Carnage (Cletus Kasady)

Cletus Cortland Kasady, also known as 999th, Carnage, Cletus Kasady, Dark Carnage and Mass Carnage, is one of the major characters from the Marvel Comic series.
== Charactah Account ==
Cletus Kassady is a deranged and highly dangerous serial killer and long-time host to the Carnage symbiote.
Having his bloodline tainted by his distant ancestor, Cletus Kasady was destined to be a nihilistic yet also gleefully sadistic, unhinged, deranged and ruthless sociopath with an insatiable bloodlust, ostensibly stemming from a vision he had of the dark elder god Knull when he was an infant. However, despite his insistence otherwise, Cletus was not born a monster and his nihilism and bloodlust have been hinted to be a smokescreen for a bitter and broken man lashing out at a world he feels abandoned him and denied him a normal life. While he displayed sociopathic tendencies as a child — namely mutilating and killing his mother's dog, and being enraptured by the Zapruder film — these were nurtured by the physical and psychological abuse at the hands of his grandmother, father, and the staff and other orphans at St. Estes Home for Boy; Despite his antisocial tendencies, Cletus was genuinely happy to have made a friend in the form of Billy Bentine. One of Cletus' repressed memories shows him as a teenager, distraught at being rejected by a girl who said he'd changed after dropping out of school.
As an adult, Cletus came to delight in wanton bloodshed — seeing murder as an art-form to be cultivated — and worship the ideal of chaos through random acts of violence; believing that laws and order are meaningless constructions, and that by killing others he is freeing them. Cletus gleeful bloodlust and extreme nihilism led many leading psychiatrists — including Ashley Kafka and Matthew Kurtz — to assume he was either simply born evil or that his symbiote had suppressed whatever humanity remained within him; and he cultivated his mindscape into a nightmarish charnel house, repressing any happy memories from his childhood — such as his friendship with Billy — within its depths and vehemently denying their existence. However, Cletus has repeatedly made attempts to form a family -- or at least his twisted perception of what a family should be, warped by the abuse he suffered as a child; and when he first met Eddie Brock he extended an offer of friendship, believing them to be kindred spirits.
== Appearance ==
=== Comics ===
* 100% Marvel
* Absolute Carnage
* Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool
* All-New All-Different Marvel Point One
* Amazing Spider-Man Super Special
* Amazing Spider-Man: Matters of Life and Death
* Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide
* Avengers & X-Men: Axis
* Axis: Carnage
* Axis: Carnage & Hobgoblin
* Axis: Revolutions
* Carnage
* Carnage Classic
* Carnage U.S.A.
* Carnage: Black, White & Blood
* Carnage: Family Feud
* Carnage: It's a Wonderful Life
* Carnage: Mind Bomb
* Carnage: Minimum Carnage
* Carnage:The One That Got Away
* Civil War: Peter Parker - Spider-Man
* Civil War: Spider-Man
* DC/Marvel Crossover Classics
* Deadpool
* Deadpool Unleashed
* Deadpool vs. Carnage
* Guardians of the Galaxy
* Hot Shots: Spider-Man
* Incredible Hulk: Hulk vs the Marvel Universe
* Loki: Agent of Asgard
* Magneto
* Magneto: Reversals
* Marvel Age
* Marvel Heroes
* Marvel Icons
* Marvel Mega
* Maximum Carnage
* Miles Morales: Spider-Man
* Minimum Carnage: Alpha
* Minimun Carnage: Omega
* New Avengers
* New Avengers: Breakout
* New Warriors Omnibus
* Nova
* Nova: AXIS
* Overkill
* Peter Parker: Spider-Man
* Peter Parker: Spider-Man - Back in Black
* Scarlet Spider
* Spectacular Spider-Man Adventures
* Spectacular Spider-Man Super Special
* Spider-Man
* Spider-Man & the New Warrios: The Hero Killers
* Spider-Man and Batman
* Spider-Man Extra Omnibus
* Spider-Man Super Special
* Spider-Man Unlimited
* Spider-Man/Badrock
* Spider-Man: Carnage
* Spider-Man: Carnage USA
* Spider-Man: Ben Reilly Omnibus
* Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage
* Spider-Man: The Clone Journal
* Spider-Man: The Next Chapter
* Spider-Man: The Parker Years
* Spider-Man: The Vengeance of Venom
* Spider-Man: Venom Returns
* Superior Carnage
* Superior Carnage Annual
* The Amazing Scarlet Spider
* The Amazing Spider-Man
* The Amazing Spider-Man Annual
* The Amazing Spider-Man: Happy Birthday
* The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic
* The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic
* The Amazing Spider-Man: Through the Decades
* The Astonishing Spider-Man
* The New Avengers
* The New Avengers: Most Wanted Files
* The Sensational Spider-Man
* The Spectacular Spider-Man
* Venom
* Venom Super Special
* Venom vs. Carnage
* Venom/Carnage Infinity Comic
* Venom: Carnage Unleashed
* Venom: Lethal Protector
* Venom: On Trial
* Venom: The Hunted
* Venomized
* Venomnibus
* Venomverse
* Web of Spider-Man
* Web of Spider-Man: Super Special
* Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man
* Wild Thing
* X-Men Extra
* X-Men/Spider-Man
== Trivia ==
* As part of their sensationalization of Carnage as the chosen one of the dark elder god Knull, the Cult of Knull fabricated a story that Kasady died of nuchal cord strangulation nineteen minutes after being born, only to be resurrected by Knull, an experience that allegedly proved to be the impetus towards both his bloodlust and obsession with chaos.
