Carrion (comics)

Carrion
Art by Keith Pollard.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	as Miles Warren: Spectacular Spider-Man #25 (December 1978) as Malcolm McBride: Spectacular Spider-Man #149 (April 1989) as William Allen: Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand (April 1997)
Created by	Bill Mantlo Jim Mooney Frank Springer
In-story information
Alter ego	- Miles Warren (clone of) - Malcolm McBride - William Allen
Team affiliations	Carnage Family/Maximum Carnage (as Malcolm McBride) S.H.I.E.L.D. (as William Allen)
Partnerships	as Malcolm McBride Shriek Carnage Doppelganger Demogoblin
Notable aliases	Miles Warren Malcolm Mcbride William Allen
Abilities	Telepathy Levitation Density control Ability to disintegrate organic matter at a touch

Carrion is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe, in which he is an enemy of Spider-Man. He first appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man (volume 1) #25.

Carrion emerged as part of a storyline that was a sequel to the original Clone Saga and as a result has one of the most complicated histories of any Spider-Man villain which has been retconned several times as successive writers changed the status of the various clones, the plans and motivations of Professor Miles Warren and other aspects from the stories. Often these changes took place in stories which did not directly involve Carrion, resulting in further stories trying to tie up gaps. No fewer than three separate incarnations have been encountered.

Fictional character biography

Miles Warren clone

The original Carrion first appeared seeking to destroy Spider-Man, somehow knowing that his secret identity was Peter Parker. He unsuccessfully approached the Maggia with a plan to kill Spider-Man.^[1] He attacked Peter Parker, blaming him for the death of Gwen Stacy.^[2]

Carrion sought to destroy Parker/Spider-Man several times before capturing Spider-Man and revealing to him that he was a decayed clone of Professor Miles Warren, also known as the Jackal.^[3] Warren had created the clone and left it in a capsule to mature to full development; however Warren had then (seemingly) died and the clone was left developing in the capsule with artificially accelerated age. Something went wrong and the clone's body became like a living corpse. As Warren's clone, Carrion blamed Spider-Man for the deaths of both Warren and Gwen Stacy and sought to bring him to justice. Carrion captured Peter Parker and prepared to kill him with a giant "Spider-Amoeba" created by cloning cells from Parker. However Parker freed himself and became Spider-Man. In the subsequent fight a fire consumed the laboratory whilst the amoeba latched onto Carrion. The Spider-Amoeba suffocated Carrion, smothering him to death, and then unable to escape it perished in the fire.^[4]

Malcolm McBride

Many years later Spider-Man learned from the High Evolutionary that Warren had not achieved cloning but had instead created a genetic virus that could transform existing human beings into what seemed to be genetic duplicates of other people.^[5] This left Spider-Man wondering "What about Carrion?" As Peter Parker he searched Miles Warren's old lab and found a journal which seemingly answered many questions, though many years later the Evolutionary would cast further doubt on this. Parker was followed by his university research student rival Malcolm McBride who discovered a test tube containing a strange substance. When examining it, McBride discovered it was an advanced genetic creation that when exposed to air grew rapidly and consumed him, turning him into a second incarnation of Carrion, complete with all the knowledge and powers that the original had displayed. The new Carrion attacked Spider-Man, picking up his predecessor's cause.^[6]

Initially this Carrion believed himself to be another clone of Warren but slowly found McBride's memories and personality trying to reassert itself. Carrion would fight against Spider-Man on several occasions. Carrion joined forces with the Hobgoblin against Spider-Man, and apparently sacrificed himself to save the mother of Malcolm McBride.^[7] Carrion turned up alive again, and teamed up with Carnage, Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Shriek on the killing spree Maximum Carnage across New York City. The mentally unstable Shriek started looking upon Carrion and the others as her and Carnage's "sons". The villains were defeated and confined to the Ravencroft mental institution. Later Shriek escaped and freed Carrion. She tried to dominate Carrion even further and encouraged him to destroy all aspects of McBride's life. However when they confronted Spider-Man in the McBride household, McBride's mother was able to reach her son's true identity. Mrs. McBride and Shriek fought over who was the true mother. Malcolm/Carrion was driven to despair by this and tried to turn the Carrion virus upon himself. In a moment of compassion Shriek cured him of the virus. Malcolm McBride returned to Ravencroft.

