With a name like Carnage, it's no surprise that the terrifying Marvel villain has immense blood on its hands. No matter who the deadly symbiote bonds with, Carnage has been responsible for some of the most brutal and gory deaths in Marvel history.
Although Carnage's disturbing kill count was partially featured in Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage, the movie only touched on the grisly deaths he's exacted in Marvel Comics. From killing his family dog out of jealousy to murdering a whole diner full of innocent people, Carnage is responsible for some of the most violent kills in Marvel Comics.
This list discusses animal cruelty, violence, and murder
10 Carnage Drilled His Own Dog
Venom: Carnage Unleashed by Larry Hama, Andrew Wildman, Joe Rubinstein, Tom Smith, & Ken Lopez
Few things are more barbarous than torturing a harmless animal. Yet, nothing is off limits for Carnage, which is brutally proven in Venom: Carnage Unleashed. During the comic, a young Cletus Kasady tells a doctor how his mother loved the family dog more than she loved him, which sent him into a jealous fit of rage.
As a result, Carnage took his pet dog down to the basement of his childhood home and savagely killed the poor animal with an electric drill. Despite his attempts to explain away the fatality, the ruthless Carnage actually revels in the pleasure of such a grisly display of violence.
9 Carnage Killed His Own Grandmother
Venom: Carnage Unleashed #3 by Larry Hama, Andrew Wildman, Joe Rubinstein, Tom Smith, & Dave Sharpe
One of Carnage's most brutal kills happens when he tosses his grandmother down a flight of stairs to her death. In Venom: Carnage Unleashed, Kletus breaks out of jail, kidnaps his doctor, and recounts the time he orchestrated his grandmother's death just because he could.
Cletus lures his grandmother to the edge of the staircase by breaking her prized doll collection. As she approaches the stairs, Cletus states, "Let's see you fly, Grandma," and shoves her down the stairs. While Carnage's childhood is meant to establish the villain's insatiable bloodlust, killing his Grandmother was a bridge too far.
8 Carnage Massacred Innocents In A Diner
Deadpool Vs Carnage by Cullen Bunn, Joe Sabino, Salvador Espin, & Veronica Gandini
While Carnage's solo kills are usually extremely violent, Deadpool Vs. Carnage #1 shows what would happen if there were more. After breaking out of prison and tracking down Wade Wilson, Carnage stops off at a diner and brutally murders the patrons.
After slaying an innocent victim, three musclebound men insult Carnage and step up to stop the mayhem. Carnage makes short work of at least four victims at once by gruesomely dismembering them with his sharp claws and super-teeth. Afterward, Carnage goes after the women and children in the diner, which was so brutal that Marvel Comics didn't depict it. The comic explains that Carnage claimed dozens of lives in the massacre.
7 Decapitates & Mutilates Spider-Man Several Times Over
Carnage: It's A Wonderful Life by Jonathan Babcock, Kyle Hotz, Gregory Wight, & David Quinn
In Carnage: It's A Wonderful Life, Carnage manages to infect Dr. Kafka and Security Chief Jameson with the alien symbiote. As a result, Kafka and Jameson end up in the dark corners of Carnage's mind. There, they happen upon a torture chamber where Carnage carries out his fantasies regarding the death of his main foe, Spider-Man.
While inside the chamber, different versions of Spider-Man appear in various states of gory mutilation. Dreaming of 1000 ways to kill the web crawler, one panel depicts the violent Carnage brutally lopping the hero's head off with a gnarly two-fisted claw attack. If that wasn't nasty enough, another panel shows several versions of Spider-Man disemboweled with their guts strewn across the floor.
6 Slaughters An Entire Ravencroft Staff
Maximum Carnage
In the long-running "Maximum Carnage" storyline, Cletus goes to extreme lengths to get Spider-Man and Venom's attention and lure them into a fight. While inside Ravencroft Institute, Carnage breaks free from captivity and proceeds to brutally slaughter a spate of security guards in one fell swoop with his battle-ax claw.
