Comic Book / Carnage Reigns

Forget "Carnage Rules". This Carnage Reigns!

Carnage Reigns is a 2023 Carnage crossover miniseries from Marvel Comics, a Bat Family Crossover written by Alex Paknadel and Cody Ziglar, with art by Julius Ohta, Jan Bazaldua, Federico Vicentini and Francesco Manna.

Spinning out of Ram V and Alex Paknadel's Carnage run as part of the larger Summer of Symbiotes event, Cletus Kasady is back in red and black, and more powerful than ever thanks to having swiped Tony Stark's "Extrembiote" — a symbiote dragon mutated by Extremis and merged with a suit of Iron Man armor — during Extreme Carnage. Egged on by serial killer Kenneth Neely, Cletus decides to take his shiny new suit of symbiote-armor for a test drive, coming into conflict with Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and the new Red Goblin (Normie Osborn). Will these two out-of-their-depth heroes be able to stop the new and improved Extreme Carnage, or will Cletus prove once and for all that Carnage Rules?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_8nDq1A50

Comics involved in the event include:

• Carnage Reigns Alpha
• Miles Morales: Spider-Man #6-7
• Carnage (Vol. 3) #13-14
• Red Goblin (Vol. 1) #5
• Carnage Reigns Omega

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Carnage Reigns includes examples of the following tropes:

