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Carnage Reading Order

Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (published in 1992), Carnage is a supervillain, pure and simple. Being an offspring of Venom (see reading order to know more), Carnage is a Symbiote, an extraterrestrial organism who bonds with a host to which he gave superpowers.

In this case, even if it had multiple hosts through the years, Carnage is famously connected to its first, the sadistic serial killer Cletus Kasady. Everything began when, after Venom left behind him its offspring in a prison cell, the new symbiote connected with Eddie Brock’s cellmate, Kasady. Together, they left behind them chaos and deaths.

Envisioned as a darker version of Venom, Carnage is more violent, powerful, and – simply put – deadly. He became an adversary of Spider-Man of course, but also the archenemy of Venom. At times, Carnage was put at the center of multiple storylines, crossovers, and events, spreading fear throughout the Marvel Universe.

Carnage Reading Order

For more information about other symbiotes, see Venomverse: Our Ultimate Guide to Marvel’s Main Symbiote Characters.

First, if Carnage made its debut in Amazing Spider-Man #361, Cletus Kasady first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #344-345 (collected in The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Return of the Sinister Six) when he was sharing a cell with Eddie Brock at Riker’s Island Prison Complex.

  • Carnage Epic Collection: Born in Blood
    Collects Amazing Spider-Man #361-363 and #378-380, Web of Spider-Man #101-103, Spider-Man #35-37, Spectacular Spider-Man #201-203 and material from Spider-Man Unlimited #1-2, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28.

This first volume collects the famous Maximum Carnage storyline in which Carnage has assembled an army of the web-slinger’s criminally insane adversaries to spread his message of hostility, chaos, and wholesale slaughter in the street of New York. This is also collected in another book in the same collection (but without the first three Carnage issues):

  • Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Maximum Carnage
    Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #378-380, Web of Spider-Man (1985) #101-103, Spider-Man (1990) #35-37, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #201-203, Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes (1993) one-shot, material from Spider-Man Unlimited (1993) #1-2.

After that, Carnage came back in another Spider-Man storyline (called Power and Responsibility) during the Clone Saga era (see reading order), but as a secondary character. It’s optional here. It’s a three-part story: Web of Spider-Man #117, Amazing Spider-Man #394, and Spectacular Spider-Man #217, collected in The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic Book 1.

And then, Carnage escapes the Ravencroft Institute. He’s back with a vengeance.

 

  • Carnage Epic Collection: Web of Carnage
    Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #403 And #410, Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1-4, Carnage: Mind Bomb, Sensational Spider-Man (1996) #3, Spider-Man (1990) #67, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #233, Carnage: It’s A Wonderful Life And Venom: On Trial #2-3 — Plus Material From Amazing Spider-Man Super Special, Spider-Man Super Special, Venom Super Special, Spectacular Spider-Man Super Special And Web Of Spider-Man Super Special.

Not collected here is the apparition of Carnage Cosmic in Amazing Spider-Man #430-431, and the first appearance of the second Carnage Symbiote, all collected with a few previous issues in:

  • Carnage Classic
    Collects Amazing Spider-Man #361-363, 410, 430-431, Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1-4, Carnage: Mind Bomb #1, Carnage: It’s A Wonderful Life #1, Sensational Spider-Man #3, Spider-Man #67, Spectacular Spider-Man #233, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #13, Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #13-14 and material from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28.

Venom’s offspring, Carnage, is about to have a baby itself – a creature of indescribable power and appetites. Question is, who’s gonna bring up the baby?

After that, Carnage ended up a prisoner of The Raft. A breakout forced the New Avengers to intervene in the super-prison and a series of events led to the presumed death of the Symbiote in New Avengers #2. You can read that in:

Five years later. Carnage is back with a short miniseries that mostly rectified everything that happened to the Symbiote in The New Avengers. Carnage acquired new capacities, that led to the Carnage U.S.A miniseries (set after Venom Vol. 2 #15), then to the Minimum Carnage and Superior Carnage crossover storylines.

Marvel Event: Axis! The Red Onslaught is broadcasting waves of telepathic hate across the globe, and Marvel’s greatest heroes have turned on their moral axis! During that event, Carnage joined Magneto’s team. He appeared in AXIS #2, Magneto #11, AXIS #3, Deadpool #36, Magneto #12, AXIS #4, AXIS: Carnage #1-3, Nova #24, AXIS #6-8, Loki: Agent of Asgard #9, and Nova #25 (see the reading order of the event).

