Carnage
Real Name: Cletus Kasady (and with a name like that, he pretty much had to become a serial killer!)
First Appearance: As Cletus, Amazing Spider-Man 345, after a cameo in 344. As Carnage, 361, after a cameo in 360.
What's His Problem? Cletus was seriously abused in the orphanage that he grew up in (of course, he may have gotten to the orphanage by murdering one or both of his parents; the history's a little vague there), and has been trying to repay society for letting him down by creating chaos. He was a serial killer serving multiple life sentences when he met Eddie Brock, AKA Venom. At the time, Eddie lacked his symbiotic "other". When the symbiont broke Eddie out of prison, it left behind a "spawn" that merged with Kasady. Thus "Carnage" was born, giving Cletus his chance to generate chaos on a larger scale than ever.
Abilities: Apart from a certain talent for killing anyone weaker than himself, Kasady has zippo. Once he bonded with the spawn of Venom, however, he became one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe. The symbiont, which is merged with Kasady's bloodstream and thus inseparable from Kasady, is capable of extending itself into what-ever form Kasady desires. Being a nasty kind of guy, Kasady is usually making it assume shapes with cutting edges...
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: Spider-Man brought the first symbiont to Earth, and feels the responsibility for the creation of both Venom and Carnage keenly. The words "Carnage is loose" will send the Web Slinger racing toward where-ever Carnage happens to be. In addition, Venom loathes his "offspring's" lack of control and is determined to do Carnage in. At one time or another, Carnage has faced just about every hero in New York City, since it takes just about all of them to put him back in the insane asylum.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: Carnage's consort Shriek loves him unconditionally, even if he physically abuses her, as long as he lets her kill somebody every now and again. The demonic Doppleganger tolerated Carnage for Shriek's sake but became a Carnage victim himself.
Most Despicable Act: The aptly-named Maximum Carnage storyline, which ran through all the Spidey books for several months, saw Carnage annexing New York City and slaughtering literally hundreds of people before a team of super-heroes lead by Spider-Man and Venom stopped him. The tourism industry never recovered...
Carnage Sound Bytes!
From the Spider-Man animated series. All sounds in .wav format.
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