Karl Kassidy (Earth 1) - Smallville Extended Universe

**Karl Kassidy** was a severely mentally unstable serial killer with a dark past who murdered and tortured countless people. Even when he was a child living in St. Estes Home for Boys due to the fact he killed his whole entire family, Kasady displayed signs of psychopathy and antisocial behavior, having tortured and killed numerous people and animals. Cletus Kasady became the notorious Carnage Killer and embarked on a massacre, known for sometimes eating body parts of his victims. Kasady’s killing spree came to an end, however, once he was captured by the authorities and sent to San Quentin State Prision. The newborn **Carnage Symbiote** bonded with the convicted Cletus Kasady, entering into his bloodstream and amalgamating with his blood. Empowered and transformed into a black-and-red monster, Cletus Kasady dubbed himself **Carnage** and went on a citywide killing spree after breaking out of prison, desiring to use his power to wreak havoc and slaughter countless people.

## Powers and Abilities

**Primordial Symbiotic Costume:** After the destruction of the original Carnage symbiote, Cletus Kasady was bonded to the primordial Grendel symbiote by a cult dedicated to worshipping the dark elder god Knull. While initially transforming the Grendel symbiote to match the original Carnage symbiote's appearance, after absorbing more codices and strengthening his connection to Knull, Carnage manifested the elder god's spiral sigil on his forehead. After absorbing numerous other codices and the Mania symbiote, he manifested a dragon/spider emblem on his chest and a pair of protrusions on his upper back. Even in this incomplete state, Dark Carnage's connections to Chthon through the curse of the Darkhold and Knull through the Grendel symbiote effectively made him a demigod possessing power far beyond what a regular symbiote bestows its host. After assimilating even more codices and the Venom symbiote, Cletus restored the Grendel symbiote's full godly power and manifested black draconic horns, black pauldrons and arm-wraps resembling Knull's, and became able to transform his now-pointed back-protrusions into draconic wings. Being bonded to the Grendel symbiote grants Cletus the following powers:

* **Superhuman Strength:** As Dark Carnage, Cletus' strength surpasses that of the Hulk and Juggernaut;[108] letting him easily manhandle Venom and the symbiote-augmented Norman Osborn. Dark Carnage was even capable of overpowering the Hulk while the latter was augmented by the Venom symbiote.
* **Superhuman Durability:** Dark Carnage was capable of effortlessly shrugging off blows from Venom, Spider-Man, and even the Hulk.
* **Superhuman Stamina**
* **Superhuman Speed**
* **Superhuman Agility**
* **Superhuman Reflexes**
* **Regenerative Healing Factor**
* **Wall-Crawling**
* **Genetic Memory:** The Grendel symbiote possesses a psychic link to Knull, and if this link is strengthened by absorbing enough codices and symbiotes then it can be used to awaken him and free him from his prison.
* **Fangs and Claws**
* **Constituent-Matter Generation:** Kasady can generate tentacle-like appendages from various parts of his body, which he often uses either in combat situations or to restrain someone.
* **Shapeshifting:** Carnage is capable of altering his appearance at will, using this to impersonate Eddie Brock and kill Lee Price.[13] After absorbing the Venom symbiote he became able to manifest draconic wings.
* **Symbiotic Expansion and Psychic Control:** Carnage is able to infect and enslave others with symbiote-infected maggots he calls "brain worms"; and can bond people and animals to offshoots of the Grendel symbiote both in order to create more codices to harvest and to turn them into minions he can control.
* **Symbiote and Codex Absorbtion/Augmentation:** By consuming the codices of other symbiotes and even entire symbiotes, Dark Carnage is able to strengthen the Grendel symbiote's connection to the symbiote hive-mind and Knull, incrementally making him more powerful with every codex assimilated. By consuming the codices of superpowered hosts, the Grendel symbiote is temporarily imbued with whatever unique powers they possessed. If Dark Carnage absorbs enough codices and symbiotes, he will strengthen his symbiote to the point where he effectively becomes a god himself.

### Abilities

Though he has had no formal training, the natural abilities granted to Kasady by the symbiote makes him a formidable combatant capable of holding his own against the likes of Spider-Man and Deadpool. However, even with the symbiote, his fighting skill is less refined than that of the experienced superheroes. Even Eddie Brock and Patrick Mulligan have had more practice.