Cult of Carnage: Misery #1

History

The five-issue limited series was written by Sabir Pirzada, a Pakistani-American writer whose Marvel career began in television, serving on the writers' rooms for the Disney+ Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel streaming series before transitioning to comics. Penciller and inker Francesco Mortarino is an Italian artist who had previously drawn the Dark Web Ms. Marvel tie-in for Marvel; Cult of Carnage: Misery represented a step up in profile for both creators. The series was edited by Edward Devin Lewis and published under Marvel's 'Cult of Carnage' banner as a direct companion to the concurrent Red Goblin series, which featured Liz Allan's son Normie Osborn — the two titles were designed to be read in tandem as part of the broader Summer of Symbiotes publishing push. The collected edition of all five issues was released in February 2024.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of the Misery symbiote — a hybrid organism created by the fusion of the Carnage and Anti-Venom symbiotes — which bonds to Liz Allan after she is mortally wounded during a raid on Alchemax by the Life Foundation.
• First appearance of Corwin Jones, a terminally ill former Alchemax Guardsman secretly hired by Carlton Drake and the Life Foundation to steal Alchemax's stockpile of symbiote strains; Jones later becomes the symbiote villain Madness.
• First appearance of Grace, a chimpanzee test subject at Alchemax who was exposed to symbiote experimentation; she becomes a supporting character throughout the five-issue run.
• This is the first solo series headlined by Liz Allan, one of the oldest surviving members of the Spider-Man supporting cast, originally created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962).
• Written by Sabir Pirzada and illustrated by Francesco Mortarino (with colors by Javier Tartaglia and letters by VC's Joe Sabino); cover art on the main edition by Skan Srisuwan.
• The issue is a component of Marvel's 2023 'Summer of Symbiotes' publishing event, which ran across multiple titles celebrating Venom's 35th anniversary; it ties narratively into the concurrent Red Goblin series in which Liz's son Normie Osborn operates as the new Red Goblin.
• Carlton Drake — the Life Foundation's CEO and a pre-existing Marvel villain — appears as the primary antagonist pulling strings behind the Alchemax raid, with Spearhead (Carson) serving as Drake's operative in the field.
• Issue #1 received a second printing (with a 1:25 Ryan Stegman variant) and shipped with multiple first-print variant covers including a 1:25 Leinil Francis Yu variant, a 1:50 Skan virgin variant, an InHyuk Lee variant, a Todd Nauck Windowshades variant, and a Francesco Mortarino Madness Concept Art Design variant.

Cast · 10 characters

Full credits

Variants (8)