to go back to just being a nihilistic mass murderer.
--> '''Cletus:''' Dreaming of [[TakeOverTheCity taking over cities]]... [[DimensionLord conquering tiny universes]]. Thought I was thinking big! But those kinds of ambitions... they're ''lies''. Now the cataracts have been peeled from my eyes! I can see clearly! Back to the basics! Simple... beautiful... ''random'' ...Carnage!
* ChekhovsGunman: Cletus Kasady debuted as a bit-part bad guy in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #344.
* ChestBurster: The off-panel result of him attempting to hold in the Toxin symbiote.
* ChestInsignia: As a sign of his allegiance and growing connection to Knull, Carnage has a red/white version of Knull's dragon emblem in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' -- though it's also been drawn as a spider similar to Venom and Mania's.
* ChildHater: If the look of exasperated annoyance on his face when a little boy with a Spider-Man doll starts pestering him wasn't a giveaway, the fact that that all Deadpool found of the kid was [[NoBodyLeftBehind a few splotches of blood]] and [[EmpathyDollShot the shredded Spider-Man doll]] certainly is.
* TheChosenOne: Carnage is the subject of interest of at least two dark gods who see him as a suitable tool to bring about their revivals:
** A prophecy in the ''Darkhold'', an eldritch tome compiled by Aelfric the Mad Monk, prophesies him as the "Red Slayer" who will awaken the Elder God Chthon. Carnage proceeds to do so thinking that Chthon will reward him with power, but is immediately disregarded by Chthon and unwittingly winds up contributing to the Elder God's defeat.
** In ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'', it's revealed that when Cletus was a baby he was chosen by Knull -- the god of the symbiotes -- to be the symbiote version of TheAntichrist and bring about his revival. Donny Cates later revealed on Twitter that the cult made this up to hype Cletus as their messiah, but Cletus decided to run with it.
* CloningBlues:
** Cletus gave a piece of the symbiote to ComicBook/MisterSinister, who spliced it with DNA samples taken from ComicBook/KravenTheHunter and the original five X-Men in order to produce "[[XMakesAnythingCool Xraven]]"
** During the ''Carnage USA'' arc the symbiote demonstrated the ability to create copies of itself at will, enabling Cletus to control multiple people through them. The remnant of the symbiote that survived the journey to rebond with Kasady in ''Superior Carnage Annual'' was stated to have been neutered, indicating it is incapable of doing this anymore.
** Played with, as during the ''Minimum Carnage'' arc Cletus initially states that one Carnage is enough but is later delighted by the "incestuous" fusions of Venom and Carnage created by the Body Banks... mainly because he can control them.
* ComicBookDeath: [[spoiler:Meets his (presumably temporary) end at the finale of ''Absolute Carnage'' by the hands of Venom, being impaled and then cut in half by a Necrosword. ''Extreme Carnage'' reveals that the symbiote manage to return, with Kasady's consciousness as well]].
* ConvenientlyCellmates: The reason why Cletus Kasady acquired a symbiote to begin with was because he was sharing a cell with [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]].
* TheCorrupter: Tries to convert Eddie Brock to his nihilistic philosophy when they first meet.
--> '''Eddie:''' Sometimes I wish I didn't have to live with a foul serial killer like you.
* CorruptHick: Cletus is [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] given a [[DeepSouth Southern accent]] -- particularly when written by Cullen Bunn and Gerry Duggan -- which Spider-Man, Deadpool, and most other superheroes and villains [[BullyingADragon relentlessly mock him about]]. At the end of ComicBook/{{AXIS}}, he also requested a statue be built in his honor and draped in the Confederate flag. However, he hates that people think [[HalfWittedHillbilly he's stupid because of his accent and rural upbringing]].
--> '''Carnage:''' Ain't no clues!\\
'''Deadpool:''' Come on... be ''faithful'' to your backwoods upbringing. Don't you mean "''Tweren't'' no clues"?
* CountryMouse: Despite having been born in New York's [[BedlamHouse Ravencroft Institute]], Cletus is sometimes portrayed as having a [[DeepSouth Southern]] accent, and many of his opponents -- particularly Spider-Man and Deadpool -- have mocked Cletus by pointing out that his accent and overall attitude just ''scream'' redneck.
* CurbStompBattle: Inflicted on Spider Man in their first encounter. Spider Man was desprate that he resorted to allying with Venom in order to defeat Carnage. The two initially seemed to have Carnage beat but then he [[IAmNotLeftHanded revealed he was just toying with them]] and overpowered them both.
* CuriousQualmsOfConscience: After being Inverted, Cletus developed a conscience that left him near-crippled with guilt and an overwhelming desire to redeem himself from all the "glorious chaos" he wrought over the years. And just after he finally rid himself of the burden on his conscience and resolves to become a true superhero... he's un-Inverted and goes back to being his usual self.
* {{Cyborg}}: For a short while he had prosthetic legs [[OrganicTechnology derived from the symbiote]].
* ADayInTheLimelight: The one-shots ''Mind Bomb'' and ''It's a Wonderful Life'', the latter being a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind story.
* DeadpanSnarker: Carnage enjoys delving into BlackComedy.
* DependingOnTheArtist: Carnage was originally drawn as being red and black with black teeth, but starting with Kyle Hotz in ''It's a Wonderful Life'', artists began depicting him as all-red with white teeth. The latter look has since become his most frequent, with his "classic" appearance having been last seen in 2004's ''Venom[=/=]Carnage'' miniseries and 2006's ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance2'''s DLC. Even more recently, some artists have drawn him as being [[http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?pid=5266&disp=ilib&oty=1&oid=49996 all-red with red teeth and glowing yellow eyes]].
* DependingOnTheWriter: Whether Cletus is afraid to die, doesn't care if he does, or is secretly a DeathSeeker varies on who is writing him.
* DisabilityImmunity: When he was lobotomized, Kasady was immune to Wizard's mind control, leading the latter and Klaw to extract the symbiote from him and bond it to someone who isn't.
* DomesticAbuse: Averted. His relationship with Shriek. He enjoys hanging out with and doing horrible things with her and gets upset when other people hurt or try to kill her, but he's also perfectly fine with harming and trying to murder her himself whenever she starts to bore or annoy him- but she's also perfectly capable of hitting back, and her powerset allows her to cause him and the symbiote just as much pain.
* DraconicHumanoid: In ''Absolute Carnage'' #4, [[spoiler:Dark Carnage assimilates the Venom symbiote and transformes into a demonic-looking form with horns and retractile draconic wings]].
* TheDreaded: One of Spidey's most absolutely terrifying enemies and perhaps the only one he almost never chooses to fight alone; when Carnage shows up, Peter almost always seeks out friends- and in the case of Venom, [[EnemyMine even enemies]]- to team up with to take him down. Given Carnage is both quite a bit stronger than Spidey and by far the most homicidal and crazy of his rogues, this is a ''very'' sensible strategy.
* EatsBabies: David Michelinie described Cletus as "a lunatic who'd eat babies for breakfast and ask for seconds." The fact that all Deadpool found of a particularly annoying kid was a few splotches of blood supports this.
* EnemyMine: Carnage only agrees to help Magneto and the heroes fight Red Onslaught because, although he likes Red Onslaught's methods, he ''doesn't'' like the thought of having to serve and worship him should he succeed in taking over the world. Additionally, when he notices that Deadpool has tagged along, he tells him that they are "going to have words after this"; [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1-uhhL3-lk/VEvHek1R-lI/AAAAAAAAGp0/mUumHmeOOTg/s1600/dp36car.PNG then the Inversion happened]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Played for horror in ''ComicBook/{{Venomized}}''. The Poison Queen appeared to her subjects as those they held dear and closest to their hearts. In Poison Carnage's case, she took on the form of Cletus's ''victims''. Whatever that implies is probably incredibly disturbing.
* EvilerThanThou:
** He was introduced into the comics pretty much for this express purpose. Venom had become something of a NobleDemon and AntiHero by the 90's, and the writers thought this was a waste of one of Spidey's most visually impressive and scariest enemies. David Michelinie had intended to kill Eddie off and have the symbiote jump from host to host, but Marvel vetoed the idea. Thus, Michelinie came up with Carnage as a stronger, scarier, and much more evil version of Venom who is [[CardCarryingVillain he is damn proud of it too]].
** Why he and the ComicBook/TheJoker turned on each other in a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' {{crossover}}. Carnage thought the Joker's plans were too slow, convoluted, and stupid. The Joker deemed Carnage's methods lazy, unoriginal, and a tad gross.
** In ''Deadpool vs. Carnage'', Deadpool invokes this.
---> '''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}:''' See, pal, you may be a homicidal maniac. But when it comes to crazy, you're simply outclassed.\\
'''Shriek:''' [[DynamicEntry And you're outnumbered.]]
** Since the opposition had a version of Venom on their side, [[ComicBook/{{Maestro}} the Maestro]] considered recruiting Carnage to his ''[[ComicBook/ContestOfChampions Contest of Champions]]'' team, but abandoned the notion after catching a glimpse of what Cletus was currently up to.
---> '''Maestro:''' An Eddie Brock from a world where he was smart enough--or crazy enough--to actually kill his Earth's Spider-Man. Heh. Let's go with crazy. Which makes me wonder. If crazy gets results... who's crazier than Venom...? (observes Carnage's latest rampage through a portal) On second though, there's such a thing as too crazy...
** Thanks to his moral inversion, Alice Gleason pulls this on him at the end of his ComicBook/{{Axis}} tie-in [[ComicallyMissingThePoint not that he ever gets it]]. His cameo in ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' indicates that he killed her, since he'd made it his goal to hunt down and dispose of everyone who knew of his Inversion.
* EvilCounterpart: To Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson. In the former's case he was specifically created as an ''Eviler'' Counterpart, as Eddie does have some sort of moral compass in that he genuinely wants to protect innocents, while Cletus is a serial killer who has none and is more than happy to kill anyone and everyone he comes across.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Cletus ''loves'' his [[BlackComedy Dead Baby Comedy]], which sometimes actually ''does'' involve dead babies.
* EvilMeScaresMe: Suppressed somewhere ''deep'' in Cletus' psyche is a traumatized little boy utterly terrified of the monster he has become.
* EvilRedhead: He has red hair and he's evil. Nuff said.
* EvilVersusEvil: Treated the invasion in ''Planet of the Symbiotes'' as a buffet, and butted heads with the Joker in ''Spider and Batman'' #1.
* ExitPursuedByABear: Carnage's battle with Nova concludes with him being hit by a speeding truck.
* FakingTheDead: He faked his own death in ''Maximum Carnage'' by attaching a piece of the symbiote to a mangled body. [[NeverRecycleYourSchemes He tries this again]] in ''Spider-Man and Batman'' #1, but the heroes see through it, though he meant it for the Joker, not them.
* FanservicePack: Cletus disturbingly borders on MrFanservice when drawn by Clayton Crain.
* FeedItABomb: Deadpool stuffs a live grenade down Carnage's throat, losing his hand in the process, but all it does is temporarily incapacitate him.
* FightingFromTheInside: Cletus' true self is trying to overcome his Inversion, shown with him hallucinating about killing people.
* FlatCharacter: One of the common criticisms labeled against him both in real life and in-universe is that his obsession with death and chaos is really all there is to him. Efforts have been made to develop him into a more megalomaniacal villain, but at the beginning of ''Deadpool vs. Carnage'', Cletus engages in a MotiveRant that serves as a TakeThat to those efforts.
* ForTheEvulz: And unlike the Joker, he doesn't bother with being artistic: he just likes to flat-out kill.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Cletus had a lousy childhood, but a lot of the things that happened he brought on himself.
* FullFrontalAssault: Once tried to go on a rampage without the symbiote, waving a knife around while wearing nothing but red paint.
