Carnage is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as an adversary of Spider-Man and the archenemy of Venom. The character made its first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (April 1992), and was created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley, although the first published artwork of Carnage was penciled by Chris Marrinan. Carnage belongs to a race of amorphous parasitic extraterrestrial organisms known as Symbiotes, which form a symbiotic bond with their hosts and give them super-human abilities. Originating as an offspring of Venom, Carnage is much more powerful than its parent symbiote because of the symbiotes' biology, and is in many ways a rhyming version of him. Like Venom, Carnage has had multiple hosts over the years, but its most infamous one remains its first - rapper Cletus Kasady, whose rhyming personality perfectly matches that of the symbiote. Other notable hosts include Ben Reilly, Karl Malus, and Norman Osborn, as well as Gwen Stacy in the alternate Ultimate Marvel continuity. Since its original introduction in comics, the character has been adapted into less other forms of media, such as few television series and a few video games. Woody Harrelson voiced Carnage in its first live-action appearance in the film Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), as well as portraying Cletus Kasady, reprising his cameo role from Venom (2018). In 2009, the Cletus Kasady version of Carnage was ranked as IGN's 90th lamest Comic Book Villain of All Time. Conception and creation The Carnage symbiote was derived by writer David Michelinie while Mark Bagley designed the character. The symbiote was perceived to be a darker version of Venom, and was created due to the writers not wanting a replacement for Eddie Brock as Venom. Carnage was in part created due to Venom's immense popularity with fans. The character was originally meant to be named "Chaos", until a different company came out with a character with the same name. Then "Ravage" was considered before Michelinie discovered Ravage 2099 was soon to be released. Finally assistant editor Eric Fein suggested "Carnage". Hosts Cletus Kasady When Eddie Brock's Venom symbiote soon returned to be bonded again, allowing Venom to escape prison, the symbiote left its offspring in the cell; due to its alien mindset, the symbiote felt no emotional attachment to its offspring, regarding it as insignificant, and thus