A doctor confronts Cletus and pleads for her life, trying to get him to snap out of his indiscriminate killing spree. However, Carnage doubles down by saying he plans on "slaying every inhabitant in [the] precious institute." Cletus literally earns the name Carnage by violently slaughtering everyone in sight. Killing one person is bad enough, but murdering an entire staff of helpers is evil incarnate.
5 Carnage Dispatches An Army Of Mini-Carnages
Minimum Carnage
More Carnage means more murder and mayhem. In Minimum Carnage, Scarlet Spider and Agent Venom defeat Carnage after battling in the Microverse, prompting Carnage to dispatch an army of miniature Carnages with an even bigger thirst for blood.
Once Carnage recruits an army of murderous minions, he redirects his ire to the universe where the mini-monsters go wild and massacre a slew of innocent bystanders. Worse yet, the mini Carnages gruesomely enter the universe through the humans' pores and mouths. In the end, the mini-monsters combine their energy and form one massive version of Carnage and continue his brutal death march. Killing baddies who deserve it is one thing, but slaughtering several innocent victims for fun is unconscionable.
4 Carnage Murders A Young Girl
Carnage, USA by Clayton Crain, Zeb Wells, & Clayton Cowles
In Carnage, USA, Cletus arrives at an idyllic small town in Colorado and begins infecting the townsfolk with the alien symbiote unprovoked. Many readers consider Carnage's infection of a young boy in a bathtub to be among his vilest acts.
While Spider-Man and Agent Venom manage to take Carnage down at the end of the story, it came too late. The comic mentions how Carnage slayed a young girl named Stephanie before the heroes defeated him. After nearly killing a baby by tossing it out of a window in the past, Carnage clearly has no remorse for murdering children. Even for Carnage, it doesn't get more brutally inhumane than this.
3 Carnage Drills A Man
Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1
In Venom: Carnage Unleashed, both title characters showed the rare ability to upload their DNA to the internet via Ethernet cables and hard-wired computers. Far from just a gimmick, Carnage used the skill to viciously drill a computer hacker to death through a computer screen.
When the hacker detects a range presence on his computer, he writes it off as a weird laser or holographic reflection. Just when the hacker doubts the real presence of Carnage, the Spider-Man villain coils up his symbiote tentacle, sends it through the internet, and makes it explode through the hacker's computer screen. The end of the tentacle forms a sharp drill and brutally stabs the man through the throat, causing a fountain of blood to erupt.
2 Carnage's Prison Rampage Is Ultra-Gory
Carnage: Mind Bomb by Warren Ellis, Kyle Hotz, Marie Javins, Jonathan Babcock, & Mike Higgins
In Carnage: Mind Bomb, Cletus once again finds himself in prison where a psychiatrist tries to rehabilitate him. A fellow inmate named Ted Connelly is afraid the powerful Venom symbiote will slaughter him. A doctor then incapacitated Cletus by putting him into a catatonic state.
The Wizard uses mind-control on a guard to open Cletus' cell. As soon as Cletus awakens, the Carnage symbiote overruns his body and goes on an ultra-gory rampage in the prison. He impales the guard, waylays the other prisoners, and then proceeds to savagely tear Connelly apart in one of the most graphically disturbing fatalities on record. It's so barbaric that The Wizard says watching the massacre was like watching Game of Thrones, which could not be more brutal.
1 Carnage Mentally Eviscerates Rosvelg
Carnage #6 by Ram V, Rogê Antônio, Erick Arciniega, & Joe Sabino
In Carnage #6, Carnage accompanies serial killer Ken Neely in the Norse Realms. Hela sends a sin-eating, flying chimera named Rosvelg to stop them. Rosvelg easily kills Neely, but Carnage's past sins are so immense that the symbiote not only welcomes Rosvelg to consume them, but they have a gorily fatal effect.
While readers have seen Carnage exacting gory physical violence with his claws and teeth, he metaphysically channels his sins into Rosvelg's consciousness in this issue. The result causes the monster to swell up, rip his stomach apart, and die a brutal, grisly death.