* FullyEmbracedFiend: Cletus was ''jealous'' of Venom's powers right from the start, and once he got his own symbiote they all-but literally became inseparable.
* FusionDance: After witnessing the combined power of the cloned Venom and Carnage symbiotes in Baron Karza's Body Banks, Kasady tries to assimilate the Venom symbiote but is stopped by Kaine.
** In the ComicBook/AmalgamUniverse, he was merged with Bizarro to create "Bizarnage".
** The Hall Industries Iron Rangers wore armor derived from the symbiote, which allowed Carnage to forcibly combine with them (killing the pilots) in a twisted Anime/{{Voltron}}-ish fashion.
---> '''Mass Carnage:''' Metal feels funny next to their bodies, heh heh. This isn't the first time I've worn dead bodies as clothes... might be the most fun I've had though. Makes the top three at least.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Deadpool's psychotic lack of a fourth wall actually manages to out-crazy Carnage's nihilistic sociopathy and drives Cletus into a VillainousBreakdown, to the point that he [[WasItReallyWorthIt questions everything he previously believed in]].
* GoalOrientedEvolution: After visiting the Microverse, Carnage decides to abandon his last vestiges of humanity and become the UltimateLifeForm by assimilating the Venom symbiote, though this is quickly stopped by Kaine.
* GodhoodSeeker:
** At the end of ''Minimum Carnage'', Cletus complains that he wanted to stay in the Microverse and conquer it to become a god, then decides he'll settle for throwing away what little humanity he has left and assimilating the Venom symbiote to become the UltimateLifeForm.
** In ''Carnage'' Vol. 2, Cletus frees Chthon expecting to be rewarded with apotheosis into an eldritch god. Chthon, no longer having any use for Carnage, contemptuously tosses the serial killer aside.
** After becoming the apostle of Knull, Cletus seeks to restore the Dark Carnage symbiote's deific power and [[AGodAmI develops a god complex]] that escalates as he becomes more powerful.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Was ripped in half by the Sentry, but survived thanks to the symbiote. He seems to have somehow regenerated his legs by the time of ''Superior Carnage'', but lost his legs as a result of the Gene Bomb.
* HandicappedBadass: In addition to having been ripped in half, Cletus was left in a catatonic state by the Scarlet Spider, leaving the symbiote in full control of his body. Both his dismemberment and lobotomy seem to have been fixed by the symbiote as of ''Superior Carnage Annual'', but he lost his legs again smothering the Gene bomb.
* HealingFactor: Cletus has regrown the lower half of his body, recovered from being lobotomized by the avatar of a spider-god, regrew his body from his severed head after being decapitated, and regrown the top half his head thanks to the symbiote.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing: As a result of being Inverted in the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' crossover, Cletus and the symbiote try to become a superhero. Try, here meaning [[EpicFail fail miserably]] more often than not.
--> '''Spider-Man:''' [[http://38.media.tumblr.com/a08f942e10b53fdb66901b99f9651bb4/tumblr_nel8e2phMR1rdffpvo3_1280.png Now that is really disturbing...]]
* HeroicSacrifice: In ''AXIS'', Cletus seemingly sacrifices himself protecting the others from a bomb. He makes Spider-Man promise to have a flamboyant musical statue built in his honor first. It doesn't stick, as he later appears to annoy ComicBook/{{Nova}}.
* HeroWithAnFInGood: Kasady becomes a SociopathicHero following his Inversion -- the Inversion Wave awakened his conscience, but he struggles to repress his murderous impulses and is comically inept at actually doing heroic deeds. For example, he tries to foil a bank robbery by burning the bank to the ground before the robbers can rob it.
--> '''Rick Spears:''' He's trying to be good but he's terrible at it and makes some pretty [[http://abload.de/img/axis-carnage002-010jmfsh.jpg horrible]] [[http://abload.de/img/carnage41ze17.png mistakes]].
* HesBack: A villainous example:
** At the end of the ''Superior Carnage'' miniseries, Cletus reveals he's recovered from his lobotomy.
** Cletus recovers from his Deadpool-induced VillainousBreakdown during the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' event and only joins Magneto's team to get revenge on Deadpool. However, the events of the crossover "invert" his morality, and cause him to embark on a redemptive journey of sorts that brings him into conflict with a new Sin-Eater. Following this, his inversion wears off and he goes back to being a serial killer.
* HijackingCthulhu: When consumed by a Poison, Cletus' bloodlust enabled his psyche to endure and hijack Poison Carnage.
* HijackedByGanon: Carnage appears as the TrueFinalBoss of the ''Separation Anxiety'' game, despite not being featured at all in the storylines it's based on.
* HorrifyingHero: Following his Inversion, Cletus became a combination of this and TerrorHero.
* ImAHumanitarian: Like Venom, Carnage has threatened to eat his victims and isn't shy about using his [[FangsAreEvil teeth]] in combat. For more specific examples, he threatens to eat Hannah Morrell's two remaining children and it's implied that he ate an entire meatpacking staff during his stay in Doverton; some guards joked to Ted Connelly that Kasady's cellmates tend to become dinner; and when reunited with Cletus after being forcibly bonded to Karl Malus, the symbiote was going to eat the Wizard as revenge for separating them.
--> '''Mr. Sinister:''' [[NoSell You can't hurt me, Mr. Kasady]]. I will get what I want, with or without your cooperation. But I would prefer this go smoothly. Work with me, and I can help you.\\
'''Carnage:''' Help me get out? Help me ''eat'' the doctors?\\
'''Mr. Sinister:''' If you like. Appropriately enough, they're in the cafeteria.
* IAmLegion: Generally averted. In his first appearance, Kasady acknowledged the Carnage symbiote's intelligence, but tended to refer to himself as "I". Successive appearances had Carnage continue to do so, with the symbiote being completely subservient to him.
* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: The Jackal breaks into Ravencroft and violently extracts the Carrion virus from Shriek. Carnage, who is in a nearby cell, reacts negatively to this development.
--> '''Carnage:''' If you've injured Shriek... If you attempted to harm her... I swear I'll have you squealing beneath my claws!\\
'''Jackal:''' Promises! Promises!
* IgnoreTheFanservice: Like the Joker, he is usually far too busy being evil [[NotDistractedByTheSexy to pay much attention to]] his DarkMistress.
* ImagineSpot: When Alice Gleason betrays him, Carnage thinks of [[http://abload.de/img/c216uej.jpg all of the good times]] they could have shared, in a possible ShoutOut to [[http://i.imgur.com/JHLdHnW.jpg a similar scene]] involving Boomerang in ''ComicBook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan''.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Pun aside, this is the reason Shriek fell for him. Cletus also feels this way towards the symbiote.
* InconsistentColoring: Cletus was drawn with blond hair in ''Minimum Carnage'', as opposed to his usual red hair.
* IndulgentFantasySegue:
** After Venom ate his symbiote, Cletus was left stewing his cell, fantasizing about getting revenge on him as Carnage.
** On his first night out as a superhero, Cletus comes across a man attempting to forcibly coerce a woman. His first response is to fantasize about ripping her in half. He scolds himself, then proceeds to knock the man's eyes out, cut another's hand off, and "gently" punch the woman unconscious after learning that she is a "lady of the evening" and thus also a criminal deserving of punishment.
* InterspeciesRomance: After getting it into his head that it was female, Cletus starts referring to the Carnage symbiote as his "girl" and "the missus", even teasingly accusing it of cheating on him when it took over Tanis Nieves. For its part, the symbiote views Cletus as its one true host and stops at nothing to reunite with him if they are forcibly separated.
* JackTheRipoff: A heroic example: post-Inversion he tries emulating Spider-Man, even to the point of leaving a cutesy note and calling himself the "friendly neighborhood Carnage-Man." However, he's closer to ripping off Eddie Brock's Lethal Protector shtick.
* JaggedMouth: Carnage was originally drawn with black teeth, giving this impression due to the majority of his mask being black.
* JokerImmunity: He's been frozen in an inescapable statue by the Silver Surfer and ripped in half by the Sentry and still survived, and survives being trapped in the Frightful Four's exploding base while he's in a coma. Even after he's murdered, the symbiote resuscitates him.
* TheJuggernaut: Among Spider Man's villains, he's almost invincible. Spider Man and Venom working together can barely slow him down.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Despite having seemingly been killed off numerous times only to later be revealed to somehow still be alive, Cletus Kasady is killed off for good in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' #5 after Venom cuts him in half with a Necrosword and strips the Grendel symbiote off him -- his mostly-skeletal corpse falling apart when it hits the ground]].
* LeanAndMean: He's usually lanky as both Cletus and Carnage, though in ''Literature/CarnageInNewYork'' he's described as being massive and imposing. This is taken UpToEleven in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', where he's literally skeletally-thin as Dark Carnage.
* LightningBruiser: Carnage is more powerful than both Venom and Spider-Man combined, and his serious attempts to wreck havoc have necessitated superhero teamups to stop him.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple:
** In ''Venom vs. Carnage'' Cletus displays this dynamic with his symbiote, exacerbated by the fact that he happened to be [[VillainsOutShopping ironing clothes]] and drinking from a mug [[FunnyBackgroundEvent that says "#1 Dad"]] at the time.
---> '''Cletus:''' How could you let him beat us? A kid? A whelp? Barely a week old!\\
'''Symbiote:''' Be quiet, Cletus Kasady.\\
'''Cletus:''' Oh, be quiet yourself. You might be the bus driver, but you need this bus.\\
'''Symbiote:''' Wrong. There are plenty more human hosts.\\
'''Cletus:''' So leave me. I don't need a symbiote to be a Grade A Bona Fide Terra Firma Quo Vadis psychopathic killer. I did just fine and dandy before you came along.
** ''Carnage'' #4, Cletus and Shriek engage in nagging banter:
---> '''Shriek:''' Where are you going? You didn't say anything about [[TwoFaced my new face...]]\\
'''Carnage:''' Can I have five minutes to kill some dudes before you talk my ear off?!\\
'''Shriek:''' I'm just trying to help...\\
'''Carnage:''' I can't have you screaming around me with that voice!\\
'''Shriek:''' How long are you going to be?!\\
'''Carnage:''' *sigh*
* {{Lobotomy}}: At the end of ''Minimum Carnage'', Kaine stabs Cletus in the eye with one of his stingers, badly damaging his brain and leaving him in a coma. This just makes Carnage even more dangerous, since the pissed-off symbiote can act without restraint.
* LosingYourHead:
** During the ''Minimum Carnage'' arc, Carnage is decapitated by Agent Venom's [[BladeBelowTheShoulder arm-blade]]. He proceeds to regenerate his entire body in under a minute, while acting like nothing happened.
** In ''AXIS: Carnage'' #3, Alice Gleason [[YourHeadASplode blows off the top part of his head with a shotgun]], but he regenerates it in a matter of seconds.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Cletus becomes smitten with Alice Gleason and spends much of his ''AXIS'' series fantasizing about her.
* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Cletus thought Michael Hall's screams as the Doppelgänger ate him made good thinking music.
* MagicEnhancement: Exposure to the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Darkhold]]'s eldritch magic has changed him and the symbiote, making them immune to sonics and partially restoring the symbiote's ability to replicate itself.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction:
** Cletus' reaction getting ripped in half by the Sentry was as follows:
---> '''Carnage''': Now jus' who the hell is this Sentry buck? [[WorthyOpponent He's a strong one.]] Yeehaw! Fast too! [[OhCrap Wait, are those my...]] Heh heh... that shouldn't be funny, should it? Aw... Where you goin'? Don't leave me up here! [[BloodKnight It was just gettin' good!]] ... Guess I'm dyin'. Hope it's as fun as it looks.
