Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (published in 1992), Carnage is a supervillain, pure and simple. Being an offspring of Venom (see reading order to know more), Carnage is a Symbiote, an extraterrestrial organism who bonds with a host to which he gave superpowers.
In this case, even if it had multiple hosts through the years, Carnage is famously connected to its first, the sadistic serial killer Cletus Kasady. Everything began when, after Venom left behind him its offspring in a prison cell, the new symbiote connected with Eddie Brock’s cellmate, Kasady. Together, they left behind them chaos and deaths.
Envision as a darker version of Venom, Carnage is more violent, powerful, and – simply put – deadly. He became an adversary of Spider-Man of course, but also the archenemy of Venom. At times, Carnage was put at the center of multiple storylines, crossovers, and events, spreading fear throughout the Marvel Universe.
Carnage Reading Order
For more information about other symbiotes, see Venomverse: our ultimate guide to Marvel’s Main Symbiote Characters.
First, if Carnage made its debut in Amazing Spider-Man #361, Cletus Kasady first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #344-345 (collected in The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Return of the Sinister Six) when he was sharing a cell with Eddie Brock at Riker’s Island Prison Complex.
- Carnage Epic Collection: Born in Blood
Collects Amazing Spider-Man #361-363 and #378-380, Web of Spider-Man #101-103, Spider-Man #35-37, Spectacular Spider-Man #201-203 and material from Spider-Man Unlimited #1-2, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28.
This first volume collects the famous Maximum Carnage storyline in which Carnage has assembled an army of the web-slinger’s criminally insane adversaries to spread his message of hostility, chaos, and wholesale slaughter in the street of New York. This is also collected in another book in the same collection (but without the first three Carnage issues):
- Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Maximum Carnage
Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #378-380, Web of Spider-Man (1985) #101-103, Spider-Man (1990) #35-37, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #201-203, Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes (1993) one-shot, material from Spider-Man Unlimited (1993) #1-2.
After that, Carnage came back in another Spider-Man storyline (called Power and Responsibility) during the Clone Saga era (see reading order), but as a secondary character. It’s optional here. It’s a three-part story: Web of Spider-Man #117, Amazing Spider-Man #394, and Spectacular Spider-Man #217, collected in The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic Book 1.
And then, Carnage escapes the Ravencroft Institute. He’s back with a vengeance.
- Carnage Epic Collection: Web of Carnage
Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #403 And #410, Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1-4, Carnage: Mind Bomb, Sensational Spider-Man (1996) #3, Spider-Man (1990) #67, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #233, Carnage: It’s A Wonderful Life And Venom: On Trial #2-3 — Plus Material From Amazing Spider-Man Super Special, Spider-Man Super Special, Venom Super Special, Spectacular Spider-Man Super Special And Web Of Spider-Man Super Special.- In the middle of that, Carnage appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #403 (collected in The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic Book 4), part 2 of the Trial of Peter Parker storyline.
Not collected here is the apparition of Carnage Cosmic in Amazing Spider-Man #430-431, and the first appearance of the second Carnage Symbiote, all collected with a few previous issues in:
- Carnage Classic
Collects Amazing Spider-Man #361-363, 410, 430-431, Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1-4, Carnage: Mind Bomb #1, Carnage: It’s A Wonderful Life #1, Sensational Spider-Man #3, Spider-Man #67, Spectacular Spider-Man #233, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #13, Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #13-14 and material from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28.
Venom’s offspring, Carnage, is about to have a baby itself – a creature of indescribable power and appetites. Question is, who’s gonna bring up the baby?
- Venom vs Carnage
Collects Venom vs Carnage (2004) #1-4.
After that, Carnage ended up a prisoner of The Raft. A breakout forced the New Avengers to intervene in the super-prison and a series of events led to the presumed death of the Symbiote in New Avengers #2. You can read that in:
- The New Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout
Collects New Avengers #1-6.
Five years later. Carnage is back with a short miniseries that mostly rectified everything that happened to the Symbiote in The New Avengers. Carnage acquired new capacities, that led to the Carnage U.S.A miniseries (set after Venom Vol. 2 #15), then to the Minimum Carnage and Superior Carnage crossover storylines.
- Carnage: Family Feud
Collects Carnage #1-5. - Carnage U.S.A
Collects Carnage U.S.A #1-5.
- Minimum Carnage
Collects Minimum Carnage: Alpha and Omega, Scarlet Spider (2012) #10-12, Venom (2011) #26-27. - Superior Carnage
Collects Superior Carnage #1-5. - Deadpool vs. Carnage
Collects Deadpool vs. Carnage #1-4.
Marvel Event: Axis! The Red Onslaught is broadcasting waves of telepathic hate across the globe, and Marvel’s greatest heroes have turned on their moral axis! During that event, Carnage joined Magneto’s team. He appeared in AXIS #2, Magneto #11, AXIS #3, Deadpool #36, Magneto #12, AXIS #4, AXIS: Carnage #1-3, Nova #24, AXIS #6-8, Loki: Agent of Asgard #9, and Nova #25 (see the reading order of the event).
