Of all the rogues’ gallery of the Amazing Spider-Man, few have managed to accrue the body count of Cletus Kasady, also known as the symbiote-clad, crimson catastrophe known as Carnage. Since snagging a little piece of his cellmate Eddie Brock’s alien costume, Carnage has been an absolute headache for not only Spidey and Brock’s alter ego Venom, but basically anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. Nevertheless, the scarlet serial killer has been knocked out on more than a few occasions, but always seems to come back swingin’ (and killin’). What makes this vile, villainous vandal such a redoubtable force?
The answer came in the 1993 Spider-Man crossover event “Maximum Carnage”, which featured a wide array of heroes ranging from Cloak & Dagger, Morbius and Captain America, teaming up in a makeshift army to take down the sadistic Carnage and his newly formed “family” made up of a few of Spidey’s more horrifying Z-list villains. Kasady, having been remanded to the custody of the Ravenloft Mental Institution, breaks out after mysteriously regaining his powers following an injection, murdering everyone in the hospital except his newly-met girlfriend and fellow inmate Shriek. Shriek, a mutant who possesses powers that allow her to emit sonic blasts, also has the ability to drive people into a psychotic rage, and so amidst a killing spree of terrifying proportions across New York City, violent riots begin breaking out, driving the city further into chaos.
While initially unclear as to what the cause of his resurgence might be, the answer is later revealed to be the symbiote having bonded with Kasady to the point where it infected his blood, meaning that any puncturing of his skin that might cause bleeding will unleash the maniacal murdering Carnage back upon humanity. One has to wonder how he hadn’t scraped his skin or some kind of similar mishap until then, but perhaps he was looking forward to the element of surprise. This is finally exhibited when, in battle with Firestar and a sonic-gun wielding Venom in Central Park, Carnage’s symbiote is nearly killed and Shriek is forced to take drastic measures. Being as a symbiote’s two known weaknesses were sonics and fire, the heroes’ strategy seemed to be brilliant at the time, however, their folly is revealed when Shriek dramatically scratches Kasady’s cheek, and the ensuing blood forms up around his body to take the form of Carnage once again.
“Maximum Carnage” as a storyline represents both the best and the worst of the Marvel’s crossover trends of ’90s, in that it has a compelling story, amazing (if not inconsistent) art and wide plethora of characters, some of whom like Felicia Hardy (the Black Cat) are given a chance to show resiliancy and characteristic heroism. On the other hand, the crossover suffers from far too many characters, mainly new and under-utilized ones, made in an effort to attract attention to other then-current books. This could be chalked up to editorial demands, but also likely due to the several different creative teams working on the same story, as the crossover united all four then-current monthly Spider-Man titles and created one new one (Spider-Man Unlimited), causing uneven and somewhat aimless storytelling.
What ends up saving the story for posterity is the excellent writing given to the villain, as well as the often amazingly creative and highly disturbing imagery by the artists of the time, including Mark Bagley, Sal Buscema and Tom Lyle. And Carnage is depicted in all his terrifying glory for this event. Following his regeneration, Carnage and his family absolutely destroy the heroes and capture Venom, keeping him tortured over a brazier in their new base: the Statue of Liberty! Venom later learns a thing or two from Carnage’s ploy and escapes after sabotaging the stolen sonic gun Carnage was using to enhance the torture with his own tendrils of symbiote.
Following Carnage’s defeat at the end of the event during a psychotic break in which he attempted to dig up his mother’s coffin, the symbiote would develop a sometimes abusive pattern of leaving Kasady to find other hosts. While Kasady would attempt to fight Spider-Man without the symbiote’s assistance, the two would always reunite somehow, ending in Kasady’s death in the pages of recent Donny Cates penned Venom story-arc “Absolute Carnage”. Most likely though, Cletus Kasady, the original Carnage will return at some point.
