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Carnage Returns in October

To fight Spidey and Shellhead.

  Can these two handle the Carnage?
 Can these two handle the Carnage?
That’s the damnedest thing about parasites. You can cut them off with a blade, you can incinerate them with a megaton bomb… but no matter how thoroughly you think you’ve killed them, they always somehow manage to eek their way back into your business. Symbiotes are parasites, of course, so anybody who thought Carnage was gone for good ought for to feel foolish right about now. Sure, the last time we saw this monster, he’d been torn in half by the Sentry and tossed into orbit at the beginning of NEW AVENGERS.   All that was really missing was a big bloody “FATALITY” floating in space to mark the occasion. But c’mon, you knew Carnage would be back someday. Even without Cletus Kassidy.

See, one of the titles that was announced at SDCC was CARNAGE, a limited series by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain that’ll start pitting Spidey and Iron Man against the red maniac in October. Wells has been talking about the project in a number of places, from Marvel’s site to IGN (and thanks to Grubich for the head’s up,) and saying that, just as Venom went from Eddie Brock to Mac Gargan, so too will Carnage pass from Cassidy to an all-new female character. One question that’ll be addressed pertains to how much of Carnage’s evil up until this point can be blamed on the symbiote, and how much of it stemmed from Cassidy... because this new host? She's going to be a bit more conflicted about the usual bloodlust.

  Of this, I speak.
 Of this, I speak.

Ever since seeing Bill Sienkiewicz’s poster of MAXIMUM CARNAGE, I’ve always held this villain in regard as one of the most horrifying in the Marvel universe. Any of you remember that intense “ Spider-Carnage” storyline from back in the days of Ben Reilly? So I’m glad (although a bit scarred, admittedly) to see this killer’s returned to the fold. But what about you Comic Vine maniacs? Do you concur?

-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS!  and UNIMAGINABLE. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.