Marvel Comics: Carnage / Characters

The Carnage Symbiote

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Listen all you fools! Don’t you know that Carnage rules!

Hosts: Cletus Kasady, John Jameson, Ben Reilly, Norrin Radd, most of the populace of Doverton, Colorado, Logan, Ben Grimm, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, Tanis Nieves, Karl Malus, Bentley Wittman, Carla Unger, Norman Osborn, Normie Osborn

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #361

"But isn't that what you want to hear, Doctor? That I was a poor, abused child? That my mother beat me? My father molested me? That I was tortured and hung by my ankles above a pit of broken glass? Well, maybe that's all true. Or maybe... I'm just the inevitable aberration. The soul that's born so black, so twisted, so filled with unreasoning hatred... that there's no explanation. You can't make me sane, Doctor. You can't hope to redeem me. All you can do is kill me. Because, if you don't—I'll break out of here. You have my word on that. And the blood—the glorious blood—will flow like wine!"

— Carnage, Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds

In the early 1990's, Venom's skyrocketing popularity as an antihero derailed co-creator David Michelinie's plan to kill Eddie Brock off and have the symbiote jump from host to host. Feeling Marvel had lost one of its most terrifying villains as a result of Venom's transition into the Lethal Protector, Michelinie decided to create a new symbiotic super villain, one with no redeeming features whatsoever. Erik Larsen came up with Cletus Kasady, inspired by Batman's The Joker, and Mark Bagley designed a red and black symbiote intended to emphasize the new villain's nature as a chaos-obsessed psychopath. Carnage debuted in 1991, when the Venom symbiote's newborn offspring bonded to serial killer Kasady. Carnage's defining storyline was the Maximum Carnage crossover, where he recruited several supervillains and declared war on New York, forcing Spider-Man to form his own alliance of superheroes and anti-heroes to combat him.

Since then, Carnage has become one of Spider-Man's most (in)famous villains, appearing infrequently in the comics before seemingly being killed off after Mac Gargan became a more monstrous version of Venom. After Flash Thompson became a heroic Venom, Carnage was brought back in 2011, and has starred in a number of his own miniseries since then. His popularity and role as a humanizing agent for Venom has led to his appearance in several video games and animated series.

Click here for the other Marvel Comics symbiotes.

Carnage provides examples of:

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In General

Aborted Arc: Maximum Carnage ends with an unhinged (well, more than usual) Carnage digging up and attempting to run away with his mother's casket. After he's beaten, the coffin is shown to be empty. This reveal has a vaguely sinister air to it, but nothing ever came of it and no explanation was ever given for why the casket was empty.
Antagonistic Offspring: He's technically Venom's "son", the result of the Venom symbiote asexually reproducing itself.
Arch-Enemy: Carnage is Venom's and Toxin's arch-nemesis: no matter how many villains Venom fights, Carnage will always be the one villain Venom hates the most. Carnage himself also has considerable grudges against Spider-Man and Deadpool.
Artistic License – Biology: Carnage suffers a similar issue that Venom often undergoes, depending on the artist drawing him. Despite the fact an entire human head is supposed to be inside the symbiote's head, the mouth's position often indicates there is empty space there. Ideally, the host's chin SHOULD be inside the upper jaw but the art doesn't tend to observe this, drawing his head a bit too small for that.
Artistic License – Medicine: The Mind Bomb comic suggests that a simple overdose of Vitamin C affects the symbiotic bond because it severely alters brain chemistry. In reality, at best it might give him some light nausea or an upset stomach, it doesn't affect brain chemistry! The writer could've handwaved this by saying that Vitamin C affected the symbiote itself, or by saying it was some chemical mixture, but no, they specifically state that it affected brain chemistry of the host.
Ax-Crazy: Carnage is a nihilistic and murderously violent sociopath who believes that law and order are meaningless in the face of chaos, and his associates Shriek and Doppelganger aren't much better.
Big Bad: Carnage is the chief antagonist of several of Spider-Man's and Venom's - both Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson - stories, as well as a number of his own.
Body Horror: When bonded to a host, the Carnage symbiote sometimes resembles a flayed human body.
Breakout Villain: Carnage was meant to replace Venom, but got so popular that they're both recurring mainstays.
Calling Card: Left gruesome ones in his first appearance: the words "Carnage Rules!" scrawled on the wall of the crime scene in his victim's blood. Since he didn't have access to a victim for his "paint" when Spider-Man first confronted him, he decided to use his own instead.
Chaos Is Evil: Cletus is hailed as an anarchist because he seeks to bring chaos to the world.
Creepy Long Fingers: Carnage's fingers are almost always shaped into long, sharp claws.
Depending on the Artist: Whether Carnage is red and black or just plain red, and whether he has a Jagged Mouth or discernible teeth, depends on who's drawing him.
Depending on the Writer:
- As with Venom, how vulnerable the Carnage symbiote is to fire and sonics seems to depend on who's writing. The general consensus has been that it's the more flammable of the two, and has developed an increased resistance to sound, but this also depends on who's writing.
- Beginning with the Carnage Vol. 1 series, Cletus was given a Southern hillbilly accent and a love of the Confederate flag and Lynyrd Skynyrd, while earlier stories pinned him as a native New Yorker of implied Scottish-Irish heritage and no trace of a Southern attitude or heritage.
- After Sentry ripped him in half, whether he regenerated his legs or he still has his robotic ones. In either case, you can't really tell when he's suited up.
Design Preservation Villain: Carnage was created mainly because David Michelinie thought it would be a waste to have Venom, one of Spider-Man's most visually impressive villains, no longer antagonize him.
Did Not Get the Girl: During Axis, Carnage took a reporter named Alice Gleason to teach him how to be a hero. He assumed Alice was a good woman with a strong moral compass, unaware she was just trying to achieve more viewers with an act. Carnage started seeing Alice as an angel and even started having a romantic interest in her. However, at the end she turns on him and has the police fire on him. Carnage has a brief Imagine Spot about marrying Alice and having a family with her, and assumes that this is a lesson about how if he got the girl he'd put her and their family in danger. So he leaves.
Eldritch Abomination: Like all symbiotes, the Carnage symbiote is a creature of living abyss — though what sets it apart from other symbiotes aside from Grendel's Mother is that it's mixed with its host's blood. Being exposed to the eldritch power of the Darkhold augmented and altered Cletus's symbiote, making it immune to its former weaknesses but giving it a vulnerability to certain forms of magic.
Enemy Mine: When Carnage was first introduced, his presence was one of the few things that would allow Venom to — temporarily — put his hatred of Spider-Man aside and work with the wall-crawler to stop him. Later appearances of Carnage had other characters become willing to work with Venom only if it meant stopping Carnage.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- Cletus really doesn't like it when people illegally park in handicap spaces.
- For a rather literal version of this, this is why his team-up with The Joker didn't last more than a few pages in Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds. Kasady didn't care for the Joker's theatrics and the Joker found Kasady's lack of flair boring.
Evil Counterpart: Venom (Eddie Brock) states he seems him as his in Maximum Carnage. Depending on the host, it can be more something like ''Eviler'' Counterpart. (Mostly with Mac Gargan and Lee Price) And yes, it could be said that he is indeed ultimately an evil counterpart to a character who is himself formerly an evil counterpart. (Venom to Spider-Man)
Venom: You're doomed, Carnage! I'm older, wiser, more experienced!
Carnage: Yeah... but I'm nastier!
Expy: Cletus Kasady, pre-Symbiote, is one of the Joker, right down to his character design being a recolor of the white-skinned, green-haired Batman villain, and his characterization basically being Joker's dialed up to eleven after getting superpowers.
For the Evulz: His motivation for wreaking havoc is simply because he can.
Genre Throwback: His post-Secret Wars series is one to the Marvel horror books that Gerry Conway wrote back in the 1970's, such as The Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night.
Godhood Seeker: While he's usually a nihilistic serial killer whose only goal is to cause as much death and chaos as possible, Carnage has on three separate occasions sought to apotheosize into a god of chaos and death — first by absorbing the Enigma Force in Minimum Carnage, then by freeing Chthon in Carnage Vol. 2, and finally by empowering the Dark Carnage symbiote and freeing Knull in Absolute Carnage.
Half the Man He Used to Be: Was flown into space and torn in half by the Sentry in the opening arc of New Avengers. He later got better.
Heel–Face Turn: Briefly, like the other villains from the AXIS event. However, it's especially jarring in his case as Carnage is a psychotic serial killer who has murdered thousands with glee. When the reversal is undone, Carnage goes after the second Nova, Sam Alexander, because he was one of the few people who interacted with Carnage in a purely heroic fashion, and Carnage can't stand knowing that there's someone out there who has seen a part of him that wasn't a monster.
Hero with an F in Good: When he gets inverted in AXIS, Carnage tries to be a hero. The problem is that he doesn't know how to do anything heroic and has to get an ordinary woman he took hostage to teach him.
Invincible Villain: A major problem with the character during his early days was that he quickly degenerated into this, especially during Maximum Carnage, where he simply got back up again no matter what the heroes threw against him, and the inconsistent writing didnt help.
Lean and Mean: Depending on the Writer, but he is typically despicted as skinnier than the bulky, muscular Venom, and much, much worse.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Carnage can grow Combat Tentacles at will, and has the ability to consume biomass from its victims.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Carnage, not that Cletus Kasady is much better.
Practically Joker: He was explicitly stated to be inspired by The Joker — though Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds proved that Carnage's methods have nothing in common with the Clown Prince's, and they end up hating each other, because Carnage wants to be Ax-Crazy while Joker has Complexity Addiction.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: His symbiote is red and black, and he's most definitively evil.
Replacement Flat Character: He was created as this; Since by this point Eddie Brock had developed into an Anti-Hero Noble Demon, Carnage was made to fill his former place as the creepy symbiote villain.
Reset Button: Web of Venom: Carnage Born promises to bring back Cletus Kasady as Carnage less than a year after he was transformed into Poison Carnage during Venomized; and rather than play with this new version of the character — who was specifically stated to be one of the two known surviving Poisons — Marvel's opted to immediately revert him back to the status quo.
Retcon: The time Venom ate the Carnage symbiote and Cletus obtained an identical symbiote from the Negative Zone has been completely disregarded by writers since it occurred, with the symbiote he had up until the end of Carnage Vol. 2 being repeatedly stated to be the same one the Venom symbiote spawned.
Sadist: His sole mission in life is to go on ultraviolent killing sprees. He thinks the world is dull and uninteresting but can be made more colorful by spraying the streets red with blood.
Series Continuity Error: Despite Cletus' prosthetic legs being destroyed in Carnage #5, and him being shown with flesh-and-blood legs in the Superior Carnage and Deadpool vs. Carnage miniseries — having regrown his entire body in Minimum Carnage — he inexplicably has robotic legs again in Nova Vol. 5.
Shapeshifter Weapon: A large part of Carnage's combat schtick. The symbiote is particularly fond of forming swords, scythes, axes, and shiv-like weapons, reflecting Cletus's brutal personality and prison experience.
Straw Nihilist: He thinks the very idea that "murder is wrong" is just "The Man" keeping you down, and that cowardice and weakness are the only reasons everyone else isn't killing too.
Viler New Villain: Typically serves this role to Venom whenever he's a villain, being a psychopath without any reason for what he does.
Villain Protagonist: Carnage has been the protagonist of Superior Carnage Annual, AXIS: Carnage, and Carnage Vol. 2; the latter of which was an intentional throwback to The Tomb of Dracula.

