CARNAGE

 

CARNAGE

Real Name: Cletus Kasady

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #344, February 1991 (As Kasady); The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #360, March 1992 (As Carnage)

Powers: Cletus Kasady was an incarcerated sociopathic serial killer serving 11 consecutive life sentences when he bonded with an alien Symbiote. The Symbiotes are a bloodthirsty but otherwise emotionless race composed of viscous protoplasm. They graft onto the adrenal and nervous system of other beings, using them as hosts. Symbiotes reproduce asexually by budding once per generation. Kasady bonded with a Symbiote spawned from that of his cellmate Eddie Brock (Venom) which was mutated by gestation in an alien environment: Earth's.

Carnage's original Symbiote was actually destroyed by a sonic barrage, but it left his metabolism permanently mutated. A mutagenic factor in his blood enabled Kasady to manifest a non-sentient replica of his Symbiote out of his blood whenever it was exposed to the open air. This modified costume was far more resilient to sonics than the original that was destroyed, and even if flames or microwaves destroy it, the "Symbiote" could be summoned again moments later by Kasady shedding fresh blood. During the Planet of the Symbiotes event, Earth was overrun with an invasion force of Symbiotes. Carnage found he could absorb other Symbiotes into his costume, increasing his size and strength in the process, until he eventually stood over 100 feet tall. Though he was defeated and returned to normal size, later stories showed Kasady physically separating from his Symbiote again, suggesting he restored his living Symbiote during this period, replacing the bio-costume replica in his system. Time and again, Kasady has demonstrated the ability to recreate his Symbiote as needed. When Venom stole back and destroyed his Carnage Symbiote, Kasady eventually located another Symbiote from Venom's race in the Negative Zone. Despite being completely different from his original, Kasady was able to bond with this Symbiote and then mutate it into a duplicate of his own unique symbiotic costume.

Carnage possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes when employing his Symbiote. His costume somehow had made him stronger than Venom and Spider-Man combined, giving him roughly Class 50 strength or higher. He also duplicates Spider-Man's wall-crawling and Venom's abilities to nullify the spider-sense and alter the Symbiote into clothing. The original Symbiote could relay visual data for Kasady like Venom's as well, but might not have been capable of doing this after the original version of the Carnage Symbiote was destroyed. Carnage has not demonstrated the ability to turn invisible or produce webbing like Venom. Instead, the blood-red Symbiote manipulates its substance in other ways. Carnage can extend tendrils of his costume's substance like Venom, only with much greater versatility. His prehensile filaments can be razor-tipped or -lined, acting as lethal blades. He can extend his costume as talons over his fingers or as duplicates of Wolverine's claws. He can stretch out his costume like a web-line, allowing him to swing through the city, or as a high speed blunt- or sharp-tipped extension. Carnage can also expel portions of his costume as projectiles, creating throwing blades and axes, or a spray of razor sharp darts. These projections dissolve into ash about 10 seconds after disconnecting from his mass. Carnage can accelerate the growth of his costume's bio-mass using negative emotions or raw meat as a catalyst. At full recorded dispersal, he can produce enough symbiotic material to overtake an entire town, flooding through every corner thanks to the water pipes and manipulating close to a thousand people like puppets.