** He's completely unfazed when Agent Venom decapitates him, and simply regrows his entire body from his severed head.
* MakeMyMonsterGrow:
** During the ''Planet of the Symbiotes'' storyline, he discovered he could increase his size by forcibly absorbing the symbiote invaders. He wound up [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/4/46562/1414850-giantcarnage1.jpg growing]] to near {{Kaiju}} levels.
** In ''Minimum Carnage'', after exiting the Microverse, Carnage is temporarily ''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever huge]]'' while the heroes end up being temporarily shrunk, and even after the heroes return to their regular size Carnage tries to swallow Agent Venom whole.
* MakeWayForTheNewVillains:
** When Mac Gargan became a far more bloodthirsty version of Venom than Eddie Brock had been, Carnage was seemingly killed off by ComicBook/TheSentry and only brought back after the Venom symbiote had been given to the heroic Flash Thompson.
** Cletus is KilledOffForReal in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', but in the process [[GreaterScopeVillain Knull]] is released from his prison.
* ManBitesMan: During his symbiote-less brawl with Flash Thompson, he took a bite out of the latter's shoulder and remarked that [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies he tasted like pig]].
* MarkOfTheBeast: In ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' he has a white version of Knull's spiral emblem in the middle of his forehead, and a white version of Knull's dragon ChestInsignia.
* {{Metalhead}}: He's been shown to be a fan of bands like Music/MotleyCrue and Music/{{Anthrax}}, to the annoyance of the symbiote, which only lets him listen to them with headphones.
* MindRape: Cletus once drove a doctor murderously insane by shoving a tentacle into his head, and showing him how he saw the world. The symbiote even reverse-hacked ComicBook/IronMan's Bleeding Edge armor through sheer bloodlust.
* MommyIssues: Culminated in him digging up and attempting to abscond with his mother's inexplicably empty casket at the end of ''Maximum Carnage''.
* MoralSociopathy: After being [[HeelFaceBrainwashing Inverted]] during ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'', Cletus -- normally an AxCrazy chaos-worshipping sociopath with the nihilistic desire to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone and everything in existence]] -- was forcibly saddled with the desire to redeem himself and do good, but had no clue how to actually do so due to his lingering bloodlust and LackOfEmpathy.
* MoralityChain: Much like Jenna Cole was for Eddie Brock, Alice Gleason became one for Cletus for the duration of his inversion.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Like "father" like "son". Carnage's teeth were initially drawn as being [[JaggedMouth black and blending in with the rest of his face]], but they've also been drawn as white, yellow, and red.
* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: Once killed a few people through ''Carnage Unleashed'', and had plans to massacre even more when the game went online, though he was stopped by Venom in a cyberspace showdown.
* MultipleChoicePast: Carnage's backstory is... inconsistent, which he himself admits. The most frequently drawn on story is that he killed his grandmother by pushing her down a flight of stairs, tortured his mother's dog, and manipulated his father into killing his mother. When sent to [[OrphanageOfFear St. Estes Home for Boys]], he was bullied due to his [[TheSociopath antisocial behaviour]], and eventually murdered the disciplinarian administration and burned the place to the ground before becoming a full-time serial killer.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Carnage is tricked into nearly killing Shriek by Deadpool. Upon realizing what he has done, Cletus breaks down ''while cradling her in his arms''.
--> '''Carnage:''' Symbiote... covered her... disguised her... tricking me into... but they tried to warn me... tried to tell me... if I'd listened... no!
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Dude calls himself Carnage, and lives up to it.
* NayTheist: In one of his rants, he claims that the universe was created by a "drooling idiot".
* NightmareFetishist: Going back to his childhood, where his favorite film was one that happened to star UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy.
--> '''Carnage:''' I kill because it makes me feel like I'm on T.V., with my own personal soundtrack. Like JFK, brains on the leather and pretty blood on his pretty wife. JFK. NBK. KKK. And his pretty wife, now think of it, all wet and humiliated, crawling in front of the whole world--I like that, too. When I was a kid, my favorite movie was the [[UsefulNotes/ZapruderFilm Zapruder film]].
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Cletus has been ripped in half, decapitated, stabbed in the head, trapped in an exploding base, and used himself to shield New York from a gene bomb. Aside from missing half his body and being in a coma,[[note]]both of which he's recovered from thanks to the symbiote[[/note]] he's still alive. Even when he's shanked, suffocated, and declared to be deceased, the symbiote just resuscitates him.
* NoSell:
** While he can withstand gunfire easily thanks to the symbiote, Cletus has tanked getting hit by missiles without so much as a scratch, and what wounds he does get are quickly healed by the symbiote.
** After his symbiote is upgraded by the ''Darkhold'', he loses his vulnerability to sonics -- although he gains one to eldritch magic in exchange.
** After bonding to the Grendel symbiote, he is no longer vulnerable to flames and laughs off Mania's attempts to immolate him with hellfire.
* NotQuiteDead:
** The ''Carnage'' miniseries revealed that the Carnage symbiote managed to keep Kasady alive for nearly a year in space before a corporation found them, removed the symbiote, and gave Kasady [[{{Cyborg}} prosthetic legs]] derived from it.
** After his HeelFaceBrainwashing, Cletus opts to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice himself]] in an act of [[DeathEqualsRedemption redemption]], nearly bringing his former nemesis Spider-Man to tears. He succeeds in smothering the gene bomb's blast, and all that's found of him are bits of the symbiote. He's presumed dead, but later turns up alive but evil and missing the lower half of his body again.
** After the death of the Poison Queen, Poison Carnage's crystalline exoskeleton and consumed symbiote crumble to reveal Cletus somehow restored to humanity.
* NothingButSkinAndBones: By ''Absolute Carnage'', all that's really left of Cletus Kasady is charred, rotting skin stretched taught over his skeleton.
* OffModel: Cletus has been blonde a lot, and looked almost completely different in ''Minimum Carnage''.
* OmnicidalManiac: Cletus has a body-count that only plagues and dictators can match, and he has jumped at the chance cause even greater mass-casualties. For instance, he sided with (and later betrayed) Blastaar the Living Bomburst and tried to unleash the dark god Chthon in order to bring about the end of human civilization. As Dark Carnage, Cletus devotes himself to freeing Knull in order to participate in the annihilation of the universe itself.
* OneTrueLove:
** Cletus and the symbiote see each other as soul mates, taken to InterspeciesRomance levels due to Cletus considering the symbiote to be a "girl" after it gives birth to Toxin.
--->'''Carnage''': I was hollowed out inside... Empty... Just like [[TheSymbiote my other]]. We were both sick... Because we were incomplete... But not anymore. We healed each other... Made each other whole. Neither one of us can survive without the other. Forget host. Forget symbiote. There is only Carnage.
** To a lesser extant, there's Shriek.
---> '''Boy:''' Mister... your girlfriend don't look so good. I think she might be dead.\\
'''Cletus:''' Shriek's alive. [[BirdsOfAFeather She's like me]]. Too mean to die.
* OnlyFriend: The closest thing he had to friend growing up was a boy named Billy. As Carnage, he decided to ''invoke'' KickTheDog by tracking down and killing Billy, because what's more evil than murdering the only person who was ever genuinely nice to you? Currently, the Carnage symbiote is the only other entity Cletus genuinely cares about.
* OrderVersusChaos: Carnage thought that the ComicBook/RedSkull turning Genosha into one big death camp was pretty cool, but he still agreed to help Magneto combat him because he didn't like the idea of having to live under someone whose ideal world is a ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''-style totalitarian police state in which non-conformists are shot on sight.
* PopCulturedBadass: Cletus has been known to make pop-culture references from time to time, such as quoting ''Film/{{Babe}}'' and ''Series/FantasyIsland'' (through the symbiote-controlled citizens of Doverton) in ''Carnage USA''.
* PracticallyJoker: Clearly based off the Joker, with [[Film/{{Psycho}} a bit of Norman Bates in there too.]] Arist Erik Larsen even admitted to patterning Kasady's looks on the Clown Prince of Crime. Coincidentally, the Joker was initially delighted to meet Carnage during ''ComicBook/SpiderManAndBatmanDisorderedMinds'', but they quickly had a falling out over their different opinions on how to kill people.
* PrimalStance: In ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance2'' and ''LEGO Marvel Superheroes'', Carnage [[RunningOnAllFours runs on all fours]] to emphasize his feral nature.
* ReligionOfEvil: The way he goes on about chaos, Cletus may as well be a disciple of [[Characters/TheIncredibleHercules Amatsu-Mikaboshi]]. By ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'', he actually ''is'' an apostle of the void god [[PhysicalGod Knull]].
--> '''Carnage:''' There ain't no clues! Everything I do... from here on out... is random. I can't be stopped! Can't be caged! Can't be tracked! My every action is a tribute... an offering... to the almighty--\\
'''Deadpool:''' Dollar?\\
'''Carnage:''' [[BigWordShout CHAOS!]]
* ReplacementFlatCharacter: As Eddie Brock developed into an AntiHero, Cletus Kasady was created to take his place as Marvel's resident symbiote supervillain and was deliberately conceptualized as a nihilistic sociopath to prevent him from having any redeeming qualities. The few times he ''did'' undergo CharacterDevelopment -- becoming more megalomaniacal, or undergoing HeelFaceBrainwashing -- proved temporary, and each time he reverted back to his old self.
* RevenantZombie: His state in ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'' and ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'': [[spoiler:a reanimated, desiccated, maggot-infested corpse possessed by the [[SuperPrototype primordial Grendel symbiote]] and capable of thinking for himself, but willingly serving the will of [[PhysicalGod Knull]]]].
* RubberMan: Cletus can freely stretch and deform his limbs thanks to the symbiote, and can even [[LongNeck stretch his neck out like a snake]].
* {{Sadist}}: Exemplified in ''Carnage U.S.A.'', where he forces Hannah Morrell to go out and try to murder her husband, Eric. When Eric ''volunteers'' to be killed, Cletus becomes annoyed over him "ruining" everything and calls it off.
* SanitySlippage: When Cletus was in a coma, Carnage was little more than a feral beast.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Cletus' [[MultipleChoicePast most consistently used backstory]] is that he manipulated his father into killing his mother, who was trying to kill him after he'd murdered his grandmother and mutilated his mom's dog. His father was blamed for the crimes and imprisoned, leaving Cletus to be sent to an OrphanageOfFear.
* SelfServingMemory: Cletus openly admits he has problems accurately remembering things about his past, such as substituting ComicBook/{{Venom}} for his father[[note]]Which makes sense in a way.[[/note]] and Alice Gleason for his mother in a flashback of his childhood. This may be why his flashback to his mother's death in ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 differs from what was previously established.
* SerialKiller: Before he got the symbiote he was already in prison for 11 consecutive life sentences, and bragged about a dozen more. It just made him worse.
* SinisterMinister: Acts like one, complete with stolen priest clothes, for a bit in ''[=USA=]''.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Cletus Kasady is an impulsive crazed serial killer of limited education, is sometimes portrayed as a stereotypical Southern hick, and is [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a metalhead with few cultural interests]]. As such, any time he does take up the role of BigBad, the heroes tend to be caught off-guard by his quick-witted and sometimes downright analytical opproach. This becomes especially apparent in ''Absolute Carnage'' , where Cletus masterminds an operation that could be deemed global or even universal in its scale and wages war against the heroes on a dozen different fronts, culminating in him using a BatmanGambit that allows him to reach his objective regardless of the choice the heroes make. The story even takes the time to contrast Cletus with Norman Osborn -- who at the time had been brainwashed into believing he is Cletus Kasady as well, and behaved exactly like Cletus' usual impulsive self -- and shows how different Cletus can play the game if he really wanted to.
* TheSociopath: Even ''before'' being bonded with the Carnage symbiote, Cletus was a diagnosed psychopath and convicted SerialKiller. Bonding to the symbiote made him worse.
