Carnage #5 — Nick Peron

Dec 26

Dec 26 Carnage #5

Michael Hall is being evacuated from his building in a helicopter. He finds this overkill, but his troops insist on getting him out of the area because they are trying to establish plausible deniability. When doesn’t think things are quite so bad until he looks out the window of his helicopter and sees the battle happening on the street below.

There, Carnage has absorbed the Iron Ranger's into his body mass, making him grow in size. He was in a fight with both Spider-Man and Iron Man when Shriek and the Spider-Doppelganger also arrived on the scene. Shriek, who is now wearing a symbiote made prosthetic limb is happily reunited with her love. However, Carnage is more concerned with finishing off his enemies who are still disorientated after Shriek hit them with a sonic blast.

As Spider-Man and Iron Man return to battle, Shriek nabs Doctor Tanis Nevin and forces the doctor to watch as she uses her power to turn the watching bystanders go into a frenzy. Meanwhile, Iron Man manages to stun Carnage with a blast from all of his weapons at once. He then interfaces with the Iron Ranger armor that Cletus absorbed into his symbiote and attempts to install a virus. However, Kasady counteracts this by trying to transfer his madness into Iron Man’s computer systems. As Stark struggles to keep his sanity, Carnage begins thrashing him. His life is spared when Spider-Man convinces Carnage to try and kill him first instead.

At that same moment, Shriek is using her thralls to attack a school bus full of children. In order to spare their lives, Tanis agrees to bond with the symbiotic entity that is made out of her former prosthetic limb. They full bond, becoming an entity that calls itself Scorn. As she overpowers Shriek, Scorn is attacked by the Spider-Doppelganger but she easily kicks the creature away. The Doppelganger then tries to warn Carnage about what’s happening. That’s when Scorn forces Shriek to unleash a powerful sonic scream that incapacitates Carnage. This gives Spider-Man and Iron Man the edge they need to overpower their foe. However, as Spider-Man rips open the symbiote he discovers that Cletus Kasady managed to escape and was controlling the symbiote remotely.

In the aftermath of the battle, Shriek is in a coma and confined to a hospital until she is fit to stand trial for the murders she committed during her escape. Tanis has agreed to allow Tony Stark to examine her symbiote. The Scorn symbiote dislikes Spider-Man, concerning the wall-crawler. Although Michael Hall has legal troubles coming his way for his involvement in experimenting with the symbiote he has gone into hiding over fear of Carnage coming after him. Unfortunately, his efforts are in vein as Cletus Kasady has managed to find Hall’s safe house. As the Spider-Doppelganger tortures Hall, Cletus reminds the monster to keep Michael alive because he’s planning a big come back.