Minimum Carnage: Alpha

Within the Thunderbolt Mountain Maximum Security Prison, Cletus Kasady suddenly hears a voice calling out to him and responds.

Three hours later, Agent Venom arrives with a team after the alarm at the prison was set off. Searching the cell block, Venom’s worst fears are confirmed: Carnage has escaped.[1] Seeing that the cell door was detonated from the inside, Flash wonders how Cletus Kasady could have pulled off such a feat. He finds the prison staff alive inside a secured room and as they pull up the security footage of the break-out, Venom calls the situation in.

Two hours later, at a traffic stop on I-25 South, one of the officers complains about being on traffic duty since it is unlikely that Cletus Kasady would drive anywhere. That’s when Kasady pulls up in a pick-up truck. One of the officers draws his gun and orders Cletus to surrender. The serial killer warns the officers that his friends won’t like them delaying him on his mission. They don’t know what Cletus is talking about since there doesn’t appear to be anybody in the car with him. Suddenly, some unseen force cuts the officer’s throat and blows up the other two officers allowing Kasady to continue on toward his destination.

Meanwhile, back at the prison, Venom is going over the footage and discovers that it wasn’t Kasady who killed the guards, but some unseen force.[2] That’s when Flash spots something small on one of the dead bodies and orders a magnification. The zoomed-in image shows a strange insectile creature standing on the dead guard’s cheek. Leaving the prison, Venom calls things in to Hawkeye to tell him what’s going on and how he is going to hunt down Carnage before it is too late.[3] Convinced that Carnage is his responsibility,[4] Flash calls his friend Katy Kiernan to see if she has a line on where Carnage could have gone. She points him to a story from her tabloid out of Texas about the Prometheus Pit that is being built in Houston.[5]

Two days later, the Scarlet Spider gets a report about a fire in an apartment building. He races to the scene ahead of firefighters and breaks inside to rescue any people who might be trapped inside. Inside the inferno, he finds a butchered woman and a young man cowering in the corner. The young man is freaked out but Kaine manages to calm him down long enough to get him out. The youth is Ryan Ketola is brought to Park Plaza Hospital at the Houston Medical Center. There he is put under the care of Kaine’s friend, Dr. Donald Meland. Kaine is told by Officer Wally Layton that Ryan is the son-in-law of the victim, 79-year-old Nell Fletcher. All Ryan can tell them is that the killer was some kind of monster and that it was looking for his wife.

At the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Katy Kiernan has arranged an interview with Dr. Ketoa. However, when Katy keeps pressing on their plans to strip mine the Microverse. This offends Ketoa who decides to put an end to the interview. That’s when Cletus Kasady confronts her and changes into Carnage. However, before he can do anything, Carnage is ambushed by the Scarlet Spider.[6] Kaine tries to snap Carnage’s neck, but the serial killer is able to snap his head back in place. When he responds by attacking Kaine with his tendrils, Kaine uses his wrist stingers to cut through them. However, before the Scarlet Spider can continue the fight something jolts him with a powerful blast of electricity. As he falls to the ground he is shocked to see a really tiny looking humanoid beings.

These are warriors from the Microverse and their leader, Veras, tells Carnage that they don’t have time for battles, reminding him that they need to get back to the Prometheus Pit. Carnage defies this order and moves to kill the Scarlet Spider. That’s when Katy pulls out a gun and shoots Kasady. This does little to harm him and he is so amused he decides to take Kiernan a prisoner, particularly when she tells him that she is a reporter. Once they get into the main lab, Veras orders her minions — Raidus, Centrivos, Xerxes, Krevius, and Null-Tron — to activate the Prometheus Pit. With the portal open, Carnage tosses Katy in first. Before they follow after her, Veras reminds Carnage that they have a deal. Cletus looks forward to it, killing for Veras master in exchange for a whole new life and a whole new universe to murder.

When the Scarlet Spider tries to stop Carnage, the killer seriously wounds Doctor Ketoa and then leaps into the portal with his tiny allies. Kaine rushes to Ketoa’s aid when suddenly Agent Venom arrives. Guns drawn, he orders the Scarlet Spider to put the girl down and put his hands on his head.

…. Minimum Carnage continues in Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #10.

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, Scarlet Spider, Carnage, Katy Kiernan, Wally Layton, Donald Meland, Dr. Ketoa, Veras, Raidus, Centrivos, Xerxes, Krevius, Null-Tron

Continuity Notes

1. The internal monologue goes over how Flash lost his legs and later became Agent Venom. See Amazing Spider-Man #574 and 654.

2. It is mentioned here that Carnage’s symbiote has bonded to him down to his DNA level and lives in his very blood. This has been the status quo of sorts since Spider-Man Unlimited #1.

3. Venom mentions how Carnage had recently taken over a small town and a number of Avengers. This was during Carnage USA #1-5.

4. Flash states here that the Carnage symbiote is the child of his own symbiote. The situation is a little more complicated. While Venom did give birth to the original Carnage symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #345. However, this symbiote was later consumed by Venom in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10. Kasady subsequently obtained an identical symbiote in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #14. I talk about this issue at length here.

5. The original Prometheus Pit was created by Phillip Prometheus at NASA’s Human Engineering Life Laboratories back in Micronauts #4. It serves as a portal to the Microverse.

6. Kaine recalls meeting Carnage and that Kasady wouldn’t recognize him now. This was back in Amazing Spider-Man #403. At the time, Kaine was suffering from a degenerative disease that was common in clones created by Miles Warren. He was recently cured of this condition during Spider-Island. See Amazing Spider-Man #666-673.