The Carnage Symbiotes

Carnage

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #361

"And, as my old friend Cletus taught me... it's time to start painting this town a lovely shade of red."

The original Carnage symbiote was the first spawn of the Venom symbiote, left behind during the alien's jailbreak of Eddie Brock. Needing a host and sensing Cletus' jealousy of Venom's power, the infant symbiote entered the serial killer's body through a cut and bonded to his bloodstream. The Carnage symbiote was utterly subservient to him and fully embraced his nihilistic philosophy to the point where it functioned as an extension of Cletus' will. Fed up with Carnage, Venom once devoured the symbiote, leaving Cletus powerless for a time, though the serial killer somehow managed to obtain an exact duplicate of it in the Negative Zone that has since merged with the remnants of the original. Despite initially being disgusted at the notion of giving birth, Cletus came to consider the Carnage symbiote to be female, causing his relationship with the creature to take on a new dynamic.

Despite supposedly being irremovable, the Carnage symbiote has been bonded to people other than Cletus over the years, usually for a short duration. These range from unwilling hosts whose dark tendencies it encourages, such as Ben Reilly, Silver Surfer and Normie Osborn, to willing hosts seeking its power, such as Karl Malus and Norman Osborn.

Adaptive Armor: Like the Venom symbiote, the Carnage symbiote protects its host from harm and took on the appearance of body armor while bonded to Karl Malus.
Alternate Self: Not to the same degree as the Venom symbiote, but the Carnage symbiote has a number of prominent AU counterparts.
Ambiguous Gender: While technically genderless, writers have variously referred to the symbiote with gender-neutral, male, and female gender pronouns.
Antagonistic Offspring: To Venom. Even Cletus refers to the black symbiote, regardless of its host, as his father.
Symbiote: Maybe if my host had a little more filial sentiment... a little more human love for his own daddy... some of it would have crossed over to me. As it is, I feel nothing but cold empty contempt. I hate you daddy.
Apocalypse How: Duplicates of the symbiote (created by the government to take down Mayhem after she went rogue) called "Biopreds" and "The Carnages" decimate and overtake most of the Earth in a Bad Future shown in Spider-Girl. Cletus had similar ambitions in Carnage USA.
Arch-Enemy: To the Venom Symbiote and to a lesser extent Toxin.
Archnemesis Dad: To Toxin and Scorn.
The Assimilator: The Carnage symbiote has made a habit of assimilating others of its own kind, first during the Symbiote Invasion, and then to rejuvenate itself after most of it was eaten by Venom.
Ax-Crazy: Just like its favorite host, the symbiote delights in bloodshed and violence.
Symbiote: (on Black Cat) Look, Cletus, a pretty girl. Smells nice. Nice and soft...
Cletus: Squeeze all the perfume outta her.
Symbiote: Great idea, partner.
Back from the Dead: It's implied that the remnants of the Carnage symbiote in Cletus' body assimilated the replacement symbiote Cletus obtained in the Negative Zone, since all subsequent stories featuring Carnage treat his symbiote as the same one spawned by Venom. Extreme Carnage and Carnage Vol. 3 do the same thing with the Carnageized Grendel symbiote, with Ram V confirming on Twitter that so far as his run is concerned it's the original resurrected by taking over the Grendel offshoot, despite Venom (Vol. 4) going to lengths to stress that it's not the original Carnage symbiote.
Batman Can Breathe in Space: After being launched into orbit by The Sentry, it saved itself and Cletus by inducing a comatose state in which they would only need oxygen (which the symbiote could convert CO2 into) to survive. While it's unknown how long they would have lasted like this, it's implied that they were near death by the time Hall Industries found them.
The Berserker: Without Cletus's mind to direct it the symbiote was little more than a feral predator attacking anything it saw, though after reuniting with him it develops the ability to speak on its own.
Berserk Button: One of the first hints that Hall Industries's new tech is symbiote-based is Iron Man taking note of how a recovered piece of it goes absolutely nuts at the mere sound of Spider-Man's voice.
Big Eater: Ate a meat processing plant's worth of cows and workers to increase its biomass in preparation for taking over Doverton, Colorado.
Blank White Eyes: Like Venom, the Carnage symbiote manifests huge, distorted white eyespots.
Blob Monster: Like its progenitor, the Carnage symbiote is an amorphous mass when not bonded to a host.
Bloody Murder: The symbiote is bonded to Cletus' bloodstream, making it very difficult for them to be separated. There have even been times when, without it, Cletus was on the brink of death due to anemia.
Body Surf: In order to reunite with Cletus in Superior Carnage Annual, the surviving remnant of the symbiote jumps from host to host, consuming them from the inside out to regenerate.
Bratty Teenage Daughter:
- It acts this way towards Venom, who just wants to discuss its pregnancy, at the beginning of Venom vs. Carnage.
  Carnage Symbiote: The old fool has lost his mind. This is just his way to exert control. We'll both ignore him.
- Klaw explicitly compares it to a teenager, desiring independence from its original host but at the same time craving a connection with him.
Cannibalism Superpower: In Carnage USA, the symbiote ingests a meat processing plant's worth of cattle - and workers - and converts them into extra biomass. In Superior Carnage Annual, the symbiote regenerates from a small tissue sample by feeding off Carla Unger's hatred for her abusive husband and then eating her body and those of its other temporary hosts from the inside out after bonding to them.
Can't Live Without You: In Superior Carnage Annual, the Carnage symbiote dies after being separated from its host for a prolonged period of time. The only part of it that survives is a "neutered" piece that was separated from the main body and makes a desperate bid to reunite with Cletus.
Cold-Blooded Torture: When returning to Cletus, the symbiote tears itself away from the Wizard in as excruciating a way as possible as punishment for separating them. It also develops a taste for this while bonded to Norman Osborn.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Even when separated from Cletus, the remnants of the symbiote in his blood do not take kindly to the Poisons attempting to bond him to another symbiote and try to reject it.
A Day in the Limelight: Web of Carnage, The Carnage Cosmic and Superior Carnage. And, even though Cletus was fully capable during the events of it, the symbiote was in charge in Venom vs. Carnage, even doing most of the talking.
Dragon-in-Chief: The takeover of Doverton in Carnage, USA was the symbiote's idea, if a few of Cletus's comments are anything to go by.
Emotion Eater: The Carnage symbiote can convert hatred and bloodlust into biomass, making it, Cletus, and Shriek a perfect team.
Enemy Mine: Temporarily allied with Venom to try and kill Toxin. A slight Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity-vibe was present.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The symbiote considers Cletus to be its one true host and hates being separated from him.
Evil Counterpart: The Carnage symbiote was created to be one to the Venom symbiote.
Evil Smells Bad: Doctor Kurtz from Mind Bomb notes that the symbiote reeks of "slaughterhouse sweat" while Sam Alexander less eloquently describes it as smelling "like puke".
Female Monster Surprise: Played with: While the Carnage symbiote is actually asexual, Cletus referred to it with female pronouns after it gave birth to Toxin, although he also refers to it with male pronouns.
From a Single Cell:
- Because it's bonded to Cletus' bloodstream, intwining itself into his very DNA according to some comics, there have been times when the symbiote was thought to be killed only for it to reform when he cut himself.
- In Superior Carnage Annual, the main body of the symbiote dies, leaving only a small tissue sample that proceeds to regenerate via The Power of Hate and Cannibalism Superpower.
Fusion Dance:
- The remnants of the symbiote in Cletus' blood have apparently assimilated the doppelgänger he obtained in the Negative Zone.
- In Minimum Carnage, Marquis Radu creates multiple clones of the Carnage symbiote and Venom symbiote and merges them together. This inspires Carnage to try to assimilate the Venom symbiote, but he's stopped by Kaine.
Goal-Oriented Evolution: Klaw deduces that the reason the symbiote keeps leaving Cletus for stronger hosts is so that when it returns to him they'll be more powerful than before.
I Was Beaten by a Girl: Reacts poorly to Cletus blaming it for their loss to the newborn Toxin, telling him to shut up and threatening to leave him.
Identical Stranger: After Venom devoured his symbiote, Cletus acquired an identical one from the Negative Zone in Webspinners. This has either been made into Canon Discontinuity, or the remnants of the original symbiote in Cletus' blood overtook the new one since it hasn't come up since.
In Love with Your Carnage: The symbiote views Cletus as the perfect host due to his sociopathic nihilism enmeshing with its own predatory instincts.
Kill It with Fire: One of the symbiote's weaknesses, although according to Karl Malus it doesn't mind flames if it's the one wielding them.
Killed Off for Real: According to Donny Cates, Cletus Kasady's portion of the Carnage symbiote died trying to save him from atmospheric re-entry in Web of Venom: Carnage Born.
Legacy Character: Despite being bonded to his blood, the symbiote has been separated from Kasady on numerous occasions and bonded to other people, namely Ben Reilly, Norrin Radd◊, Tanis Nieves◊, and Karl Malus◊. It always returns to him in the end, though.
Loud of War: The symbiote's other weakness, although Cletus claims it's developed a resistance to it. After being augmented by the Darkhold, it loses this weakness completely.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Initially to a greater degree than Venom, as it enables its hosts to freely transform their limbs into weapons. Venom later develops this ability as well after bonding to Flash Thompson.
Magic Enhancement: Exposure to the eldritch power of the Darkhold partially restores its ability to create and control copies of itself, and exchanges its vulnerability to sonics for a weakness to Chthonic magic.