* SociopathicHero: Despite being [[HeelFaceBrainwashing Inverted]], Cletus is still very much a murderous psychopath bonded to a predatory alien parasite.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Marvel flip-flops on whether Cletus' last name has one "s" or two.
* StatusQuoIsGod:
** As pointed out in ''Superior Carnage'', every time the symbiote leaves Cletus it ultimately returns to him.
** In ''Superior Carnage Annual'', Cletus decides that all the character development he's undergone over the years -- particularly his [[EvilPlan plots]] to TakeOverTheWorld and/or [[GoalOrientedEvolution become the ultimate life-form]] -- just hasn't worked out, and that he wants to get back to basics as the [[StrawNihilist nihilistic]] and AxCrazy sociopath he was born to be.
* StrawNihilist: Cletus doesn't believe in order and morality, and kills people for fun. He once argued with Demogoblin that God is probably a drooling idiot, if He even exists at all. Years later, he has a VillainousBreakdown when Deadpool convinces him that he's controlled by higher powers.
* SwissArmyAppendage: The theme of [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/9/95/Carnage_Vol_2_4_Textless.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151021082254 the cover]] of ''Carnage'' Vol. 2, #4.
* {{Synchronization}}: In ''Superior Carnage Annual'', Cletus states that he can feel the symbiote getting weaker and dying even though he's separated from it by the entirety of the United States of America.
* TaintedVeins: Some depictions of Carnage give the red parts of his body the texture of exposed muscles, with the black parts being vein-like tendrils of living abyss layered overtop.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With Demogoblin - a KnightTemplar who only allied with him because it would allow him to kill more "sinners" than usual - in ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage''.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When Poison Carnage is tossed out into space at the conclusion of ''Venomized'', he complains about this happening again.
* ThroatLight: As Dark Carnage, his mouth glows a sickly yellow to accentuate his SemiDivine nature.
* TombstoneTeeth: Befitting his status as an expy of ComicBook/TheJoker, Cletus is sometimes drawn porting a Slasher Smile with these — not counting his JaggedMouth and/or fanged MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily as Carnage — to highlight his maniacal and nihilistic bloodlust.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Carnage feeds the Sin-Eater his sin, which ultimately [[PhlebotinumOverload proves too much for balaclava-head to handle]].
* TheTopicOfCancer: Cletus was diagnosed with stomach cancer when he was hospitalized after the symbiote abandoned him to pursue its vendetta against the Silver Surfer. This hasn't been brought up since, presumably due to the symbiote curing him because, unlike Eddie Brock's adrenal cancer, the type of cancer Cletus had offered no benefit to it.
* TranshumanTreachery: When the offspring of the Venom symbiote bonded to him, Cletus Kasady - being a nihilistic psychopath - happily used it to become even more of a monster than he already was.
* {{Ubermensch}}: At his most philosophical, Cletus rejects the morality of the world around him as an artificial construct intended to prevent people from being truly free, and believes himself to be one of the few enlightened individuals who understand that '''''[[AxCrazy chaos]]''''' is the natural state of existence. And boy oh boy is he ever TheUnfettered when it comes to demonstrating this.
* UnholyMatrimony:
** Kasady's "[[DarkMistress wife]]" is Shriek, although their relationship is ''very'' dysfunctional.
---> '''Cletus, through the Symbiote''': She screams her pain as death and hatred. She kills for me. I like it. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When it gets boring, I'll put her down like my mother's dog]]. I am Carnage. Killing someone I love will make me happy. So happy.
** Some lines in the ''Carnage'' Vol. 1, ''Carnage USA'', ''Superior Carnage'', and ''Venomized'' miniseries more-than imply Kasady considers his relationship with the symbiote to be this, such as referring to it as a "girl", and jokingly accusing it of cheating on him when bonded to Tanis Nieves.
* UnPerson: Upon becoming evil again, Carnage desperately tries to kill everyone aware of his heroism during ''AXIS'', starting with Nova.
* VilerNewVillain: As Venom transitioned from being a villain to an antihero, Cletus was introduced to be even worse by comparison. Eddie Brock may have an IrrationalHatred towards Spidey, but Cletus is a deranged SerialKiller who does things ForTheEvulz.
* VillainProtagonist: Cletus has had a number of series where he himself is the protagonist.
* VillainSong: ''Carnage Rules'' by Green Jelly, which was commissioned for the ''Maximum Carnage'' video game.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[NoFourthWall Deadpool's]] taunts and jeers about Cletus being a CosmicPlaything, coupled with various {{Contrived Coincidence}}s that have occurred, cause Carnage to try and force the patients and staff of a mental institution to answer his nonsensical questions about being "controlled" by higher powers as he rants about breaking into one nuthouse after another until he gets satisfactory answers. After Deadpool tricks him into mangling Shriek - something he thinks the "higher powers" tried to warn him against doing through the muttering of a few mental patients - Carnage, convinced everything he's believed about chaos and randomness is false, suffers a mind-shattering FreakOut.
--> '''Detective:''' Cell's not even locked. He could walk right out.\\
'''Carnage:''' Gonna sit right here... 'til I'm left alone... 'til I'm my own man again... and then... I'm gonna find Deadpool... and [[IRejectYourReality make him pay for trying to peel my eyes open]]!
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Beginning in the 2000's, Carnage speaks using distorted red speech bubbles with white text.
* WhatWouldXDo: Cletus' first attempts at being a hero pretty much boil down to him asking himself "What would Spider-Man do?", [[EvilCannotComprehendGood not having a clue]], and literally butchering it.
* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Burned down the orphanage that took him in.
* TheWorfEffect: Spider-Man's taken him down solo on occasion, and he was ''ripped in half'' by the Sentry.
* WorthyOpponent: Cletus initially saw Spider-Man as one, during their first encounter.
--> '''Carnage:''' Gee, Webster, I dunno why Eddie ragged on ya so much! I think you're kinda ''fun!'' I mean, I could really get into reunion battles, grudge bouts! Too bad I gotta cut this short -- -- by killin' ya now!
* WouldHurtAChild: Children are no safer from him than adults are.
** He burned down his entire orphanage, although this was when Cletus was still a child himself.
** "Amazing Spider-Man #362" shows him '''defenstrating a baby.''' Thankfully, Venom saves it.
** He massacres a diner in "Deadpool vs. Carnage", which is shown to have children inside. We don't actually see them die, but a news report says that over a dozen people died so [[AdultFear they likely didn't survive]].
** It's revealed that he killed Eric Morrell's young daughter Stephanie in "Carnage USA". He also threatens to kill his son Cole and baby daughter, but they fortunately survive to the end of the comic.
* {{Yandere}}:
** As a teen, he pushed a girl he had a crush on in front of a bus when she refused to go out with him. This event, which had only been referenced once or twice in Carnage's early appearances, is revisited as a minor plot point in ''Axis''.
** Cletus views the Carnage symbiote as his soul mate, and when the Poisons trick him into bonding with a new symbiote he screams at them to take it off and bring him his original. After the new symbiote finishes bonding to him, he promptly goes berserk -- mowing down Poisoned incarnations of powerful heroes like Angela -- while declaring his intent to reunite with his beloved Other.
--->'''Carnage II:''' This ain't me! This ain't who I am! This ain't my other! Stand between me and my real self, I'll slaughter every damn one of you! You hear me, baby? I'm comin' for ya!
----
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26017e5ffcc5c7d534b74749fef17f38.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Carnage]]\\
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:''Venomized'' Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carnage_iii_7.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Poison Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poison_carnage_4.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Dark Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_carnage.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Devil Carnage]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/absolute_carnage_2.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Carnage; Poison Carnage; Dark Carnage; Devil Carnage
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #344; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #361 (as Carnage); ''Venomized'' #3 (as Carnage II and Poison Carnage); ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'' (as Dark Carnage); ''Absolute Carnage'' #4 (as Devil Carnage)
A psychopathic serial killer imprisoned for eleven consecutive life sentences, Cletus Kasady met Eddie Brock when the latter, separated from the Venom symbiote by the toxic touch of the supervillain Styx, became his cellmate. Learning of Brock's grudge against Spider-Man, Kasady tried to convert him to his nihilistic philosophy, mocking Eddie over his claims to have once been the supervillain Venom. Repeatedly rebuked, Kasady decided to murder his cellmate, but before he could the Venom symbiote entered the cell and rebonded to Eddie. Venom broke free, leaving behind a newly birthed spawn and a terrified and jealous Kasady. Sensing his desire for the power Eddie possessed, the spawn of the Venom symbiote dripped onto Cletus' hand and bonded with him, transforming him into the monstrous '''Carnage'''. As Carnage, Kasady proved stronger than Spider-Man and Venom combined, and his symbiote was not only less susceptible to sonics than its progenitor but infinitely more difficult to remove, having bonded to his bloodstream. In his first appearance, Carnage forced Spider-Man and Venom to [[EnemyMine call a temporary truce]] to defeat him. Years later Cletus would lose his symbiote in a conflict with the FBI's anti-symbiote task force.
\\\
When the Poisons invaded Earth-616, they sent a strike team to retrieve Cletus and offered him the chance to become Carnage again if he allied with them. Thinking they would reunite him with his beloved symbiote, Cletus accepted... but was instead bonded to a new symbiote, causing him excruciating pain as it came into conflict with the remnants of his original symbiote. Furious over having been tricked and tortured, Cletus rampaged -- intent on escaping and reuniting with his original symbiote -- but was quickly ambushed by an unbound Poison, which consumed him to become '''Poison Carnage'''. However, Cletus' bloodlust let his psyche mostly-withstand being consumed, and he faked loyalty to the Hive -- ultimately being tossed into space by Venom. However, his body floated through the emptiness of space and returned to Earth -- shattering the Poison and restoring his human form in the process. The Carnage symbiote sacrificed itself to protect Cletus as they reentered Earth's atmosphere, but Cletus died upon landing.
\\\
Cletus' body was spirited away by the authorities, only to be grabbed by an apocalyptic cult who saw him as the key to contacting and awakening the symbiote god Knull. Thanks to a piece of the ancient Grendel symbiote they had stolen from the Maker, Cletus was [[RevenantZombie reanimated]] and transformed into '''Dark Carnage''' by devouring Scorn's "codex" -- trace remnants of symbiote left in hosts' bodies. Wanting more of the experience he'd had, he was told that if he absorbed more "codexes" from other previous symbiote holders, he could even resurrect Knull.
----
* AndIMustScream: After running afoul of the ComicBook/SilverSurfer, Carnage was imprisoned in a statue-like state - able to think, but in no way able to move or talk. He later got better, though.
* ArtificialLimbs: Cletus was briefly equipped with cybernetic legs [[OrganicTechnology derived from his symbiote]], although they were destroyed by a sonic machine. He regrew his legs while in the Microverse, but apparently loses them again after sacrificing himself in ComicBook/{{Axis}} since the robot legs are [[SeriesContinuityError inexplicably]] back in ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}''.
* ArchEnemy: To Venom and Toxin as well by extension it's hosts Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Claims to have done this following exiting the Microverse, though he's quickly subdued by Agent Venom and Scarlet Spider.
* AxCrazy: Cletus believes that chaos is the natural order, and expresses this belief through wanton violence.
--> '''Cletus:''' My name is Cletus Kasady and I kill people and I love it. I know nine million ways to kill a body and I love every single one of them. All dull day every day right up until I hit the hay I think of bodies. Bodies burst. Bodies slit right up the middle and shared across a hundred nice little gardens. And when I sleep I dream of ways to kill a body that ain't nobody thought of yet.
* BackFromTheDead:
** Cletus was murdered by his psychologist Dr. Jenner, who wanted to become the symbiote's new host. It turned him down, resuscitated and rebonded to Cletus, and the reunited Carnage paid Jenner back with interest.