• Admiring the Abomination: A trio of men frequenting an internet forum spend a number of interludes fanboying over Cletus' triumphant return on an internet forum, and are rewarded when Cletus sends suits of symbiote-augmented Iron Man armor to pay them a visit. But since this is Cletus we're talking about, the fanboys he selected are all basically converted into living batteries to power the suits. By the time they finally arrive to face Miles and Tony, their flesh and blood bodies have been consumed by the symbiote bio-matter and have no will of their own.
• The Assimilator: Normie and Miles take down Kenneth by having Normie assimilate his symbiote while Miles distracted him. This really pisses off Cletus who doesn’t enjoy having his stuff taken.
• Assimilation Backfire: Normie discovers that Rascal can assimilate other symbiotes and uses this to absorb Kenneth Neely's symbiote and free numerous civilians corrupted by Cletus' brainwashing. When he tries to do this to the Extrembiote, however, Cletus mind bombs him for for his trouble.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: In his Monstrous Humanoid form, Cletus has black sclerae and glowing yellow irises to go along with his fangs.
• Boxed Crook: The Cape Killers are a Thunderbolts-esque team of supervillain convicts (Scorpion, Taskmaster, Electro II, and Hightail) that Agent Gao recruited to assist her task force in combating superhuman targets in exchange for time shaved off of their sentencing. Throughout the entire crisis, Miles, Red Goblin, and the Killers are essentially New York's last line of defense against Cletus and his brainwashed masses.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Normie tries to assimilate Cletus’ extrembriote, but the process involves absorbing Cletus’ thoughts as well, which was too much for the boy to handle and left him broken for a majority of the crisis.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Red Goblin (Normie) gets involved with the plot because Cletus brainwashes his younger brother Stanley and tries to have him kill their mom.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Miles still harbors major PTSD from being corrupted by the Carnage symbiote all the way back in Absolute Carnage. Expressing that he hasn't slept soundly since that crisis and is notably terrified over the prospect of having to fight Cletus again. Similarly, by virtue of his symbiote having bonded with Miles before, Cletus knows everything about Miles and threatens to murder his entire family after he's had his fun with the kid.
  • Mac Gargan has a major vendetta against Cletus after Carnage shattered the former's spine in Absolute Carnage. While riding with Agent Gao's squad en route to intercept Cletus, Mac makes it clear to Gao that he doesn't care if he goes back to prison for as long as he has his shot at getting payback.
  • While Miles is fighting for his life against Cletus, the Morales family is currently in the middle of moving into a new apartment after their original home was firebombed by the villain Rabble in Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022).
  • Much like Miles, Normie is also completely terrified of Cletus and the Carnage symbiote. He was previously corrupted by the symbiote in Go Down Swinging and almost killed by it in Absolute Carnage.
  • After Cletus murders his way into the HQ of Stark Unlimited, he forces the scientists to put him inside one of the Stark Sentinels which Kelvin Heng AKA Feilong created in Invincible Iron Man (2022). Feilong himself would actually appear later in the Red Goblin tie-in issue, where its revealed that he's Agent Gao's armorer and has deployed two more of his Stark Sentinels to assist her in dealing with Cletus after he had completely assimilated Stark Unlimited HQ and its network, which Feilong currently owns.
  • When Iron Man allies with the Cape Killers to fight Extreme Carnage, Gargan half-jokingly asks if this makes them real Avengers members — a nod to Gargan having been a member of the Dark Avengers. Iron Man decides to just roll with it.
  • While buying Iron Man time to charge the EMP they need to take out Cletus, Miles uses a Laser Blade comprised of his own bio-electricity to slice through the Extremebiote and its arsenal, a technique he developed himself during his previous battle with Rabble.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Scorpion's vendetta against Cletus is completely one-sided, as Cletus doesn't care about Gargan one bit and says he broke his spine before because he thought it would be entertaining, not because he hated him in particular.
  Cletus: I know you think It's Personal between you and me, Mac. I promise you, it ain't. I took your codex because I needed to wake a god, but the other stuff? Crushing your spine into popcorn? I did it because I was bored!
  Scorpion: Go to Hell!
  Cletus: Already been, hoss. Booooring!
• Cowboy Cop: Agent Gao — a former NYPD colleague of Jon Shayde — has gone AWOL to establish her own street-level version of the Thunderbolts and continues to enforce Mayor Fisk's Powers Act despite Mayor Luke Cage — a superhuman himself — being in power. Gargan snarks that sooner or later Cage will learn about her antics and shut her down, but he's willing to go along for the ride until that happens.
• David Versus Goliath: A major marketing point about this crossover is the fact that it revolves around Miles Morales, a young and relatively inexperienced Spider-Man, being forced to fight Cletus Kasady, a Nigh-Invulnerable Ax-Crazy mass-murdering Humanoid Abomination who even Peter Parker couldn't defeat by himself. Alex Paknadel even cites the Trope Codifier word for word when describing the plot in interviews.
