Fighting Carnage Could Make the MCU's 'Spider-Man' Savage AF

Spider-Man: Homecoming’s villain will be Vulture, an offbeat choice that may shake up our understanding of Peter Parker. Although adding an unusual villain might prove interesting, there’s a darker, creepier villain waiting in the wings for his chance to screw with Spider-Man: Carnage is the baddie we’d rather see.

Vulture’s goal, in the comics, is to steal Peter Parker’s youth so he can become young once again. So far, our cinematic Spider-Men (played by Tobey McGuire and Andrew Garfield) have fought the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, the Lizard, Electro, and disappointing versions of Rhino and Venom. The primary villain Spidey has yet to fight is Carnage, and many consider him to be the best Spider-Man villain.

Carnage made his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #361, but the human host of the alien symbiote, Cletus Kasady, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #344.

Kasady is a psychopath who, at an early age, killed his grandmother by pushing her down a set of stairs. He also attempted to kill his mother by electrocution while she was bathing. He is then sent to an orphanage where he kills one of his teachers and pushes a girl in front of a bus after she refuses to go on a date with him. He eventually burns the orphanage to the ground and goes on to kill 11 other people before being sent to Rikers Island where he’s locked up with none other than the saltiest journalist of the past 50 years: Eddie Brock.

When the symbiote reattaches itself to Eddie’s body and escapes from jail, it leaves a piece of its offspring in the cell, which then infuses itself with Kasady. The main difference between Venom and Carnage is that Venom is basically a suit that covers Eddie. Eddie and the symbiote have two different personalities. What made Venom such a prolific character is that we often see Eddie and the symbiote mentally fighting over their actions. However, the symbiote and Cletus are a complete being, lacking both morality and sympathy for anything that they do. Carnage kills because he desires to, and views murder as the most ultimate and complete freedom a person has.

Carnage is Spider-Man’s most powerful and gripping villain by far, mostly because he’s completely psycho. Comic book artist and creator Erik Larsen even said that Cletus Kasady is meant to resemble the Joker in both appearance and personality. The Joker is the greatest villain of all time, so why don’t we give Kasady the same respect? Maybe it’s due to his bloodthirsty nature, but they are almost one in the same except one has superpowers and the other does not.

Carnage brings out the best in Spider-Man. He’s also so powerful that the only way to defeat him is for both Spider-Man and Venom to team up in order to stop him. Maybe we will see him in the Venom movie Sony is developing. But it’s time we start exploring the deeper side to Spider-Man regardless. We touched on it when Gwen Stacy was killed, but there’s so much to the Spider-Man story than just a smart teenager with a good heart. Carnage deserves his time in the spotlight.