WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, now playing in theaters
The symbiotes have always been powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. Especially when they become unleashed against other life forms and are able to possess them, creatures like Venom (Tom Hardy) can become remarkably dangerous. But perhaps one of the most fearsome has always been the Carnage symbiote, who just got a showcase of how destructive it really can be in the hands of someone like Cletus Kassidy (Woody Harrelson).
The version of Carnage who appears at the center of Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the most over-powered symbiote in its entire reality, and it’s a good thing it gets taken out before the eventual apparent fate of Venom seemingly moves him to another reality.
The symbiotes have always had plenty of abilities, but the incarnation of Carnage that appears in Venom: Let There Be Carnage utilizes his abilities immediately to shocking degrees of brutality. Less than ten minutes after saving Cletus Kassidy’s life and revealing itself, Carnage quickly leaps around the prison and brings absolute chaos. He uses the tendrils that grow out of his body to grab people and toss them around like rag-dolls and uses his tongue to choke a man by forcing it down his throat. Carnage also shifts his body around to allow bullets to pass right through him before turning his arms into weapons and slicing through people.
But none of those are even his most absurd ability, which would either be when Cletus uses the symbiote to hack the internet and find out about the whereabouts of his lady love Frances (Naomie Harris), or when he grows absolutely massive in the film’s climax and effectively turns into a King Kong-sized symbiote as he tries to murder Anne (Michelle Williams). Even in-universe, Carnage is considered such an innate threat as a red symbiote that Venom initially believes that he and Eddie have little chance of actually defeating his villainous spawn. The fight is a brutal one, and one that Venom ultimately wins thanks largely to outside help — including Anne’s fiance Dan (Reid Scott) intervening with gasoline and fire — giving him openings to escape certain death.
This is a huge amount of power and potential compared to Venom and the symbiote that appeared in the previous Venom, such as Riot. Riot possessed a similar mastery of shapeshifting his limbs into makeshift weapons to Carnage but had established years of experience as opposed to Carnage’s relative youth. But Riot never showed creativity for his powers like Carnage does, and never anything along the lines of his digital hacking, which actually does have a canonical basis. Regardless, the Venom of the film is definitely a strong brawler and capable of absorbing a great deal of punishment. But he’s consistently shown as overall weaker than Carnage in a fight, barely surviving the encounter and relying on the help of others to overcome him.
At times, Carnage’s sheer murderous potential even seems to catch the serial killer Cletus by surprise, such as when he’s casually driving across a bridge on his way to be reunited with Frances, giving the symbiote chance to throw a nearby trick over the side and into the waters below. Carnage is almost unstoppable in the film, with only the symbiote weaknesses being his downfall. But even compared to the rest of the symbiotes that appeared in both films, it’s a particularly capable one.
To see Carnage’s power, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now in theaters.
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