In the wake of King in Black, Carnage just suffered a gruesome fate at the hands of Venom and the symbiotes he controls.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for “Carnage Shark” by Donny Cates, Kyle Hotz, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Joe Sabino from the pages of Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2, on sale now.
King in Black might be over, but the fallout of the epic crossover event is still reverberating around the Marvel Universe. After Venom took over as the leader of the symbiotes, he turned his attention to Marvel’s second most famous symbiote, Carnage, in a story in Carnage: Black, White and Blood #2.
While most of Marvel’s symbiotes quickly fell in line behind their new leader, Venom condemns Carnage to his most brutal demise yet with a vicious symbiote shark attack.
While Carnage was absent from the main King in Black event after his experience on a deserted island with Venom, Knull’s defeat, some part of the Carnage symbiote found a way to slither off into the ocean unnoticed. Latching onto and bonding with a massive shark, Carnage stayed below the surface until he sensed a passing ship. After leaping onto the deck of the boat and threatening its crew with grisly deaths, the cocoon of symbiotic ooze that covered the Earth during the event began to fall, and Venom’s voice called out to their wayward symbiote offspring.
As a result of Knull’s defeat, Venom is the new King in Black, and Carnage is his least favorite subject. After reminding him that he was not welcome in his new symbiote kingdom, creeping black tendrils in the water surrounding Carnage soon enough take form and pulled him back into the deep. Then, dozens of symbiote sharks descend upon him, filling the water with an unmistakable red until the living darkness of symbiotes was all that remains.
Of course, there’s little doubt that Carnage will return once again before long, especially considering how much of his symbiote is still left floating through the water. Then again, this does stand out as one of his more devastating ends, which is quite the feat compared to what Carnage has been through in the past.
Carnage has felt crushing defeat more than a handful of times over his long career as a serial killer and supervillain, though few have been as memorable as being ripped in half by the Sentry high above the Earth during 2004’s New Avengers #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch. Following a mass breakout at the Raft, Cletus Kasady became the prime example of just why the Sentry is such a terrifying character in his own right.
After Carnage returned meaner than ever, it wasn’t long before he was once again unceremoniously dispatched in 2018’s Venomized #5 by Cullen Bunn and Iban Coello. During the invasion of the symbiote-hunting Poisons, Carnage was left to float aimlessly through the void of space. Unfortunately, his Poison symbiote crystallized around him, leaving Cletus Kasady and his symbiote relatively unharmed much to the disdain of everyone else in the Marvel Universe.
While Carnage will inevitably return in the upcoming Extreme Carnage event, it’s hard to imagine he will have recovered from this particular defeat with his dignity intact.
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