In this feature, we spotlight the outlandish explanations for comic book characters (mostly super-villains) surviving seeming certain death.
Today, in response to a few folks who asked the question during my recent post about how Carnage's current symbiote didn't actually come from Venom, we look at how Carnage survived being torn into half by the Sentry during the first New Avengers storyline...
In 2004's New Avengers #1 (by Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch and Danny Miki), Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, assisted by Jessica Drew (actually a Skrull, but that doesn't really tie into any of this), went to go visit the Sentry in a prison for superhumans. While there, Electro orchestrated a breakout of the prison.
This led to New Avengers #2, where a group of disparate heroes came together to form a new Avengers team in their defense of the breakout.
One of the prisoners released was Carnage, who attacked Matt, Foggy and "Jessica"...
Other villains got involved and finally, the Sentry was compelled to get out of his stupor and get involved and he did so in striking fashion...
Okay, so how does one get out of THAT?
Go to the next page to find out!
In the 2010-11 mini-series, Carnage, by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain, the symbiote is discovered alive at the corporate headquarters of a company called Hall Industries. In Carnage #2, we get a flashback to what happened...
In that same issue, the symbiote bonds with one of Hall Industries' doctors.
In Carnage #3, the symbiote and the doctor cut a path of destruction to a Hall Industries facility, with Iron man and Spider-Man on their tail and it results in a shocking revelation...
So yeah, the symbiote kept Kletus Cassady alive in outer space and then Hall Industries used their technology to keep him alive back on Earth. Kassady re-bonds with the symbiote by the end of the story.
Carnage #4 gives us a fairly superfluous take on how Carnage survived from Kassady's point of view. It doesn't tell us anything new, but I figured I might as well share it, as well...
In a future column, I'll get into what happened to Cassady's cyber-legs.
If anyone has a suggestion for a future installment of Death is Not the End, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com