'Carnage' ongoing series unlikely, says Marvel

Marvel Comics executive Tom Brevoort has downplayed suggestions that the popular Spider-Man villain Carnage will soon star in his own ongoing title.

The character currently features in Zeb Wells and Clayton Crains' limited series Carnage, which concludes next week, and will receive a second five-issue miniseries later this year.

However, senior vice president of publishing Brevoort insisted that Carnage would not work as the lead in an ongoing series, simply due to the nature of his character.

"I think Carnage kind of loses his edge as a villain if he's in an ongoing series," Brevoort told Comic Book Resources. "An ongoing Carnage series doesn't really have a lot of places to go due to the nature of that character."

Brevoort admitted that although original symbiote character Venom had successfully transitioned from outright villain to antihero, the psychotic nature of Carnage's host means it would be difficult to develop the character in that way.

"You can't have him being an unrepentant, abattoir-like killing machine each month," Brevoort continued. "You're going to have to find a new sympathetic dimension for him or soften him in a way that is not going to help that character long term.

"Some characters just should not have an ongoing book and I think Carnage is one of them."

Brevoort explained that he feels Carnage works best as the lead character in successive limited series which tell a specific finite story, and admitted that further Carnage miniseries were likely.

Carnage USA is expected to launch this December.