Make Way for the New Villains: Was incinerated via atmospheric re-entry in Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage's flashback sequence, and was replaced by the Grendel Symbiote at the start of Absolute Carnage.
Maternally Challenged: It was just as thrilled to be pregnant with Toxin as Cletus was.
Venom Symbiote: Don't be ashamed, Carnage. It happens to all of us.
Carnage Symbiote: I'm not ashamed. I just don't want anything to do with it.
Mind Hive: The symbiote could remotely control separated parts of itself, enabling it to seize control of Tanis' prosthetic, the Iron Rangers' armors, the entire town of Doverton, Colorado, and Baron Karza's fused Venom/Carnage clones.
Mind Rape: The symbiote forces Cletus' memories onto hosts as a form of psychological torture, in order to break them.
Monster Is a Mommy: The symbiote has two offspring, Toxin and Scorn.
Monstrous Cannibalism: It didn't object to Cletus having it feed on other symbiotes in Planet of the Symbiotes, or to trying to eat Venom in Minimum Carnage.
My God, What Have I Done?: When the symbiote left Cletus and bonded to the Silver Surfer, it was apparently unaware that the separation would doom Cletus to a slow and painful death from stomach cancer. When it learned Cletus was dying, it instantly called off whatever plans for mass destruction it had and returned to him, not caring that he was still imprisoned or it could just stay with the far more powerful Silver Surfer.
Oh, Crap!: When the symbiote sees the Silver Surfer it abandons Cletus in terror, having recalled an incident when Radd callously fed a symbiote-infested planet to Galactus.
Carnage: I... we... know... you!
Organic Technology: Hall Industries used the symbiote to create biomechanical prosthetics and Powered Armor.
Overly-Long Tongue: Although nowhere near as frequently as Venom, the Carnage symbiote has occasionally been drawn manifesting a long, thick tongue.
Panthera Awesome: After being separated from Cletus by Scorn in Carnage U.S.A., the symbiote tries to return to him by bonding to a lion, while the rest of it takes over the other escaped zoo animals.
The Power of Hate: Theorized to be one of the reasons why the Carnage symbiote is more powerful than the Venom symbiote. It can also feed off of negative emotions to become stronger.
Proud Warrior Race: It was willing to abandon Cletus in order to take revenge on the Silver Surfer in the name of its species, many of whom were killed when the Surfer led Galactus to a planet overrun with symbiotes.
Spider-Man: Talk to me, Kasady! Why did your symbiote ditch you?
Cletus: [in a Troubled Fetal Position] I-it was the Surfer... m-my other recognized him. Some kind of race memory... t-they all hate and fear the Surfer... because of what he did to them! R-revenge! They must have revenge! B-but there's only one way to conquer the Surfer... only one way.
Puppeteer Parasite: While the symbiote is subservient to Cletus, it does possess a mind of its own, as it tried to take over Ben Reilly, Norrin Radd, and Norman Osborn. In Venom Vs. Carnage it was portrayed as being the one in control of Carnage, and following Cletus being put in a coma by Kaine it took over his body and that of Karl Marcus when forcibly transferred to him. The symbiote was also capable of infecting others with pieces of itself and controlling them through it. Cletus's influence on the symbiote was apparently once so all-encompassing that when it briefly left him in favor of the Scarlet Spider and the Silver Surfer, it acted almost exactly like Cletus while possessing Reilly and Radd (who, granted, put up a fight), and Nieves. While the symbiote was bonded to the comatose Cletus, it acted like a beast instead of mimicking his mannerisms, but following its reunion with Cletus it becomes able to talk, and in Superior Carnage Annual #1 vehemently turns down Dr. Jenner's request to become its new host.
Psycho Supporter: The symbiote fully endorses Cletus' nihilistic vision of a world filled with wanton violence and anarchy.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: The symbiote's coloration is red and black, and Cletus' influence on the symbiote has made it even more savage than its progenitor.
Reduced to Dust: In Web of Venom: Carnage Born it's shown crumbling to red ash after sacrificing itself trying to shield Cletus from atmospheric re-entry.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When the Wizard sucks it out of Cletus' body and forcefully bonds it to Karlin Malus, the not–so–good doctor warns Klaw that the symbiote is severely pissed off, which only gets worse when the Wizard blows up his base with Cletus's body inside. After taking control of Malus the symbiote shanked Klaw with a chunk of vibranium, massacred Spider-Man's soldiers, ate Malus after taking over the Wizard. When Cletus is revealed to be alive, it rips itself off the Wizard in such a way as to cause maximum agony and was just about to eat him after reuniting with Kasady before Klaw hits it with a lightning bolt.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Carnage ran into the Silver Surfer, the symbiote (aware of the Surfer's connection to Galactus due to its Genetic Memory) freaked out and ran off, leaving Cletus behind.
Secret Identity Apathy: It apparently didn't consider it pertinent to inform Cletus of everything it learned while bonded to the Scarlet Spider, like his and Spider-Man's secret identities, where they lived, etc.
Self-Duplication: Following the shenanigans involving Hall Industries, the Carnage symbiote discovered it could create and control offshoots of itself. The only surviving piece of the symbiote to reunite with Cletus after Superior Carnage was stripped of this ability by the Superior Spider-Man, but regained it thanks to the Darkhold and being infused with Goblin Formula. Combined with its ability to regenerate inside Cletus' body, this has resulted in a number of duplicates of the Carnage symbiote falling into the hands of the US government, corporations like Alchemax, and individuals like Norman Osborn.
Shapeshifter Weapon: The Carnage symbiote lets its hosts morph their limbs into bladed/serrated weapons and fire projectiles formed from the symbiote. This was notably an ability the Venom symbiote did not regularly utilize until bonded to Flash Thompson.
Sherlock Scan: It could somehow tell that the Spider-Man it was fighting was actually Ben Reilly.
Symbiote: Wrong-o! You are not my true enemy! You are not the spidery specter who haunts the dreams of Kasady! Are you my Scarlet frien—ugnn!
Ben: He knows! He can somehow distinguish me from Peter! How—? How—?!
Spike Shooter: The Carnage symbiote can fire projectiles made of its biomass, but they only last for roughly 30 seconds before disintegrating.
Suddenly Voiced: The Web of Carnage four-parter was the first time the Carnage symbiote was shown speaking, though it only does so through internal dialogue, and hosts. It's established as having absolutely nothing in the way of goals or personality beyond what it picked up from Cletus, making it little more than an extension of his will.
The Symbiote: The Carnage symbiote is the offspring of the Venom symbiote, and is even more vicious than its progenitor. It is completely subservient to Cletus and operates as an extension of his will and body... until he is lobotomized and their relationship is temporally inverted.
Synchronization: The symbiote could sense Cletus was in danger in Superior Carnage Annual, and once he's shanked starts dying itself.
Temporary Bulk Change: The John Jameson version of Carnage was very tall and very muscular, which was Ben Reilly's first clue that someone other than Cletus was in the suit.
To Serve Man: Not to the degree of the Venom symbiote, but the Carnage symbiote isn't averse to chowing down on human flesh when it can get it.
Truly Single Parent: Like the Venom symbiote, the Carnage symbiote has given birth to several progeny: Toxin, Scorn, Raze, and the unnamed symbiote bonded to Jubulile van Scotter.
Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: The Carnage symbiote is more powerful than the Venom symbiote, but conversely weaker than the Toxin symbiote.
The Un-Favourite: Of all Venom's children, Carnage is the one that's hated the most.
The Voiceless: According to Superior Carnage #5 the symbiote could only vocalize by screeching, snarling, and roaring. It's been shown speaking through hosts before, however.
Wife-Basher Basher:
- While in possession of John Jameson in Web of Carnage, the symbiote murders an abusive alcoholic in a Parking Garage, but leaves his wife alone.
- While bonded to a scientist named Carla Unger, the symbiote took time off from its reunite-with-Cletus-at-all-costs quest to help her put the "death" in "till death do us part".
  Carla (as Carnage): I want you to know something, Will. Everything that's about to happen... All the nasty things that I'm going to do to you... It's not the monster making me do it. I'm killing you because I want to. I've been married to you a long time. It's about time you started bringing me some joy!
Yandere: The symbiote hates being separated from Cletus and is more-than-willing to do whatever it takes to reunite with him if they are separated. Woe betide the people responsible for their separation... and whoever gets in its way. The sole exception being when it willingly abandoned Kasady to try and take over the Silver Surfer.
Warden: P-please. I've done what you wanted. I h-have a family.
Symbiote: Don't talk to me about your family! I've got family too! You kept them locked up here! You let this happen to my family!
Doctor Jenner: Your adopted family. You can always adopt a new one... one who is worthy of you... one who has dreamed of this... of your embrace... for oh-so-long.
Symbiote: Who... who... who... who... WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
You Can Talk?: In Superior Carnage #5 it's revealed the symbiote has developed the ability to talk and treats it like a big deal, ignoring the previous occasions where it was shown to be capable of speech, like Venom vs. Carnage.
Symbiote: Sssssstay back! Thisssss body isssss mine!
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The symbiote kills each of the intermediate hosts it bonds to in Superior Carnage Annual, although its roundabout thank-you to Carla Unger construes her death as a Mercy Killing since it had been eating her from the inside out.

