| |
Background
Cletus Kassady was born into an ultra-violent home. Or perhaps he was just a
bad seed in a good and loving family. He likes to taunt his psychiatrists and
enemies with a changing story. In one version, he watched his father murder his
mother with a drill. His father was sent to prison and Cletus was sent to live
with his grandmother. Cletus killed the old woman's dog and when she came
running to the basement, Cletus pushed her down the stairs. The police called
it an accident and Kassady was sent from foster home to foster home. He was
repeatedly abused by his foster families, further deepening his belief that a
human being is nothing more than a bag of blood that is good for nothing more
than dying and making more bags of blood.
Cletus became a scourge to everything around him. He burned down St Estes Home
for Boys, pushed a girl in front of a bus after she refused to date him and was
generally a very unpleasant person.
Kassady was serving 11 consecutive life terms in prison for murder, in
which he was Eddie Brock's (AKA Venom)
cellmate. When the alien symbiote came to break Eddie out of jail, it left
behind a "child" that bonded with Kassady, creating Carnage. Kassady then broke
out of jail in attempt to spread his message of chaos. His thought being,
if you have the guts, you can do anything. Up to and including murder.
Spider-Man eventually encountered
him, but was unable to stop him. Going against his better judgement, Spider-Man
decided to return Venom to New York after Spidey faked his death on a deserted
island. He and Brock had an uncomfortable alliance, but both were commited to
ending the greater evil of Carnage. After defeating Carnage and saving a
kidnapped J.Jonah Jameson, Spider-Man broke
his promise to let Venom go free and the symbiotic madman was captured by the
Fantastic Four.
Carnage's second rampage through New York was to be his most infamous. Escaping
from Ravencroft with a fellow inmate, Shriek, Carnage went on a mission of
mayhem across Manhattan. Along the way, he teamed with the mindless Spider-Man
Doppelganger, Malcom McBride and Demogoblin. This bloodthirsty gang
forced
a team up of various vigilantes consisting of Spider-Man, Venom, the Black
Cat, Captain America, Morbius, Deathlok, Iron Fist, Cloak and
Dagger
and Nightwatch. After several days of rioting, Carnage and the others were
captured.
Carnage has escaped several times in attempt to spread his message, much to the
frustration of Dr Ashley Kafka and John Jameson. Most
notably, his symbiote blended with the Silver Surfer. After bonding to the
Surfer, it was revealed that the symbiotes were a space traveling species that
act as locusts. The Surfer arrived as the symbiotes consumed the inhabitants of
a far off planet. Disgusted by the creatures, the Silver Surfer summoned his
master, Galactus. The world devourer quickly destroyed the planet, an event
which traumatized the symbiotic race. It became a "genetic memory" and each
symbiote desired to kill the Silver Surfer.
Recently, Carnage lost his symbiote when Venom re-absorbed it. But Mackie
couldn't let a character actually change, that would be too much like long-term
plot development, so he had him discover another one just the same, in the
Negative Zone.
The next writer ignored the fact that this was a new symbiote and had Carnage
spawn a new creature. Carnage was sickened that he, the figure of death in his
own mind, was forced to give birth. He did everything he could to destroy the
new symbiote, but was prevented by Venom. Brock wanted to use the new symbiote
as an ally in his battles against Spider-Man. The new symbiote bonded to a New
York cop named Pat Mulligan and became Toxin.
Pat tried to make the best of being bonded to a violent creature and became a
crime fighter. Toxin started his career against Carnage. The sense of
conscience disturbed Venom, who started an uneasy alliance with Carnage. Toxin
held his own against the two, and chased them off with the help of Spider-Man
and the Black Cat.
As Carnage attempted to escape from prison and drain the life force out of the
people around him (hmm...
that's a new ability, perhaps Bendis didn't quite do his homework)
he was beaten by a vigilante known as the Sentry who then who then flew
him into outer space, tore him in half, and abandoned him. Of course, for
a space-creature maybe that isn't fatal... but at least he's out of the
picture for a while!
Thanks To:
Some of the above information is extracted from the various
versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent
Marvel Encyclopaedias.
The assistance of the
Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.
|
|