The Spider-Man villain Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The shape-changing serial killer has been similarly active in the comics, the subject of both the Absolute Carnage and Extreme Carnage events, either side of the symbiote-focused King in Black crossover. Fans can't get enough of the creepy red symbiote, leading to a huge amount of fan art - including from comic professionals themselves.
Carnage was first introduced to fans in the comic The Amazing Spider-Man #360 after the previously introduced serial killer Cletus Kasady merges with Venom’s offspring symbiote. Since his first introduction, Carnage astounded fans with his sheer brutality and sinister personality. Carnage was an unusually dark villain - an irredeemable serial killer given superpowers, not a zany scientist gone mad or a stereotypical mobster. Cletus killed people because he liked it, and then he was given the nearly unstoppable power of a symbiote, creating the nightmare fuel fans know and love today.
Now, Carnage's creepiest features have been captured in fan art by comic book artist use his talents drawing Carnage professionally remains to be seen, though the tone and style brought to Analog would fit perfectly into a future Carnage story.
In Analog, written by Gerry Duggan with art by O’Sullivan, future society is collapsing as the basic security of the internet begins to crumble. Top secrets are out in the world and the publics’ trust in the system completely vanishes, throwing the world into chaos. The level of anarchy present in Analog would be perfect for Carnage and O’Sullivan’s unique art style suits it exactly. Key to what makes this particular piece work is the attention paid to what makes Carnage unique. The symbiote killer is a thin, rangy killer different from the bulkier Venom, with stylized teeth clearly formed from the same alien matter as the rest of its body and an almost glowing mouth set in a shadowy face. This is Carnage's most beloved design, shifting him away from being a threatening supervillain who fights Spider-Man and towards a creature of nightmare who savages regular people without warning.
David O’Sullivan’s fan art of Carnage perfectly captures the character in a unique, simple, yet stylistic piece of fan art. The comic-accurate depiction reminiscent of Spider-Man: The Animated Series is a treat for fans of the classic design. While more recent depictions of Carnage like Venom: Let There Be Carnage have erased elements of this fan-favorite look, O’Sullivan’s art takes fans back to when they first fell in love with the sadistic Spider-Man villain, and reminds them why Carnage is still the freakiest symbiote out there.
Source: David O'Sullivan
