Cletus Kasady

Convicted serial killer Cletus Kasady shared a prison cell with Eddie Brock, and when Brock's Venom symbiote broke him out, it left behind an offspring that bonded with Kasady through his bloodstream — producing Carnage, a symbiote-powered killer far more unhinged and lethal than Venom.

Few Marvel villains have carved out a legacy as viscerally memorable as Cletus Kasady, who burst onto the scene in The Amazing Spider-Man #362 in 1992, courtesy of the wickedly talented duo of David Michelinie and Mark Bagley. Emerging from the Copper/Modern Age at a moment when Marvel was pushing its darker, more intense storytelling to the limit, Kasady has spent over three decades haunting the pages of Carnage, Venom, and Miles Morales: Spider-Man — a testament to just how deeply this character has embedded himself in Marvel's DNA. With 159 catalog appearances and two collector-significant key issues to his name, he's kept dangerous company alongside Spider-Man, Venom, Eddie Brock, and Mac Gargan, making him a fixture in some of the most intense corners of the Marvel Universe. If you're building out your modern Marvel collection, Kasady is an essential piece of the puzzle — a character whose debut year marks the beginning of a long, relentless presence in comics that shows no signs of slowing down.