When looking at Marvel’s diverse cast of symbiotic alien parasites,Carnagestands out as the Klyntar’s most tenacious monster, even more thanVenom. Aside from his violently cruel demeanor and psychopathic bloodlust, Carnage’s true terror is his resolve to survive and dominate. Carnage is appetite incarnate. With Carnage now bonded to Eddie Brock, one Marvel editor explains why Carnage is the best symbiote.
Inan interview with AIPT, Jordan D. White, Marvel’s lead editor forAll-New VenomandEddie Brock: Carnage, explores and explains his direction for the Venom franchise and what that means for Carnage as a character.
The crimson red killer has traditionally been nothing more than a ravenous killer, but in recent years Carnage has redefined his ambitions and asserted a strong sense of independence from his hosts. Now that Eddie Brock is in the proverbial saddle,White warns that Carnage is a“clever freaking symbiote”with severe leverage over his newest host:
As you’ve seen from the first issue, Carnage was hurt more by the events of theVenom Warthan it at first had seemed. Putting all that power into All Blood, the effects of the Enagrac…it left Carnage weak and unable to survive without a host. A terrible time to have JUST had a falling out with the one you brought back from the dead.
But that said…Carnage is a clever freaking symbiote, and you cannot trust him as far as you’re able to throw him. And I doubt you can throw him far, since he is all goopy and will stick to you. But yeah–Carnage has things up his sleeves other than Eddie’s arms, for sure.
Carnage’s Independent Nature Empowers Him
Eddie Brock: Carnage#1 by Charles Soule, Jesus Saiz, Matt Hollingsworth, and Joe Sabino
Carnage was born with a significantly stronger relationship with his first host than most other Klyntar. When Venom unknowingly left behind an infant spawn while breaking Eddie Brock out of prison, the newborn symbiote infected the serial killer Cletus Kasady’s blood to be reborn asthe terrifying hybrid Carnage. Unlike other symbiotes like Venom, Carnage was intrinsically bonded with Kasady on a genetic level long before the concept of Codices was introduced. However, while Cletus and Carnage shared a seemingly unshakable bond,the symbiote has since abandoned his host-dependency as few other Klyntar have.
Carnage Needs a New Host, And You Won’t Believe the Marvel Hero He Wants
Carnage is stuck with Eddie Brock for the time being, but the symbiote is already plotting who his next host should be, and his options are shocking.
However,following the Venom War,Carnage has been left mortally wounded and is no longer capable of sustaining his independent form. Surely, for Carnage, this must be a deep blow to his sense of authority. The blood-red symbiote has already killed off Kasady after he refused to bend to Carnage’s insatiable hunger any longer. On his own, Carnage became a god-like being capable of triumphing over time and space. Yet, the symbiote now depends on his long-time enemy just to survive. White explains that, despite Carnage’s weakened state,the symbiote is far from subservient to his new host.
Carnage’s True Goal Doesn’t End With Godhood
The Symbiote Is Entropy Incarnate
Despite their mutual need for survival, Eddie Brock knows thathe cannot control Carnagethe way he once could with Venom. InEddie Brock: Carnage#1 by Charles Soule and Jesus Saiz,Brock repeatedly blacks out, only coming to after Carnage has reaped his gruesome terrors. While Eddie pleads for Carnage to confess the potential horrors the two may have committed, Carnage takes his time to enjoy the suffering amidst Eddie’s anxious fears. For Carnage,Eddie isn’t the end-goal.While Eddie Brock may have been a King in Black, he is nothing more than a weakened mortal now and an inferior host in Carnage’s beady white eyes.
Carnage is entropy incarnate andseeks to become the sole embodiment of that conceptual force.
The symbiote admits to his new host that his goal requires something that Eddie Brock cannot fulfill.Carnage was once a godand fully intends to become one again. To that end, he will stop at nothing until he regains the cosmic power he once possessed. This is Carnage’s true nature. His emotions and motivations are simple; they always have been. Carnage wants carnage. He wants to consume. He is entropy incarnate andseeks to become the sole embodiment of that conceptual force.Carnage’s destiny is tousurp Eddie Brock as the King in Crimson and the Eventuality.
Carnage Is a Gruesomely Pure Creature
He Better Represents the Eventuality Than Eddie Brock
Carnage isn’t just looking to regain his old powers; he’s most likely attempting to surpass them.The King in Black, on the cosmic scale, is little more than a steward of destruction. As the Beyonders are tasked to oversee all creation, the King in Black was designed to serve as an opposing and balancing force. But Carnage, like Knull, cares little for the cosmic responsibilities that are demanded from that position.Beyond that power is something greater: Eventuality.As the destined Anti-All of the Ninth Cosmos, the Eventuality is and will become the conceptual embodiment of hunger and destruction.
Is Marvel About to Censor Carnage’s Bloodlust? Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself
Carnage is known for being one of the most violent characters in the Marvel Universe, and luckily, there’s no sign of that changing any time soon.
While Eddie Brock is still fated to become the Eventuality, the far-future cosmic force warns of Carnage’s rise as an equal to its destructive powers. Unlike Eddie or Venom, whose humanity would guide the Eventuality’s hand of destruction,Carnage is a purer form of the Anti-All’s omniversal purpose.This is ultimately what makes CarnageMarvel’s most unique symbiote. He isn’t defined by anything or anyone else but his own carnal desires. Carnage, in his own horrifically gruesome way, is pure and the living epitome of destruction, just as the Anti-All is supposed to be.
Carnage, the Crimson Symbiote, Is Truly Simplistic
What Makes Him So Terrifying
Despite Carnage’s lofty and ambitious goals, which there is no doubt he is capable of achieving, he currently remains weakened. Both Carnage and Eddie Brock need each other just to survive - or at least that’s what readers have been told. If Carnage is destined to become the King in Crimson and an equally opposing force to the Eventuality,it seems clear that that destiny must be linked with Eddie Brock’s.The crimson symbiote may taunt Eddie’s weaknesses, but both know what awaits them at the end of time. The two are bonded in a way Eddie and Venom never were.
He is more than a symbiote and more than a god. Carnage is a concept.
Carnage is aiming for something bigger and purer than godhood. As White notes in the interview,“Carnage has things up his sleeves other than Eddie’s arms.”Carnage is moving toward a goal far greater than he’s letting on right now. Of course, the symbiote needs to heal back to his baseline, buthis aspirations have refined in his weakened state.Carnage knows, without a doubt, what he is now. He is more than a symbiote and more than a god. Carnage is a concept. He is the specter of death that all life runs from.
Carnage’s simplicity makes him the best symbiote. His motivations are no longer contaminated by the fleeting whims of his mortal hosts. He is an amoral force of nature, no different from a tornado or hurricane. He doesn’t see right or wrong, only destruction. Carnage simply is, and that’s more terrifying than anything. The maddened killer has tasted godhood but knows that there is something greater just beyond the veil. He wants to evolve.Carnagemay be frail now, especially compared toVenom,but the symbiote’s own eventuality promises to consume this multiverse and the next.