Published in 2018, the Carnage Omnibus (hard to find nowadays) collects most of the stories revolving around Carnage after Maximum Carnage up to the important Axis stories.

  • Carnage Omnibus
    Collects Venom vs. Carnage #1-4, Carnage (2010) #1-5, Carnage U.S.A. #1-5, Minimum Carnage: Alpha and Omega, Scarlet Spider (2012) #10-11, Venom (2011) #26-27, Superior Carnage #1-5 and Annual #1, Deadpool vs. Carnage #1-4, Axis: Carnage #1-3, Nova (2013) #26-27, Carnage (2015) #1-16 and material from All-New, All-Different Point One.

In 2016, Marvel bring back Carnage in a new ongoing series. Cletus Kasady is back, murdering a lot of people, and a well-equipped FBI team is on his trail with John Jameson and a reformed Eddie Brock. Things get hairy pretty quickly.

Carnage joined the fight in the Venomverse with issue #3:

The end of Dan Slott’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man was marked by a big fight with Norman Osborn retrieving the Carnage symbiote and becoming the Red Goblin.

On the road to the Absolute Carnage event, Carnage actually appeared in multiple one-shots collected in the Venom Unleashed volume, but also in Web Of Venom: Cult Of Carnage #1 collected in the Venom: War Of The Realms book.

  • Venom Unleashed Vol. 1
    Collects Web of Venom: Ve’Nam #1, Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1, Web of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1, Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre #1.
  • Venom: War Of The Realms
    Collects Venom (2018) #13-15, and Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage #1.

Absolute Carnage! After being resurrected by a cult dedicated to the worship of the god Knull and being bonded to the deific primordial Grendel symbiote, Cletus Kasady makes his come back to New York in order to collect codices, traces left inside those who wore a symbiote, even once. See the reading order of the event for more information.

  • Absolute Carnage Omnibus
    Collects Absolute Carnage #1-5, Absolute Carnage Vs. Deadpool #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Captain Marvel #1, Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man #1, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Of Vengeance #1, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Avengers #1, Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Weapon Plus #1, Absolute Carnage: Scream #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety #1, Amazing Spider-Man #29-31, Venom #16-20, And Absolute Carnage Stinger Pages.

Once the event concluded, Carnage’s story continued in:

Then came King in Black! The sequel to Absolute Carnage (see the reading order). Carnage didn’t appear in the event, except in a parallel universe version in the really optional King in Black: Gwenom vs. Carnage. Carnage (not Cletus, though) is still back to deal with the aftermath of King in Black in:

  • Extreme Carnage
    Collects Extreme Carnage Alpha #1, Extreme Carnage: Scream #1, Extreme Carnage: Phage #1, Extreme Carnage: Riot #1, Extreme Carnage: Lasher #1, Extreme Carnage: Agony #1, Extreme Carnage: Toxin #1, Extreme Carnage Omega #1

With a new movie out, Carnage is quite popular. Marvel decided to explore that with a new anthology with independent stories that go back in time, exploiting past events in the history of Carnage.

After the events of Extreme Carnage, Cletus’ codex has found a new home — leaving the Carnage symbiote adrift, alone…and deadlier and more bloodthirsty than ever before! What new and terrifying creature will emerge from this symbiotic solitude? Something wicked this way comes!

Carnage Reigns, a crossover from the Summer of Symbiotes: With his soul trapped inside the Extrembiote Armor created by Tony Stark during KING IN BLACK, Cletus now has the means to level an untold amount of chaos on New York City – and the entire Marvel Universe! But like any good Tony Stark invention, the Extremis coursing through Cletus’ symbiotic veins needs power – and that means Cletus is hungry. Good thing Brooklyn’s very own Spider-Man is there to stand in his way!

  • Carnage Reigns
    Collects Carnage Reigns Alpha (2023) #1, Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022) #6-7, Carnage (2022) #13-14, Red Goblin (2022) #5, Carnage Reigns Omega (2023) #1.

Torunn Grønbekk takes over to write the next Carnage story in collaboration with Al Ewing to prepare the next explosive war of the symbiotes: Every symbiote needs a host. And for Carnage, there has only ever been one host who has made it feel whole. It’s time for a reunion. Meanwhile, Flash Thompson has become convinced that a series of increasingly horrifying murders are all connected. As Flash puts the pieces together, get ready for Anti-Venom vse. Carnage – an all-out symbiote slugfest!

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