Venom: Carnage Unleashed #3
There's Too Much Confusion!
Having escaped from Ravencroft Institute, Carnage rushes toward New York City with his hostage, psychologist Camille Pazzo. As he attacks a Department of Correction's bus, he asks her what she thinks about the chaos he is sewing along the way. Pazzo insists that they go back to Ravencroft to continue their discussion, however, her attempts to convince Kasady to surrender fall on deaf ears. Carnage is more concerned about getting to New York to confront Fordham Rhodes about the lack of royalties he is receiving from the Carnage Unleashed video game that is about to be released. Leaping onto the prisoner transport with Camille, Carnage then slaughters the guards as the prisoners cheer him on. He then gets Camille to pilot the bus to take them the rest of the way to New York.
Meanwhile, in the East Village of Manhattan, Eddie Brock seeks a place to recuperate after his last encounter with Carnage. Disguising himself as Clive Gooch, he tracks down Kristin the aspiring musician he met on the bus ride up to New York. He drops his disguise once he gets past any eyewitnesses, and knocks on Kristin's door. She is delighted to see Eddie, but as she wonders how he was able to find her, Brock passes out from his injuries. At that moment, on the Henry Hudson Parkway, Camille points out a traffic accident up ahead that will prevent them from continuing further. Carnage insists that they plow right through it, but Camille drives the prisoner bus off the edge of the bridge in order to avoid hurting innocent people. Carnage grabs her and leaps out of the bus, pointing out that the prisoners on board are still handcuffed to the vehicle and will drown. Realizing what she has done horrifies Camille. Even though she claims to have no idea that this would happen, Carnage insists that she is finally learning to understand his way of life.
While back in the East Villages, Kristin tries to find something to treat Eddie's wounds. However, all she finds is material needed for shooting up heroin, even though her naivety prevents her from recognizing it as such. She then decides to call for an ambulance, but Brock insists that she doesn't need to worry about that. When she wonders why, that's when Clive Gooch returns home and recognizes Eddie Brock, pointing out that he is a violent criminal wanted by the law. By this time, Carnage continues his travels to Manhattan through the New York City sewer system. Carrying Camille over his shoulder, he decides to tell her about the first time he committed murder. He tells her that it happened when he was a young boy under the care of his grandmother. One day he smashed her beloved Hummels on the staircase. Seeing the damage done, the elderly woman was too distracted to notice Cletus sneaking up behind her. The young boy then pushed his grandmother down the stairs, snapping her neck in the fall.[1] Eventually, Carnage carries Pazzo to the surface where he climbs the office tower that houses the offices of Extreme Violence Video Games.[2]
Meanwhile, in the East Village, Clive tells Kristin to call the police while he keeps an eye on Eddie Brock. Not wanting to deal with the authorities, Brock turns into Venom and tries to confront Clive. Afraid for his life, Gooch backs away and accidentally sends himself over the railing in the outside stairwell, causing him to fall to the ground floor of his apartment building. Although Venom didn't mean to harm Gooch, he tries to justify to Kristin that he deserved what happened because Clive was a drug abuser. That's when Kristin reveals that Gooch wasn't on drugs at all, he was just pretending in order to blend into the community heroin users. This was all to gain inspiration for a series of poems that he was writing about drug abuse. She assumes that Gooch is dead and accuses Venom of committing the murder of an innocent man. Eddie realizes his horrible mistake and is horrified that he took an innocent life, something that he has vowed to never do ever since he became Venom. At the same time, Fordham Rhodes deals with angry beta-testers who are growing impatient to playing the new Carnage Unleashed video game, which boasts the ability of players to go up against the real Carnage in a virtual environment. As he tries to appease these angry fans, his girlfriend Alana watches television.[3] Alana's favorite program is interrupted by a special news report by Trish Tibly. Tilby reports the possible connection between the murder of Sherman Oakes -- Rhodes business partner -- and the recent escape of Carnage from Ravencroft. That's when Carnage comes crashing in through the window with Pazzo in his arms. Watching over webcam, the eager beta-testers think that this is some kind of publicity stunt.
Insulted that the gamers think this is some kind of fake-out, Carnage proves that he is real by sending his tendrils over the internet to murder one of them. However, the other gamers think this is another publicity stunt, complaining that the murder looks fake. Unphased by this, Carnage sends more tendrils across the internet and murders the rest of them, to the horror of Fordham Rhodes. Carnage then begins wondering just how many people he can reach out and kill through this internet connection, figuring he can claim thousands of victims in the blink of an eye. Back in the East Village, authorities have arrived on the scene of Clive Gooch's fall. Once paramedics get Gooch out of the stairwell, officers rush in to arrest the person responsible for pushing him over the edge. As they do so, radio reports inform the officers that Carnage has been sighted at the penthouse apartment of Fordham Rhodes. Hearing this, Venom leaps out a nearby window to face his foe. Furious, Kristin vows that she will make Venom pay for murdering Clive. Seeing paramedics rushing to stabilize Clive, Kristin realizes that her lover is still alive but may be paralyzed for life. Meanwhile, Venom swings across the city. Despite the conflicted feelings rushing through his mind, he is looking forward to catching up with his nemesis and taking him down.
Recurring Characters
Venom, Carnage, Camille Pazzo, Fordham Rhodes, Clive Gooch, Trish Tilby, Nana Cassady (flashback)
Continuity Notes
This recollection contradicts the story told in Carnage Vol 2 #12. In this recollection, Cletus' grandmother was an abusive woman confined to a wheelchair. In that instance, she beat him for bringing her the wrong brand of cigarettes from the store. Having had enough abuse, Cletus then pushed her down the stairs, killing her. Presumably, the account told in this story is an intentional deception or delusion due to Kasady's disturbed mind.
One of the people watching Carnage scales the building mistakes him for Daredevil. A police officer corrects him by saying Daredevil had changed his costume. At the time of this story, Daredevil had recently stopped wearing his traditional red costume for a different one after faking the death of Matt Murdock in Daredevil #325. This was all part of a convoluted plot to convince people the original Daredevil was dead and that a successor had taken his place. He ultimately drops this deception in Daredevil #343.
It should be noted that all the technical specifications stated in this story were considered state of the art when this story was published in 1995. However, modern readers should consider all of these to be topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
