Death of the Venomverse #2 (2023)

On Earth-11964, Carnage mocks the five remaining members of the Symbiote Six, saying it finds them so pathetic it won't even absorb their powers like it did Electro's. Deciding to test its new Hell-Mark, Carnage summons the Monsters of Evil and siccs them on the Symbiote Six, easily overpowering them. As Carnage gloats that it's almost ready, Agent Venom's Symbiote Squad arrives and attacks. Sneering that they're nothing more than sacrifices to the god it's becoming, Carnage blocks Samurai Venom's katana with All-Blood only for Venomized Doctor Octopus to try to strangle it with a tentacle. As Venomized Kraven attempts to impale it, Carnage immolates him with a torrent of hellfire before decapitating Venomized Doctor Octopus. Fatally impaling Samurai Venom and Dreamstone Venom, Carnage roars that -- having claimed All-Blood, Ant-Venom's size-manipulation, Spot's interdimensional portals, Wolverine's healing factor, Electro's lightning, and Mania's Hell-Mark -- it is beyond anything any of them can do to it, though its apotheosis is not yet complete. Casually gutting Dylan Brock with an arm-blade, Carnage finishes off Dreamstone Venom before exhaling a torrent of hellfire at Agent Hawkeye, reducing him to a charred skeleton. As Agent Venom opens fire, Carnage sneers that it's rid itself of all its weaknesses and that she is nothing but an annoyance to be quashed. As Carnage prepares to kill her, Virus blasts it with sonic waves, causing it agonizing pain. Destabilized into a serpentine form, Carnage flees through a portal, leaving the surviving members of the Symbiote Squad demoralized. As Agent Venom mourns the loss of Dylan, who was only a child, Codex tries to reassure her by saying that it wasn't her Dylan, but she angrily cuts him off. Despairing, Agent Venom says they threw everything they had at Carnage and it laughed them off and tore them apart. Venomized Rhino, the sole surviving member of the Symbiote Six, volunteers to join Anne's Symbiote Squad in exchange for a shot at avenging his fallen comrades. Virus agrees, saying they know where Carnage is and what it's searching for. Portalling into another universe, Carnage reconstitutes its humanoid form, livid that it's still vulnerable to sonics. Flying into a rage, Carnage regains its composure and sets its sights on a target capable of eliminating that weakness. Nearby, Shriek fights Chaos Engine, a punk-rocker symbiote enhancile wielding a battle axe-guitar. Countering Chaos Engine's sonic waves with her own, Shriek says that either one or both of them are dying that night. Scoffing, Chaos Engine tells her to get in line and that he's got dozens of super-villains worse than her wanting him dead. Carnage interrupts, attempting to impale Chaos Engine with All-Blood. Shocked, Chaos Engine stammers that he killed Carnage, but Shriek is ecstatic to see who she believes to be her old lover Cletus Kasady back from the dead. Confused, Chaos Engine extends his fingers into tentacles on an attempt to knocks Shriek out, Carnage using the distraction to summon pillars of hellfire beneath Chaos Engine's feet. As Carnage lunges, quipping that it's nice to see someone else on the receiving end of flame attacks, Venomized Rhino impales it on his horn. As Venomized Black Cat attacks the confused Shriek, Carnage picks itself up and sneers that such a devastating blow might've done it in if it'd been bonded to a host. Virus portals in Space Knight Venom, Agent Deadpool, and another Agent Venom to join the fray, Venomized Rhino blocking Carnage's attempt to impale Chaos Engine with flinger-tentacles. Agent Deadpool is bisected by an arm-blade, lamenting that one of these days even his symbiote-augmented healing factor won't be able to save him. Venomized Black Cat is fatally impaled, Carnage lunging at Virus -- intent on depriving the Symbiote Squad of their sonics and means of interdimensional travel, but Agent Venom unloads every gun in her arsenal at it, pinning it down while she orders the others to grab Chaos Engine and evacuate. As the Symbiote Squad disappears, Shriek gloats to a seething Carnage that they won. Carnage growls that it's going to hunt them down and kill Chaos Engine, but Shriek says that he's gone and won't trouble them again. Carnage snarls that it wants Chaos Engine for his sonic abilities, but Shriek flirtatiously says she has all the sonic powers Carnage will ever need. Grinning, Carnage notes that Shriek's intimacy with the Carnage of her world left a codex imbedded in her body. As she asks what it's talking about, Carnage impales her through the chest, Shriek belatedly realizing that Carnage isn't her Cletus. Immolating her from the inside out with hellfire, Carnage sneers that it's not Cletus at all and its only symbiotic relationship is with hatred. On Earth-1051, Virus tells a brooding Anne Weying that they're ready for their next jump. As Anne snaps out of her melancholy, Virus asks to know where they're going next. As they walk through the halls, Anne notes that Carnage isn't just killing Venoms but absorbing the ones he deems useful to grow more powerful. Grimly saying that in an infinite multiverse there's bound to be incarnations of Venom who are immune to fire, immune to sonics, or possess godlike powers, and that every moment they waste is a moment Carnage is using to add those powers to its own. As Virus asks about the new recruit, Anne says they need to blindside Carnage, and that this plan is a Hail Mary, but if it works their new recruit will silence Carnage once and for all.