* Cletus Kasady has bonded with the most number of symbiotes out of any human, surpassing even Eddie Brock. The symbiotes he has bonded to include the original Carnage symbiote, countless symbiotes he assimilated into the Carnage symbiote during the Planet of the Symbiotes event, numerous hybridized clones of the Carnage and Venom symbiotes, the second, third and fourth Carnage symbiotes, and the Mania and Venom symbiotes through absorbing them into the Dark Carnage symbiote.
* According to Ryan Stegman, Cletus Kasady's body count numbers from the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
* Cletus had a teddy bear named Binky in his orphanage. He went back for Binky after he escaped Riker's.
* Cletus was revealed to have terminal stomach cancer in the issues where the symbiote bonded to the Silver Surfer, though it hasn't come up since.
* Cletus has erroneously been depicted with blond hair in Amazing Spider-Man #362, Carnage: It's a Wonderful Life #1, Spider-Man #36, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10, and Minimum Carnage: Omega #1, as opposed to his usual red hair.
* Cletus alternatively refers to the Carnage symbiote with female and male pronouns.
* Cletus' favorite song is "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
* Cletus is a fan of the thrash metal group Anthrax, the symbiote often making him listen to it with headphones.
* Carnage is the main villain on 2002's Universal Halloween Horror Nights, which was based on Maximum Carnage. However, Cletus managed to kill every hero who went after him (like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America) and, with the help of other villains, took over the world.
* It has been a point of contention among fans as to whether Cletus regrew his lower body after having been torn in half at the waist by the Sentry or whether the instances where he was shown with flesh-and-blood legs were simply him using the symbiote to simulate them. However, his legless state while stripped of the symbiote in Carnage Vol. 2, Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1, and Absolute Carnage do not match his state in Carnage Vol. 1 and Carnage, U.S.A..
* Carnage is regarded as a messiah figure by two different apocalyptic cults dedicated to worshipping evil elder gods, the Darkholders and the Cult of Knull, having been prophesied to free both Chthon and Knull from their respective prisons. Both deities are inspired in part by elements from the Cthulhu Mythos.
* While it is implied Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage #1 that Cletus was resurrected, Donny Cates revealed in a podcast that he is undead, having been reanimated by the Grendel symbiote.
* When asked on Twitter if Dark Carnage's fifth form had a unique name, Ryan Stegman coined "Devil Carnage" and was pleasantly surprised when the fandom embraced and began using it.
* According to Donny Cates on Twitter, Cletus' middle name is "Cortland," after his great-great-great-great-grandfather.
* In Marvel Ultimate Comics: Absolute Carnage, Dark Carnage was voiced by Peter Kelamis.
== Gallery ==
File:Carnage (Cletus Kasady) Render 01.png
File:Carnage (Cletus Kasady) Render 02.png
File:Carnage (Cletus Kasady) Render 03.png
File:Carnage (Cletus Kasady) Render 04.png
File:Carnage (Cletus Kasady) Render 05.png
== External Links ==
* Cletus Kasady (Earth-616) at Marvel Database
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Marvel Comics