Carnage II

First Appearance: Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #14

A malicious symbiote somehow imprisoned in the Negative Zone. Cletus — guided by the remnants of the original Carnage symbiote still in his body — unearthed and bonded to it to become Carnage once more.

Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Even before bonding to Cletus Kasady, it looked identical to the original Carnage symbiote.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Subsequent storylines treat the symbiote bonded to Cletus as being the original Carnage symbiote, leaving this one's fate unknown — though some writers have lent credence to the fan-theory that the remnants of the original Carnage symbiote in Cletus' body assimilated it.
Sealed Evil in a Can: It was trapped in a buried canister inside the Negative Zone until Cletus — guided by the remnants of the the remnants of the original Carnage symbiote in his body — unearthed and bonded to it.

Carnage III

First Appearance: Venomized #2

A symbiote abducted from Klyntar by the Poison Hive and forcibly bonded to Cletus Kasady. It was consumed by an unbound Poison, creating Poison Carnage, and later perished alongside the Poison after the death of the Poison Queen.

Death of Personality: It is consumed by an unbound Poison to create Poison Carnage in Venomized #3, silencing its individual personality.
Power Born of Madness: While watching Cletus use it to massacre every Poison sent in to subdue him, Poison Doom and Poison Thanos comment how Cletus' insatiable bloodlust is what makes him so powerful regardless of that symbiote he's bonded to.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Unlike its predecessors, it was black with red eyespots and markings.
Reduced to Dust: While the implication at the end of Venomized was that Poison Carnage would become a recurring threat, a flashback scene in Web of Venom: Carnage Born shows Poison Carnage's crystalline exoskeleton and consumed symbiote crumbling to dust to reveal Cletus somehow restored to humanity.

Carnage IV / Dark Carnage

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_carnage_symbiote.png

First Appearance: Venom Vol. 4 #7

An offshoot of the Grendel symbiote bonded to the corpse of Cletus Kasady, reanimating him and imbuing it with the personality and abilities of the original Carnage symbiote.

