Carnage (Cletus Kasady) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as an enemy of Spider-Man. The character first appeared as Cletus Kasady in The Amazing Spider-Man #344 (March 1991) and as Carnage in The Amazing Spider-Man #360. Carnage was created by writer David Michelinie and artists Erik Larsen and Mark Bagley, based on elements of the precursor character Venom. In 2009, Carnage was ranked as IGN's 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Biography

Cletus Kasady is a psychopath and a homicidal sadist. He is a deeply disturbed individual with a dark past: as a child, he killed his grandmother by pushing her down a flight of stairs, tried to murder his mother by throwing a television into her bathtub, and tortured and killed his mother's dog. After the latter, his mother then tried to kill Cletus, and was apparently beaten to the brink of death by Kasady's father, who received no defense from Kasady during his trial. As an orphan, Kasady was sent to the St. Estes Home for Boys, where his antisocial behavior made him the target of abuse from both the other orphans and the staff. Kasady gained revenge by murdering the disciplinarian administrator, pushing a girl (who laughed at him for asking her to date him) in front of a moving bus, and burning down the orphanage. It was during his brutal years at St. Estes that Kasady acquired his philosophy that life was essentially meaningless and futile, that "laws are only words", and came to see the spreading of chaos through random, unpatterned bloodshed as "the ultimate freedom."




Rebirth
Kasady became a serial killer. He was then captured and sent to Ryker's Island prison for 11 murders—though he bragged about killing a dozen more—where he shared a cell with Eddie Brock, who had lost the alien symbiote that transformed him into the supervillain Venom. Brock's symbiote soon returned and bonded with him again, allowing him to escape prison. Unknown to Brock, the symbiote left its offspring in the cell; due to its alien mindset, the symbiote felt no emotional attachment to its offspring, regarding it as insignificant, and thus never communicated its existence to Brock via their telepathic link. The new symbiote then bonded with Kasady, transforming him into Carnage. He escaped prison, and began a series of murders, and at the scene of each crime, wrote "Carnage" on the walls with his own blood. He was found by Spider-Man, though the hero proved to be no match for Carnage's powers. In desperation, Spider-Man made a truce with Venom to fight Carnage. Carnage was defeated with sonic weaponry, but the symbiote lived on because it had become merged with Kasady's bloodstream through a cut incurred during the fight.


Maximum Carnage

Kasady is taken to The Vault, a prison for super-villains—then Ravencroft Institute, a facility for the super-human criminally insane. A doctor at the facility, hoping to find a "cure" for his madness, draws blood from him—unwittingly enabling Kasady to transform into Carnage—who goes on to recruit an army of psychopathic supervillains including Shriek, Demogoblin, Carrion, and Doppelganger to take over New York City. Using Shriek's "psychic channel" powers, he also drives ordinary New Yorkers to attack one another. Carnage and his "family" are ultimately driven back by Spider-Man, Venom, and a number of other superheroes and super-antiheroes, with Carnage and Shriek being remanded to Ravencroft.


Web of Carnage
During a subsequent jailbreak, he made it his mission to kill his only childhood friend, Billy Bentime—hoping to refute the notion that friendship should be paid in kind. Carnage nearly defeated Spider-Man until Bentime tricked Carnage into reverting to human form, enabling Spider-Man to knock out Kasady with a simple punch.

Though bonded to Cletus Kasady's bloodstream, the symbiote found a way to ditch its host by travelling through the institute's water pipes, overwhelming Ravencroft's chief, John Jameson, and using him to commit further murders. It eventually transferred itself to Spider-Man—Ben Reilly (Peter Parker's clone) at the time—when Ben bonded with it in order to prevent it from hurting any innocent people, creating Spider-Carnage. Ben's willpower held out against the symbiote's murderous desires long enough for him to return it to Ravencroft. Reilly subsequently attempted to destroy the symbiote by subjecting himself to a potentially lethal blast of microwaves, but it escaped back to Kasady after the microwaves forced it to separate from him.


Cosmic Carnage
During a subsequent rampage, the Carnage symbiote briefly attempted to take control of the Silver Surfer, who was visiting Earth at the time to welcome the Fantastic Four after their return to life following the battle with Onslaught. The Surfer and Spider-Man were able to return the symbiote to Kasady, and the Surfer then sealed Kasady in an unbreakable prison in an attempt to force him to reflect on his sins for eternity.