** In ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'', [[spoiler:a cult dedicated to Knull resurrects Cletus so that he can free the dark god of the symbiotes from his prison in Klyntar. A SubvertedTrope, as he [[RevenantZombie isn't technically alive again, but reanimated]]]].
* TheBadGuyWins: One of the haunted house/scarezone themes called "Maximum Carnage" from [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's]] Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights in 2002 involved Carnage and many other supervillains brutally [[KillEmAll mass-murdering]] all of the Marvel heroes and taking over New York, turning the city into a warzone between a flourishing band of criminals against the Punisher and whatever remains of a hopeless police force.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: When Knull tries to take over his body, Cletus fights back and overcomes him by consuming Scorn's codex.
* BigBad: Of the ''Maximum Carnage'', ''Carnage USA'', ''Minimum Carnage'' story arcs, his own series, and some of ComicBook/{{Venom}}'s stories. Basically, Carnage is the most recurring villain in Venom's rouge gallery, as well as having a number of miniseries focused solely on him.
* BigBadEnsemble: With The Maker and Knull for the 2018 ''Venom'' series.
* BigEater: Between himself and Doppelgänger, Cletus ate a meat processing plant's supply of cattle ''and'' the workers stationed there to increase the symbiote's biomass and let him take over Doverton.
* BladeBelowTheShoulder:
** One of his favourite means of attacking is morphing his limbs into bladed weapons, most commonly a [[AnAxeToGrind battle-axe]].
** As Poison Carnage, his arms appear to be permanently stuck in the form of sword-like blades.
* BlackEyesOfCrazy: As Knull's prophet, his eyes have black sclera, red spiral-shaped irises, and no pupils.
* BlatantLies: He's brought in [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/bd339d358e0527399c1618b4043da41d/tumblr_mjv349eNgT1s5gls9o1_500.jpg as a witness]] for the prosecution in ''Venom: The Trial''. His testimony regarding his and Eddie's time together as cellmates is as believable as you'd expect.
--> '''Cletus:''' It was almost impossible for me to hear my wonderfully intellectual classical music tapes[[note]]It was Mötley Crüe[[/note]]--Beethoven, Mozart, and Mantovani--because of Brocko's loony lip!\\
'''"Flashback" Eddie:''' As a serial killer, you are some chump, Kasady. You got convicted on eleven counts. You must have been begging to get caught. I PUT DOWN MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY AND THEY'RE NEVER GOING TO MAKE ANYTHING STICK TO ME!
* BloodKnight: While Cletus prefers flat-out killing more than actual combat, he still enjoys a good fight and actually complained that "it was just gettin' good" when the Sentry left him to die after ripping him in half.
* {{Bomb Throwing Anarchist|s}}: Cletus espouses a nihilistic philosophy of lawlessness, randomized murder, and chaos.
* BookDumb: Kasady is uneducated, having burnt his school to the ground, but is not an idiot, and prior to getting the symbiote had cleanly gotten away with a number of murders; worse, since he doesn't hold the same intense grudge against Spidey the same way his other enemies do and he doesn't have as sensitive an ego, he's not as vulnerable to Spidey's [[YouFightLikeACow usual psychological tactics]]. Carnage is ''focused'' on his mission, and that mission is killing as many people as he can.
* BreakoutVillain: Just like Venom, Carnage is easily one of Spider-Man's most popular villains.
* BroughtDownToNormal: Venom once ate the symbiote, though Cletus was able to find a duplicate of it in the Negative Zone. There have also been times it's left him for stronger hosts.
* CameBackStrong: In ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'', [[spoiler:Cletus is resurrected and not only has the Carnage symbiote restored, but is bonded to a piece of the ancient Grendel symbiote as well -- making him more powerful than ever]].
* CardCarryingVillain: He kills people ForTheEvulz, and that's just about all there is to him.
* CardboardPrison: Breaks out of prison on a semi-regular basis.
* CharacterDevelopment: Following his return from space, Carnage started becoming increasingly megalomaniacal, taking over Doverton, Colorado and later trying to conquer the Microverse. This... didn't turn out so well for him, and in ''Superior Carnage Annual'' he decides to get back to basics. As Dark Carnage he becomes more methodical and cunning, to the frustration of Norman Osborn -- whose mind was taken over by a copy of Cletus' original self.
* CharacterRerailment: [[invoked]] After breaking out of prison in ''Superior Carnage Annual'', Cletus reflects on the foolishness of his past megalomaniacal escapades and decides to go back to just being a nihilistic mass murderer.
--> '''Cletus:''' Dreaming of [[TakeOverTheCity taking over cities]]... [[DimensionLord conquering tiny universes]]. Thought I was thinking big! But those kinds of ambitions... they're ''lies''. Now the cataracts have been peeled from my eyes! I can see clearly! Back to the basics! Simple... beautiful... ''random'' ...Carnage!
* ChekhovsGunman: Cletus Kasady debuted as a bit-part bad guy in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #344.
* ChestBurster: The off-panel result of him attempting to hold in the Toxin symbiote.
* ChestInsignia: As a sign of his allegiance and growing connection to Knull, Carnage has a red/white version of Knull's dragon emblem in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' -- though it's also been drawn as a spider similar to Venom and Mania's.
* ChildHater: If the look of exasperated annoyance on his face when a little boy with a Spider-Man doll starts pestering him wasn't a giveaway, the fact that that all Deadpool found of the kid was [[NoBodyLeftBehind a few splotches of blood]] and [[EmpathyDollShot the shredded Spider-Man doll]] certainly is.
* TheChosenOne: Carnage is the subject of interest of at least two dark gods who see him as a suitable tool to bring about their revivals:
** A prophecy in the ''Darkhold'', an eldritch tome compiled by Aelfric the Mad Monk, prophesies him as the "Red Slayer" who will awaken the Elder God Chthon. Carnage proceeds to do so thinking that Chthon will reward him with power, but is immediately disregarded by Chthon and unwittingly winds up contributing to the Elder God's defeat.
** In ''Web of Venom: Carnage Born'', it's revealed that when Cletus was a baby he was chosen by Knull -- the god of the symbiotes -- to be the symbiote version of TheAntichrist and bring about his revival. Donny Cates later revealed on Twitter that the cult made this up to hype Cletus as their messiah, but Cletus decided to run with it.
* CloningBlues:
** Cletus gave a piece of the symbiote to ComicBook/MisterSinister, who spliced it with DNA samples taken from ComicBook/KravenTheHunter and the original five X-Men in order to produce "[[XMakesAnythingCool Xraven]]"
** During the ''Carnage USA'' arc the symbiote demonstrated the ability to create copies of itself at will, enabling Cletus to control multiple people through them. The remnant of the symbiote that survived the journey to rebond with Kasady in ''Superior Carnage Annual'' was stated to have been neutered, indicating it is incapable of doing this anymore.
** Played with, as during the ''Minimum Carnage'' arc Cletus initially states that one Carnage is enough but is later delighted by the "incestuous" fusions of Venom and Carnage created by the Body Banks... mainly because he can control them.
* ComicBookDeath: [[spoiler:Meets his (presumably temporary) end at the finale of ''Absolute Carnage'' by the hands of Venom, being impaled and then cut in half by a Necrosword. ''Extreme Carnage'' reveals that the symbiote manage to return, with Kasady's consciousness as well]].
* ConvenientlyCellmates: The reason why Cletus Kasady acquired a symbiote to begin with was because he was sharing a cell with [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]].
* TheCorrupter: Tries to convert Eddie Brock to his nihilistic philosophy when they first meet.
--> '''Eddie:''' Sometimes I wish I didn't have to live with a foul serial killer like you.
* CorruptHick: Cletus is [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] given a [[DeepSouth Southern accent]] -- particularly when written by Cullen Bunn and Gerry Duggan -- which Spider-Man, Deadpool, and most other superheroes and villains [[BullyingADragon relentlessly mock him about]]. At the end of ComicBook/{{AXIS}}, he also requested a statue be built in his honor and draped in the Confederate flag. However, he hates that people think [[HalfWittedHillbilly he's stupid because of his accent and rural upbringing]].
--> '''Carnage:''' Ain't no clues!\\
'''Deadpool:''' Come on... be ''faithful'' to your backwoods upbringing. Don't you mean "''Tweren't'' no clues"?
* CountryMouse: Despite having been born in New York's [[BedlamHouse Ravencroft Institute]], Cletus is sometimes portrayed as having a [[DeepSouth Southern]] accent, and many of his opponents -- particularly Spider-Man and Deadpool -- have mocked Cletus by pointing out that his accent and overall attitude just ''scream'' redneck.
* CurbStompBattle: Inflicted on Spider Man in their first encounter. Spider Man was desprate that he resorted to allying with Venom in order to defeat Carnage. The two initially seemed to have Carnage beat but then he [[IAmNotLeftHanded revealed he was just toying with them]] and overpowered them both.
* CuriousQualmsOfConscience: After being Inverted, Cletus developed a conscience that left him near-crippled with guilt and an overwhelming desire to redeem himself from all the "glorious chaos" he wrought over the years. And just after he finally rid himself of the burden on his conscience and resolves to become a true superhero... he's un-Inverted and goes back to being his usual self.
* {{Cyborg}}: For a short while he had prosthetic legs [[OrganicTechnology derived from the symbiote]].
* ADayInTheLimelight: The one-shots ''Mind Bomb'' and ''It's a Wonderful Life'', the latter being a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind story.
* DeadpanSnarker: Carnage enjoys delving into BlackComedy.
* DependingOnTheArtist: Carnage was originally drawn as being red and black with black teeth, but starting with Kyle Hotz in ''It's a Wonderful Life'', artists began depicting him as all-red with white teeth. The latter look has since become his most frequent, with his "classic" appearance having been last seen in 2004's ''Venom[=/=]Carnage'' miniseries and 2006's ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance2'''s DLC. Even more recently, some artists have drawn him as being [[http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?pid=5266&disp=ilib&oty=1&oid=49996 all-red with red teeth and glowing yellow eyes]].
* DependingOnTheWriter: Whether Cletus is afraid to die, doesn't care if he does, or is secretly a DeathSeeker varies on who is writing him.
* DisabilityImmunity: When he was lobotomized, Kasady was immune to Wizard's mind control, leading the latter and Klaw to extract the symbiote from him and bond it to someone who isn't.
* DomesticAbuse: Averted. His relationship with Shriek. He enjoys hanging out with and doing horrible things with her and gets upset when other people hurt or try to kill her, but he's also perfectly fine with harming and trying to murder her himself whenever she starts to bore or annoy him- but she's also perfectly capable of hitting back, and her powerset allows her to cause him and the symbiote just as much pain.
* DraconicHumanoid: In ''Absolute Carnage'' #4, [[spoiler:Dark Carnage assimilates the Venom symbiote and transformes into a demonic-looking form with horns and retractile draconic wings]].
* TheDreaded: One of Spidey's most absolutely terrifying enemies and perhaps the only one he almost never chooses to fight alone; when Carnage shows up, Peter almost always seeks out friends- and in the case of Venom, [[EnemyMine even enemies]]- to team up with to take him down. Given Carnage is both quite a bit stronger than Spidey and by far the most homicidal and crazy of his rogues, this is a ''very'' sensible strategy.
* EatsBabies: David Michelinie described Cletus as "a lunatic who'd eat babies for breakfast and ask for seconds." The fact that all Deadpool found of a particularly annoying kid was a few splotches of blood supports this.