Animate Dead: It turned Cletus Kasady into a Revenant Zombie after being bonded to his corpse, and was later used to reanimate Emil Gregg.
The Assimilator:
- By absorbing codices and other symbiotes, its connection to Knull was amplified and it grew in power to the point of effectively becoming a god. Additionally, absorbing the codices of superhumans — like the former Ghost Rider Alejandra Jones — temporarily imbues it with the powers of those hosts.
- After Cletus was killed by Venom, the Dark Carnage symbiote was absorbed into the Venom symbiote... though this backfired when it absorbed the Venom symbiote from the inside. Eddie was able to separate them by electrocuting it, but this enabled it to briefly take over him.
Ax-Crazy: It's just as bloodthirsty as the original Carnage symbiote, and seeks to carry on Cletus' mission to paint the world red with blood.
Brought Down to Badass: According to the Maker in Venom #20, the codices it had absorbed were lost following Cletus' death. While it lost its immunity to flames and sonics, it's still resilient enough to the former to chill in the wreckage of a burning Quinjet.
Chest Insignia: While first bonded to Cletus Kasady, it manifested a distorted red dragon emblem on its chest, which disappeared after Cletus assumed control. As its connection to Knull grows stronger across the leadup to Absolute Carnage, it manifested a white version of Knull's dragon emblem on its chest.^note After Cletus' death, it loses the emblem and appears almost-identically to the original Carnage symbiote.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like with the second Carnage Symbiote, Extreme Carnage and Carnage (Vol. 3) treat it as being one-and-the-same as the original Carnage symbiote,suggesting the originals mind took it over.
Dead Person Impersonation:
- It manifests as Cletus Kasady in Eddie's mindscape, with it being eventually being clarified that it's been indwelled by Cletus' soul/codex, like the Killmonger Symbiote from Black Panther Vol. 7 is indwelled by Emperor N'Jadaka's.
- In Absolute Carnage, Carnage Forever, and Carnage Vol. 3 it's treated as the original Carnage symbiote back from the dead, and is being controlled by the original Carnage symbiote's consciousness.
Devoured by the Horde: In Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2, the Dark Carnage symbiote takes over a new human host intending to join the battle in King in Black just as Eddie Brock kills Knull and becomes the new God of the Symbiotes. As the symbiotes comprising the dome of living abyss rain down from the sky and bond to the crew of a whaling ship and a pack of sharks, Eddie promptly sentences Carnage to execution and has the symbiote-sharks devour him.
Dream Weaver: After bonding to Eddie Brock, it drags him into the Hive-Mind and traps him in a nightmare where the Venom symbiote is killed, Dylan is taken away from him, and Knull attacks Earth.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Its eyespots glow yellow, signifying how its status as a symbiote demigod.
Godhood Seeker: In Carnage (Vol. 3) it parts ways with Cletus and decides to embark on a quest to become a god of death and destruction, and succeeds by forging All-Blood.
Goth Spirals: While bonded to Cletus Kasady, it initially manifested a red spiral-shaped eyespot, and later manifested a white/yellow version of Knull's spiral on its forehead.
Legacy Character: It serves as a more-powerful successor for the original Carnage symbiote, inheriting its personality and memories—assuming that it's not just the original having been resurrected via Body Surf.
Magic Enhancement:
- Bonding to Cletus imbued it with the power of the Darkhold, making it immune to fire and sonics, though it seems to have lost this augmentation following Cletus' death. Eating Alejandra Jones' spine temporarily imbued it with the power of her Spirit of Vengeance.
- In Carnage (2022) it hunts down Malekith and extracts the remnants of the Venom symbiote from his body in order to obtain a measure of the dark elf's power.
No-Sell: When bonded to Cletus Kasady it's blasted with hellfire by Andi Benton, the Monsters of Evil, and Ghost Rider, but is completely unaffected.
Not Quite Dead: Eddie assumed he'd put an end to Carnage by killing Cletus at the end of Absolute Carnage, but the Dark Carnage symbiote survived and resurfaced a few weeks later. Dylan also blasted it off of Eddie at the end of Venom Island, seemingly destroying it, but it reconstituted itself at the end of #25.
Puppeteer Parasite: After bonding to Eddie Brock, the symbiote — controlled by Cletus' codex — torments him with visions of his worst fears coming true while it controls his body, intending to use him to pick up where Cletus left off.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: It originally appeared similar to Venom's Ancient/Corrupted form — black with a red spiral on its face and a distorted red dragon emblem on its chest. After absorbing Scorn's Carnage codex, it assumes the appearance of the original Carnage symbiote.
Retcon: While Donny Cates was, for the most part, adamant about it not being the original Carnage symbiote during his run, subsequent series like Extreme Carnage, Carnage Reigns, Death of the Venomverse, and Carnage (Vol. 4) treat it as being one-and-the-same as the original Carnage symbiote. When asked about it on Twitter/X, Ram V stated that as far as his run is concerned the Dark Carnage symbiote is the original resurrected by its consciousness indwelling the piece of the Grendel when it bonded to Cletus' corpse.
Semi-Divine: As an offshoot of the Grendel symbiote, it inherited its progenitor's direct connection to Knull — which empowers it beyond the abilities of a normal symbiote; and it grows increasingly powerful by amplifying its connection to Knull through absorbing codices and other symbiotes.
The Symbiote: The Dark Carnage symbiote was born from a piece of the Grendel symbiote-dragon that survived Tyrannosaurus and Venom's attempt to immolate it.
Threatening Shark: After being separated from Eddie in Venom Vol. 4 #25, it escapes the Isla de Huesos by bonding to a great white shark. Its full form — dubbed the "Crimson Leviathan" — is shown in Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2, and is nightmarish to behold.
Throat Light: Its mouth glows yellow, signifying that it's Semi-Divine on a whole other level compared to other symbiotes.
Transformation of the Possessed: When it first bonds to Cletus it's under Knull's control and takes an appearance similar to Ancient Venom's, but when Cletus boots Knull out and the Carnage symbiote's consciousness takes over it transforms to be more or less identical to its original body.
Weaponized Offspring: It's capable of bonding offshoots of itself to others, taking control of them and connecting them to Cletus' hive-mind.

Carnage V

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mjarnage.png

First Appearance: King in Black: Gwenom vs. Carnage #1

A symbiote forcibly bonded to the Mary Jane Watson of Earth-65 and dubbed "Carnage" by Knull in honor of the late Cletus Kasady.

Costume Evolution: "MJarnage" starts off with a mostly-human looking appearance, but later assumes a form closer to that of the original Carnage.
Facial Markings: When bonded to Mary Jane, the symbiote forms large black streaks on her face.
Legacy Character: It is the fourth individual symbiote to bear the name "Carnage", and stands out by being the first to do so without first having bonded to Cletus Kasady.
Not Quite Dead: After weakening its bond to MJ, Gwen causes her corrupted gummy spiders to turn on Knull's living abyss — seemingly killing the gestalt symbiote. However, the final panel shows some of it still remains inside MJ.
Overly-Long Tongue: "MJarnage" has a prehensile tongue that makes Venom's seem small in comparison, as shown in her concept art — where it's looped around her hips and legs multiple times.
Puppeteer Parasite: It immediately takes over Mary Jane and enslaves her to Knull's will, forcing her to fight Gwen Stacy.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: While concept art showed it more-closely resembling the classic Carnage, the finalized design is still red-and-black, and a dangerous enemy for Ghost-Spider.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: The symbiote turns MJ's sclerae yellow with red irises after bonding to her.
What Happened to the Mouse?: MJ is shown to still have some of the symbiote in her at the end of Gwenom vs. Carnage, but no mention of it is made in Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse.

Carnage's Main Hosts

Cletus Kasady

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26017e5ffcc5c7d534b74749fef17f38.jpg

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.

See his character page here.

Ben Reilly

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spider-carnage_169.jpg

Alter Ego: Spider-Carnage

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1, #145; The Amazing Spider-Man Vol., 1 #410 (as Spider-Carnage)

"I am reborn in BLOOD and AGONY! I am remade into a bringer of DEATH and DESTRUCTION! CHAOS is my only love - and CARNAGE is my name!"

One of the two clone "brothers" of Peter Parker created by the Jackal, Ben Reilly believed himself to be the original Spider-Man and convinced Peter to retire, taking over the identity for a time.

When Ben learned that Carnage had escaped Ravencroft, an investigation revealed that the symbiote had left Cletus Kasady and taken over security chief John Jameson. During their fight, the Carnage symbiote left Jameson and latched onto Ben, bonding with him and transforming him into "Spider-Carnage". Spider-Carnage was stopped from killing Peter Parker by Ben's willpower, but after learning his friend Seward Trainer may have been behind the clone debacle, the symbiote overwhelmed him and set out to take revenge. Ben regained enough control to seek out Cletus Kasady, who the symbiote tried to return to when it realized that he was dying due to their separation. To stop this from happening, Ben elected to contain the symbiote within his own body and remain in Ravencroft. The symbiote left Ben when John Jameson flooded his cell with microwave radiation; but before it could be captured, it escaped through the room's sink and reunited with Cletus.