Death and resurrection
Having tracked Kasady to a prison specially designed to hold him—how he escaped the Surfer's prison has yet to be established—Venom eventually reabsorbs the Carnage symbiote into his own body "for good." Without the symbiote, Kasady attempts to re-assume the Carnage persona by costuming himself in red paint and continuing his killing sprees, claiming that he still possesses at least some of Carnage's strength and convinced that he only needs to kill Spider-Man and Venom to regain his symbiote, but Spider-Man nevertheless easily defeats him in a fight. Kasady, however, eventually finds another symbiote who had been kept sealed in the Negative Zone, and bonded with it to form the second Carnage.


Toxin
In Venom vs. Carnage #1-4, the Carnage symbiote reproduces, with Kasady implanting a spawn of it into Patrick "Paddy" Mulligan, an Irish-American police officer who was recently married and expecting a child. Mulligan became Toxin—who single-handedly overpowered both Venom and Carnage. Nevertheless, Mulligan remained determined to use his new-found powers for good—learning as much as he can from Spider-Man—while leaving behind his wife and newborn son in order to protect them from danger.


Breakout
In The New Avengers #2 (2005), Carnage is one of several supervillains trying to escape from The Raft. Sentry flies Carnage outside the Earth's atmosphere and rips him in two.


Family Feud
It is later discovered that, although Kasady was presumably killed, the symbiote survived by becoming dormant and returned to Earth. The Doppelganger and Shriek return, hoping to repair the symbiote. Using the properties of the symbiote, Michael Hall, a competitor of Tony Stark, creates prosthetic limbs and exo-suits which respond in the same ways as a symbiote. One such person, Dr. Tanis Nieves, is outfitted with one of these prosthetic arms after she is caught in an attack by the Doppelganger. When near the symbiote, her arm goes wild and forces her to kill several scientists before the symbiote forcefully bonds to her, becoming the new Carnage. After the symbiote uses Tanis to break into a Hall Corporation facility, it is revealed that Cletus Kasady is alive (although both of his legs have been severed), his body preserved by the symbiote and repaired by Hall's prosthetics. Kasady reclaims the symbiote and becomes Carnage once more, attempting to avenge his captivity while Spider-Man and Iron Man struggle to stop him. It is then revealed that Carnage is once again pregnant, and the suit's spawn briefly bonds to Shriek before being torn from her. Scared of Shriek's malice, the symbiote arm then bonds to Tanis, creating a new hero, Scorn, who defeats Shriek and forces her to use her sonic shriek to weaken Carnage for Spider-Man and Iron Man. Carnage, however, escapes with the Doppleganger and swears to make a bloody comeback.


Carnage USA
In the aftermath of his return, Carnage sets off west to Doverton, Colorado. He bonds most of the town to copies of his symbiote. Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hawkeye and the Thing attempt to defeat him but all except Spider-Man are bonded to copies. With the Avengers team compromised and Spider-Man out of communication, they send in another team consisted of symbiote-enhanced special forces. Dr. Tanis Nieves as Scorn goes along with the separated parts of Hybrid which make up Agony, Phage, Riot, and Lasher, but they are heavily outnumbered since Carnage controls the entire town. Captain America breaks free of his hold long enough to make an emergency call for back up to none other than Venom. Flash Thompson in the Venom symbiote sets off to Colorado to kill Carnage. The enhanced special forces keep fighting but Carnage sends the controlled Avengers after them, then was when Spider-Man comes with the unaffected residence of the town. The melee is particularly fierce when Venom intervenes with sonic rounds. Venom is about to kill Carnage with a gun in the mouth but Spider-Man stops him. Before Venom or Carnage can recover, Scorn uses a construction vehicle to carry the two to a device she built. She reveals that her device is meant to permanently remove the bonds from Carnage and Venom, but the hosts are still in there, leaving a legless Flash Thompson alone with Cletus Kasady. After the symbiotes fighting with themselves and the Avengers team, Venom finds its way back to Flash Thompson while Scorn is able to capture and contain the Carnage symbiote. The series ends with Cletus being captured and dragged into the back of a prison vehicle.


