Villain Profile: Carnage

If anyone tells you comics are for kids,
Remember this guy.

I was going to try to do another one or two DC related properties, you know to get things more even, but then I found a comic that in it has the single greatest premise that I’ve ever seen. Deadpool vs. Carnage. The top two psychos of the Marvel-verse facing off in a no holds bar grudge match. As much as I want to cover this one, I can’t just jump right into it. I’ve introduced the Good(ish) already, so I need to introduce the Pure Evil incarnate. Here we go!

Cletus Kasady was a rare kind of psycho even before becoming the malevolent Carnage. Before the age of 18 his list of murders included: his grandmother, his mother’s dog, a girl that refused to date him, a social worker, and indirectly his mother and father. Ma Kasady realized that her child was a monster after he tried to kill her, and did kill the dog. She tried to put an end to him, but Pa Kasady came in and “saved” his son by murdering his wife. When his dad was put on trial, Kasady didn’t speak on behave of his father’s defense. Dick move Kasady, even for a psychopath. But I guess we can't expect to much from someone whom may literally have no soul.

He was doing time for 11 murders, the sick freak bragged that he committed dozens more that the cops couldn’t prove, when Eddie Brock became his cell mate. Brock’s time at Ryker’s Island ended a short time later, when the Venom Suit came for its favorite host/meal. The two reunited and escaped, but unbeknownst to Venom, the suit had left behind its offspring. Apparently asexual organisms can give birth without knowing they’re “pregnant,” who knew? Kasady and the new born alien hate monster fused together, forming the even more horrid Carnage. The alien fused with Kasady’s bloodstream, making their bond even more problematic than Venom and Eddie’s.

He might be evil incarnate, but that suit is awesome looking.

The homicidal vessel of chaos left a bloody swath across NYC before coming across Spidey. The wall crawler did his best, but the new Symbiote proved too powerful for Spider-man. He had Venom's immunity to Spider-man's Spider Sense, plus the added complication of the ability to generate blades from any part of his body, and a much greater tolerance to heat and sonic attacks than his "father." Spider-man made a reluctant truce with Venom, and the two narrowly defeated Carnage.

Kasady has been the worst kind of nuisance over the years. He’s been chopped to bits, shot, burned, beaten, had the Symbiote “permanently removed,” and yet he always finds a way to be complete again. He’s most recently recovered from being LOBOTOMIZED thanks to the suits healing powers.

Venom passed on the Spider-man style powers to Carnage, but Carnage has many tricks that are all his own. Carnage’s body is about as stable as his mental state, he’s constantly reshaping and molding himself. He can sprout countless weapon shaped growths from his body. Partially from being Venom’s offspring, and partly from being fused with Kasady’s blood, the Carnage suit is much more resistant to sonic attacks and heat. Carnage is also physically stronger than Venom or Spider-man despite usually being depicted as a small creature. I'd assume its the same principle of same two weightlifters, one at his peak the other just slightly passed it. Or something. Who knows?
            It is also stated that Carnage can block the psychic connection that a Symbiote usually has with it's offspring, making it impossible for Venom to track it. The Symbiotes own horrid mental state is due in part to fusing with Kasady, and is also implied to be due to the fact it is the 999th asexual birth of Venom's "line." Apparently like a lot of bacteria on Earth, Symbiote's need to swap genes every now and then or risk...well, monsters like Carnage.

Think about this. A cosmic entity with unheard of power
merged with a homicidal alien. Very, very bad.

An interesting thing to note, while most other Symbiote hosts refer to themselves as “We” and “Us,” Carnage considers itself one Organism, so they stick with “I” and “Me.” On those rare occasions that Kasady is separated from the suit he speaks like he’s incomplete, missing an essential part of his body, like someone who'd lost a limb or eye.

Carnage has left Kasady on a few occasions, his most impressive host being the cosmically powered Silver Surfer, but he always returns to Kasady somehow. They're a disturbing pair of kindred spirits, like Bonnie and Clyde. In the Deadpool vs. Carnage comic, we see the suit going to extreme lengths to return to Kasady, traveling hundreds of miles and consuming many hosts to return to him. It’s like Homeward Bound, but with a psycho instead of a family and an evil alien instead of two dogs and a cat. Not a family film, that one.

Do to the “graphic” nature of Kasady and Carnage, the two haven’t been seen all that often outside of the comics. His biggest role was in the 90s Spider-man: The Animated Series. In this show he was toned down from serial killer to mad bomber of empty buildings. Fox Kids, man, Fox Kids. This version does include a few interesting quirks, like Carnage constantly referring to Venom as “Dad” followed by a mad mocking cackle. Other than those changes, his origin remained more or less the same. Cellmate of Brock’s, got the suit after Brock left, the only real difference was that the suits return and its child’s choice in partner was orchestrated by the demon Dormammu and his lieutenant Baron Mordo. Fun fact, Baron Mordo was voiced by Tony Jay, whom did the voice of Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame around the same time. Minion of Evil to hypocrite Judge/Priest… weird. Back on task.

He looks calm, but he's probably fighting
some horrible killing impulse right now.

Carnage was also a major antagonist in the short lived series Spider-man Unlimited. This version’s design was heavily redesigned, and for some reason he now works real well with dear old Dad, Venom. He and Venom were also demonstrated to be more physically linked to their Symbiotes then before. What I mean is, despite being two solid organism inside two semi-liquid creatures, the two behaved like they were more liquid. They could break down into a pile of goo, and slip through impossibly small openings like a sewer grate. In the intro episode Carnage is shot clean through the stomach, and does this creepy evil speech as he peaks through his stomach hole. His head goes through the hole as his entire body re-orientates itself. Creepy. And really should be impossible because a guy is in there, but like I said, they are more gooey in this version.

Carnage, the suit, appears in Ultimate Spider-man. They follow the Ultimate Comic’s version of the character, its an artificial bioweapon, used by combining the original Venom suit, with the Goblin formula, and finally Peter’s already hybrid DNA. The result is a raving monster, screeching loudly and stabbing random people with spines. For some reason, once the two were separated it reverted to a normal Venom Symbiote. Go figure.

Carnage will seemingly be the antagonist of a later Spider-man spinoff movie Venom Carnage scheduled sometime in 2017. We’re at the barest of bare bones set up at the moment, so not a single detail to my knowledge exists other than the tentative release date. Oh, the world we live in.

Carnage is a great villain simply because he is the absolute black. It’s kind of refreshing now a days where there are so many villains that are in shades of grey that we have such a truly perfect example of pure, unmitigated evil. Whether separate or together Carnage is hell bend on spreading pain, chaos, and suffering where ever he goes. There is no good in him. There is no redeemable quality. I’d even go so far as to say that he is perhaps one of the single greatest soulless characters ever to bloody comic book pages. He is Chaos. He is Death. He is CARNAGE!

He’s basically the Joker if that particular psycho was given a suit of living goo. Joker Carnage? Oh, I shutter even to think about it. Next time, the grudge match twenty odd years in the making, the Essential Story of Deadpool vs. Carnage. It’s gonna be b-l-o-o-d-y.

How do you know you're evil? When two people who despise each other agree you need to be put down.

 http://marvel.wikia.com/Cletus_Kasady_%28Earth-616%29

 http://avengersalliance.wikia.com/wiki/Carnage/Dialogues

 http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/cosmic-carnage-vs-red-hulk-with-ss-surfboard-687811/

 http://marvelanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Carnage

 https://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/111587/will-should-carnage-be-released-as-a-villain-when-venom-is-released-as-a-playable-hero