Badass Boast: After successfully taking Ben over, the symbiote lets out the header statement.
Battle in the Center of the Mind: Ben was continually fighting the symbiote for control of his body, and eventually managed to expel it.
Cletus: You can't beat it. You can't control it. It's a disease—a cancer growing inside you—spreading its fingers throughout your brain—altering your perceptions—twisting you into what it wants to be!
Symbiote: And I want you to be a bloody piece of meat that I can play with! I want you to be small! Give in to me!
Ben: Rub a lamp, pal—this is my head—this is my mind—my will against yours—and I won't be cowed in my own head!
Breakout Villain: Despite only appearing in three issues, Spider-Carnage has appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Clone Angst: Both Peter and Ben believed themselves to be the original Spider-Man, although Ben had convinced Peter to retire as Spider-Man. The discovery of a skeleton wearing the charred remnants of a Spider-Man costume threw them both into a second round of existential crisis because it was found in the same smokestack where Spider-Man had cremated his apparently-dead clone.^note For Ben, this was only made worse when he learned that his best friend Seward Trainer was involved with the bad guys responsible for the whole Clone Saga debacle. Add the Carnage symbiote to the mix, and it's a recipe for disaster.
Consulting a Convicted Killer: In a desperate bid to learn how to control the symbiote, presumably to see if he can possibly use it for good, Ben breaks into Ravencroft to see Cletus.
Demon Head: An in-universe example occurs when Ben forms one to tell a couple he saved from some muggers to get away.
Fire and Brimstone Hell: The mental plane Ben fights the symbiote on is depicted as this.
Fighting from the Inside: Ben struggled to overcome the symbiote's control of his body, and ultimately succeeded in expelling it.
I Am Legion: After arguing with Peter about Seward Trainer, Ben angrily swings away, and refers to himself with "we" while doing so.
"I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Peter tries this on Ben. It works, but barely.
Peter: Ben... don't... don't do this.
Symbiote: I'm sorry... Ben is not available at the moment... please leave a message at the sound of the tearing flesh and he'll try to get back to you.
Indulgent Fantasy Segue: While using his new powers to stop some muggers, Ben envisions ripping them apart, and very nearly does so.
Jagged Mouth: Like the original Carnage, Spider-Carnage had black fangs that blended into his mask.
Legacy Character: The Carnage symbiote ditched Cletus and took over John Jameson before jumping to Ben Reilly and bonding to him.
Paint the Town Red: The symbiote declares this to be its intent during one of its mental arguments with Ben Reilly.
Ben: No... leave him alone. Let him live.
Symbiote: Be quiet, Spider! Can't you seem I'm trying to work! Now shut up... you lose! I'm in control of this body now! And, as my old friend Cletus taught me... it's time to start painting this town a lovely shade of red.
Power Fist: The symbiote forms a hand out of Ben's chest to try and punch its way into Cletus's cell.
Power Limiter: The symbiote merging with him dulls Ben's Spider-Sense, but doesn't completely remove it.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: In Spider-Man Vol. 1, #67 the blue areas on Spider-Carnage's arms and legs were colored black.
Rooftop Confrontation: Spider-Carnage fights Peter, John Jameson, and the Ravencroft crew on top of a hospital.
Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Ben regains control long enough to tell John Jameson to stick him in a Ravencroft cell, fully intending to spend the rest of his life in it if it means keeping Carnage contained.
Superpowered Evil Side: When symbiote successfully took over Ben it caused him to behave exactly as Cletus had, though he tried to fight its influence.
Tainted Veins: The blue areas of Ben's Spider-Man costume are covered in red veins.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Ben was only Spider-Carnage for three issues before the symbiote returned to Cletus.

Norrin Radd

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carnage_cosmic_4221.gif

Alter Ego Carnage Cosmic

First Appearance: Fantastic Four #48; The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #430 (as Carnage Cosmic)

"My mind is aflame with MADNESS! OUTRAGE, WRATH, and CHAOS now smolder within me! I long to give vent to my most wanton desires and my basest emotions! The Silver Surfer is no more! In his place soars... THE CARNAGE COSMIC!"

The cosmically-powered Norrin Radd — alias the Silver Surfer — is the former (and sometimes current) Herald of Galactus.

In an effort to cut costs, the new chief of security at Ravencroft weakened the microwave radiation keeping Carnage in his cell. Naturally, Cletus promptly escaped and headed to the Daily Bugle to pick a fight with Spider-Man, injuring Martha Robertson in the process. Spider-Man came out of retirement to do battle... and the Silver Surfer crashed the party. The symbiote recognized him as a Herald of Galactus and abandoned Cletus in terror, later ambushing the Surfer and bonding to him. Cletus revealed that he had terminal stomach cancer the symbiote was keeping in check, and was hospitalized. While Spider-Man tries to rally the superheroes against the threat of a cosmically-empowered Carnage, the Surfer flew out into space to try to suppress the symbiote, but was taken over and returned to Earth. Upon learning that Cletus was dying without it, however, the symbiote ditched Radd and returns to its original host, and the Silver Surfer imprisoned Carnage in an inescapable energy prison... from which he later escaped.

Breakout Villain: Not to the extent of Spider-Carnage, but enough that he received a What If? comic where he fights the Avengers before committing suicide, and cameoed in Superior Carnage #5.
Curb-Stomp Battle: The combined power of the Carnage symbiote and the Power Cosmic completely overwhelms Spider-Man and the Avengers in What If?... The Avengers Battled The Carnage Cosmic? It's only Radd regaining control of himself long enough to commit suicide that stops him from killing everyone.
Driven to Suicide: In the What If comic that showed what might have happened if the symbiote had decided to stay with the Silver Surfer, Carnage Cosmic almost kills the Avengers. Norrin regains control of himself long enough to fly himself and the symbiote into the sun to keep it from hurting anyone else.
Fighting from the Inside: Norrin flies himself and the symbiote into space to stop it from killing innocents while he tries to fight it off. It succeeds in breaking him and returns to Earth... only to find that Cletus is dying without it.
A God Am I: Carnage really enjoyed having access to the Power Cosmic.
Humanoid Abomination: Radd by himself is a god-like entity due to the Power Cosmic, and the already Lovecraftian symbiote taking over him results in a threat the likes of which even the Avengers couldn't stop.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Radd asks Spider-Man to kill him before the symbiote takes him over completely.
Jagged Mouth: As with most depictions of Carnage in the 1990's, he has black teeth that blend into his face.
Legacy Character: The symbiote ditches Cletus out of terror and jumps Norrin in an alleyway, only returning to Cletus when it learns that he'll die without it.
Mind Rape: The symbiote forces Cletus' memories onto Radd in an effort to break him.
Monstrous Mandibles: Carnage Cosmic had four decorative spiked projections extending from his cheekbones and jawline.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Almost averted, as aside from his face and teeth, Carnage Cosmic is completely red.
Sealed Evil in a Can: After returning the symbiote to Cletus, Norrin traps him in an inescapable energy field.
Sky Surfing: Carnage Cosmic uses the Silver Surfer's Cosmic Surfboard covered in the symbiote's biomass.
Spikes of Villainy: The main thing differentiating Radd's Carnage form from other hosts - aside from the giant surfboard - was that he was covered in huge spikes.
Taking You with Me: At the end of his What If? comic, the Silver Surfer commits suicide by flying into the sun, and takes the Carnage symbiote with him.
That Man Is Dead: Proclaims "The Silver Surfer is no more!" when revealing himself to Spider-Man.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Silver Surfer was only Carnage Cosmic for two issues (and a non-canon What If?) before the symbiote returned to Cletus, but he was acknowledged by Klaw as one of its four major hosts alongside Cletus, Ben Reilly, and Tanis Neives.
What the Hell, Hero?: In an effort to make him think he's not that different from Cletus, the symbiote dredges up memories of all the planets he callously helped Galactus devour, including one that had been conquered by symbiotes.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The What If? issue had Spidey guess that, like in the main story, the symbiote would eventually return to the dying Cletus. Instead, the symbiote shot down that assumption and revealed that it was just going to let Cletus die because of how pathetic a host he was when compared to the Silver Surfer.

Karl Malus

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supcar_7280.jpg

Alter Ego: Superior Carnage

First Appearance: Spider-Woman #50; Superior Carnage #2 (as Superior Carnage)

Growing up, Doctor Karlin "Karl" Malus was fascinated by the exploits of the Fantastic Four and graduated with a degree in biology, wanting to study the science behind superpowers. Unable to get money through legal means, Karl turned to crime and set up the Institute for Supranormality Research with backing from criminal organizations. Through illegal human testing, Malus developed supersoldier serums, but his desire to experiment on an already superpowered individual went unrealized until Richard Deacon, a supervillain called the Fly, came to him looking for a power boost. Malus' experiments brought him into conflict with Jessica Drew, the first Spider-Woman; and later Captain America. Malus was eventually hired by Power Broker, Inc. to supply superhumanly strong wrestlers for the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, though this arrangement backfired when the serum he used drove most of his subjects insane and his spine was broken. Wheelchair-bound, Malus was later recruited by his old friend the Wizard, who sought his help in controlling Carnage... by forcibly transferring the symbiote to his body and controlling him instead. Resentful of the Wizard's trickery, Malus nevertheless was forced to become the "Superior Carnage", joining Wizard's attack on city hall and coming into conflict with the Superior Spider-Man. Malus ultimately lost control of the symbiote and killed Klaw, and was stripped of it and eaten by the symbiote-controlled Wizard. However, he managed to survive the experience, emerging and returning to his mad science career...and having gained a symbiote's powers in the process.

