Every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without explaining that the previous story was retconned away. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Starting with last week's Abandoned Love about the recent history of Carnage's symbiote, there were two major questions people had that kept popping up in the comments section - 1. Wasn't Carnage killed by the Sentry? and 2. What the heck happened to Carnage's legs? The first question I resolved the other day with this installment of Death is Not the End, but that just brought even more comments asking, "Okay, so what's up with his legs?" So let's get into it today (be forewarned, the answer is very unsatisfying)...

Okay, so let's recap.

In New Avengers #2 (by Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch and Danny Miki), the Sentry tears Carnage in half in outer space...



In the 2010-11 mini-series, Carnage (by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain), we see that a corporation discovered the symbiote in outer space...





And we see that said corporation (through the help of the symbiote doing the job while in outer space) has kept Cletus Kasady alive and outfitted him with cybernetic legs...



Interestingly enough, during the time that Carnage was presumed dead, Flash Thompson lost HIS legs fighting in the Army...



And then bonded with the Venom symbiote to become Agent Venom, thereby using the symbiote to create legs for himself while in action as Agent Venom...



Flash became Agent Venom almost at the same exact time that Cletus Casady returned to being Carnage, only with cybernetic legs.

So naturally, Zeb Wells being a clever writer, he did a mini-series, Carnage U.S.A., where Kasaday and Thompson are stripped of their symbiotes, and fight each other without their legs...









In the end, Venom gets his symbiote back and arrests Kasaday, who is sans legs...



So that's where we stood (pun not intended at first, but since I obviously now noticed it, I guess it is sort of intentional now, right?) as of Carnage U.S.A. So what happened next?

Go to the next page to find out!

In Minimum Carnage Alpha (written by Cullen Bunn and Chris Yost, drawn by Lan Medina and a bunch of inkers), the first part of a crossover storyline between Venom and Scarlet Spider, some bad guys from the Micoverse make a deal with Kasaday to break him out of prison...



We also get a quick explanation for how he's back with the symbiote...



Okay, so we go on for a whole crossover, lots of battles in the Microverse and then back into the regular universe, leading to Minimum Carnage Omega (also by Bunn, Yost, Medina and a bunch of inkers - even more inkers than the first time around!), where Venom and Scarlet Spider successfully stop Carnage, only Scarlet Spider takes it one step further by lobotomizing Kasaday. Anyhow, as you can see, Kasaday's legs are back...









So yeah, just no explanation. They're simply back. The best reason I can come up with is also the most obvious - that since Carnage's symbiote is actually part of his bloodstream (unlike Flash Thompson's), then the symbiote grew his legs back.

There's more evidence of this in Superior Carnage, a mini-series (by Kevin Shinick and Stephen Segovia) where the Wizard, suffering from dementia, bonds with the symbiote while Kasaday is all lobotmized. Eventually, it stripped from the Wizard, but the experience is discovered to have cured his dementia, which reveals that it ALSO cured Kasaday's lobotomy...





This is taken to its logical extreme in 2014's Superior Carnage Annual #1 by Cullen Bunn, Kim Jacinto and Mike Henderson, when the symbiote travels to Kasaday by possessing people on the way to Kasaday's prison. However, one of the hosts decides to eliminate Kasaday before the full symbiote arrives...



but when it arrives, it ends up re-bonding with Kasaday, bringing him back to life, or, as they explain...





So yeah, I guess the idea is that the symbiote and Kasaday are so bonded that it will always heal Kasaday's injuries eventually, even torn off legs!

EDITED TO ADD: Mike Perkins dropped me a line to note that Carnage is currently leg-less in his Carnage series with writer Gerry Conway, as shown in Carnage #1...



but they have plans for some interesting developments for his legs in the future. I won't spoil what they are, but it sounds very cool, so be sure to check out their series!

If you folks have a suggestion for a future edition of Abandoned Love, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!