Minimum Carnage
Carnage escapes prison yet again with the help of microns. Venom is sent to the prison and discovers Kasady has escaped. Carnage flees to Houston, Texas and causes havoc, attracting the attention of the Scarlet Spider. Carnage takes the scientist Dr. Ketola, an expert in inter-dimensional transportation, as a hostage and escapes into the Microverse. He is defeated by Venom and Scarlet Spider, who use a sonic bomb from the Microverse to temporarily separate Kasady from the symbiote. Scarlet Spider then impales Kasady through the eye, lobotomizing him. Carnage goes into a catatonic state: The symbiote is keeping his body alive, similar to a life-support system, but Kasady's brain and mind are believed to be irreparably damaged, leaving the symbiote in control.


Superior Carnage
Kasady, now lobotomized, is later broken out of prison by the Wizard and Klaw, who intend to recruit him into the Frightful Four and turn him into their own version of Agent Venom. Carnage breaks free from the Wizard's control and nearly kills him, but is subdued by Klaw. Taking Carnage into their hideout, the Wizard tries to take control of Cletus' mind, but fails due to it being too damaged. The Wizard then transfers the Symbiote to Dr. Karl Malus. Dr. Malus was enraged and under the influences of the Symbiote tried to kill his teammates, but he was subdued by Klaw and controlled by the Wizard, who renames him "Superior Carnage" and equips him with weapons.

Malus tells Klaw not to be fooled as while he is forced to obey the Wizard, if his control slips the Symbiote will take control and turn against them. After taking all the weapons and starting to move to the city hall, the Wizard blows up the hideout with Kasady still inside, seemingly killing him. While storming the city hall, Superior Carnage states that Kasady was a fool who wasted so much time on chaos while there was much more to be accomplished with a little focus. However, when the Wizard's control slips for a moment Carnage begins to revert to his original form until the Wizard regains himself.

The trio are confronted by the Superior Spider-Man and during their battle the Wizard lose his control over Carnage and he is fatally injured. Carnage, now free, goes on a rampage and starts to kill anyone in front of him. Klaw tries to stop him, but due to his weapon being damaged he fails and realizes that the only way is for the Wizard to take back control. Both Carnage and Klaw make their way outside. Carnage fights the Superior Spider-Man and admits that although he liked using weapons, for him ripping and slashing the bodies is better. Klaw tries to get the Wizard to control Carnage again, but is killed by Carnage and the explosion separates the Symbiote from its host, only to bond with the injured Wizard. Ultimately, Spider-Man brings out Cletus' body to successfully draw the symbiote into it, which immediately devours Dr. Malus and then prepares to finish off the Wizard. However, Klaw focusses his sound manipulation powers one last time for a split second to create a powerful sonic blast that disables Carnage, allowing the symbiote to be recaptured. In the epilogue it is shown that the symbiote has managed to repair the Wizard's and Cletus' brain damage, followed by Kasady writing "CARNAGE RULES" on his cell wall.

A piece of the symbiote (which had died in captivity) escapes containment and sets out in search of Cletus, who is bedridden due to having been stabbed by a fellow prison inmate. A doctor, anticipating that the symbiote will come seeking Cletus, smothers the killer in the infirmary, wanting the alien for himself. When the symbiote breaks into the facility, the doctor offers himself to the creature, but it rejects him, and returns to Cletus after resuscitating him. Carnage proceeds to asphyxiate the doctor, rampage through the prison, and escape.


Deadpool vs. Carnage
Much later, Carnage clashed with Deadpool, who believed it was his destiny to hunt Carnage. When Carnage tore Deadpool to pieces, Deadpool bonded with the four symbiotes Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony. Bonded with the four symbiotes, Deadpool tricked Shriek into thinking she killed Carnage. After that, Deadpool tricked Carnage by forcing Shriek to impersonate Deadpool and Carnage wounded Shriek in the process. Afterwards, Carnage, now broken that he almost killed Shriek, allows himself to be arrested by authorities and placed in an unlocked cell, waiting to be his own man. As he waited to be his own man, Carnage vowed revenge against Deadpool for tricking him.


