Next year marks 30 years since Carnage’s first appearance, and to celebrate three decades of mayhem, Marvel will be releasing a special one-shot anthology, titled Carnage Forever, featuring all-new stories, written and illustrated by today’s top creators. Carnage Forever #1 will be on sale in print and digital on February 22. Marvel has extensive plans for Carnage in 2022, and this one-shot kicks it all off in style.
By the early 1990’s, Venom had become popular with fans—so much so that Marvel decided to create a new, even more lethal version. While Eddie Brock was serving time in prison, a sliver of his symbiote suit bonded with his cellmate, Cletus Kassidy, turning Kassidy into Carnage. Gifted with powers and abilities unlike anything he had ever experienced before, Kassidy embarked on a murderous killing spree, slaughtering his victims with little rhyme or reason—one of his first kills was simply because he did not like the person’s name. Like Venom, Carnage was a hit with fans, and in time he would eclipse Venom as one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies. The character returned in grand fashion in this summer’s Extreme Carnage event, a spin-off of the symbiote-themed crossover King in Black. And it seems that all was just the beginning as Marvel has big plans for Cletus Kassidy, and it kicks off in the 30th-anniversary special.
Marvel shared details of the new special in a post on their website. Carnage Forever will feature the talents of Philip Kennedy Johnson, Ram V, Ty Templeton, and Edgar Salazar; it will also feature a cover by Kendrick Lim. The announcement did not offer any specific information on stories, but writer Philip Kennedy Johnson offered some teases, saying that part of the “thrill” of writing Carnage was “subverting reader expectations” while also acknowledging the “unbridled violence and terror” that is Carnage’s trademark. He went on to compare last summer’s Extreme Carnage with the classic film The Manchurian Candidate and likened his take more to The Exorcist. Likewise, Ram V, currently co-writing Venom with Al Ewing, looked forward to telling “twisted tales” starring Carnage, and maybe even influencing the character’s future. The post concluded by teasing the announcement of a new, ongoing series for Carnage.
When Carnage debuted on the scene in 1992, Venom had already begun his transformation from criminal to anti-hero, and fans looking for a symbiote to fill that villainous void found exactly what they were looking for in Carnage. Despite his single-minded quest for revenge against Spider-Man, Venom had morals and a code of ethics—Carnage did not. And whereas Venom has turned into a full-on hero, with the respect of Captain America and the Avengers, Carnage has stayed firmly a villain. The stories in Carnage Forever will showcase the murderous symbiote at his worst, and set the stage for the evil that is to come.
In 30 years, Carnage has become one of the most feared villains in the Marvel Universe and he has so signs of slowing down. Carnage Forever not only celebrates the character’s history, but also looks ahead to his future. The book will be in stores this February.
Source: Marvel Comics