* EnemyMine: Carnage only agrees to help Magneto and the heroes fight Red Onslaught because, although he likes Red Onslaught's methods, he ''doesn't'' like the thought of having to serve and worship him should he succeed in taking over the world. Additionally, when he notices that Deadpool has tagged along, he tells him that they are "going to have words after this"; [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1-uhhL3-lk/VEvHek1R-lI/AAAAAAAAGp0/mUumHmeOOTg/s1600/dp36car.PNG then the Inversion happened]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Played for horror in ''ComicBook/{{Venomized}}''. The Poison Queen appeared to her subjects as those they held dear and closest to their hearts. In Poison Carnage's case, she took on the form of Cletus's ''victims''. Whatever that implies is probably incredibly disturbing.
* EvilerThanThou:
** He was introduced into the comics pretty much for this express purpose. Venom had become something of a NobleDemon and AntiHero by the 90's, and the writers thought this was a waste of one of Spidey's most visually impressive and scariest enemies. David Michelinie had intended to kill Eddie off and have the symbiote jump from host to host, but Marvel vetoed the idea. Thus, Michelinie came up with Carnage as a stronger, scarier, and much more evil version of Venom who is [[CardCarryingVillain he is damn proud of it too]].
** Why he and the ComicBook/TheJoker turned on each other in a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' {{crossover}}. Carnage thought the Joker's plans were too slow, convoluted, and stupid. The Joker deemed Carnage's methods lazy, unoriginal, and a tad gross.
** In ''Deadpool vs. Carnage'', Deadpool invokes this.
---> '''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}:''' See, pal, you may be a homicidal maniac. But when it comes to crazy, you're simply outclassed.\\
'''Shriek:''' [[DynamicEntry And you're outnumbered.]]
** Since the opposition had a version of Venom on their side, [[ComicBook/{{Maestro}} the Maestro]] considered recruiting Carnage to his ''[[ComicBook/ContestOfChampions Contest of Champions]]'' team, but abandoned the notion after catching a glimpse of what Cletus was currently up to.
---> '''Maestro:''' An Eddie Brock from a world where he was smart enough--or crazy enough--to actually kill his Earth's Spider-Man. Heh. Let's go with crazy. Which makes me wonder. If crazy gets results... who's crazier than Venom...? (observes Carnage's latest rampage through a portal) On second though, there's such a thing as too crazy...
** Thanks to his moral inversion, Alice Gleason pulls this on him at the end of his ComicBook/{{Axis}} tie-in [[ComicallyMissingThePoint not that he ever gets it]]. His cameo in ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' indicates that he killed her, since he'd made it his goal to hunt down and dispose of everyone who knew of his Inversion.
* EvilCounterpart: To Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson. In the former's case he was specifically created as an ''Eviler'' Counterpart, as Eddie does have some sort of moral compass in that he genuinely wants to protect innocents, while Cletus is a serial killer who has none and is more than happy to kill anyone and everyone he comes across.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Cletus ''loves'' his [[BlackComedy Dead Baby Comedy]], which sometimes actually ''does'' involve dead babies.
* EvilMeScaresMe: Suppressed somewhere ''deep'' in Cletus' psyche is a traumatized little boy utterly terrified of the monster he has become.
* EvilRedhead: He has red hair and he's evil. Nuff said.
* EvilVersusEvil: Treated the invasion in ''Planet of the Symbiotes'' as a buffet, and butted heads with the Joker in ''Spider and Batman'' #1.
* ExitPursuedByABear: Carnage's battle with Nova concludes with him being hit by a speeding truck.
* FakingTheDead: He faked his own death in ''Maximum Carnage'' by attaching a piece of the symbiote to a mangled body. [[NeverRecycleYourSchemes He tries this again]] in ''Spider-Man and Batman'' #1, but the heroes see through it, though he meant it for the Joker, not them.
* FanservicePack: Cletus disturbingly borders on MrFanservice when drawn by Clayton Crain.
* FeedItABomb: Deadpool stuffs a live grenade down Carnage's throat, losing his hand in the process, but all it does is temporarily incapacitate him.
* FightingFromTheInside: Cletus' true self is trying to overcome his Inversion, shown with him hallucinating about killing people.
* FlatCharacter: One of the common criticisms labeled against him both in real life and in-universe is that his obsession with death and chaos is really all there is to him. Efforts have been made to develop him into a more megalomaniacal villain, but at the beginning of ''Deadpool vs. Carnage'', Cletus engages in a MotiveRant that serves as a TakeThat to those efforts.
* ForTheEvulz: And unlike the Joker, he doesn't bother with being artistic: he just likes to flat-out kill.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Cletus had a lousy childhood, but a lot of the things that happened he brought on himself.
* FullFrontalAssault: Once tried to go on a rampage without the symbiote, waving a knife around while wearing nothing but red paint.
* FullyEmbracedFiend: Cletus was ''jealous'' of Venom's powers right from the start, and once he got his own symbiote they all-but literally became inseparable.
* FusionDance: After witnessing the combined power of the cloned Venom and Carnage symbiotes in Baron Karza's Body Banks, Kasady tries to assimilate the Venom symbiote but is stopped by Kaine.
** In the ComicBook/AmalgamUniverse, he was merged with Bizarro to create "Bizarnage".
** The Hall Industries Iron Rangers wore armor derived from the symbiote, which allowed Carnage to forcibly combine with them (killing the pilots) in a twisted Anime/{{Voltron}}-ish fashion.
---> '''Mass Carnage:''' Metal feels funny next to their bodies, heh heh. This isn't the first time I've worn dead bodies as clothes... might be the most fun I've had though. Makes the top three at least.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Deadpool's psychotic lack of a fourth wall actually manages to out-crazy Carnage's nihilistic sociopathy and drives Cletus into a VillainousBreakdown, to the point that he [[WasItReallyWorthIt questions everything he previously believed in]].
* GoalOrientedEvolution: After visiting the Microverse, Carnage decides to abandon his last vestiges of humanity and become the UltimateLifeForm by assimilating the Venom symbiote, though this is quickly stopped by Kaine.
* GodhoodSeeker:
** At the end of ''Minimum Carnage'', Cletus complains that he wanted to stay in the Microverse and conquer it to become a god, then decides he'll settle for throwing away what little humanity he has left and assimilating the Venom symbiote to become the UltimateLifeForm.
** In ''Carnage'' Vol. 2, Cletus frees Chthon expecting to be rewarded with apotheosis into an eldritch god. Chthon, no longer having any use for Carnage, contemptuously tosses the serial killer aside.
** After becoming the apostle of Knull, Cletus seeks to restore the Dark Carnage symbiote's deific power and [[AGodAmI develops a god complex]] that escalates as he becomes more powerful.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Was ripped in half by the Sentry, but survived thanks to the symbiote. He seems to have somehow regenerated his legs by the time of ''Superior Carnage'', but lost his legs as a result of the Gene Bomb.
* HandicappedBadass: In addition to having been ripped in half, Cletus was left in a catatonic state by the Scarlet Spider, leaving the symbiote in full control of his body. Both his dismemberment and lobotomy seem to have been fixed by the symbiote as of ''Superior Carnage Annual'', but he lost his legs again smothering the Gene bomb.
* HealingFactor: Cletus has regrown the lower half of his body, recovered from being lobotomized by the avatar of a spider-god, regrew his body from his severed head after being decapitated, and regrown the top half his head thanks to the symbiote.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing: As a result of being Inverted in the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' crossover, Cletus and the symbiote try to become a superhero. Try, here meaning [[EpicFail fail miserably]] more often than not.
--> '''Spider-Man:''' [[http://38.media.tumblr.com/a08f942e10b53fdb66901b99f9651bb4/tumblr_nel8e2phMR1rdffpvo3_1280.png Now that is really disturbing...]]
* HeroicSacrifice: In ''AXIS'', Cletus seemingly sacrifices himself protecting the others from a bomb. He makes Spider-Man promise to have a flamboyant musical statue built in his honor first. It doesn't stick, as he later appears to annoy ComicBook/{{Nova}}.
* HeroWithAnFInGood: Kasady becomes a SociopathicHero following his Inversion -- the Inversion Wave awakened his conscience, but he struggles to repress his murderous impulses and is comically inept at actually doing heroic deeds. For example, he tries to foil a bank robbery by burning the bank to the ground before the robbers can rob it.
--> '''Rick Spears:''' He's trying to be good but he's terrible at it and makes some pretty [[http://abload.de/img/axis-carnage002-010jmfsh.jpg horrible]] [[http://abload.de/img/carnage41ze17.png mistakes]].
* HesBack: A villainous example:
** At the end of the ''Superior Carnage'' miniseries, Cletus reveals he's recovered from his lobotomy.
** Cletus recovers from his Deadpool-induced VillainousBreakdown during the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' event and only joins Magneto's team to get revenge on Deadpool. However, the events of the crossover "invert" his morality, and cause him to embark on a redemptive journey of sorts that brings him into conflict with a new Sin-Eater. Following this, his inversion wears off and he goes back to being a serial killer.
* HijackingCthulhu: When consumed by a Poison, Cletus' bloodlust enabled his psyche to endure and hijack Poison Carnage.
* HijackedByGanon: Carnage appears as the TrueFinalBoss of the ''Separation Anxiety'' game, despite not being featured at all in the storylines it's based on.
* HorrifyingHero: Following his Inversion, Cletus became a combination of this and TerrorHero.
* ImAHumanitarian: Like Venom, Carnage has threatened to eat his victims and isn't shy about using his [[FangsAreEvil teeth]] in combat. For more specific examples, he threatens to eat Hannah Morrell's two remaining children and it's implied that he ate an entire meatpacking staff during his stay in Doverton; some guards joked to Ted Connelly that Kasady's cellmates tend to become dinner; and when reunited with Cletus after being forcibly bonded to Karl Malus, the symbiote was going to eat the Wizard as revenge for separating them.
--> '''Mr. Sinister:''' [[NoSell You can't hurt me, Mr. Kasady]]. I will get what I want, with or without your cooperation. But I would prefer this go smoothly. Work with me, and I can help you.\\
'''Carnage:''' Help me get out? Help me ''eat'' the doctors?\\
'''Mr. Sinister:''' If you like. Appropriately enough, they're in the cafeteria.
* IAmLegion: Generally averted. In his first appearance, Kasady acknowledged the Carnage symbiote's intelligence, but tended to refer to himself as "I". Successive appearances had Carnage continue to do so, with the symbiote being completely subservient to him.
* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: The Jackal breaks into Ravencroft and violently extracts the Carrion virus from Shriek. Carnage, who is in a nearby cell, reacts negatively to this development.
--> '''Carnage:''' If you've injured Shriek... If you attempted to harm her... I swear I'll have you squealing beneath my claws!\\
'''Jackal:''' Promises! Promises!
* IgnoreTheFanservice: Like the Joker, he is usually far too busy being evil [[NotDistractedByTheSexy to pay much attention to]] his DarkMistress.
* ImagineSpot: When Alice Gleason betrays him, Carnage thinks of [[http://abload.de/img/c216uej.jpg all of the good times]] they could have shared, in a possible ShoutOut to [[http://i.imgur.com/JHLdHnW.jpg a similar scene]] involving Boomerang in ''ComicBook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan''.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Pun aside, this is the reason Shriek fell for him. Cletus also feels this way towards the symbiote.
* InconsistentColoring: Cletus was drawn with blond hair in ''Minimum Carnage'', as opposed to his usual red hair.
* IndulgentFantasySegue:
** After Venom ate his symbiote, Cletus was left stewing his cell, fantasizing about getting revenge on him as Carnage.
** On his first night out as a superhero, Cletus comes across a man attempting to forcibly coerce a woman. His first response is to fantasize about ripping her in half. He scolds himself, then proceeds to knock the man's eyes out, cut another's hand off, and "gently" punch the woman unconscious after learning that she is a "lady of the evening" and thus also a criminal deserving of punishment.