• The Dragonslayer: Iron Man's latest rig is a knight-themed suit of Powered Armor capable of creating a Hard Light shield and enormous greatsword, which he created in the aftermath of Cletus stealing the Extrembiote. He even calls it the Dragon-Slayer Armor.
• The End... Or Is It?: The final issue ends with Kenneth dead and the Extrembiote seemingly destroyed, though Iron Man notes his armor's power reserves are too depleted to double check. As the issue ends, Miles' mother assures him that whatever evil he faced is gone for good... only for it to be revealed a scrap of the Extrembiote survived and is starting to reform into an avatar for Cletus.
• Enemy Mine: Miles and Mac Gargan haven't especially liked each other since the Saladin Ahmed run. But both are forced to team-up to survive Carnage in the Alpha issue.
• Genius Loci: Cletus himself is this trope by virtue of being able to use his Extrembiote to transform his surrounding environment into a full-blown Eldritch Location akin to what he did with St. Estes' Home for Boys. When Miles enters the diner, Carnage's head emerges from the wall to watch him, and Miles finds himself confronted by (seemily) alive kitchen staff who can see him despite his cloaking being active. As soon as Scorpion and Agent Gao's squad breach the diner Cletus has assimilated, duplicates of the madman literally start spawning out of the walls to slaughter the cops one by one. Cletus also dupes Miles into escorting him out of the building while this is going on by shapeshifting himself to resemble a hostage he had just murdered.
• Gone Horribly Right: Downplayed in Red Goblin #5, but Gao reaching out to Feilong for help with the Stark technology Cletus had hijacked. At the time of publication, Feilong's just completed a hostile takeover of Tony Stark's company over in Gerry Duggan's Iron Man and X-Men runs. But taking legal and corporate control of Tony's toys also means that he's also now on the hook for any Iron Man technology run amok - such as the hijacked arc reactors and armors Cletus is using.
• Heart Light: Aside from its bulkier appearance compared to other Carnage iterations, a prominent feature that sets Extreme Carnage apart is the Repulsor Tech node in its chest — prominently featured on many of the covers. It also turns out to be Kasady's Achilles' Heel, as Miles overloads the suit's arc reactor with a Venom Strike to blow him to bits along with the entire building they were standing on.
  Cletus: Huh. What the hell is an Arc Reac—?
• He's Back!: In Carnage (Vol. 3), Cletus was previously content to sit in St. Estes and use the Extrembiote to bring his twisted imagination to life while waiting for the Carnage symbiote to return to him. Thanks to Kenneth Neely touching a nerve, however, he's decided to get off his undead butt and remind the world why he's to be feared — the trailer showing him going after heroes like Spider-Man (Miles Morales), the Red Goblin (Normie Osborn), and Iron Man (Tony Stark); and even other villains like the Scorpion (Mac Gargan) and Electro (Francine Frye).
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: In the preview for the final issue, Iron Man reveals his Dragonslayer Armor is rigged with an EMP that will kill the Extrembiote — and hopefully Cletus Kasady with it — if it's detonated inside the symbiote dragon; Miles cluing in that Iron Man intends to have Cletus eat him in order to to so.
• Mirror Character: Normie Osborn is set up to be both this and a Foil to Miles Morales in this event. Both are young Legacy Characters who were previously traumatized by Carnage in the past and are in way over their heads fighting Cletus as he stands now. But whereas Miles holds the distinguished honor of carrying the mantle of one of New York's greatest superheroes, Normie comes from a Villainous Legacy that he's actively trying not to continue by being a superhero instead. Miles is also older and far more experienced when it comes to being a crimefighter, leaving Normie to follow his lead when they team up during the crisis.
  Red Goblin: Everyone my grandfather inspired to take up the Green Goblin mantle got corrupted by it—even people trying to use it for good. But some legacies seem to inspire people to greatness. I mean, look at this guy.
• Mind Rape:
  • After hacking into Stark's communications network, Cletus broadcasts a signal that drives everyone with a Stark brand device into a murderous frenzy.
  • When Normie tries to assimilate the Extrembiote using Rascal, Cletus senses him and mind bombs him for his trouble. Furthermore, each piece of the Extrembiote that Rascal absorbs causes it to become increasingly feral — not a good thing considering it's partially comprised of a sample of the Carnage symbiote.
• Motive Decay: Cletus initially goes out to commit his latest rampage out of a desire for people to remember him instead of just his identity as Carnage. However, by the start of the event, he seems to have stopped caring about the distinction that led to his attack in the first place, readily calling himself Carnage once more and not bothering to correct anyone.
• Near-Villain Victory: In the final issue, Cletus becomes more powerful than ever and has the heroes on the ropes, with it coming down to a Hail Mary play by Iron Man to detonate an EMP inside the Extrembiote. Cletus decides to leave Earth to reunite with Carnage, but Miles annoys him enough that Cletus decides to kill him first — buying Iron Man enough time to charge and detonate the EMP.
• Neck Lift: The cover for Red Goblin #5 shows Extreme Carnage lifting the Red Goblin by the neck.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: Miles is fully aware that Cletus can and will probably kill him before the night is done. But if he is going to die, he's going to die fighting with everything he's got.
