When it comes to the scariest villains in Spider-Man’s universe, few reach the level of Carnage. He first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #360, bringing in a second symbiote villain after Venom proved to be so popular. However, Carnage was very different than Venom. Instead of Venom’s role as an antihero, Carnage was pure evil.

Even before he became Carnage, Cletus Kasady was a serial killer and a very bad person. Once the Carnage symbiote bonded with him, that created one of the vilest symbiotes in Marvel Comics. While Carnage was mostly a villain for Venom, he was also one of Spider-Man’s top villains and they had several conflicts over the years.

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Carnage Is Stronger Than Spider-Man And Venom

Since Venom first bonded with Spider-Man, it possessed some of his powers and when he bonded with Eddie Brock, he proved to be stronger than Spider-Man. Carnage was formed by the symbiote offspring of Venom, and all offspring is stronger than their parent.

Not only is Carnage more powerful than Venom, but he has proven to be stronger than Venom and Spider-Man added together. Carnage can lift up to 80 tons, which is far more than Spider-Man, who can lift around 10 tons.

Carnage Forced Spider-Man To Finally Team With Venom

When Carnage bonded with Cletus Kasady, he escaped from prison and went on a rampage, killing innocent people. Spider-Man tried to stop him and he wasn’t able to stand up to him. Venom hated no one more than he hated Spider-Man and the two never saw eye to eye.

However, when Spider-Man told Eddie Brock that Carnage was killing innocents, Venom came out and agreed to help Spider-Man. It took one of the vilest and deadly villains Spider-Man ever fought in Carnage to force him to make nice with Venom.

Cletus Kasady Tried To Fight Spider-Man Without Carnage

There was one point where Cletus Kasady had lost the symbiote that was bonded to him. However, Kasady believed that he still had the power of Carnage just because they used to be bonded together. Cletus went out on another killing spree.

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Cletus then challenged Spider-Man to try to stop him, painting his face red to show he still believed he was Carnage. While he was much more powerful than Spider-Man as Carnage, he had no chance as Kasady and Spider-Man knocked him out with one punch.

Carnage Tried Bond With Ben Reilly

The Carnage symbiote has almost exclusively bonded with Cletus Kasady. It is clear that some symbiotes will find different hosts, as Venom has bonded with several different heroes, including Spider-Man. There was even a time that Carnage tried to bond with Spider-Man.

This was not Peter Parker, though. This moment was during Ben Reilly’s time as Spider-Man and he turned into Spider-Carnage. The good news is that Ben kept control and got Carnage off of him.

Carnage Created A Team To Fight Spider-Man

In Maximum Carnage, the villain knew that he needed help because, no matter how powerful Carnage was, he couldn’t seem to beat Spider-Man, who was always willing to find someone to help him, mostly when he turned to Venom for assistance.

Carnage decided he would build a team of his own to beat Spider-Man and he brought in Shriek, Demogoblin, Carrion, and Spider-Man’s doppelganger, and they went on a rampage. Spider-Man still had more friends, and found plenty of help to stop this entire team.

Carnage Made Spider-Man Fight The Avengers

Carnage finally decided it was time to take away all of Spider-Man’s allies so there would be no one left to help him. Carnage, knowing that he was stronger than Spider-Man, set out and in Carnage USA, took over an entire town with symbiotes.

When the Avengers showed up, he took over them too. Carnage than had the possessed Avengers attack and battle Spider-Man. Lucky for Spider-Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Venom showed up and helped Spider-Man win his toughest battle with Carnage.

Spider-Man Stopped Carnage From Killing His Son

When Venom spawned the Carnage symbiote and it bonded with Cletus Kasady, it created a being more powerful than Venom. This incident repeated itself when Carnage spawned his own symbiote, which meant it would be more powerful than both Venom and Carnage.

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This was Toxin and Carnage convinced Venom to help him kill the symbiote. However, Toxin bonded with a police officer and it chose to be a hero. Spider-Man and Black Cat teamed up and stopped Carnage from killing his son.

The Ultimate Version Partially Had Spider-Man’s DNA

Carnage in the Ultimate Marvel Universe was very different from the one in the main Marvel timeline. In this world, Venom was not an alien but a symbiote created by Peter Parker and Eddie Brock’s dads. Carnage was also created by a scientist.

In this case, it was Dr. Curt Conners who created Carnage and he used two things to create this monster. He used Peter Parker’s DNA and the Venom symbiote. This led Carnage to seek out its

It Was Many Years Before Carnage Learned Spider-Man’s Identity

Venom always knew that Spider-Man was Peter Parker. However, even with Carnage possessing many Spider-Man traits thanks to Venom being his father, he never knew that Spidey was Peter Parker. It took almost 30 years after his introduction for him to figure this out.

This happened in 2019 when Dark Carnage disguised himself as Eddie Brock. With this disguise, Carnage learned for the first time that Eddie had a son and then the real Eddie arrived and accidentally gave away Spider-Man’s identity to Carnage, putting everyone Peter loved in danger.

Carnage Took Over Spider-Man’s Worst Enemy

For most of his existence, Carnage was bonded with Cletus Kasady. It was the pure evil of Kasady that helped make Carnage so deadly. However, Carnage bonded with someone who had an even closer connection to Spider-Man. Norman Osborn bonded with Carnage and became Red Goblin.

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This led Red Goblin to almost destroying Spider-Man and it took Peter knowing Norman as well as he does to stop him. Peter relied on Norman’s arrogance and convinced him that the world would think Cletus beat him, so Norman released the symbiote and fought as Green Goblin, losing to Spider-Man.

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About The Author


Shawn S. Lealos
(828 Articles Published)

Shawn S. Lealos is a senior writer on ScreenRant who fell in love with movies in 1989 after going to the theater to see Tim Burton’s Batman as his first big screen experience.

Shawn received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma with a minor in Film Studies. He has worked as a journalist for over 25 years, first in the world of print journalism before moving to online media as the world changed. Shawn is a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists and current member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has work published in newspapers such as Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma Gazette and magazines such as Vox Magazine, Loud Magazine, and Inside Sports Magazine. His work on the Internet has been featured on websites like The Huffington Post, Yahoo Movies, Chud, Renegade Cinema, 411mania, and Sporting News.

Shawn is also a published author, with a non-fiction book about the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers and has begun work on a new fiction series as well. Visit Shawn Lealos’ website to learn more about his novel writing and follow him on Twitter @sslealos.

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