Superior Carnage #4
The Frightful Four have attacked City Hall. Now Spider-Man has arrived and has his Spiderlings force Jameson into his panic room. Waiting for the Wizard and his allies to reach the mayor’s office, Spider-Man sits in a chair and thinks. He recalls how the Wizard is suffering from a degenerative brain disorder and muses how he escaped a similar fate by stealing Spider-Man’s life.[1] Having heard reports that Carnage is braindead, Spider-Man figures this will be an easy fight — unaware that the Wizard had found a new host for the symbiote.[3]
That’s when the Frightful Four come crashing through the door. Carnage quickly takes out the two remaining Spiderlings. This just annoys Spider-Man who then leaps around the room in order to trick Klaw into blasting a hole in the wall, allowing the Spiderlings waiting outside easier access to the mayor’s office. That’s when Klaw uses his sonic weapon to throw off everyone’s equilibrium. Unfortunately, the Wizard didn’t properly repair the device and it begins to malfunction. Able to move again, Spider-Man decides that the Wizard needs to be taken out of the equation.
He tackles the Wizard, sending them both flying out onto the front lawn where they fight in front of the press. Spider-Man then crushes the Wizard’s wonder gloves and carries him off to tie him to a flag pole. The whole time the web-slinger explains how the Wizard’s plans are going to fail. That’s when the Wizard uses his mind control helmet to try and read the wall-crawler’s thoughts and discovers that he’s actually dealing with Otto Octavius. With his secret exposed, Otto drops the Wizard onto a parked car down below. The fall damages his mind control helmet allowing Carnage to break free from his control.
As Spider-Man tries to convince the Wizard to order Carnage to stand down, Otto is ambushed by Carnage. Calling his Spiderlings is useless because Carnage has already killed them all. That’s when Klaw attacks Carnage himself. That’s when Carnage makes the mistake of impaling Klaw causing his physical body to explode in a burst of sound. As Spider-Man recovers from the blast, he sees that the Carnage symbiote had been stripped off of the body of Karl Malus. When he turns around he sees that it has landed on the Wizard and is now bonding with him. Unaware of what’s going on, Bentley thinks the red substance on him is his own blood until he realizes that something is starting to take over his mind.[3]
Recurring Characters
Frightful Four (the Wizard, Carnage (Malus), Klaw), Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson
Continuity Notes
Bentley Wittman and Otto Octavius have had similar instances of mental degeneration:
Bentley was diagnosed with a brain tumor back in Fantastic Four #610 causing his mind to deteriorate. This condition was made worse in FF (vol. 2) #7 when Black Bolt also gave him dementia.
After years of head injuries, Doctor Octopus began suffering a degenerative disorder starting in Amazing Spider-Man #600. With his body dying, he swapped bodies with Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #698. This will remain the status quo until Superior Spider-Man #31.
Cletus Kasady was lobotomized by the Scarlet Spider in Minimum Carnage: Omega #1. The Wizard was able to transfer the Carnage symbiote to Karl Malus last issue.
Although Klaw is seemingly killed here, he can’t physically die because he is the embodiment of sound as we’ll learn next issue. He will regain his physical form again in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 3) #35.
