Capes On the Couch - Where Comics Get Counseling

To tie in with the Absolute Carnage storyline, Anthony & Doc tackle Carnage himself, CLETUS KASADY! What treatment is there for a deranged, amoral serial killer bonded to a symbiote? Doc has the answers! Listen now!

SHOW NOTES:

• Intro

  • Shoutout to Cage’s Kiss podcast – Every episode covers another Nicolas Cage film

• Background (02:36)

  • Cletus Kasady created by David Michelinie and Erik Larsen in The Amazing Spider-Man #344 (March 1991)

    • Created because Michelinie wanted to kill off Eddie Brock in ASM 400, but he was too popular – Aunt May killed off instead

  • Born in Ravencroft Asylum, but his heart stopped for a few minutes until he was revived by an ancient evil who foresaw that Cletus would be the one to free him

  • As a child, he pushed his grandmother down a flight of stairs and killed her, threw a hair dryer in the bathtub with his mother, and killed his mother’s dog with a drill

  • His father went to jail for beating his mother, so he was raised in an orphanage, which he burned down after killing the administrator

  • Grew up to become a serial killer, and shared a cell at Ryker’s with Eddie Brock – when the Venom symbiote rebonded with him, a piece broke off and merged with Kasady, creating Carnage

  • Spider-Man and Venom teamed up to defeat him, and the symbiote was thought to be destroyed, but it was bonded to his blood

  • “Maximum Carnage” - he broke out of the Vault and joined other villains to take over New York, until he was defeated by a collection of heroes

  • Later being held in the Raft – escaped, but grabbed by Sentry, flown out of the atmosphere, and ripped in half

  • Repeatedly captured, breaks out, and kills again

  • AXIS – morality inverted and becomes a hero who sacrifices himself to save humanity from the inverted X-Men

  • Absolute Carnage – symbiote returns and bonds with the aforementioned ancient evil to wreak havoc

• Issues (10:20)

  • Displays Conduct Disorder as a child – intervention could have prevented further problems

  • Nihilist mindset – believes laws are meaningless, and only chaos is true freedom (26:15)

  • Symbiote and its impact on his mental state – (34:30)

• Break

  • Plugs for Deleter, Play Comics, and Popcorn Psychology

• Treatment (39:55)

  • In-universe

  • Out of universe (47:10)

• Skit (54:29)

• Ending
  • Next episodes - Ultimate Reed Richards (Maker), Survivor's Guilt
  • We have a Discord!
  • Anthony's fundraiser night at George & Martha's
  • Listener survey

References:

• Doc's column for Adventures in Poor Taste - Anthony (01:12)
• Eddie Brock episode - Anthony (03:52)
• The Bad Seed - Anthony (06:30)
• Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage - Anthony (08:24)
• Sentry episode - Anthony (08:37)
• Blazing Saddles - "'Scuse me while I whip this out" (NSFW) - Anthony (11:45)
• The Dark Knight - Hospital scene - Anthony (31:50)
• Charles Manson family - Doc (47:20)

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