* InterspeciesRomance: After getting it into his head that it was female, Cletus starts referring to the Carnage symbiote as his "girl" and "the missus", even teasingly accusing it of cheating on him when it took over Tanis Nieves. For its part, the symbiote views Cletus as its one true host and stops at nothing to reunite with him if they are forcibly separated.
* JackTheRipoff: A heroic example: post-Inversion he tries emulating Spider-Man, even to the point of leaving a cutesy note and calling himself the "friendly neighborhood Carnage-Man." However, he's closer to ripping off Eddie Brock's Lethal Protector shtick.
* JaggedMouth: Carnage was originally drawn with black teeth, giving this impression due to the majority of his mask being black.
* JokerImmunity: He's been frozen in an inescapable statue by the Silver Surfer and ripped in half by the Sentry and still survived, and survives being trapped in the Frightful Four's exploding base while he's in a coma. Even after he's murdered, the symbiote resuscitates him.
* TheJuggernaut: Among Spider Man's villains, he's almost invincible. Spider Man and Venom working together can barely slow him down.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Despite having seemingly been killed off numerous times only to later be revealed to somehow still be alive, Cletus Kasady is killed off for good in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' #5 after Venom cuts him in half with a Necrosword and strips the Grendel symbiote off him -- his mostly-skeletal corpse falling apart when it hits the ground]].
* LeanAndMean: He's usually lanky as both Cletus and Carnage, though in ''Literature/CarnageInNewYork'' he's described as being massive and imposing. This is taken UpToEleven in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', where he's literally skeletally-thin as Dark Carnage.
* LightningBruiser: Carnage is more powerful than both Venom and Spider-Man combined, and his serious attempts to wreck havoc have necessitated superhero teamups to stop him.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple:
** In ''Venom vs. Carnage'' Cletus displays this dynamic with his symbiote, exacerbated by the fact that he happened to be [[VillainsOutShopping ironing clothes]] and drinking from a mug [[FunnyBackgroundEvent that says "#1 Dad"]] at the time.
---> '''Cletus:''' How could you let him beat us? A kid? A whelp? Barely a week old!\\
'''Symbiote:''' Be quiet, Cletus Kasady.\\
'''Cletus:''' Oh, be quiet yourself. You might be the bus driver, but you need this bus.\\
'''Symbiote:''' Wrong. There are plenty more human hosts.\\
'''Cletus:''' So leave me. I don't need a symbiote to be a Grade A Bona Fide Terra Firma Quo Vadis psychopathic killer. I did just fine and dandy before you came along.
** ''Carnage'' #4, Cletus and Shriek engage in nagging banter:
---> '''Shriek:''' Where are you going? You didn't say anything about [[TwoFaced my new face...]]\\
'''Carnage:''' Can I have five minutes to kill some dudes before you talk my ear off?!\\
'''Shriek:''' I'm just trying to help...\\
'''Carnage:''' I can't have you screaming around me with that voice!\\
'''Shriek:''' How long are you going to be?!\\
'''Carnage:''' *sigh*
* {{Lobotomy}}: At the end of ''Minimum Carnage'', Kaine stabs Cletus in the eye with one of his stingers, badly damaging his brain and leaving him in a coma. This just makes Carnage even more dangerous, since the pissed-off symbiote can act without restraint.
* LosingYourHead:
** During the ''Minimum Carnage'' arc, Carnage is decapitated by Agent Venom's [[BladeBelowTheShoulder arm-blade]]. He proceeds to regenerate his entire body in under a minute, while acting like nothing happened.
** In ''AXIS: Carnage'' #3, Alice Gleason [[YourHeadASplode blows off the top part of his head with a shotgun]], but he regenerates it in a matter of seconds.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Cletus becomes smitten with Alice Gleason and spends much of his ''AXIS'' series fantasizing about her.
* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Cletus thought Michael Hall's screams as the Doppelgänger ate him made good thinking music.
* MagicEnhancement: Exposure to the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Darkhold]]'s eldritch magic has changed him and the symbiote, making them immune to sonics and partially restoring the symbiote's ability to replicate itself.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction:
** Cletus' reaction getting ripped in half by the Sentry was as follows:
---> '''Carnage''': Now jus' who the hell is this Sentry buck? [[WorthyOpponent He's a strong one.]] Yeehaw! Fast too! [[OhCrap Wait, are those my...]] Heh heh... that shouldn't be funny, should it? Aw... Where you goin'? Don't leave me up here! [[BloodKnight It was just gettin' good!]] ... Guess I'm dyin'. Hope it's as fun as it looks.
** He's completely unfazed when Agent Venom decapitates him, and simply regrows his entire body from his severed head.
* MakeMyMonsterGrow:
** During the ''Planet of the Symbiotes'' storyline, he discovered he could increase his size by forcibly absorbing the symbiote invaders. He wound up [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/4/46562/1414850-giantcarnage1.jpg growing]] to near {{Kaiju}} levels.
** In ''Minimum Carnage'', after exiting the Microverse, Carnage is temporarily ''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever huge]]'' while the heroes end up being temporarily shrunk, and even after the heroes return to their regular size Carnage tries to swallow Agent Venom whole.
* MakeWayForTheNewVillains:
** When Mac Gargan became a far more bloodthirsty version of Venom than Eddie Brock had been, Carnage was seemingly killed off by ComicBook/TheSentry and only brought back after the Venom symbiote had been given to the heroic Flash Thompson.
** Cletus is KilledOffForReal in ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'', but in the process [[GreaterScopeVillain Knull]] is released from his prison.
* ManBitesMan: During his symbiote-less brawl with Flash Thompson, he took a bite out of the latter's shoulder and remarked that [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies he tasted like pig]].
* MarkOfTheBeast: In ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' he has a white version of Knull's spiral emblem in the middle of his forehead, and a white version of Knull's dragon ChestInsignia.
* {{Metalhead}}: He's been shown to be a fan of bands like Music/MotleyCrue and Music/{{Anthrax}}, to the annoyance of the symbiote, which only lets him listen to them with headphones.
* MindRape: Cletus once drove a doctor murderously insane by shoving a tentacle into his head, and showing him how he saw the world. The symbiote even reverse-hacked ComicBook/IronMan's Bleeding Edge armor through sheer bloodlust.
* MommyIssues: Culminated in him digging up and attempting to abscond with his mother's inexplicably empty casket at the end of ''Maximum Carnage''.
* MoralSociopathy: After being [[HeelFaceBrainwashing Inverted]] during ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'', Cletus -- normally an AxCrazy chaos-worshipping sociopath with the nihilistic desire to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone and everything in existence]] -- was forcibly saddled with the desire to redeem himself and do good, but had no clue how to actually do so due to his lingering bloodlust and LackOfEmpathy.
* MoralityChain: Much like Jenna Cole was for Eddie Brock, Alice Gleason became one for Cletus for the duration of his inversion.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Like "father" like "son". Carnage's teeth were initially drawn as being [[JaggedMouth black and blending in with the rest of his face]], but they've also been drawn as white, yellow, and red.
* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: Once killed a few people through ''Carnage Unleashed'', and had plans to massacre even more when the game went online, though he was stopped by Venom in a cyberspace showdown.
* MultipleChoicePast: Carnage's backstory is... inconsistent, which he himself admits. The most frequently drawn on story is that he killed his grandmother by pushing her down a flight of stairs, tortured his mother's dog, and manipulated his father into killing his mother. When sent to [[OrphanageOfFear St. Estes Home for Boys]], he was bullied due to his [[TheSociopath antisocial behaviour]], and eventually murdered the disciplinarian administration and burned the place to the ground before becoming a full-time serial killer.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Carnage is tricked into nearly killing Shriek by Deadpool. Upon realizing what he has done, Cletus breaks down ''while cradling her in his arms''.
--> '''Carnage:''' Symbiote... covered her... disguised her... tricking me into... but they tried to warn me... tried to tell me... if I'd listened... no!
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Dude calls himself Carnage, and lives up to it.
* NayTheist: In one of his rants, he claims that the universe was created by a "drooling idiot".
* NightmareFetishist: Going back to his childhood, where his favorite film was one that happened to star UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy.
--> '''Carnage:''' I kill because it makes me feel like I'm on T.V., with my own personal soundtrack. Like JFK, brains on the leather and pretty blood on his pretty wife. JFK. NBK. KKK. And his pretty wife, now think of it, all wet and humiliated, crawling in front of the whole world--I like that, too. When I was a kid, my favorite movie was the [[UsefulNotes/ZapruderFilm Zapruder film]].
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Cletus has been ripped in half, decapitated, stabbed in the head, trapped in an exploding base, and used himself to shield New York from a gene bomb. Aside from missing half his body and being in a coma,[[note]]both of which he's recovered from thanks to the symbiote[[/note]] he's still alive. Even when he's shanked, suffocated, and declared to be deceased, the symbiote just resuscitates him.
* NoSell:
** While he can withstand gunfire easily thanks to the symbiote, Cletus has tanked getting hit by missiles without so much as a scratch, and what wounds he does get are quickly healed by the symbiote.
** After his symbiote is upgraded by the ''Darkhold'', he loses his vulnerability to sonics -- although he gains one to eldritch magic in exchange.
** After bonding to the Grendel symbiote, he is no longer vulnerable to flames and laughs off Mania's attempts to immolate him with hellfire.
* NotQuiteDead:
** The ''Carnage'' miniseries revealed that the Carnage symbiote managed to keep Kasady alive for nearly a year in space before a corporation found them, removed the symbiote, and gave Kasady [[{{Cyborg}} prosthetic legs]] derived from it.
** After his HeelFaceBrainwashing, Cletus opts to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice himself]] in an act of [[DeathEqualsRedemption redemption]], nearly bringing his former nemesis Spider-Man to tears. He succeeds in smothering the gene bomb's blast, and all that's found of him are bits of the symbiote. He's presumed dead, but later turns up alive but evil and missing the lower half of his body again.
** After the death of the Poison Queen, Poison Carnage's crystalline exoskeleton and consumed symbiote crumble to reveal Cletus somehow restored to humanity.
* NothingButSkinAndBones: By ''Absolute Carnage'', all that's really left of Cletus Kasady is charred, rotting skin stretched taught over his skeleton.
* OffModel: Cletus has been blonde a lot, and looked almost completely different in ''Minimum Carnage''.
* OmnicidalManiac: Cletus has a body-count that only plagues and dictators can match, and he has jumped at the chance cause even greater mass-casualties. For instance, he sided with (and later betrayed) Blastaar the Living Bomburst and tried to unleash the dark god Chthon in order to bring about the end of human civilization. As Dark Carnage, Cletus devotes himself to freeing Knull in order to participate in the annihilation of the universe itself.
* OneTrueLove:
** Cletus and the symbiote see each other as soul mates, taken to InterspeciesRomance levels due to Cletus considering the symbiote to be a "girl" after it gives birth to Toxin.
--->'''Carnage''': I was hollowed out inside... Empty... Just like [[TheSymbiote my other]]. We were both sick... Because we were incomplete... But not anymore. We healed each other... Made each other whole. Neither one of us can survive without the other. Forget host. Forget symbiote. There is only Carnage.
** To a lesser extant, there's Shriek.
---> '''Boy:''' Mister... your girlfriend don't look so good. I think she might be dead.\\
'''Cletus:''' Shriek's alive. [[BirdsOfAFeather She's like me]]. Too mean to die.
* OnlyFriend: The closest thing he had to friend growing up was a boy named Billy. As Carnage, he decided to ''invoke'' KickTheDog by tracking down and killing Billy, because what's more evil than murdering the only person who was ever genuinely nice to you? Currently, the Carnage symbiote is the only other entity Cletus genuinely cares about.
* OrderVersusChaos: Carnage thought that the ComicBook/RedSkull turning Genosha into one big death camp was pretty cool, but he still agreed to help Magneto combat him because he didn't like the idea of having to live under someone whose ideal world is a ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''-style totalitarian police state in which non-conformists are shot on sight.