Adaptive Armor: Under the Wizard's direction, the Carnage symbiote takes on the appearance of body armor to mock Agent Venom.
Back from the Dead: Malus survived being eaten by Carnage, "gestating" inside him for a while... and emerging with symbiotic powers himself.
Badass Bandolier: Rocks one as part of his "superior" look.
Badass Longcoat: Manifests one when the Wizard whines about too many superheroes and villains wearing Painted-On Pants and Sensual Spandex. After taking control of Malus, the symbiote remarks that it thought the coat was a stupid addition until it realized it could accessorize it with the tongues of Spider-Man's Mooks.
Black Eyes of Crazy: As Superior Carnage, he has black sclera and glowing red pupil-less irises, though he has Blank White Eyes when the symbiote takes over.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Forms a curved sword-like blade on his left arm when assuming his "superior" look.
Boxed Crook: Malus kept finding himself in this situation whenever he was arrested, having his bail paid in exchange for access to his knowledge on superpowers.
Brought Down to Normal: After Malus loses control of the symbiote and kills Klaw, the shockwave strips Malus of the symbiote. The symbiote takes over the Wizard and promptly eats Malus.
Eaten Alive: Karl is eaten off-panel by a Carnage-controlled Wizard. He survives and eventually emerges as a human-symbiote hybrid.
Empowered Badass Normal: Was a crippled Mad Scientist before bonding to the Carnage symbiote.
Evil Counterpart: The whole point of Wizard recruiting Carnage was to create one for Agent Venom. Like Flash Thompson, Malus is wheelchair-bound without the symbiote, though rather than being from a military background he is a scientist specializing in superpowers.
Evil Cripple: He was wheelchair-bound thanks to having his spine broken by insane super-strong wrestlers he created for Power Broker Inc.
Fighting from the Inside: Both Malus and the symbiote were very resentful at being forced to obey the Wizard and being separated from its favorite host respectively. Malus even warned Klaw that if the Wizard's control faltered for even a moment, the symbiote would take over and eviscerate them all in revenge for what they did to Cletus.
Finger Firearms: Of a sort: Malus launched a flurry of shurikens formed from the symbiote's fingertips at Superior Spider-Man's Spiderlings, decapitating them.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Malus went from a relatively obscure Spider-Woman villain to the new Carnage.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Red ones as Superior Carnage, though he has Blank White Eyes when the symbiote takes over.
Half-Human Hybrid: Rather than dying after the Carnage symbiote ate him, Malus assimilated some of it into himself and was reborn as a human/symbiote hybrid.
Legacy Character: When Wizard is unable to mind control the original Carnage due to Cletus Kasady being in a coma, he extracts the symbiote and stuffs it down his old friend Dr. Karl Malus' throat.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Though his use of them is more sporadic than Kasady's, Malus uses tentacles to turn a flamethrower into an Arm Cannon.
Mad Scientist: Dr. Malus, inspired by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, got a degree in biology from the University of California and once ran the Institute for Supranormality Research, experimenting on super-powered individuals and supplying the LA mob with Psycho Serum formulas.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Though they're not as pronounced as they are when the symbiote takes over.
No-Sell: Uses tentacles to turn a flamethrower into an Arm Cannon, remarking that the symbiote doesn't mind the heat so much if it's the one dishing it out.
Not Quite Dead: Malus was seemingly killed when the Carnage symbiote ate him, but was later revealed to not only have survived but to have assimilated part of it into himself.
Token Good Teammate: While Malus is not a good person by any stretch of the word, he is appalled by Klaw's drone-like obedience to Wizard and at his old friend's decrepit mental state.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: The symbiote becomes noticeably red-and-black again, and although it's subdued by the Wizard it's still plenty Ax-Crazy.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The first thing Malus does after becoming Carnage is try to kill the Wizard.
Superpowered Evil Side: When the Wizard's mind control slipped up after being defenestrated by Spider-Man, the symbiote partially reverts to its original appearance and rampages.
Superhero Packing Heat: As Agent Venom's Evil Counterpart he is equipped with an arsenal of firearms, though the symbiote is markedly fond of disemboweling its victims instead.
Take That!: Malus proclaims that Kasady was a fool for being so obsessed with chaos when much more power could be attained with even a little focus.

Norman Osborn

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amazing_spider_man_vol_1_799_mcguinness_variant_textless.jpg

Red Goblin

^Carnage

Alter Ego: Red Goblin I; Carnage

Host To: Carnage, Dark Carnage

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #14; Amazing Spider-Man #796 (as Red Goblin)

A longtime enemy of Spider-Man, Norman Osborn — aka the Green Goblin — was stripped of his powers and Ax-Crazy split personality by Spider-Man following his attempt to take over New York as the Goblin King. Despite Norman initially revelling in his newfound sanity, he eventually realized he was at a disadvantage against Spider-Man and became increasingly desperate to reawaken the Goblin within. When science and magic failed to re-empower him, Osborn hired a pair of mercenaries to retrieve the Carnage Symbiote from the government facility it was being kept in and bonded to it, thinking that he could control its bloodlust. Despite its initial resistance to Osborn's attempts to control it, Carnage had discovered that it somehow liked the idea of slowly killing people instead of out-and-out insta-kills. Osborn convinced the symbiote to let him have "the driver's seat" in order to show it more of that sort of violence. The symbiote purged Osborn of the vaccine, and he took the Goblin Formula to become a symbiote-Goblin hybrid; kidnapping J. Jonah Jameson and re-discovering Spider-Man's civilian identity of Peter Parker.

With this knowledge, Norman waged a war on Spider-Man by targeting Peter Parker's loved ones. While targeting Harry Osborn and his family, he also bonded his grandson Normie to a piece of the Carnage symbiote. Norman was eventually stopped by the combined efforts of Peter, his allies and Norman's own ego, in the end receiving brain damage for his efforts.

