Carnage has been a treacherous and murderous being since he first came into existence in 1992. In his second major crossover event, he has become a beacon for the symbiote god Knull. The Absolute Carnage series showed several heroes in their journey to stop Carnage from taking millions of lives in exchange for a new god.
With villains like Cletus Kasady and Norman Osborn acting under the symbiote, Carnage presents a great threat to the heroes of Earth who have to team up to stop them. With most crossover events, a series of tie-in comics, from single-issue to mini-series, are published alongside the main story. This list ranks the top ten Absolute Carnage tie-in comics from the 2019 event.
10 Symbiote Spider-Man
Thankfully the story alone was good because Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man has almost nothing to do with its entire title. The story follows Judge Leonard Elkhart who was a tourist that was taken over by the Venom symbiote briefly many years ago in the first two pages. After witnessing The White Rabbit commit a crime, he becomes her judge and sentences her. She escapes and scares his son to death.
He then tries to kill her in court, but shoots a stenographer instead, and goes to prison. Carnage shows up in the last two pages and eats him because he held the symbiote in the beginning. Cutting out the first and last two pages completely cut all of the connection to Carnage. This issue served no purpose to the overall story. It just didn’t fit with all of the other tie-ins.
9 Captain Marvel
After returning home from a space flight, Carol Danvers finds that her cat Chewbacca has merged with a symbiote. Absolute Carnage: Captain Marvel is the solution that the writers found for bringing Carol into the crossover. Carnage has taken over Chewbacca, the cat-shaped Flerken, who proceeds to swallow Carol whole.
After fighting for a moment, Carol begins to monologue and essentially wills herself out of her cat and the symbiote off as well. This issue didn’t make much sense compared to the other tie-ins. Carol is a great character and has a history with the symbiotes, but this issue focused on willpower in a way that is done significantly better in the Miles Morales tie-in.
8 Symbiote of Vengeance
Johnny Blaze is the king of Hell, and dozens of Ghost Riders are out there trying to find their place in the world. In Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance, Alejandra Jones is protecting a small village in Nicaragua when she is attacked by Cletus Kasady at the beginning of his search for codices.
Danny Ketch, another Ghost Rider, is asked by Johnny Blaze to go aid Alejandra and save her life. While Danny fails, Johnny is able to get Alejandra a new body for a short time to scare Kasady off, but not before he gets the powers of a Ghost Rider including a flaming skull and ridable Carnage Cycle.
7 Immortal Hulk
Taking place immediately after Absolute Carnage #3, Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk follows the thought process inside the Hulk’s mind as Venom attempts to merge with the cluster of personalities. Lead by Bruce Banner, fans see appearances from Joe Fixit, Hulk, Devil Hulk, and mentions of several others.
Most of the issue takes place in the mind of the Hulk as the personalities discuss allowing Venom to join their body and mind, with some being more convincing than others. It is also noted in this issue that the Hulk is the one that found the mass grave and called the police. The issue ends with Venom being mostly welcomed with the shouting of “We are Hulk.”
6 Avengers
Featuring a moment where Steve Rogers punches a symbiote off the face of a homeless man, Absolute Carnage: Avengers is a one-shot that perfectly encapsulates what the crossovers were trying to show. Carnage is everywhere, but the heroes can fight back, even Hawkeye.
Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and the Thing team up in New York to take down a Carnage spire while Hawkeye is stuck doing the same in San Francisco. While they technically accomplish their goals, it isn’t clear how and it ends with a lead into Venom #19.
5 Separation Anxiety
All the tie-ins on this list have some elements of horror mixed throughout as that is synonymous with Carnage himself. Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety takes the cake by being an actual horror comic. After a little girl lets a dog into the house, the four Life Foundation symbiote siblings, Riot, Phage, Agony, and Lasher emerge from it.
Two of the symbiotes take over the parents as the children hide out in the bathroom and attic to escape, though they are easily found by the symbiotes. The girl just about escapes when she is pulled back into the house and merged with a symbiote. The four then head out to New York to join the symbiotic festivities. This is one issue that works perfectly with the story or alone.
4 Lethal Protectors
Thrusting Misty Knight into the limelight of the Carnage saga, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors sees the return of the Carnage fighting team from the 1993 Maximum Carnage storyline. This team, consisting of Iron Fist, Morbius the Living Vampire, Cloak and Dagger, Deathlok, and Firestar, take the fight to Carnage in the sewers of New York.
There is a moment where Morbius and Man-Wolf fight each other, prompting everyone to pay attention to the vampire versus werewolf fight which is cool in any situation. This mini-series felt more like a return to the past by including the team, but its major focus on Misty was what drove it home and made the Ravencroft sequel series more interesting.
3 Scream
The second most well-known of Venom’s spawn, Scream’s appearance was unexpected since the symbiote had died long ago. Her return in the Absolute Carnage: Scream mini-series signified that the crossover event was going through the annals of Venom history to make a good story.
Including former symbiote users like the corpse of Donna Diego, Patricia Robertson, and Andi Benton, this series focused on the most significant female symbiotes while giving a lot of strength to their characters. Patricia ends up giving her life for Andi, but this is a good thing as the merging gave birth to a version of Scream with a hell-mark.
2 Deadpool
As a sequel and tie-in mini-series, Absolute Carnage: Deadpool succeeds in what seems like its two main goals. First, it makes Deadpool into a literal unicorn who has a major role in a crossover event. Second, it brings back the SpideyPool combo that fans are always thirsting after. No matter how many times Spider-Man can say it has ended, the pair will forever be linked.
For a character who makes everything a joke, the humor in this mini-series was welcome and fit in with the overall theme. It was also nice to have someone calling out Norman for his Cletus charade.
1 Miles Morales
Not only did Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales give us the great-looking Miles symbiote hybrid that was easily the most marketable part of the whole series, but it gave us a look at Miles being a great hero. He doesn’t abandon Scorpion, Happy Dan, or J. Jonah Jameson, rather he sticks around well past his strength and keeps on fighting.
The mini-series allows fans to see Miles, Silver Saber, and Jameson in full swing against the plight of Carnage while also showing just how human each of them are. Miles proves himself worthy of the Spider-mantle by being able to remove the symbiote, then remerge with it under his control.