Carnage is one of the most dangerous and chaotic villains in the Marvel Comics universe, primarily serving as an enemy of Spider-Man and Venom. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 in 1992. Carnage is the result of a fusion between the alien symbiote offspring of Venom and a deeply disturbed serial killer named Cletus Kasady. Unlike Eddie Brock, who retains some sense of morality while bonded with Venom, Cletus fully embraces the violent and bloodthirsty nature of the symbiote, creating a far more lethal combination.
The Carnage symbiote amplifies Kasady’s already twisted personality, granting him enhanced strength, agility, and the ability to shape-shift parts of his body into deadly weapons like blades and tendrils. What makes Carnage especially terrifying is his complete disregard for life and obsession with chaos. He doesn’t kill for power or revenge—he kills because he enjoys it. This makes him unpredictable and virtually impossible to reason with.
Visually, Carnage is often depicted as a grotesque, red-and-black mass of writhing tendrils and jagged forms, with a jagged, gaping mouth full of sharp teeth and no clear boundaries between where the symbiote ends and Kasady begins. His appearance is far more monstrous and unstable than Venom’s, reflecting his volatile nature.