With the arrival of the Venom: Let There Be Carnage trailer, all eyes are on one of the deadliest and most feared villains in the Marvel Universe: Carnage, aka Cletus Kasady. This rogue is one of the cruelest antagonists to ever fight Spider-Man, Venom, and even the Avengers. This man spreads a lot of red, whether it be the red of his symbiote or the red of blood.
However, the history of Carnage is somewhat clouded in mystery. He was a serial killer even before he was a supervillain, but there is more to Cletus Kasady than even that. That brings us to today's topic: 10 facts about Cletus Kasady that only Marvel fans know.
10 He Has Died Several Times
When Cletus Kasady born, he was strangled to death with his own umbilical cord. Since then, Cletus has died several times. Most famously, he was torn in two by the Sentry, the man with the power of a thousand exploding suns. On another occasion, the Wizard seemingly killed him when he destroyed his own base.
Yet, Cletus reemerged. He and the Carnage symbiote merged with the Klyntar's natural predators, the Poisons. Cletus sided with the Poisons in their invasion of Earth, but their invasion failed. Cletus was left in orbit after the fight and was incinerated while falling back to Earth. Whether it be his own or others', death is forever a part of Cletus' life.
9 His First Appearance
Cletus Kasady first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #344. However, he wouldn't become Carnage until Amazing Spider-Man #360. When he first popped up, Cletus Kasady was simply Eddie Brock's cellmate in the Ravencroft Institute. The two don't exactly get along.
At one point, Cletus sees the Venom symbiote watching them in the window. The Carnage symbiote later appears as well, killing another Ravencroft inmate by suffocation.
8 Cletus And Carnage Have A Stronger Bond Than Venom
One of the first major revelations about Carnage and Cletus Kasady is that the two have a stronger bond than Venom and Eddie Brock. This is the reason that Carnage refers to itself as "I" instead of "we", like Venom does.
Supposedly, this bond gives Carnage more power than Venom could ever have. It's also the reason that, even when Cletus' body is seemingly destroyed, his sentience is retained in the Carnage symbiote elsewhere.
7 He Loved Shriek
Despite the unfeeling nature displayed by Cletus Kasady and the countless bodies to his name, he has been in love before. Carnage and Cletus seem to take glee in killing living things and nothing more, but he has displayed affection for the woman known as Shriek, aka Frances Barisson.
Carnage showed this most clearly when he attacks Deadpool for hurting Shriek in a car crash. Later, Deadpool obtains a symbiote and uses it to make Shriek resemble himself. Carnage accidentally wounds Shriek after thinking she is Deadpool, causing him to mentally spiral. This is how Deadpool was able to defeat Carnage in this encounter.
6 He Worships Two Gods
Despite his seeming nihilism, Cletus Kasady has actually proven himself a zealous worshipper of not one, but two gods. The first is Chthon, the God of Chaos. Cletus and Carnage first became aware of Chthon thanks to a cult called the "Darkholders," who lured Carnage into a temple inside an old mine. The temple within was devoted to the Darkhold and Chthon, where Carnage tried to become a subject of this god.
Later, however, Carnage was resurrected by the Cult of Knull. This left Cletus and Carnage no choice but to worship the Knull himself, the God of Symbiotes.. This led to Carnage trying to awaken Knull by gathering symbiote codices during the Absolute Carnage story.
5 He Is Descended From One America's First Serial Killers
The Kasady family first arrived in America with Cortland Kasady, a distant ancestor of Cletus. Cortland's love, Molly Ravencroft, was kidnapped by an early cult devoted to Knull. Upon trying to rescue Molly, Cortland took on a symbiote of his own. He ended up killing his fellow colonists and being locked up on the future site of the Ravencroft Institute.
Cortland later freed himself and killed Molly. He apparently later killed several more before dying on the future site of Ravencroft. However, Knull has since resurrected him, and he has become the undead-symbiote hybrid Plague.
4 He Once Possessed An Entire Town
Carnage at one point decided that Doverton, Colorado would be his new home. He used parts of his own symbiote to possess the entire town of Doverton. Eventually, the Avengers took notice of what was happening in Doverton and put a stop to Carnage.
After Carnage died once again in the orbit of Earth, the Cult of Knull performed a ritual to resurrect Carnage in Doverton. Once again, he keeps coming back.
3 He's Been A Hero?
The Axis story was a bizarre time in the Marvel Universe. It started with Magneto attempting to kill the Red Skull on in the ruins of the former mutant nation of Genosha. However, this only allowed the Red Skull to resurrect as the powerful being Red Onslaught. Magneto recruited a number of villains to help him in his mission, including Carnage.
Carnage got caught up in chaos, and the Red Onslaught wound up flipping his morality. This remade Carnage into a hero, and he returned to New York to help others as Your Friendly Neighborhood Carnage. He later returned to help undo the Red Onslaught's damage and was seemingly killed by a gene bomb. However, Carnage survived, and became a killer once again.
2 He's Currently Dead
Despite the several resurrections that Carnage has undergone, he is actually currently dead. Venom killed him during Absolute Carnage when he removed the Grendel symbiote from the remains of Cletus Kasady.
Later, the Carnage symbiote further beguiled Eddie Brock on the Island of Bones. Eddie had to go to some extremes to purge himself and the Venom symbiote of the Carnage Grendel symbiote.
1 But He's Coming Back
Of course, Carnage is still coming back. He is a force of chaos that no force can completely cleanse. Another story coming out from Marvel later this year, called Extreme Carnage, will involve Agent Anti-Venom (Flash Thompson), former Agent Venom sidekick/current Scream Andi Benton, Toxin, and the Life Foundation Symbiotes.
Carnage is still alive, somehow. There is little doubt that he will continue to kill and destroy across the Marvel Universe in this story.