* PopCulturedBadass: Cletus has been known to make pop-culture references from time to time, such as quoting ''Film/{{Babe}}'' and ''Series/FantasyIsland'' (through the symbiote-controlled citizens of Doverton) in ''Carnage USA''.
* PracticallyJoker: Clearly based off the Joker, with [[Film/{{Psycho}} a bit of Norman Bates in there too.]] Arist Erik Larsen even admitted to patterning Kasady's looks on the Clown Prince of Crime. Coincidentally, the Joker was initially delighted to meet Carnage during ''ComicBook/SpiderManAndBatmanDisorderedMinds'', but they quickly had a falling out over their different opinions on how to kill people.
* PrimalStance: In ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance2'' and ''LEGO Marvel Superheroes'', Carnage [[RunningOnAllFours runs on all fours]] to emphasize his feral nature.
* ReligionOfEvil: The way he goes on about chaos, Cletus may as well be a disciple of [[Characters/TheIncredibleHercules Amatsu-Mikaboshi]]. By ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'', he actually ''is'' an apostle of the void god [[PhysicalGod Knull]].
--> '''Carnage:''' There ain't no clues! Everything I do... from here on out... is random. I can't be stopped! Can't be caged! Can't be tracked! My every action is a tribute... an offering... to the almighty--\\
'''Deadpool:''' Dollar?\\
'''Carnage:''' [[BigWordShout CHAOS!]]
* ReplacementFlatCharacter: As Eddie Brock developed into an AntiHero, Cletus Kasady was created to take his place as Marvel's resident symbiote supervillain and was deliberately conceptualized as a nihilistic sociopath to prevent him from having any redeeming qualities. The few times he ''did'' undergo CharacterDevelopment -- becoming more megalomaniacal, or undergoing HeelFaceBrainwashing -- proved temporary, and each time he reverted back to his old self.
* RevenantZombie: His state in ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'' and ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'': [[spoiler:a reanimated, desiccated, maggot-infested corpse possessed by the [[SuperPrototype primordial Grendel symbiote]] and capable of thinking for himself, but willingly serving the will of [[PhysicalGod Knull]]]].
* RubberMan: Cletus can freely stretch and deform his limbs thanks to the symbiote, and can even [[LongNeck stretch his neck out like a snake]].
* {{Sadist}}: Exemplified in ''Carnage U.S.A.'', where he forces Hannah Morrell to go out and try to murder her husband, Eric. When Eric ''volunteers'' to be killed, Cletus becomes annoyed over him "ruining" everything and calls it off.
* SanitySlippage: When Cletus was in a coma, Carnage was little more than a feral beast.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Cletus' [[MultipleChoicePast most consistently used backstory]] is that he manipulated his father into killing his mother, who was trying to kill him after he'd murdered his grandmother and mutilated his mom's dog. His father was blamed for the crimes and imprisoned, leaving Cletus to be sent to an OrphanageOfFear.
* SelfServingMemory: Cletus openly admits he has problems accurately remembering things about his past, such as substituting ComicBook/{{Venom}} for his father[[note]]Which makes sense in a way.[[/note]] and Alice Gleason for his mother in a flashback of his childhood. This may be why his flashback to his mother's death in ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 differs from what was previously established.
* SerialKiller: Before he got the symbiote he was already in prison for 11 consecutive life sentences, and bragged about a dozen more. It just made him worse.
* SinisterMinister: Acts like one, complete with stolen priest clothes, for a bit in ''[=USA=]''.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Cletus Kasady is an impulsive crazed serial killer of limited education, is sometimes portrayed as a stereotypical Southern hick, and is [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a metalhead with few cultural interests]]. As such, any time he does take up the role of BigBad, the heroes tend to be caught off-guard by his quick-witted and sometimes downright analytical opproach. This becomes especially apparent in ''Absolute Carnage'' , where Cletus masterminds an operation that could be deemed global or even universal in its scale and wages war against the heroes on a dozen different fronts, culminating in him using a BatmanGambit that allows him to reach his objective regardless of the choice the heroes make. The story even takes the time to contrast Cletus with Norman Osborn -- who at the time had been brainwashed into believing he is Cletus Kasady as well, and behaved exactly like Cletus' usual impulsive self -- and shows how different Cletus can play the game if he really wanted to.
* TheSociopath: Even ''before'' being bonded with the Carnage symbiote, Cletus was a diagnosed psychopath and convicted SerialKiller. Bonding to the symbiote made him worse.
* SociopathicHero: Despite being [[HeelFaceBrainwashing Inverted]], Cletus is still very much a murderous psychopath bonded to a predatory alien parasite.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Marvel flip-flops on whether Cletus' last name has one "s" or two.
* StatusQuoIsGod:
** As pointed out in ''Superior Carnage'', every time the symbiote leaves Cletus it ultimately returns to him.
** In ''Superior Carnage Annual'', Cletus decides that all the character development he's undergone over the years -- particularly his [[EvilPlan plots]] to TakeOverTheWorld and/or [[GoalOrientedEvolution become the ultimate life-form]] -- just hasn't worked out, and that he wants to get back to basics as the [[StrawNihilist nihilistic]] and AxCrazy sociopath he was born to be.
* StrawNihilist: Cletus doesn't believe in order and morality, and kills people for fun. He once argued with Demogoblin that God is probably a drooling idiot, if He even exists at all. Years later, he has a VillainousBreakdown when Deadpool convinces him that he's controlled by higher powers.
* SwissArmyAppendage: The theme of [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/9/95/Carnage_Vol_2_4_Textless.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151021082254 the cover]] of ''Carnage'' Vol. 2, #4.
* {{Synchronization}}: In ''Superior Carnage Annual'', Cletus states that he can feel the symbiote getting weaker and dying even though he's separated from it by the entirety of the United States of America.
* TaintedVeins: Some depictions of Carnage give the red parts of his body the texture of exposed muscles, with the black parts being vein-like tendrils of living abyss layered overtop.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With Demogoblin - a KnightTemplar who only allied with him because it would allow him to kill more "sinners" than usual - in ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage''.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When Poison Carnage is tossed out into space at the conclusion of ''Venomized'', he complains about this happening again.
* ThroatLight: As Dark Carnage, his mouth glows a sickly yellow to accentuate his SemiDivine nature.
* TombstoneTeeth: Befitting his status as an expy of ComicBook/TheJoker, Cletus is sometimes drawn porting a Slasher Smile with these — not counting his JaggedMouth and/or fanged MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily as Carnage — to highlight his maniacal and nihilistic bloodlust.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Carnage feeds the Sin-Eater his sin, which ultimately [[PhlebotinumOverload proves too much for balaclava-head to handle]].
* TheTopicOfCancer: Cletus was diagnosed with stomach cancer when he was hospitalized after the symbiote abandoned him to pursue its vendetta against the Silver Surfer. This hasn't been brought up since, presumably due to the symbiote curing him because, unlike Eddie Brock's adrenal cancer, the type of cancer Cletus had offered no benefit to it.
* TranshumanTreachery: When the offspring of the Venom symbiote bonded to him, Cletus Kasady - being a nihilistic psychopath - happily used it to become even more of a monster than he already was.
* {{Ubermensch}}: At his most philosophical, Cletus rejects the morality of the world around him as an artificial construct intended to prevent people from being truly free, and believes himself to be one of the few enlightened individuals who understand that '''''[[AxCrazy chaos]]''''' is the natural state of existence. And boy oh boy is he ever TheUnfettered when it comes to demonstrating this.
* UnholyMatrimony:
** Kasady's "[[DarkMistress wife]]" is Shriek, although their relationship is ''very'' dysfunctional.
---> '''Cletus, through the Symbiote''': She screams her pain as death and hatred. She kills for me. I like it. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When it gets boring, I'll put her down like my mother's dog]]. I am Carnage. Killing someone I love will make me happy. So happy.
** Some lines in the ''Carnage'' Vol. 1, ''Carnage USA'', ''Superior Carnage'', and ''Venomized'' miniseries more-than imply Kasady considers his relationship with the symbiote to be this, such as referring to it as a "girl", and jokingly accusing it of cheating on him when bonded to Tanis Nieves.
* UnPerson: Upon becoming evil again, Carnage desperately tries to kill everyone aware of his heroism during ''AXIS'', starting with Nova.
* VilerNewVillain: As Venom transitioned from being a villain to an antihero, Cletus was introduced to be even worse by comparison. Eddie Brock may have an IrrationalHatred towards Spidey, but Cletus is a deranged SerialKiller who does things ForTheEvulz.
* VillainProtagonist: Cletus has had a number of series where he himself is the protagonist.
* VillainSong: ''Carnage Rules'' by Green Jelly, which was commissioned for the ''Maximum Carnage'' video game.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[NoFourthWall Deadpool's]] taunts and jeers about Cletus being a CosmicPlaything, coupled with various {{Contrived Coincidence}}s that have occurred, cause Carnage to try and force the patients and staff of a mental institution to answer his nonsensical questions about being "controlled" by higher powers as he rants about breaking into one nuthouse after another until he gets satisfactory answers. After Deadpool tricks him into mangling Shriek - something he thinks the "higher powers" tried to warn him against doing through the muttering of a few mental patients - Carnage, convinced everything he's believed about chaos and randomness is false, suffers a mind-shattering FreakOut.
--> '''Detective:''' Cell's not even locked. He could walk right out.\\
'''Carnage:''' Gonna sit right here... 'til I'm left alone... 'til I'm my own man again... and then... I'm gonna find Deadpool... and [[IRejectYourReality make him pay for trying to peel my eyes open]]!
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Beginning in the 2000's, Carnage speaks using distorted red speech bubbles with white text.
* WhatWouldXDo: Cletus' first attempts at being a hero pretty much boil down to him asking himself "What would Spider-Man do?", [[EvilCannotComprehendGood not having a clue]], and literally butchering it.
* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Burned down the orphanage that took him in.
* TheWorfEffect: Spider-Man's taken him down solo on occasion, and he was ''ripped in half'' by the Sentry.
* WorthyOpponent: Cletus initially saw Spider-Man as one, during their first encounter.
--> '''Carnage:''' Gee, Webster, I dunno why Eddie ragged on ya so much! I think you're kinda ''fun!'' I mean, I could really get into reunion battles, grudge bouts! Too bad I gotta cut this short -- -- by killin' ya now!
* WouldHurtAChild: Children are no safer from him than adults are.
** He burned down his entire orphanage, although this was when Cletus was still a child himself.
** "Amazing Spider-Man #362" shows him '''defenstrating a baby.''' Thankfully, Venom saves it.
** He massacres a diner in "Deadpool vs. Carnage", which is shown to have children inside. We don't actually see them die, but a news report says that over a dozen people died so [[AdultFear they likely didn't survive]].
** It's revealed that he killed Eric Morrell's young daughter Stephanie in "Carnage USA". He also threatens to kill his son Cole and baby daughter, but they fortunately survive to the end of the comic.
* {{Yandere}}:
** As a teen, he pushed a girl he had a crush on in front of a bus when she refused to go out with him. This event, which had only been referenced once or twice in Carnage's early appearances, is revisited as a minor plot point in ''Axis''.
** Cletus views the Carnage symbiote as his soul mate, and when the Poisons trick him into bonding with a new symbiote he screams at them to take it off and bring him his original. After the new symbiote finishes bonding to him, he promptly goes berserk -- mowing down Poisoned incarnations of powerful heroes like Angela -- while declaring his intent to reunite with his beloved Other.
--->'''Carnage II:''' This ain't me! This ain't who I am! This ain't my other! Stand between me and my real self, I'll slaughter every damn one of you! You hear me, baby? I'm comin' for ya!
----