- Avengers & X-Men: Axis
Collects Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1-9 - Magneto Vol. 2: Reversals
Collects Magneto #7-12. - Axis: Carnage & Hobgoblin
Collects Axis: Hobgoblin #1-3, Axis: Carnage #1-3. - Nova Vol. 5: Axis
Collects Nova (2013) #23-27. After the event, we learned what happened to Carnage in #26-27.
Published in 2018, the Carnage Omnibus (hard to find nowadays) collects most of the stories revolving around Carnage after Maximum Carnage up to the important Axis stories.
- Carnage Omnibus
Collects Venom vs. Carnage #1-4, Carnage (2010) #1-5, Carnage U.S.A. #1-5, Minimum Carnage: Alpha and Omega, Scarlet Spider (2012) #10-11, Venom (2011) #26-27, Superior Carnage #1-5 and Annual #1, Deadpool vs. Carnage #1-4, Axis: Carnage #1-3, Nova (2013) #26-27, Carnage (2015) #1-16 and material from All-New, All-Different Point One.
In 2016, Marvel bring back Carnage in a new ongoing series. Cletus Kasady is back, murdering a lot of people, and a well-equipped FBI team is on his trail with John Jameson and a reformed Eddie Brock. Things get hairy pretty quickly.
- Carnage Vol. 1: The One That Got Away
Collects Carnage: Vol. 2 #1–5 and All-New, All-Different Point One (Carnage story). - Carnage Vol. 2: World Tour
Collects Carnage: Vol. 2 #6-10. - Carnage Vol. 3: What Dwells Beneath
Collects Carnage: Vol. 2 #11-16.
Carnage joined the fight in the Venomverse with issue #3:
- Venomverse
Collects Venomverse #1-5.
The end of Dan Slott’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man was marked by a big fight with Norman Osborn retrieving the Carnage symbiote and becoming the Red Goblin.
- Amazing Spider-Man: Red Goblin
Collects Amazing Spider-Man #794-801.
On the road to the Absolute Carnage event, Carnage actually appeared in multiple one-shots collected in the Venom Unleashed volume, but also in Web Of Venom: Cult Of Carnage #1 collected in the Venom: War Of The Realms book.
- Venom Unleashed Vol. 1
Collects Web of Venom: Ve’Nam #1, Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1, Web of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1, Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre #1. - Venom: War Of The Realms
Collects Venom (2018) #13-15, and Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage #1.
Absolute Carnage! After being resurrected by a cult dedicated to the worship of the god Knull and being bonded to the deific primordial Grendel symbiote, Cletus Kasady makes his come back to New York in order to collect codices, traces left inside those who wore a symbiote, even once. See the reading order of the event for more information.
- Absolute Carnage Omnibus
Collects Absolute Carnage #1-5, Absolute Carnage Vs. Deadpool #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Captain Marvel #1, Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man #1, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Of Vengeance #1, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Avengers #1, Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Weapon Plus #1, Absolute Carnage: Scream #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety #1, Amazing Spider-Man #29-31, Venom #16-20, And Absolute Carnage Stinger Pages.
Once the event concluded, Carnage’s story continued in:
- Web of Venom: The Good Son #1
- Venom by Donny Cates Vol. 4: Venom Island
Collect Venom (2018) #21-25.
Then came King in Black! The sequel to Absolute Carnage (see the reading order). Carnage didn’t appear in the event, except in a parallel universe version in the really optional King in Black: Gwenom vs. Carnage. Carnage (not Cletus, though) is still back to deal with the aftermath of King in Black in:
- Extreme Carnage
Collects Extreme Carnage Alpha #1, Extreme Carnage: Scream #1, Extreme Carnage: Phage #1, Extreme Carnage: Riot #1, Extreme Carnage: Lasher #1, Extreme Carnage: Agony #1, Extreme Carnage: Toxin #1, Extreme Carnage Omega #1
With a new movie out, Carnage is quite popular. Marvel decided to explore that with a new anthology with independent stories that go back in time, exploiting past events in the history of Carnage.
- Carnage: Black, White & Blood
Collects Carnage: Black, White & Blood #1-4.
After the events of Extreme Carnage, Cletus’ codex has found a new home — leaving the Carnage symbiote adrift, alone…and deadlier and more bloodthirsty than ever before! What new and terrifying creature will emerge from this symbiotic solitude? Something wicked this way comes!
- Carnage Vol. 1: In the Court of Crimson
Collects Carnage (2022) #1-5 and Carnage Forever #1. - Carnage Vol. 2: Carnage in Hell
Collects Carnage (2022) #6-10. - Carnage Reigns, a crossover from the Summer of Symbiotes.
Last Updated on September 25, 2023.