Carnage (Marvel)

"Awww -- ain't that sweet? He misses me! Well, don't cry, daddy dearest -- 'cause your sonny boy -- is ALIVE AND WELL!"

- Cletus "Carnage" Kasady.

Cletus Kasady was already a dangerous serial killer before the symbiote made him the powerful psychopathic super-villain known as Carnage.

History
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 the terrified and jealous Kasady behind. Sensing his desire for the power Eddie possessed, a scrap of the symbiote left behind dripped onto Cletus' hand and bonded with him, transforming him into the monstrous Carnage. As Carnage, Kasady proved stronger than Spider-Man and Venom combined, and his symbiote was not only less susceptible to sonics than its progenitor but infinitely more difficult to remove, having bonded to his bloodstream. In his first appearance, Carnage forced Spider-Man and Venom to call a temporary truce to defeat him, and in his next major appearance Carnage rounded together numerous other super villains and nearly succeeded in taking over New York before being defeated.

Despite supposedly being irremovable, the Carnage symbiote left Cletus twice of its own volition, once to bond to Spider-Man's clone Ben Reilly, and the second time to bond to the Silver Surfer, but both times returned to its original host. 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. When Cletus realized the Carnage symbiote was about to give birth, he passed the offspring on to a police officer named Patrick Mulligan, exhausted from trying to suppress the process and intending to kill them both later. This backfired when the offspring, Toxin, teamed up with Spider-Man and Black Cat to defeat him and Venom. While imprisoned on the Raft, Carnage participated in a breakout but was apprehended by the Sentry, flown into orbit, and torn in half.

Presumed dead, Cletus was actually cocooned by the symbiote, but missed out on the Civil War, Skrull Invasion, and Dark Reign. His body was eventually recovered by Hall Industries, which extracted the symbiote from him and used it to engineer unique prosthetics. Equipped with a new pair of legs, Cletus was eventually reunited with the symbiote and stronger than ever, but was repelled by Spider-Man and Iron Man with help from the symbiote's new offspring, Scorn. Traveling to Doverton Colorado, Kasady took over the town by creating copies of the symbiote, even parasitizing the Avengers, but was defeated by the Life Foundation symbiotes, Scorn, and Agent Venom. Imprisoned, he was freed by servants of Marquis Radu, a tyrant in the Microverse who intended to use the Carnage symbiote to create an unstoppable army. Pursued by Agent Venom and the Scarlet Spider, Carnage betrayed Radu's forces but was captured and his symbiote cloned and fused to copies of the Venom symbiote. Intrigued by this, Carnage attempted to assimilate the Venom symbiote to become even more powerful, but was stabbed through the head by the Scarlet Spider's stingers and lobotomized.

Comatose and under the control of the symbiote, Cletus was eventually broken free by Klaw and the increasingly psychotic Wizard, who wanted to turn him into his own version of Agent Venom. Unable to do so due to Cletus being brain-dead, the Wizard has Klaw subdue the symbiote and transfers it into his old friend Karl Malus, blowing up his base with Kasady still in it. The Wizard's control over Malus proved tenuous at best, and during a fight with the Superior Spider-Man he lost control, allowing the symbiote to take over and go on a rampage, destroying Klaw's corporeal form in the process. The resulting shockwave blasted the symbiote off Malus and onto the Wizard, who the symbiote promptly took control of and resumed its rampage. Superior Spider-Man learns Kasady survived the explosion, albeit badly injured, and has his body recovered to exploit the symbiote's preference for him. The symbiote eluded Spider-Man's attempts to capture it and rebonded to Kasady, curing him of his coma, but the reunion was short lived before Klaw directed a bolt of lightning towards Carnage, separating Kasady and the symbiote once more. Spider-Man takes the symbiote into custody while Kasady is reincarcerated... and revealed to have made a full recovery from his lobotomy. Cletus undergoes psychotherapy and is integrated into the mainstream prison population, while without a host, the symbiote begins to die and escapes containment, seeking to reunite with him. Upon learning of the symbiote's escape, Kasady's psychologist, Dr. Jenner, hires a thug to shank him and then smothers him to death, offering himself to the symbiote as its next host. The symbiote refuses and resuscitates Kasady, rebonding to him, and the reunited Carnage returns the favour by smothering Jenner.

Carnage decides that his ambitions of conquest and transcendence have caused him nothing but grief and decides to get back to basics with another randomized killing spree. This attracts the attention of psychotic antihero Deadpool, who tracks Cletus down, much to Carnage's confusion and outrage. Deadpool gains an upper hand over Carnage until Shriek arrives. Carnage and Shriek escape, but Deadpool tracks them down and badly injures Shriek.