  Spider-Man: I might not get to go home tonight. And that's the job. These costumes. All the cool stuff we can do. It means we sleep when we can, not when we need to. It means we go back into the burning house one last time even when the smoke's as thick as the hope is thin. And sometimes, when we come face-to-face with monsters... it means we don't hold back!
• One-Winged Angel:
  • After Miles Morales shorts out the Extrembiote's arc reactor, Cletus takes over an Iron Sentinel — becoming a colossal giant.
  • When Kelvin Heng smugly infects the Extremiote with a nanovirus that shuts it out of the Stark network, Cletus is livid that his plans are being thwarted and transforms into a cyborg symbiote-dragon.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Normie never names himself during the event because of his disdain for the Red Goblin legacy. This results in everyone else using different nicknames to refer to him until they all eventually settle on calling him Red Goblin anyway for the sake of convenience.
• Pet the Dog: Even though they have fought in the past, Scorpion decides to try and save Miles before Cletus can finish him off. While Miles asks why Gargan would ever help him, the supervillain elaborates he wasn't planning on it, but it's somewhat implied it's because Miles did the same for him back in Absolute Carnage. Gargan also has Miles' back throughout the majority of the series, checking in on him while he's being stitched up after being slashed by Cletus and fighting alongside him at least until Iron Man joins the team-up.
• Sanity Slippage: Carrying over from his Butt-Monkey status in Carnage (Vol. 3), Kenneth Neely ends up snapping after his attempts to convince Cletus to stop the Carnage symbiote backfire horribly, and his long-dreamed-of bonding to a Carnage symbiote results in him being bodyjacked and made a prisoner in his own body by Cletus. After being depowered he's arrested and bundled in a straitjacket, rambling about how he's nothing but a pathetic fool of a jester compared to Cletus' mad artistry.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the final issue, Cletus decides to leave Earth to reunite with the Carnage symbiote and pursue godhood together. However, Miles is able to distract him long enough for Iron Man to blow up the Extrembiote, thwarting Cletus' ambitions again.
• Self-Duplication: Cletus is capable of this after using the Extrembiote to assimilate an entire diner and the floors above it. When Scorpion and Agent Gao's men breach the building, they inadvertently walk into an Eldritch Location where multiple clones of Cletus brutally pick them off one by one.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • It's mentioned that Gargan hates Cletus due to Carnage breaking his spine during Absolute Carnage, with Cletus gloating that did out of pure petty sadism. However, the Carnage who maimed Gargan in Absolute Carnage wasn't Cletus Kasady but Norman Osborn (albeit brainwashed to believe he was Cletus).
  • Miles acts as though Cletus Kasady was the one who infected him with a symbiote in Absolute Carnage, but the Carnage responsible was Norman Osborn. But similar to the Scorpion example, Norman was brainwashed to literally believe he was Kasady at the time and his symbiote was an extension of Kasady's.
• Talking to Themself: In Carnage #14, Cletus has a conversation with himself using his ability to create duplicates, lamenting having not stayed with the Carnage symbiote on its quest for godhood before deciding to stay the course and wreck as much havoc on Earth as possible.
• Technopath: The Extremebiote gives Cletus abilities to this effect in addition to the already increased powers he developed on top of them.
• This Cannot Be!: Feilong smugly assures Agent Gao that his Iron Sentinels will be more than capable of defeating Cletus and that he'll be saving the world from his penthouse suite. However, he's outraged when Cletus easily destroys one of the Iron Sentinels and badly damages the other — though he goes back to smugly gloating when it succeeds in severing Cletus' connection to Stark's communications network.
• To Serve Man: Cletus eats some of Todd's Diner's patrons and staff while rampaging through the establishment, Kenneth Neely watching in bile fascination. While Miles is in the middle of confronting Kenneth over what the hell is going on, Cletus gets the drop on Miles with a fanged Volumetric Mouth and bites down on the poor kid's shoulder before transforming into Extreme Carnage. He later tries to eat Miles again, quipping that he should know never to get between a man and his meal.
• Villainous Harlequin: Kenneth Neely's symbiote-augmented form resembles a jester — a cruel joke on Cletus' part showing just how little he thinks of Kenneth.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Near the end of Miles Morales: Spider-Man #7, Miles gets impaled through the chest by the Sentinel Dragon Cletus Kasady currently inhabits as his main body, leaving the kid on death's door with a punctured lung, shattered ribs, and multiple simultaneous hemorrhages. This forces Iron Man to inject Miles with his armor's Nanomachines to repair the kid's severe injuries while providing a protective body cast to keep his condition stabilized. This "cast" turns out to be none other than the new Iron Spider Suit.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the final issue, Cletus kills Kenneth Neely, saying that he shouldn't be surprised since it was always going to end this way. However, to Cletus' dismay Kenneth's consciousness endures in the Symbiote Hive-Mind as a codex.