AXIS
During the AXIS storyline, Magneto starts to recruit villains in order to combat Red Skull's Red Onslaught form. He manages to convince Carnage by saying he'll cause more chaos by becoming a savior and so Carnage agrees. When he sees Deadpool he tells him that they are "going to have words after this."

During the battle with Red Onslaught, Doctor Doom and the Scarlet Witch cast a spell which alters the moralities of almost everyone present, Carnage included. Filled with the irresistible urge to be a hero, Carnage returns to New York and goes around "saving" people, largely oblivious to the fact that he is causing more harm than good. This is proven when Spider-Man finds that Carnage had saved a family from Squid and his gang, the Tentacles. At the same time, a new Sin-Eater is murdering journalists, which unscrupulous reporter Alice Gleason uses to try and boost her popularity by feigning severe distress over the killings. Believing Alice's crocodile tears and convinced that she is a kindhearted and empathic person, Carnage rescues her from the Sin-Eater and abducts her with the intent of having Alice teach him how to be "a great hero". However, after Carnage defeats the Sin-Eater by overloading his foe with all his old sins, Alice turns on Carnage and convinces the police that he has been attacking her, but the inverted Carnage simply concludes that she is teaching him that a true hero must be alone to protect others and swings away.

Faced with the threat of the morally-inverted Avengers seeking to enforce their power and the inverted X-Men working with Apocalypse to take control of Manhattan, Spider-Man and the aged Steve Rogers are forced to work with Magneto and the "Astonishing Avengers" of Carnage and the other inverted villains. Although unable to destroy the X-Men's gene-bomb, which would have killed all humans in the blast radius, Carnage sacrifices himself to contain the blast with his own symbiote, Spider-Man describing Kasady's sacrifice as the worst man he ever knew doing the most noble thing he'd ever seen. With the crisis concluded, Peter Parker sets out to create a gold-and-rhinestone memorial to Carnage as he promised Cletus he would before his sacrifice. After the heroes and villains are inverted, a videotape is released in which the Astonishing Avengers—with Carnage as their "spokesman"—proclaim themselves to be the "Axis of Evil", taking responsibility for the Avengers' and the X-Men's actions during the inversion at the cost of their own brief time as heroes.


Post-AXIS
However, Cletus was somehow able to cheat death again, though he lost the lower half of his body in the process, and went to Carefree, Arizona, to pay a visit to a new friend he made during the time he was inverted, a friend he was willing to "help", Sam Alexander aka Nova. Cletus left a message signaling his return in the form of murdering a random bystander who he had asked where to find the boy as proof that he was reverted to his more natural moral axis.

After learning that Sam's mother works at a local diner, Cletus took her hostage there in order to get his attention, but, tired of waiting, Cletus decided to kill her. Nova arrived before he could do so and took him away from the diner to an empty area in order not to hurt anyone. While fighting, Nova tried to convince him that he wasn't Sam Alexander, but the maniac didn't believe him. After being wounded by the Nova Force, Cletus fled in order to let his symbiote heal him as the police arrived. In the next day, already healed from his burns, Cletus attacked Sam again, this time at his school.

While attacking Sam at school, Carnage saw Nova flying around the area, thus making it impossible for the boy to be Nova (unbeknownst to him, that was Sam's mother wearing his helmet). Enraged, Carnage followed the false Nova, but lost sight of her. He then started to attack innocent people to try and get Nova's attention, which he got. A new battle ensued between them both. Carnage was taken by Nova to the sky and then punched him into the parking lot below, the impact setting off the cars' alarms, dizzying Cletus and his symbiote. Cletus was then thrown by Nova, who had already realized Carnage's weakness to high sounds, into Anthrax (a heavy metal band which Cletus was a fan of) show nearby. As the symbiote screamed in pain, Cletus fled from there to the road, but was attacked by Nova again. He threw a car at Nova, who caught it midair, and took advantage of it to punch him. Ready to finish off his opponent, Carnage was hit by a truck. He was then tied in metal plates by Nova and left by his symbiote as he revealed he wanted to kill Nova because he wanted to erase any memory of his good deeds, from the time he had his moral axis inverted, from anyone who remembered it. He was left by Sam in Ryker's Island.

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