Carnage

Little is verifiably known about Cletus Kasady’s origin due to the unreliable nature of his own recollections and the obscurity of his records. He was reportedly born in the Ravencroft Institute to a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, who died shortly after his birth. Following her death, he was placed in the custody of an elderly woman, believed to be his grandmother, who subjected him to abuse. In response, Cletus pushed her down a flight of stairs, killing her. He was then remanded to the care of Roscoe and Louise, who were either foster parents or his biological father and stepmother. During this time, Kasady mutilated and killed his stepmother's dog out of jealousy. The resulting domestic violence led to Louise's death and Roscoe's arrest. Cletus refused to defend Roscoe in court, leading to the latter’s execution.

Declared an orphan, Kasady was sent to the St. Estes Home for Boys, where he was routinely abused by both staff and other children. There, he began developing sociopathic behaviors, including setting fires and developing a fixation with pain and death. He formed a brief friendship with a boy named Billy Bentine and fell in love with a girl who ultimately rejected him. Kasady responded by pushing a different girl in front of a school bus and later burned down the entire orphanage, killing staff and children alike.

As an adult, Kasady evolved into a sadistic, cannibalistic serial killer. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to eleven consecutive life terms in Ryker’s Island. His cellmate was Eddie Brock, the former host of the alien symbiote known as Venom. Though Kasady sought to convert Brock to his nihilistic philosophy, Brock violently rejected him. Unbeknownst to both, the Venom symbiote was pregnant and, during a jailbreak, left behind an offspring that bonded to a cut on Kasady’s hand and merged with his bloodstream.

The result was Carnage — a red-and-black organism fused directly into Kasady’s circulatory system, granting him power vastly surpassing that of Spider-Man and Venom combined. He escaped, began a killing spree across New York, and adopted the moniker “Carnage.” At the site of each murder, he scrawled “Carnage Rules” in his own blood. Despite Spider-Man’s efforts, Carnage overwhelmed him in combat until he reluctantly teamed with Venom. The combined might of Spider-Man and Venom eventually subdued Carnage, and he was imprisoned at Ravencroft.

While incarcerated, a doctor attempting to study his mind inadvertently reawakened the symbiote. Carnage escaped and formed an alliance with other supervillains—Shriek, Demogoblin, Carrion, and Doppelganger—in a city-wide massacre later dubbed “Maximum Carnage.” They were eventually defeated by an alliance of heroes, including Spider-Man, Venom, and others.

Kasady later learned of a video game called “Carnage Unleashed” and used Ravencroft’s network access to send a digitized fragment of his symbiote through telephone lines to murder the developers. He eventually hacked Ravencroft’s security and escaped, but was rendered comatose in a cyber-battle with Venom.

He reawakened during a symbiote invasion of Earth and discovered he could feed on other symbiotes to grow stronger. After another imprisonment at Ravencroft, the symbiote briefly possessed John Jameson and later Ben Reilly, Spider-Man’s clone. Carnage eventually reclaimed it. A botched security upgrade at Ravencroft allowed him to escape once more, though an encounter with the Silver Surfer severed their bond and revealed that Kasady had terminal cancer. Despite being temporarily petrified, the Carnage symbiote returned to him and reanimated his body.

Venom later attacked and devoured the Carnage symbiote, leaving Kasady powerless. Delusional, he continued to murder while covered in red paint, believing he retained some of the symbiote’s power. He eventually regained a new Carnage symbiote by allying with Blastaar in the Negative Zone but betrayed him in an attempt to destroy reality itself. He was defeated and returned to Earth, but retained the symbiote.

During a later conflict with Venom, Carnage gave birth to a new symbiote: Toxin. Fearing the newborn’s potential, Carnage attempted to kill it, but failed. Toxin bonded with NYPD officer Patrick Mulligan. Carnage reluctantly allied with Venom to eliminate Toxin, but both were defeated.

Kasady later participated in a breakout attempt at the Raft prison. The Sentry stopped him by flying him into orbit and ripping him in half. However, the symbiote preserved him in a dormant state. Eventually, Carnage’s body crashed into a satellite owned by Hall Industries, where scientists experimented on him, separating Cletus and the symbiote. He was outfitted with cybernetic limbs. The Carnage symbiote reawakened within Dr. Tanis Nieves, a victim of Doppelganger’s attack. Once reunited, Cletus and the symbiote slaughtered Hall Industries personnel and became “Mass Carnage” by assimilating symbiote-based Iron Man exosuits.

