Carnage is the New King in Black’s Greatest Failure

Warning: contains spoilers for Extreme Carnage: Toxin #1

The latest issue of Extreme Carnage makes a point of suggesting that the greatest failure of Venom, the new King in Black, is the return of symbiote super-villain Carnage. Recently reborn in the wake of the King In Black crossover event, Carnage has been causing…well carnage by seeking out and corrupting his symbiote siblings: the Life Foundation Symbiotes.

After the death of Knull the god of the symbiotes at the hands of Eddie Brock in King in Black #5, written by Donny Cates with art by Ryan Stegman, the consciousness of Carnage’s host, the serial killer Cletus Kasady, has reasserted control inside the hive-mind shared by all symbiotes. Seizing control of a fraction of a symbiote that survived Knull’s invasion of Earth, Extreme Carnage has depicted the super-villain seeking out his siblings, the five symbiotes birthed by Venom during his imprisonment by the Life Foundation, and taking control of them through sheer force of will. His motives remain unclear but former Venom and current Anti-Venom Flash Thompson is doing his best to hunt down and kill Carnage once and for all.

However in Extreme Carnage: Toxin #1, written by Steve Orlando with art by Gerardo Sandoval and Danilo S. Beyruth, Carnage points out that his current rampage shouldn’t really be Flash’s problem. In the issue, Carnage is seeking out his own offspring Toxin, the 1,000th symbiote of the Venom/Carnage genealogy. Toxin is currently bonded to teenager Bren Waters and feels like it has last found a true partner. Toxin’s father, however, doesn’t share his son’s warm and fuzzy sentiments. Toxin finds itself pulled into the hive-mind where it is confronted by Carnage, who attempts to take control of it in the same manner he coerced its siblings. When Toxin asks how Carnage is still alive after Eddie Brock’s attempt to kill him, Carnage replies that Eddie is too busy dealing with a universe of symbiotes to deal with Carnage.

While it’s easy to dismiss this comment as a throwaway remark by the sadistically-flippant Carnage, it’s also possible to argue that he has a point. At the end of King in Black #5, Eddie Brock became the new King in Black, gaining the power to commune with and control every symbiote across the universe. He remarked to Spider-Man that these new powers made him technically omniscient. Yet he gave Flash, Toxin, and the Life Foundation Symbiotes no warning of Carnage’s return and hasn’t currently lifted a single gooey-space-talon to help them. It’s true that he’s probably busy mentoring his son, the new Venom, but he could have at least dropped them a quick telepathic voice-note or even clued in the Avengers. From this perspective, it’s hard not to see that all the blood that’s been spilled by Carnage since his return is on Eddie Brock’s godlike hands.

Luckily for Toxin, Extreme Carnage: Toxin #1 ends with the symbiote soundly defeating its father’s attempts to telepathically control it. After Toxin seeks out Anti-Venom and the new symbiote hero Silence, the trio is united in their goal to do Venom‘s job and stop Carnage, thus correcting the failure of the new King in Black. To find out what happens readers will have to pick up Extreme Carnage: Agony #1.

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