“Knull! He's... awake. He is free. And he is coming, Eddie. For all of us. For everything. God... God help us all.”
Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Venom (Eddie Brock) (Main story and flashback) (Bonds to the Venom and Dark Carnage symbiotes)
Supporting Characters:
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
- Dylan Brock
- Normie Osborn
- Venom Symbiote (Assimilates the Dark Carnage symbiote and codex amalgamation; rebonds to Eddie Brock)
Antagonists:
- Cult of Knull
- Carnage's Hive (Disbands)
- Dark Carnage (Cletus Kasady) (Main story and flashback) (Loses the Dark Carnage symbiote) (Death)
- Carnage doppelgängers (Ravencroft Inmates) (Lose the Dark Carnage symbiote offshoots and leave team)
- Carnage (Norman Osborn / "Cletus Kasady") (Loses the Dark Carnage Symbiote offshoot and leaves team)
- Carnage's Hive (Disbands)
Other Characters:
- NYDOC (Only in flashback)
- The Thing (Ben Grimm)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers)
- Wolverine (Logan)
- Sleeper Symbiote
- Spider-Man (Miles Morales)
- Thor (Odinson) (Mentioned)
- Cloak (Tyrone Johnson)
- Firestar (Angelica Jones)
- Iron Fist (Danny Rand)
- Deadpool (Wade Wilson) (Continuity Error)
- Scream (Andi Benton)
- Dagger (Tandy Bowen)
- Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)
- Deathlok (Henry Hayes)
- Morbius (Michael Morbius)
- Symbiote Imperium
- Knull
- Numerous unnamed symbiotes previously comprising Klyntar (Joins)
- Numerous unnamed Symbiote-Dragons
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Mice (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- Snakes (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- Symbiotes
- Mutants
- Human-Kree Hybrids
- Cyborgs
- Living Vampires
- Alien Gods
Locations:
- Milky Way (Main story and flashback)
- Sol System (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- The Bronx (Only in flashback)
- Ryker's Island (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan
- Rex Strickland's Warehouse (Destroyed)
- The Bronx (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Sol System (Main story and flashback)
- Hell (Invoked)
- Uncharted region of space
- Klyntar (Destruction)
Items:
- Codex amalgam symbiote (Last appearance) (Assimilated by the Venom symbiote)
- Dark Carnage symbiote (Leaves Cletus Kasady; assimilated by the Venom symbiote) (Apparent death)
- Knull's Armor (Reconstitution)
- Carnage doppelgängers' symbiotes (Death)
- Fantastic Four Uniform
- S.C.I.T.H.E. (Destroyed)
- Captain America's Uniform and Shield
- Wolverine's Suit
- Spider-Men's Suits and Web-Shooters
- Cloak's Cloak and Darkforce[[Category::Darkforce/Appearances]]
- Deadpool's Suit and Katanas
- Scream symbiote
- Hell-Mark (Behind the scenes)
- Captain Marvel's Suit
Synopsis for 1st story
Years ago in a cell on Ryker's Island, serial killer Cletus Kasady grins menacingly at his new cellmate – Eddie Brock – and asks if he wants to know why he’s going to die. As Kasady mockingly says that the guards are feeding Eddie to him like a mouse to a snake, the guards snap at him to shut up and play nice. As the guards leave, Eddie gruffly tells Kasady he wants the bottom bunk so that he can keep an eye on him, Kasady agreeing and quipping that Eddie is smarter than his last cellmate, whose death earned him his eleventh life sentence. Kasady asks for Eddie’s name, and upon recognizing him as the monstrous supervillain Venom, he gleefully states that they’re alike and asks if they could team up. Eddie immediately rebukes him, snapping that they’re nothing alike and that he’s not an insane serial killer who slaughters innocents. Pulling out his headphones, Kasady grouses that Eddie shouldn’t be so rude and reiterates his offer of friendship, grinning wickedly as he says he senses they have a beautiful future ahead of them.
