Axis: Carnage #2
After being caught in an axis spell, Carnage has suddenly become overwhelmed with the urge to be a hero.[1] Looking into his troubled past he sees events that have the makings of a hero[2]. Both of his parents are dead, although his father was the one who killed his mother.[3] At least that is how he remembers it, admitting that he sometimes remembers things wrong. He was also sent to an orphanage, which he also thinks is good for a hero origin. He then thinks that an unrequited love would help and imagines telling Alice Gleason that he loves her only to be rejected and pushing her in the path of an oncoming bus.[4] He thinks this was wrong and his mind is so consumed with guilt over all the killing he has done over time but must find a way to redeem himself.
This is why he has kidnapped Alice Gleason, a reporter, because he views her as a good woman and hopes she can teach him what it means to be a hero. Alice, an unwilling participant on this mission, screams for help. However, nobody can hear her because Carnage has taken her under the George Washington Bridge. When she finally regains her composure and starts listening to Kasady, she tells him that he can’t hold her hostage and force her to teach him how to be good. Carnage responds by saying he didn’t know this and that is exactly why he needs her help. She decides to help but has Carnage promise not to hurt her, explaining that a hero keeps his promises. Cletus resists the urge to slash her face open and make a promise not to hurt her.
By this time, Alice Gleason’s disappearance has made the news and the police assure the public they are doing everything to find her. This is watched by a social worker named Jim who isn’t surprised the city is pulling out the stops over one missing white woman. That’s when one of his co-workers, Gloria, comes in and asks if he has seen Emil Gregg recently. He confuses Gregg — a serial confessor — with another Emil who is undergoing methadone treatment for drug addiction. She has been trying to place Emil into an adult care facility, but there has been no room for him. She is concerned because he didn’t show up for their last appointment. She knows that he lives in a nearby homeless shantytown and wants to go see if he is there. Jim thinks this is too dangerous for Gloria to do alone and decides to go with her.
When they arrive in “bumtown”, one of the homeless residents points them to Emil Gregg’s tent which is set up near a drain pipe. Looking inside they are horrified to discover that Emil has been dead long enough for rats to be feasting on his body. As Jim shoos the rats away, Gloria calls for an ambulance. None of them see that he has a green balaclava — the Sin-Eater’s trademark mask — clutched in one of his hands.[5]
Meanwhile, Carnage has brought Alice Gleason to a local cemetery. Alice has convinced him to come because religion is a way of atoning for your past sins. This makes Cletus think about the time he pushed his grandmother down the stairs.[6] He mistakes a gravedigger for a grave robber and attacks him. Alice convinces him that he’s wrong and he apologizes for attacking and sends the man away. Once they are alone, Alice convinces Carnage to confess all of his crimes while she records it on his cell phone. She tells him that she is going to upload it to the internet so the priests can find it. Carnage naively believes this and gives his confession. When she asks him how many people he’s killed, he admits that he has lost count. The whole time, Kasady is unaware that the video is actually being sent to Alice’s boss at CVN News.
Soon the word gets out to the authorities that Carnage has kidnapped Alice Gleason. When a SWAT team arrives in the cemetery where the video was shot they are already long gone. They come upon the groundskeeper and asks him where they went. Pointing up to the church spires, the gravedigger tells them to follow the strands of “webbing” Carnage has left behind as he swung away.
Soon, Carnage and Alice come upon a bank robbery in process. When Alice says stopping it is what a hero would do, he leaves her atop a lamp post while he deals with the situation. Taking one of the robber’s automatic rifles, Carnage gives them a demonstration as to why guns are dangerous by opening fire on the bank robbers. In his overzealousness, he causes the thieves' getaway car to explode setting the bank on fire. Carnage explains a bank can’t be robbed if it’s on fire. Alice is horrified and tells him to put the fire out. At that moment, Sin-Eater has arrived at CVN and demands to know where Alice Gleason is. That’s when her boss points out that she is the main story on every news channel as she has been kidnapped by Carnage.
Moments later, Carnage has put out the fire by shattering a fire hydrant. With the SWAT team arriving on the scene, Cletus grabs Alice and takes off again. This time, however, a police helicopter is following them. Unfortunately, Carnage’s web-lines get caught in the chooper’s rotors. Eventually, the line is severed and the chopper crashes into the side of a building. Carnage quickly lows Alice safely to the ground. Unfortunately, he hands her over to the Sin-Eater who escapes with her in the back of his vintage muscle car. When Carnage gets onto the street he sees Sin-Eater driving away and vows to save her no matter what. That’s when two fighter jets pass by and fire missiles at Carnage.
Recurring Characters
Carnage, Alice Gleason, Sin-Eater, (flashback) Roscoe and Louise Kasady
Continuity Notes
Carnage was hit with the axis spell in Axis #3.
A scene here shows Carnage strangling a dog to death. With Alice Gleason watching in horror. Alice stands in for all the women in his life in these flashbacks. That said, Cletus did torture his mother’s dog, as confirmed in Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1. Here he is depicted strangling the dog while in Carnage Unleashed he killed it with a cordless drill. This difference in events can be chalked up as the product of Kasady’s insanity. He admits himself in this very story that he sometimes gets facts mixed up.
Here Carnage isn’t sure if these were his biological parents or if this was his step-father and foster mom. While Carnage’s recollections of the past have included inconsistent details, one constant is that his father (Roscoe Kasady) killed his mother (Louise Kasady). See Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1 and Carnage (vol. 2) #12.
Carnage did attend Saint Estes Home for Boys. He ended up burning the place down as detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #361. This is the first time he has been depicted pushing a girl in front of a bus. This might be a fabrication.
It is mentioned that Emil Gregg had convinced himself that he was the spree-shooter known as the Sin-Eater. In reality, the Sin-Eater was actually Stanley Carter. Gregg was his neighbors at the time and would overhear Carter rant about his killings. Since Gregg was mentally ill he thought these voices were in his head and this led him to believe he was the Sin-Eater. See Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110.
It can be confirmed that Cletus did push his grandmother down the stairs. However, there are conflicting accounts as to why. In Venom: Carnage Unleashed #3, Cletus’s Nana was depicted as a kindly old woman who Cletus pushed down the stairs to see if she could fly. In Carnage (vol. 2) #12 however, Nana was a cruel and abusive woman just like Cletus’s father. He pushed her down the stairs after she berated him for buying the wrong brand of cigarettes.
