Warning! Contains spoilers For Carnage #1!Carnage has always fancied himself as a god, but now he’s actively begun trying to pursue it, and it seems he’s a lot closer than people might think. One of the most terrifying serial killers in comic books, Carnage aka Cletus Kasady has been on many adventures over the years as he’s slaughtered his way through the Marvel Universe. But his new ultimate goal isn’t mass slaughter, it’s to become a true god.
In Carnage #1 by Torunn Gronbekk, Pere Perez, Erick Arciniega, and Joe Sabino, Carnage continues on his journey to commit mass slaughter across the universe when he is confronted by the Lord Librarian of the Halls of All-Knowing. The Lord Librarian questions Carnage’s belief that he is a god. He asks the symbiote villain: if he is a god, then who worships him? Who prays to him? These were questions that Carnage does not have answers for. Banished by the Lord Librarian back to Earth, Cletus has begun changing his approach to killing.
Instead of just slaughtering people at random, Carnage has begun trying to inspire people to see how he views the world. Carnage hopes this will attract worshipers and eventually give him the power he needs to become truly divine.
Carnage Can Still Be Redeemed, & Marvel’s Darkest Future Proved It
There are few villains in Marvel as sadistic or monstrous as Cletus Kasady, but despite all of that one dark future proves Carnage can be saved.
Carnage Has Been Worshiped Before
Carnage has died and comes back to life plenty of times, leading some people in the Marvel Universe to view Carnage as an actual immortal. It seems that Carnage is now starting to agree with this assessment, since after he comes back to life again, he’s begun trying to put together a new religion, one that worships him specifically. Carnage wants to make his divinity official and, considering he seems to already have the immortality part down, the only thing he needs now is worshipers. This is a problem because, historically, Carnage has already had a few cults dedicated to him in the past.
The new Carnage series sees Carnage trying to assemble a cult to worship him, but he’s already had a few previously. In 2018’s Web of Venom: Carnage Born by Donny Cates and Danilo Beyruth, Cletus is resurrected by the Cult of Knull, also known as the Church of Darkness. While this cult technically worships Knull the King in Black, not Carnage, they view Carnage as their messiah, their link to Knull. Because of this, they revive him from death and sacrifice themselves to him. Carnage has never really struggled to gather people who want to follow him. His recurring girlfriend Shriek is a good example of this. While Carnage is now starting from square one, it’s unlikely it’ll take him long to draw people into his way of thinking again.
Carnage is Building A Church Around Himself
Cletus Kasady has been worshiped by cults before, but it was always in the service of a greater god, like Knull. Now that Cletus is back on Earth and stronger than ever, he’s changing his tactics and trying to prove that he can truly become a god if he wants to. All Carnage needs is to gather enough people to his way of thinking, who will worship and pray for the slaughter that he deals out, and Carnage will officially be a god in the Marvel Universe.
