Family Bondage

This story continues from Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #11…

A prisoner of the Marques Radu, Katy Kiernan learns of his plans to use Carnage to murder the Redeemer and, hopefully, the Enigma Force the very essence of the Microverse. When she asks why he is telling her all of this, the Marquis explains that after he is finished with the Microverse, her reality will be next and he wants to learn all he can about her world from her.[1] When she tells him to go fuck himself, the Marquis sends her to a holding cell, figuring she’ll be more willing to talk once she has spent some time in confinement.

Meanwhile, Agent Venom and Carnage are being held in the Body Banks in order to create an army of Venom/Carnage hybrids that will lay waste to the Microverse. Flash begins seeing a genetic memory from the Venom symbiote that teaches him how the symbiotes once plagued the Microverse thousands of years earlier before being expelled. He is snapped out of this memory as the Body Bank process beings causing Flash to scream in pain. Carnage mocks his pain, but assures him that soon it will all be over. Flash watches in horror as the hybrid Venom/Carnage symbiotes consume the bodies that have been created for them and break free. Getting free themselves, Carnage tells Venom to have some pride for their “babies”. Since these creatures will follow their mental command, Carnage intends to use them to slaughter everyone in the Microverse. Venom tries to attack him, prompting Carnage to command the symbiote army to kill him.

Meanwhile, Katy Kiernan is locked in a cell with the members of the Engima Force. She shows them that she pocketed a sonic key from one of the guards when suddenly the alarm starts to go off.

Back at the scene of the battle, Carnage and the symbiote army are overpowering Venom. Because he sedates his own symbiote, he can hear the horde but can’t do anything to command them. He decides that his only chance at survival is to fight as savagely as Carnage. When he dries to decapitate who he thinks is Carnage, he learns that he decapitated one of the symbiote army instead. This allows the real Carnage to attack Flash from behind. Luckily, the Scarlet Spider arrives and impales his two stingers into Carnage, saving Venom’s life. Joining the Spider is the Redeemer who warns the two heroes that the corruption of the Microverse is growing and threatens to cause both of their worlds to come crashing down.

Elsewhere in the facility, the Engima Force has found some of the symbiotes that have escaped the holding pens. It’s a deadly battle as the symbiotes touch is corrosive to citizens of the Microverse. While Arcturus Rann and the others are busy, Marionette leads Bug and Karty into the Marques Radu’s control room where they discover the would-be conqueror of the Microverse is having problems of his own. Despite this, Radu is pleased with the outcome, reminding his foes that he is an agent of chaos. He then teleports away, leaving the trio alone with the symbiotes.

Back at the scene of the main battle, the Scarlet Spider is faltering in battle and the Redeemer grows weaker as the infection spreads. Venom realizes that it is all coming down to the wire and that the only way to win is to wake it up. He reaches deep down into the symbiote’s mind and pulls it back to awareness. It unleashes a massive scream that causes the symbiote army to fall to the ground. Knocked to the ground, Carnage tells Venom that he hasn’t won and melts into the ground. While the Redeemer no longer senses any of the symbiotes only Venom, it leads both the Scarlet Spider and Flash to wonder where Carnage went.

At that moment, in a food court in Dallas, Texas, people have died in their seats as an Carnage leads an army of microscopic symbiotes on a slaughtering spree.

… This story continues in Minimum Carnage: Omega #1.

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, Scarlet Spider, Carnage, Katy Kiernan, Redeemer, Enigma Force (Arcturus Rann, Marionette, Bug, Flare, Quark), Marques Radu

Continuity Notes

1. The Marques refers to the Earth’s universe as a Macroverse. This should not be confused with the Macroverse visited by Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four in Amazing Spider-Man #590-591, which exists above the Earth’s dimension. Obviously, from the Marquis perspective Earth’s dimension would technically be a Macroverse compared to his.