Carnage traveled to Doverton, Colorado, where he enslaved the town using cloned symbiotes. The Avengers responded but were overtaken. With Agent Venom’s help, Carnage was captured after his legs were destroyed again.

Later, Carnage traveled to the Microverse, where he allied with and betrayed forces seeking to use him to develop a symbiote army. He seized control of the entire army, returning to Earth and nearly destroying New York. He was ultimately stopped by Venom and Scarlet Spider, and left catatonic, his body fully controlled by the symbiote.

The Wizard later retrieved Carnage to add him to the Frightful Four, but failed to control him. Karl Malus became the new temporary host. Eventually, Cletus regained the symbiote, and their rebonding “repaired” his lobotomized brain. Cletus became a model prisoner, but was murdered by Dr. Jenner, a psychologist who sought to become Carnage. The symbiote refused and reanimated Cletus, killing everyone in the facility.

Seeking chaos once more, Carnage drew the attention of Deadpool. Their conflict caused Cletus to doubt his beliefs in randomness, especially after nearly killing Shriek. He voluntarily confined himself again. He was recruited by Magneto during the Red Onslaught crisis. After the inversion spell altered his moral axis, Cletus became obsessed with becoming a hero. He fought villains, stopped crimes with minimal casualties, and even attempted a romantic partnership with a journalist named Alice Gleason. However, when she betrayed him, he reaffirmed his misguided goal of heroism and joined the Astonishing Avengers.

During the Battle of Manhattan, Carnage sacrificed himself to contain a gene bomb meant to kill all non-mutants. Though believed dead, he survived, having lost his legs. After the inversion spell was reversed, he rejected his time as a hero and sought out Nova, wanting to erase all memory of his altruism. He fought Nova repeatedly until the young hero used loud music to subdue him. Bound and abandoned by the symbiote, Cletus was once again imprisoned.

Appearance: Cletus Kasady is a lean, wiry man with a pale complexion and sharp facial features. He has messy, bright red hair and prominent cheekbones. His eyes are wide and sunken, often with a manic or crazed expression.

Carnage has a tall, lean, and muscular humanoid build covered in a red symbiotic suit veined with black tendrils. His face is black with large, white, irregularly shaped eyes and an open mouth filled with long, jagged teeth. His fingers and arms can morph into bladed claws, and multiple tendrils extend from his back and limbs.

The Carnage symbiote grants its host a red-and-black organic suit and significantly enhances Kasady’s already dangerous nature. It provides superhuman strength that surpasses both Spider-Man and Venom combined, with its power increasing in proportion to its size and emotional environment. It can grow exponentially stronger by feeding on the negative emotions of others. The symbiote gives Kasady enhanced durability, reflexes, agility, stamina, and the ability to survive in extreme environments, including underwater and in toxic gas, by filtering breathable air. Its regenerative healing factor allows Carnage to recover from virtually any injury—even decapitation or total bodily destruction—as long as even a trace of biomass remains.

Carnage also possesses several specialized traits. It can cling to surfaces like Spider-Man, possesses limited telepathy that allows it to project insanity or memories into other minds, and can take control of technology or prosthetics, even hacking advanced systems like Iron Man’s armor. The symbiote produces organic webbing and sharp claws and fangs used in melee combat. It can generate tendrils and biomass-based appendages for strangling or impaling enemies, and shape its mass into weapons like blades, axes, spikes, or even wings. These constructs can be used at close range or as short-lived projectiles. Each cell of its body functions as a sensory receptor, giving Carnage a 360-degree awareness of its surroundings.

Carnage is immune to Spider-Man’s spider-sense and can suppress its presence to avoid detection by Venom. It is capable of mimicking clothes, camouflaging with its environment, and even disguising itself as other people. In rare cases, it has dispersed itself through the internet using Ethernet cables and could psychically control extensions of itself across large populations. Carnage can assimilate other beings into its biomass to grow stronger, and its touch is corrosive—prolonged contact is often fatal to others. It can stretch, deform, and invade tight spaces, including technological systems, and replicate powers from previous hosts via parasitic genetic inheritance. The symbiote thrives on negative emotions, converting them into raw power through empathic empowerment.

Cletus Kasady’s schizophrenia allows the symbiote to further unhinge and distort his perception of reality, enhancing their destructive potential. Though Carnage was originally vulnerable to sonic attacks and fire like other symbiotes, exposure to the eldritch energies of the Darkhold altered its composition. It has since lost its weaknesses to heat and sound, and is now only susceptible to Chthonic magic.