Maximum Carnage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maximum Carnage is a fourteen-part crossover storyline printed in Marvel's Spider-Man family of titles in 1993, featuring Spider-Man and Venom again teaming up to face Venom's murderous 'child'. This arc was collected as a trade paperback in September 1994 (ISBN 0-7851-0038-5), and a new edition was released in January 2005 (ISBN 0-7851-0987-0).
Contents |
[edit] Basic plot
During the first Carnage arc, the alien symbiote that gave Eddie Brock the power of Venom spawned a child. This creature bonded to a deranged spree killer called Cletus Kasady, and the two began a blindly murderous path through New York City as the monstrous Carnage. Carnage was swiftly defeated, however, and his symbiotic suit was apparently destroyed.
The insane Kasady was jailed at Ravencroft Asylum. However, his visit was short-lived as he revealed that the alien had mutated his blood, and he could generate a copy of the symbiote (this was later retconned so that the alien had survived, and bonded to his blood). Kasady escaped, freeing other superhuman inmates and assembling a 'family' of killers around him. They set their sights on New York.
During the murderous onslaught that followed, Carnage recruited Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion to do his bidding, terrorizing New York City with their twisted "family values." Due to the laws of escalation, Spider-Man and Venom were forced to join together to stop Carnage and his followers. They required the assistance of such disparate heroes as Captain America, Black Cat, Nightwatch, Cloak and Dagger, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius and Firestar, although there was a great deal of conflict within this group, both sides polarised between Venom's desire to stop Carnage for good and Spider-Man's refusal to allow any more life to be lost.
However, both infighting between the villains and a successful rout from the heroes contributed to Carnage's defeat. Faking his death by covering a victim in a mock symbiote costume, he threw all of the heroes off his trail except for Spider-Man and Venom. The two tailed Carnage all over New York until they cornered him in a graveyard. Weak from days of combat, Spider-Man was saved from Carnage by Black Cat. Taking advantage of the Cat's return, Venom took on Carnage and tackled him into an electrical generator before disappearing from the scene, leaving Carnage to be incarcerated.
[edit] Read order
Chapter I - Spider-Man Unlimited #1 - "Carnage Rising!"
Chapter II - Web of Spider-Man #101 - "Dark Light"
Chapter III - Amazing Spider-Man #378 - "Demons on Broadway"
Chapter IV - Spider-Man #35 - "Team Venom"
Chapter V - Spectacular Spider-Man #201 - "Over The Line!"
Chapter VI - Web of Spider-Man #102 - "Sinking Fast"
Chapter VII - Amazing Spider-Man #379 - "The Gathering Storm"
Chapter VIII - Spider-Man #36 - "Hate is in the Air"
Chapter IX - Spectacular Spider-Man #202 - "The Turning Point"
Chapter X - Web of Spider-Man #103 - "Sin City"
Chapter XI - Amazing Spider-Man #380 - "Soldiers of Hope"
Chapter XII - Spider-Man #37 - "The Light!"
Chapter XIII - Spectacular Spider-Man #203 - "War of the Heart!"
Chapter XIV - Spider-Man Unlimited #2 - "The Hatred, The Horror & The Hero!"
[edit] Other media
- This storyline inspired LJN's 1994 video game, Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage, which was published for both the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo game systems.
- An action figure line was released by Toy Biz to capitalize on the crossover's success. The line featured Spider-Man, Venom, and Carnage.[1]
- During Halloween Horror Nights at the Islands of Adventure, Marvel Superhero Island was converted into a scarezone based on the story arc, and a full haunted house called Maximum Carnage was created. In this version, Carnage has killed all of the Marvel Superheroes that came after him, resulting in criminal gangs running the streets. Certain items gave the island the appearance that famous superheroes fought (and lost) on the scenery, resulting in their death.
- In an intercompany crossover between DC Comics and Marvel, Batman/Spider-Man, Batman recognized Carnage's trick of fooling enemies into thinking he was dead by wrapping a piece of symbiote around a corpse, referring to the "Maximum Carnage affair", impressing Spider-Man with his in depth knowledge of events outside Gotham City and by extension, outside DC Comics. This is later explained by the events surrounding the character Access.