Big Red Devil: Norman seems to be going for a demonic vibe as the Red Goblin, being Red and Black and Evil All Over and possessing fangs, claws, and a long tail with two serrations on the end.
Bio-Armor: The Red Goblin's outfit strongly resembles a red-and-black version of the Green Goblin armor from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, with the addition of a Jagged Mouth and a tail.
Breath Weapon: His new abilities enabled him to breath flames, which he used as a weapon against Venom.
The Corrupter: He gave Normie some of the Carnage Symbiote, turning him into a smaller Red Goblin.
Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Spider-Man is so terrified by the fact that Osborn has bonded to the Carnage symbiote that his brain almost shuts down and he flees without a single word besides "#$%& me." The Red Goblin effortlessly takes him down with a "Carnage-Bomb" and offers to let him live on one condition: Peter gives up being Spider-Man.
- The next issue features him dishing one out to all of Spidey's closest allies. The only one who puts up anything resembling a fight is Anti-Venom, and even then only because the latter has anti-Symbiote powers.
- The finale has him taking out both Venom and the Superior Octopus, though it didn't help that MJ accidentally had the symbiote deterrents on in Stark Tower and J. Jonah Jameson dropped in with a Spider-Slayer.
Dressed in Layers: Osborn puts a Green Goblin costume on over the Carnage symbiote.
Extra Eyes: In addition to his yellow-and-red eyes, the Carnage symbiote's white eyespots act as the Red Goblin's Big Ol' Eyebrows.
Faking the Dead: Impaled by a girder, Norman pretends to be dying to troll Peter before revealing he's bonded to the symbiote and transforming into the Red Goblin for the first time.
Good Counterpart: Spider-Man/Deadpool #47 contains a brief appearance by a version of the Red Goblin who allied with Earth's heroes against the Manipulator.
Healing Factor: Both the Goblin Formula and the Symbiote give you one so, yeah... Even if you can put as much as a dent in this guy, he'll heal in way that could give Wolverine a run for his money. Being impaled is no big deal anymore, at least.
Hellish Pupils: The Red Goblin has yellow eyes with red vertically-slitted pupils.
Hero Killer: He murders Flash Thompson for ruining his plan to torture Peter's friends and loved ones.
Hijacking Cthulhu: Norman thought he could do this, but the symbiote initially took over him. He quickly persuades it to listen to him by offering to teach it new ways to make people suffer.
Norman: Stop! I am in control! Norman Osborn! The Green G-
Carnage Symbiote: G-g-give it up! There's no "I" here! And green is out! There's only red! We're making everything red! They'll be soaked in it! Drenched in it! And we are — Carnage! Hahahahahaaaa!
Homing Projectile: His Pumpkin Bombs are now oddly adorable "Carnage Bombs" that can follow and latch onto their targets by biting them.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Norman is impaled through the back by a girder and tricks Spider-Man into thinking he's dying before he unveils his Red Goblin form.
- After Spider-Man saves Liz Allan from suffering Gwen Stacy's fate, Harry Osborn rams his father with an old Goblin Glider - impaling his chest in the same manner Norman had died the first time.
- Inflicts this on Phil Urich after finding his treacherous protege raiding the Goblin cache he was residing in.
Jagged Mouth: The Red Goblin's mouth has serrated red teeth that blend into the rest of his mask.
Mind Rape: Peter exploits Osborn's ego to trick him into rejecting the Carnage symbiote, then beats him to a pulp. When Osborn tries to rebond to the Carnage symbiote, Spider-Man immolates it and Osborn is hit with the full force of its dying agony, sending him into an Angst Coma. He recovers... somewhat, as he's now stark raving mad and under the impression that he's Cletus Kasady and that Spider-Man is Norman Osborn.
My God, What Have I Done?: In Red Goblin: Red Death, even the psychopathic Norman Osborn is left horrified when the Carnage symbiote tricks him into letting it go on a killing spree.
Norman: How could I allow this to happen?
No-Sell:
- He's strong enough to casually shrug off Miles Morales' Venom Strike, which has infamously struck down his Earth-1610 counterparts with ease.
- He also resists a full power simultanious blast from Clash and the Human Torch - proving how he is completely immune to a symbiote's conventional weaknesses.
Omnicidal Maniac: Upon bonding to Osborn, the symbiote gleefully announces its intent to resume its mission to kill everyone in the world. However, Norman eventually manages to earn the symbiote's favour by showing it that it can possibly do more harm through more intricate means, speculating that the Carnage symbiote has actually gotten somewhat bored of mindless death and destruction.
Partial Transformation: When interrogating Jameson, Norman is distracted by a rat and pounces on it. While attempting to use it as a Deadly Euphemism, he eats it — his shadow shown sporting a fanged maw and claws. When he kills Phil Urich, he's similarly shown in shadow with only his arm transformed.
Playing with Fire: The Red Goblin was capable of creating explosive "Carnage Bombs", a flame-wreathed Carnage Glider, and breathing fire.
Punched Across the Room: When Osborn mortally wounds Flash Thompson, Symbiote Spider-Man Venomizes and punches him halfway across the city in a berserk rage.
Pride: This is what ultimately defeats him — Peter warns Osborn that if he kills him, he doesn't get credit for the kill; the Carnage symbiote does and thus Cletus Kasady.
Sadist: Norman teaches the symbiote the joys of slowly torturing people to death, and offers to show it more nuanced ways to inflict death and suffering than turning people into confetti.
Shock and Awe: Due to wearing his Green Goblin costume under the symbiote, he's able to use his gloves' Sparkle Blasters to electrocute Flash Thompson.
Story-Breaker Power: The Green Goblin formula? Turns you into a Spidey-level bruiser at the cost of your sanity. The Carnage symbiote? Turns you into a heavy hitter with a few specific weaknesses. The two combined? Gives you a vastly-enhanced version of the Carnage symbiote's powers, and a combined Healing Factor that basically becomes Wolverine-Level, with none of the symbiote's weaknesses. Spidey's allies (including Miles and his infamously overpowered Venom Strikes, the Human Torch, and Agent Anti-Venom) drop like flies before him.
To the Pain: The Red Goblin tells Spider-Man that he will kill everyone even tangentially-related to Peter Parker in ways too agonizing for him to comprehend if he catches him so much as wall-crawling. He keeps this promise by covertly slipping pieces of Carnage into them as seemingly nonlethal slivers in projectile attacks. He explains he can remotely will them to work their way up the victim's circulatory system to the brain, killing them in an unimaginably agonizing way.
Underestimating Badassery: Peter takes up Osborn's offer to stop being Spider-Man because not only is he heavily outgunned at this point, he surmises that Osborn is completely underestimating who he is; he's so gung-ho on ridding himself of the Spider, he's completely ignoring the "-Man" part of "Spider-Man", thus he's going to fight him as Peter Parker.
Wreathed in Flames: The Red Goblin's glider is augmented by symbiote biomass and is wreathed in flames.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He rips off the symbiote (who tells him doing such is a bad idea) when the opportunity to kill Spider-Man with his bare hands as the Green Goblin seems to present itself.
You Need a Breath Mint: Noxious-looking fumes billow out of the Red Goblin's mouth whenever he speaks. It's presumably meant to be invocative of sulfur, given his Big Red Devil look.

Normie Osborn

Goblin Childe

^{Red Goblin}

Alter Ego: Goblin Childe, Red Goblin II

Host To: Norman Osborn's Carnage offshoot, Rascal

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #263; Amazing Spider-Man #799 (as Goblin Childe); Free Comic Book Day 2022: Spider-Man/Venom #1 (as Red Goblin II);

The son of Harry Osborn and Liz Allan, Norman "Normie" Harold Osborn idolized his grandfather, resented his father's apparent preference for his younger son Stanley, and hated Spider-Man. Normie was bonded to a piece of the Carnage symbiote by his grandfather, taking up the alias Goblin Childe, but ultimately turned against Norman when he saw how much of a monster his grandfather really was. Dylan Brock later recruits Normie to assist him in saving his father Eddie, giving him a symbiote —that Normie later names Rascal— to become the second Red Goblin.

See Red Goblin

Carnage's Other Hosts

John Jameson

John Jonah Jameson III

Alter Ego: Man-Wolf; Carnage

Host To: Carnage; Dark Carnage

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #1

See Spider-Man: Supporting Characters

Tanis Nieves

Alter Ego: Scorn, Carnage

Host To: Carnage, Scorn

First Appearance: Carnage #1

Inspired by a troubled childhood to want to help people no matter what, Dr. Tanis Nieves became a psychiatrist and was assigned to Frances Barrison — aka Shriek. When a battle between the Spider-Doppelgänger and Hall Industries' Iron Rangers cost Tanis one of her arms, she was outfitted with a biomechanical prosthetic created using samples harvested from the Carnage symbiote. The symbiote seized control of Tanis' prosthetic and bonded to her, attempting to take over her mind. When Tanis refused to submit to it, the Carnage symbiote used her to locate Cletus Kasady and returned to him, leaving a newborn spawn in Tanis' prosthetic that matured into the Scorn symbiote.

See Marvel Comics: Symbiote Hosts

Steve Rogers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/captain_america_in_absolute_carnage_variant.jpg

Alter Ego: Captain America, Nomad, the Captain

Host To: Carnage

First Appearance:

See Captain America

Logan

Alter Ego: Wolverine

Host To: Tyrannosaurus; Mania; Carnage

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #180

See Wolverine

Ben Grimm

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fantastic_four_carnage.png

Alter Ego: The Thing

Host To: Carnage, Unnamed Symbiote

First Appearance: Fantastic Four #1

See The Thing

Clint Barton

Alter Ego: Hawkeye, Goliath, Ronin

Host To: Carnage

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #57

See Hawkeye

Bentley Wittman

Alter Ego: The Wizard

Host To: Carnage

First Appearance: Strange Tales #102

See Frightful Four

Carla Unger

Alter Ego: Carnage

Host To: Carnage

First Appearance: Superior Carnage Annual #1 (April, 2014)

Dark Carnage's Other Hosts

Eric Morrell

Alter Ego:

Host To: Dark Carnage

First Appearance: Carnage, U.S.A. #1

John Jonah Jameson III