Powers and Abilities
Carnage's powers include super-human strength, agility, and durability, as well as the ability to nullify Spider-Man's "spider-sense". The symbiote in his blood allows him to form web-like substances (which utilized in different manner unlike Venom that uses them like Spider-Man did with his own webs), and can create weapons, tendrils, and other objects by sprouting parts of the symbiote from his body. He can even detach his weapon-tendrils and hurl them at opponents. He is virtually bullet-proof, as the symbiote can deflect bullets and other projectiles. His weaknesses are extreme heat, and loud vibrations, such as sound-waves.

Ultimate Comics
The Ultimate Marvel Universe version of Carnage is self-regenerating form of life based on the symbiotic suit research of Richard Parker. He is created by Curt Connors to replace the missing Venom "suit" by using the the same process to create Venom, his own DNA, and the DNA of Peter Parker. Using some of Peter's memories, it travels to Peter's home and kills Gwen Stacy. It battles Peter, and he eventually manages to kill it. Doctor Octopus later creates a new Carnage that takes on the form of Gwen Stacy. It has the memories of Gwen and attempts to reunite with Peter. It eventually returns to its Carnage form when confronted by S.H.I.E.L.D., and is eventually taken into their custody. Carnage later escapes during the Green Goblin's escape.

During the "War of the Symbiotes" arc, the Carnage symbiote squares off with it's forerunner in a no-holds-barred, one-on-one duel to the death that lasts an issue, which ends with Eddie defeating Carnage and absorbing the symboite, allowing total control over the suit.

Ultimate Spider-Man
Carnage makes an appearance in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game. He's the final  Venom Level boss. After Spider-Man and Venom were knocked unconscious and held captive by Bolivar Trask, Peter Parker somehow changed into Carnage after being experimented on by Trask's men. As Carnage, Parker caused destruction throughout the lab. This caused Eddie to wake up and he attempted to escape. Just when he was about to reach the door, Carnage appeared and attacked Eddie. Eddie somehow knew that Carnage was Parker, so Eddie became Venom and confronted him. Due to being smaller and having a longer range, Carnage was a powerful enemy against Venom. When Carnage loses 3/4 of his health, he will retreat and suck the life out of the scientists. When Venom enters the room, Carnage will retreat into another room, and continue to suck the life out of the scientists to heal himself. When Venom entered the room, Carnage will fight him for a bit, but will retreat again into the last room. After a lengthy battle, Venom was able to defeat Carnage. With the defeat of Carnage, Venom drains the suit off of Peter and gains total control over the suit.

Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions
Carnage makes an appearance in the Ultimate Reality in Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. He was one of the enemies that acquired a Shard from the Tablet of Order and Chaos. The Black Suited Spider-Man encountered Carnage when he was searching for a Shard on the Helicarrier. When he reached the Helicarrier, he notice red webbing and corpses that were completely drained of fluids. This is when he realized that Carnage was on the Helicarrier and needed to be stopped.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Main Article: Carnage (The Amazing Spider-Man Video Games)

Television series
Animated series

In the final episodes, Carnage was sent through a portal into another reality, where he merged with Peter Parker of that world into Spider-Carnage, who intended to use a bomb and magnify its explosion to destroy all reality. The Beyonder brought many Spider-Men from other realities there, and they foiled his plan, though he went to another reality and tried to suck each reality into a disintegration portal. However, Spider-Man got Uncle Ben of that world to reason with him and convince him to try and drive Carnage out. He was unable to, however, so he opened a smaller disintegration portal and jumped into it, thus putting an end to Carnage.

Ultimate Spider-Man
Main Article: Carnage (Ultimate Spider-Man)  Carnage appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon series episode "Carnage", voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, reprising his role from the 2000 Spider-Man video game. This version is created by Green Goblin using key components of the Goblin formula and Harry Osborn's blood sample of the Venom symbiote, has a red tongue, makes a screeching noise, and can turn his body spiky. When Green Goblin injects Peter Parker with the mixture, Peter's spider cells makes the Venom organism unstable and imperfect, thus forming Carnage with Peter as its host. Green Goblin, approving of his new "son", sends Carnage to eliminate Spider-Man and his friends (not knowing that Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same). After a battle with Spider-Man's friends/teammates (Power Man, Nova, Iron Fist and White Tiger), Carnage defeats them all. However, Harry allows the Carnage symbiote to attach to him, reverting to its previous Venom form.

Films
Carnage was originally going to appear in Spider-Man 4, however after the film titled The Amazing Spider-Man was announced, Spider-Man 4 was cancelled.

It has been rumored that Carnage will appear as the main antagonist in the film Venom a spin-off to the Amazing Spider-Man Film Series.

Miscellaneous
Main article: Carnage (Halloween Horror Nights)

Carnage appeared as an co-icon for Halloween Horror Nights: Islands of Fear. In the scarezone titled Island Under Siege, which is what Marvel Super Hero Island was titled during the event, there was a maze called Maximum Carnage, based on the story arc of the same name. In this version, Carnage has murdered every single one of the superheroes that have came after him resulting in criminal gangs running the streets.