WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Absolute Carnage #4, by Donny Cates, J.P. Mayer and Jay Leisten, on sale now.
Carnage's rampage throughout the Absolute Carnage event seems all but unstoppable. Now infused with godlike powers, the stakes just keep getting higher as Carnage massacres New York City in his pursuit to free the symbiote god, Knull. By the end of Absolute Carnage #3, it seemed like he may have finally met his match when the Venom symbiote joined with the Immortal Hulk for an epic showdown with the crimson Carnage. But he was hardly a match at all.
In Absolute Carnage #4 the two monsters duke it out as the Venom symbiote's former host Eddie Brock scrambles to find some possible counter to the threat. Throughout the fight, they at first appear evenly matched, exchanging blows and jibes. While Carnage teases his prey with taunts, the Hulk tries to pummel him while telling him to shut up. But it turns out that the seeming evenness of their match was a ruse all along, and when Carnage takes it seriously, he ends it quickly.
Playing with his victims is par for the course with Cletus Kasady's Carnage. Even before gaining the symbiote that enhanced his deadly edge, the serial killer was known for his depraved mind and his constant stream-of-consciousness prattling. Once he fused with the symbiote, all of Kasady's worst murder fantasies started to come true, and the more powerful he gets, the more the world sees just how dark his mind can get.
That's exactly what Carnage shares with Hulk in his own special way. To end the fight, Carnage plows several tendrils into the Venom-Hulk's skull and into the brain underneath. Carnage finds Bruce Banner's opinion of himself as insane laughable compared to Kasady's own insanity. After giving Banner a taste of what his insanity is like, he shuts off the scientist's mind. Without his rage to fuel him, the Hulk reverts to an unconscious and powerless Bruce Banner as Carnage flays the symbiote from his flesh for his own consumption.
The brief peek Carnage gets into Banner's mind reveals that he, too, sees the Green Door that has haunted the pages of The Immortal Hulk, and represents the passageway to Hulk's own personal hell. With his own depraved mind so steeped in pop culture references, Carnage nods at the Rolling Stones' song, saying that when he sees the door he wants to paint it black.
With that, he drops Banner to the ground, absorbs the Venom symbiote for himself, and becomes more powerful than ever before flying off. With Eddie Brock giving himself his own power amp by combining the powers of several of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, it remains to be seen if anyone can put a stop to the absolute carnage.