WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Absolute Carnage #5 by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Jay Leisten, Frank Martin and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Ever since Carnage returned to the Earth and was brought back to life by a cult devoted to Knull, the god of the symbiotes, the Spider-Man villain has been on a constant rampage. Cletus Kasady's plan was simple, if not completely mad: to rip out the codex left in anyone who had ever bonded with a symbiote before and collect them all. Only when all of these codices would be bonded to his symbiote would he then be able to reconnect to the Klyntar hive mind and awaken the god that is being kept prisoner on the alien planet.
For the past few months, Carnage has declared war on the Marvel Universe, and he has gone on to get very, very close to accomplishing his goal. Now, in Absolute Carnage's final issue, Eddie Brock is all that stands in Cletus' way. Finally, it all comes down to a confrontation between Venom and Carnage, with the fate of the entire world, possibly even the universe, in the balance.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who ultimately wins. No matter the victor, the outcome is the same. And it spells doom for the Marvel Universe.
In Absolute Carnage #4, Eddie Brock bonded with the codices that had been gathered from the Maker's machine. These symbiotes were collected from the likes of Captain America, Wolverine and the Thing, making Eddie an Avengers/Venom hybrid. Now, in the series' concluding chapter, Eddie, powered by his codices, and Cletus, armed with his, fight the ultimate battle. But Cletus isn't exactly one to fight fair. As the two battle, his drone doubles keep attacking the Avengers and, worse, Eddie's son Dylan.
To save everyone, Eddie has no choice but to kill Cletus, and re-absorb the Carnage symbiote to take control over it and stop it from attacking everyone else. But by doing so, Eddie does exactly what Carnage wanted: he assembles all the codices, and they reconnect to the Klyntar hive mind across the cosmos. As a result, Knull, who has been sleeping, held prisoner at the center of Klyntar for eons, awakens. Worse still, he blasts straight through his cage, assuming control of every symbiote that makes up the planet.
Now that he's awake, Knull has his dragon, the Grendel, and an entire army's worth of monstrous symbiotes under his control. And, of course, the god of symbiotes has set his sights on Earth.
The threat of Carnage may finally be dealt with, but the supervillain's plan came to fruition nonetheless. Cletus Kasady will not be around to see it, but Knull is coming to Earth, and he's bringing war with him. As it stands, Absolute Carnage was just the appetizer. Now the main course is about to arrive.