In the present, Eddie – bonded to a gestalt symbiote formed from amalgamated codices – smashes Kasady – bonded to an offshoot of the primordial Grendel symbiote and now going by Dark Carnage – through the wall of an abandoned apartment building. Unfazed, Dark Carnage laughs and says that Knull is almost awake, asking Eddie if he can hear him breathing. Punching Dark Carnage in the face, Eddie snarls at him to shut up and die, but mentally notes that Dark Carnage is right and that after bonding to the codices he can feel the symbiote hive mind. Grabbing Eddie by the throat, Dark Carnage snarls that he can hear Eddie too, tossing him through the wall and onto the roof of the building across the street. Hovering over Eddie, Dark Carnage says he can see through the eyes of every member of his horde and sees Eddie’s allies being overwhelmed by Carnage doppelgängers. Landing, Dark Carnage says that he’s going to kill Eddie and take his codices, thereby unleashing Knull and bringing ruination to the universe. Gloating, Dark Carnage tells Eddie to give up his codex willingly so that they can rule together; but Eddie snaps at Dark Carnage to shut up, saying that he doesn’t care about Knull or Kasady’s mission to wipe out all life on Earth, he just wants his symbiote back and Kasady back in his grave for good.
As Eddie tells Dark Carnage to take another look at his friends, Cloak teleports into Rex Strickland's Warehouse and uses his cloak to bring Dagger, Iron Fist, Firestar, Morbius, Deathlok, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, and Scream in as backup. As the tables turn on his horde, Dark Carnage staggers and clutches his head in disbelief, Eddie taking advantage of the distraction to tackle him off the roof.
In the tunnels under Rex Strickland's Warehouse, Spider-Man knocks out the Carnageized Norman Osborn, turning to reassure Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn that everything is going to be fine, before passing out. Normie asks if Spider-Man is dead, but Dylan says he’s just asleep. As he says everything is going to be okay, the offshoot of the Dark Carnage symbiote bonded to Norman detaches from him – Dark Carnage mockingly telling Eddie that he’s going to use it to kill Dylan. As Norman's offshoot of the Dark Carnage symbiote looms over them, Dylan snaps that he hates symbiotes, his eyes turning black with red spirals. As Dylan thrusts his hands out, Norman's symbiote is obliterated into a spattered puddle of red and black ooze, Normie incredulously asking Dylan how he did that. Stammering that he doesn’t know, Dylan passes out into Normie’s arms just as Dark Carnage and Eddie crash through the ceiling.
Crawling towards the two boys, Dark Carnage laughs and says that Dylan is the final piece of the puzzle, Eddie grabbing onto his ankle and – retracting the symbiote from his face – shouting that he won’t let Carnage kill his son as he tries to restrain his nemesis with tendrils. Laughing sinisterly, Dark Carnage says that Eddie still doesn’t understand that he’s already lost – explaining that between the two of them they have more than enough codices to awaken Knull. Retracting the Dark Carnage symbiote from his skull-like face, Kasady states that Eddie faces the choice of allowing him to consume Dylan’s codex or killing him to save Dylan and take back his symbiote – but either way Knull will be unleashed. Eddie realizes that Kasady planned for him to take the codices from the S.C.I.T.H.E. and place him in a lose-lose scenario, deciding to save his son anyway. Manifesting a necrosword from his symbiote and impaling Dark Carnage with it, Eddie slices him in half; the Dark Carnage and Venom symbiotes leaving Kasady – whose corpse shatters as it falls to the ground - and bonding to Brock. As it rebonds to him and assimilates the Dark Carnage symbiote and the gestalt codices, the Venom symbiote berates Eddie and informs him that Knull has awakened.
Light years away, the planet Klyntar explodes into billions of symbiotes, Knull coalescing them into a fleet of Symbiote-Dragons, manifesting a suit of draconic symbiote-armor, and resuming his conquest of the cosmos.
Opening his eyes to the Venom symbiote, asking if he can hear it and begging him to talk to it, Eddie turns to see Spider-Man regaining consciousness. Spider-Man asks if they won, Eddie hesitantly saying that they did. Looking around, Spider-Man wonders where Norman Osborn disappeared to, Eddie saying that he didn't notice and that he should get on it. Sighing, Spider-Man says he'll do so after checking in on how everyone else is doing, asking Eddie if they're good. Hugging him, Eddie says that they're good, Spider-Man awkwardly saying he's unsure what their relationship is now, but that he has Eddie's back. Taking Normie, Spider-Man leaves and tells Eddie to look after Dylan. Saying he'll do his best, Eddie turns to see Dylan staring at him in shock and sits next to him. After several seconds of staring blankly ahead, Dylan asks if Eddie said that he was his son.
Solicit Synopsis
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- In Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool #3, Deadpool's legs were blown off and take time to regenerate; however, here he's shown with his legs already fully restored.