Spider-Man & Carnage Bonding Results in [Spoiler]’s Death, But There’s a Twist

Long before the finale of the Death Spiral event, Marvel teased a merger between Spider-Man and Carnage. Multiple variant covers revealed the Spider-Carnage costume months before the grand finale. However, there was a surprising death born of the bonding, with an equally surprising twist.

The battle played out in Amazing Spider-Man #27 by Joe Kelly, Carlos Gomez, Francesco Manna, and Ed McGuinness. The issue opened with Carnage waging a psychic assault on Peter Parker. Denied the new host of his choice, Carnage decided to try and corrupt Spidey instead. This proved to be a big mistake on the symbiote’s part.

Peter’s inherent hopefulness and decency was like poison to Carnage. Already weakened, Carnage abandoned Spider-Man and tried to crawl off, seemingly wasting away into nothing. However, the issue’s final pages suggested that Carnage had survived.

How does Spider-Man’s enemy Carnage return?

As Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson discussed their recent trials, the action shifted to a strange tableau. A rat stumbled across a group of cockroaches feasting on a piece of chewing gum. Suddenly, one of the roaches suddenly turned red and sprayed a blood-like tendril at the rat. This seemed to suggest that what remained of Carnage had bonded to a cockroach.

This was seemingly confirmed in another new comic from this week; Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #1 by Jordan Morris, Joe Kelly, and Pere Perez. The comic concluded showing a cockroach with the familiar Carnage coloring trying to say the name “Carnage.” It remains to be seen how much havoc the wicked symbiote can cause in this diminished form. Undoubtedly the results will be darkly hilarious.

Amazing Spider-Man #27 and Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #1 are now available at comic shops everywhere.