The following contains major spoilers for Carnage #14, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
While Carnage has embarked on ascending to literal godhood, the serial killer symbiote's longtime host Cletus Kasady has taken up a similar mission in his own grotesque fashion. Worse still, Cletus has taken the next step in spreading his message by amassing an army of dedicated missionaries, and the powers he has given them might make them more dangerous than even he could have imagined.
After multiple disappointing confrontations with Miles Morales and Carnage itself quickly surpassing him in terms of power, Cletus Kasady has come to the conclusion that he alone simply is not enough to accomplish everything he has set out to do. However, he is not entirely on his own. As seen in previous issues, Cletus has a devout online following, and in Carnage #14 (by Alex Paknadel, Fran Galán, Federico Sabbatini, Erick Arciniega, and VC's Joe Sabino) he finally conscripts them with the Iron Man suits he now has under his command.
Cletus Kasady Has Created an Iron Man Army
Cletus Kasady is one of the Marvel Universe's most infamous serial killer, and he has developed a rabid fan base. This is quite different from his humble beginnings, but it isn't all that surprising considering Cletus' trajectory over the years. Bonding to the Carnage symbiote may have brought him rocketing into the realm of supervillainy, but it wasn't until years later that he began pushing the bounds of what the two of them could be.
In the years since his introduction, Cletus has slowly become a more and more prominent figure in the Marvel Universe. This wasn't without a great deal of effort on his part, nor was it without him being pulled into huge events. While Cletus attempts to claim bigger territory for himself largely kicked off with 2011's Carnage U.S.A. (by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain), it was the early emergence of Knull that saw Carnage literally transformed into greater, more gruesome versions of himself. Although not every shift in Carnage or Cletus' place in the world was of their own volition, each of them further cemented their blood-soaked legacy, which has ultimately established them as the personal heroes of the people who Kasady has conscripted as his personal missionaries.
Cletus Kasady's Missionaries Could Be a Bigger Threat Than Carnage
The fact that Cletus has effectively established his own army of violent, superpowered followers is terrifying enough on its own, yet the specific abilities he has imbued them with make things infinitely worse. Like with Kenneth Neely, Cletus isn't letting his chosen soldiers govern their own actions, instead imparting them into the extensions of his symbiote. Kasady has also bestowed them with various suits of armor designed and developed by Tony Stark without any clue as to how much damage his superpowered followers can now cause.
Cletus' control over those who end up under his thrall isn't an exact science, nor is it something that he commands absolutely. That being the case, it may only be a matter of time before his followers begin breaking free from his control. And, as scary as Cletus has been in his own Extrembiote form, there is no telling how much worse things will get when his fanboys break free to wreak havoc on their own.