Carnage is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually depicted as an adversary of Spider-Man and the archenemy of Venom. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (April 1992), and was created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley, although the first published artwork of Carnage was penciled by Chris Marrinan.

Carnage belongs to a race of amorphous extraterrestrial parasites known as Symbiotes, which form a symbiotic bond with their hosts and give them super-human abilities. Originating as an offspring of Venom, Carnage is much more powerful than their parent symbiote because of the symbiotes’ biology, and is in many ways a darker version of him. Like Venom, Carnage has had multiple hosts over the years, but their most infamous one remains their first, serial killer Cletus Kasady, whose sadistic personality perfectly matches that of the symbiote. Other notable hosts include Ben Reilly, Karl Malus, and Norman Osborn, as well as Gwen Stacy in the alternate Ultimate Marvel continuity.

Since their original introduction in comics, the character has been adapted into several other forms of media, such as television series and video games. Woody Harrelson portrayed Carnage in their first live-action appearance in the film Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), set in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. In 2009, the Cletus Kasady version of Carnage was ranked as IGN’s 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.