Later the mysterious Judas Traveller invaded Ravencroft and briefly transformed McBride back into Carrion during an encounter with Spider-Man. However at the end McBride was transformed back by Traveller and all his memories of Peter Parker as Spider-Man were wiped. Subsequently it was revealed that many of the powers displayed by Traveller were actually illusions, so it remains unclear what really happened.

William Allen

Following the death of the Jackal his corpse was examined by agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Dr. William Allen ignored safety protocols and in the process was infected by a new, stronger version of the Carrion virus, transforming him into the third incarnation of the villain. The most deadly Carrion of all, he exhibited the further ability to use a "zombie plague" to control the minds of others but also found that both Warren and Allen's minds fought for control of the body. As Carrion sought to infect the city with the Red Dust plague, Spider-Man confronted the High Evolutionary who confirmed that he had deliberately sought to distort Warren's achievements by faking the journals and evidence to make it seem that Warren had never achieved true cloning. Spider-Man discovered Warren's old notes which were used to generate a cure, whilst he confronted Carrion. The latter now revealed that the original Carrion had indeed been a clone of Warren, created to incubate a virus to destroy mankind, but that it had been released too early and failed in its mission. Spider-Man subdued the new Carrion who was taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. The High Evolutionary provided data from Warren's journals that could potentially cure him.^[8]

No cure was discovered for William, so he has been kept in stasis in a secure S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.^[9]

It is revealed in the Guardians of the Galaxy series that Carrion is one of the inmates left behind in the Negative Zone Prison Alpha and was used to help Star-Lord communicate with Mantis telepathically to bring the other Guardians to help defend the 42 prison against Blastaar and his horde from invading earth via the non-functional portal there.^[10]

Carrion later appears as a member of the Shadow Council's incarnation of the Masters of Evil.^[11]

Powers and abilities

The creature called Carrion is created when a genetic replicator virus derived from the mutated DNA of Professor Miles Warren comes into contact with a human being. The original Carrion had superhuman strength and durability, and could reduce the density of his body to become virtually intangible. He could disintegrate organic matter to ash just by touching it. He also had the powers of telepathy, self-levitation, and telekinesis of organic matter.

Carrion also developed a chemical substance called Red Dust which can either render a victim unconscious, or act as a corrosive acid that can burn through flesh, metal, and other substances. Carrion has access to the scientific equipment used by Miles Warren in his "cloning" experiments.

Malcolm McBride, as Carrion, apparently had access to the same set of powers as the original, but had not yet taken the time to explore and hone his powers to the extent of his predecessor. He had not yet demonstrated the ability to become intangible or use telekinesis, and merely has a sense of intuition bordering on telepathy.

In other media

Video games

• Malcolm McBride as Carrion appears as a recurring villain in the mid-1990s Super NES video game called Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage. He is one of the villains recruited by Carnage to help create chaos in New York. He appears with Doppleganger and Shriek numerous times in the game and hovers above the player's character attempting to grab the character's head and destroy the character. The player has to defeat him numerous times on several levels with other villains.

Novels

• Per the Spider-Man novel Spider-Man: Requiem, Stanley Carter was infected by the Carrion Virus by the Cabal of Scrier, bringing Stanley back to life in an attempt to steal the Darkhold from S.H.I.E.L.D. Spider-Man and the new Stanley Carter/Carrion battled for a while but eventually Carter began to fight with Carrion for control of his own body and when the Cabal of Scrier brought back the ancient god Chthon (which would destroy the world) Carter/Carrion gave up his own life to stop the god. While Stanley was still alive he had hidden from the authorities in his uncle Emory Carter's house and Emory had been infected by the Carrion virus when he was around Stanley. When Stanley died Emory became the next Carrion but was later defeated by Spider-Man.

References

External links

• http://marvel.com/universe/Carrion_%28Miles_Warren_clone%29
• Carrion on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
• SpiderFan.org: Carrion I
• SpiderFan.org: Carrion II
• Carrion (William Allen) at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe