Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Erik Larsen, the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #344 (March 1991) as the first and most infamous host of the Carnage symbiote, an offspring of Venom.

Originally a deranged serial killer, Kasady bonded with the symbiote while sharing a cell with Venom's human host, Eddie Brock, and broke out of prison using the super-human abilities granted by it.

[3] Writer David Michelinie intended to have Venom's human alter ego, Eddie Brock, be killed off in The Amazing Spider-Man #400 and have the symbiote continue to bond with a series of hosts.

[4] The human component of Carnage's first host, Cletus Kasady, was designed by artist Erik Larsen, who modeled the character after the DC Comics supervillain the Joker.

[9] A new Carnage series, starting in November 2015, as part of Marvel's post-"Secret Wars" relaunch, was written by Gerry Conway and Mike Perkins.

Kasady gained revenge by murdering the disciplinarian administrator, pushing a girl (who laughed at him for asking to date her) in front of a moving bus, and burning down the orphanage.

A doctor at the facility, hoping to find a "cure" for his madness, draws blood from him—unwittingly enabling Kasady to transform into Carnage—who goes on to recruit an army of psychopathic supervillains including Shriek, Demogoblin, Carrion, and Doppelganger to take over New York City.

[18] During a subsequent jailbreak he made it his mission to kill his only childhood friend, Billy Bentime, hoping to refute the notion that friendship should be paid in kind.

Dr. Tanis Nieves as Scorn goes along with the separated parts of Hybrid which make up Agony, Phage, Riot, and Lasher, but they are heavily outnumbered since Carnage controls the entire town.

She reveals that her device is meant to permanently remove the bonds from Carnage and Venom, but the hosts are still in there, leaving Kasady alone with a legless Flash Thompson.

[30] Ultimately, Spider-Man brings out Kasady's body to successfully draw the symbiote into it, which immediately devours Dr. Malus and then prepares to finish off the Wizard.

[30] A piece of the symbiote (which had died in captivity) escapes containment and sets out in search of Kasady, who is bedridden due to having been stabbed by a fellow prison inmate.

[32] During the battle with Red Onslaught, Doctor Doom and the Scarlet Witch cast a spell which alters the moralities of almost everyone present, Carnage included.

Filled with the irresistible urge to be a hero, Carnage returns to New York and goes around "saving" people, largely oblivious to the fact that he is causing more harm than good.

[34] At the same time, a new Sin-Eater is murdering journalists, which unscrupulous reporter Alice Gleason uses to try and boost her popularity by feigning severe distress over the killings.

Kasady left a message signaling his return in the form of murdering a random bystander who he had asked where to find the boy as proof that he was reverted to his more natural moral axis.

Enraged he went after her only to find out that it was a trap orchestrated by the FBI agent Claire Dixon, John Jameson as Man-Wolf and Eddie Brock as Toxin.

He suddenly met a cult who worships Chthon and told him that he is part of the Darkhold prophecy and spilled his blood on the book giving Carnage new supernatural powers.

[45] As the Poisons launch an all-out assault on the Marvel Universe, they are determined, since their last encounter with the alternate Carnage, not to leave such wildcard individuals which they designated as anomalies to be played against them.

In that order, for his ability to summon monsters, they seek to consume Kid Kaiju while Thanos and his second-in-command, Doctor Doom, send Black Cat and others to fetch Cletus Kasady, so they can separate him from his red symbiote and replace it with one of their own.

[49] In the last page of Venom #8, a cult who worships Carnage, got hold of Cletus's damaged body inside a chamber and are planning to revive him by using the Grendel's remnants which they stole from Maker.

Cletus decided to assume command of the cult and help free Knull, setting out to hunt down and consume the codexes of the other symbiote hosts, living and deceased.

However, as Dark Carnage had no idea who Banner was, he was shocked when the Devil Hulk resurrected his body and completed the bonding, delivering a powerful blow that he actually felt.

Stabbing tendrils into the Hulk's brain, Dark Carnage forced him to revert into Bruce Banner and then ripped the Venom symbiote off of him.

With the Grendel symbiote now powerful enough to free Knull from his prison, Dark Carnage took off; pursued by Eddie Brock, who had merged the codices harvested using the S.C.I.T.H.E.

Caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of Cloak, Dagger, Iron Fist, Firestar, Morbius, Deathlok, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, and Scream, Dark Carnage was tackled through the ground and into the tunnel where Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn were hiding.

After it is transported back to Rykers Island, he consumes an inmate, incorporating into its body the DNA, and the memories of Cletus, creating a younger version of him in order to become whole again.

[59] Carnage teams up with the Joker and later turns against him during Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds #1, the two men meeting when behavioral psychiatrist Cassandra Briar attempts to use the two men—regarded as humanity's most twisted minds—as tests for a chip she has developed that will allegedly 'lobotomize' their homicidal instincts.

The Dark Knight reflects that many serial killers kill so many to try to escape death themselves by "appeasing" the Grim Reaper with their own sacrifices, and concludes that Carnage — far from being a monster or even a "common street punk" — is nothing more than an overgrown "little boy".

After being captured by authorities, he was placed on death row in San Quentin Prison after California's governor decided to end the state's moratorium on executions in light of the exceptionally horrific nature of Kasady's crimes.