"Maximum Carnage" is a fourteen-part comic bookcrossover published in Marvel Comics'Spider-Man family of titles in 1993. It featured Spider-Man, Venom, and a host of other superheroes teaming up to face Venom's murderous offspring Carnage and his team of supervillains.
Plot
Since the alien symbiote he was bonded to was destroyed during his capture, Cletus Kasady is presumed powerless and jailed at Ravencroft Asylum. However, the symbiote mutated his blood prior to its destruction, enabling Kasady to generate a copy of the symbiote and break out. During his escape, Kasady—again calling himself Carnage—frees fellow inmate Shriek. Over the course of their ensuing killing spree through New York City, they recruit Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Carnage dubs himself their "father", but in fact they all despise Carnage and stay with the group out of devotion to Shriek. As the death toll increases, Spider-Man, Venom, Captain America, Black Cat, Nightwatch, Cloak and Dagger, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius, and Firestarall join the cause of stopping them. However, the heroes are polarized between Venom's desire to stop Carnage at all costs and Spider-Man's refusal to use violent methods, and Spider-Man ultimately abandons Venom to Carnage's mercies. In addition, Shriek uses her psychic powers to turn the populace of New York City into a bloodthirsty rabble, allowing the killers to continue their rampage with impunity. However, Carnage finally turns on the rest of his gang, and, in the ensuing battle, Shriek is distracted from using her psychic power. Taking advantage of the lull, the heroes acquire a device from Stark Industries which projects feelings of love and hope into the villains, overwhelming them. Carnage flees, faking his death by covering a victim in a mock symbiote costume, and the others are captured. Once the heroes are dispersed, Carnage ambushes Venom. However, the device has left Carnage frantic and confused, and Venom pounds him relentlessly before tackling him into an electrical generator. Carnage is knocked senseless and left to be incarcerated.
Publications
Original printing
Part 1: Spider-Man Unlimited #1 Part 2: Web of Spider-Man #101 Part 3: The Amazing Spider-Man #378 Part 4: #35 Part 5: The Spectacular Spider-Man #201 Part 6: Web of Spider-Man #102 Part 7: The Amazing Spider-Man #379 Part 8: Spider-Man #36 Part 9: The Spectacular Spider-Man #202 Part 10: Web of Spider-Man #103 Part 11: The Amazing Spider-Man #380 Part 12: Spider-Man #37 Part 13: The Spectacular Spider-Man #203 Part 14: Spider-Man Unlimited #2
The wizard mode of Zen Studios' virtual pinball adaptation of the Marvel Comics character Venom is named after the comic book storyline, representing Spider-Man, Venom, Captain America, Deathlok and Dagger's efforts to defeat Carnage.
Toys
An action figure line was released by Toy Biz to capitalize on the crossover's success. The line featured Spider-Man, Venom, and Carnage.
