Carnage
Your most recent work is on Superior Carnage, which is quite a bit different in tone from what you did with Spider-Man and Deadpool. Was this something you pitched to Marvel or did they come to you with it?
Kevin Shinick: After Avenging Spider-Man, Wacker asked if I had any interest in doing a Carnage mini-series, so I kept turning it over in my head until I came up with a story I thought was worth doing. Now that I had written what I thought people were expecting from me, I wanted to show them what else I could do. And Carange seemed like a good idea because it was a complete one eighty.
For our readers who may not be familiar with where Carnage/Cletus Kasady is when your book starts, can you bring them up to speed? Where do we find Cletus at the start of Superior Carnage?
Kevin Shinick: Well, the funny thing about my discussion with Wacker was that after I said I was interested, he reminded me that the character was basically lobotomized in the last issue. I was like, “Where does that leave me?!” But oddly enough it was the perfect jumping off point, because in a way it was a clean slate. We find Cletus Kasady rotting away in prison when suddenly another villain has the brilliant idea of taming Carnage and turning him into an agent of evil the way the government turned Venom into Agent Venom. And when I say ‘brilliant’ I’m obviously being sarcastic.
You’ve brought back Fantastic Four villain, the Wizard, into this mini-series. Why did you decide on this particular villain and how have you changed him from what we’ve seen in the past?
Kevin Shinick: I had so much fun using the Hypno-Hustler in Avenging Spider-Man that I thought it would be equally fun to find a few villains who aren’t exactly A listers that I could perhaps breath new life into. And since the Wizard’s fate in last issue of Future Foundation was ambiguous I thought it was a good place to start with him as well.
You’re taking on one of Spider-Man’s more popular villains in this mini-series. Will the events of these five issues leave a lasting mark on Carnage and Cletus? Are you going to show us a side of this character that we haven’t seen previously?
Kevin Shinick: I like to think so. In fact one of the requests I made in taking on this book was that I could claim it was Carnage “like you’ve never seen him before,” and actually mean it. And since we’re embarking on making him a Superior Carnage, not only will he eventually look different, but he might not even wind up being Cletus Kasady.
There’s a pretty decent body count in the first issue of Superior Carnage. Should we expect that to increase from issue to issue?
Kevin Shinick: There’s definitely a big body count in the the first issue, and I certainly don’t shy away from that as we progress, but I wanted this to me more of an intimate story as well. We’ve seen Carnage on a grand scale, we’ve also seen him on a minimum scale, but I wanted this to be more of a personal scale. For all the characters. It’s no accident that “identity” is a big theme in this book.
Is this a self-contained mini-series or will the events of Superior Carnage extend to other area of the Spider-Man universe and future issues?
Kevin Shinick: Well, I guess that’s up to Marvel. But let’s face it, once you’ve become Superior why would you ever want to go back?[Thanks to Bizarnage for the tip]
And regardless if Superior Carnage doesn't end up being Cletus Kasady, we will at least get to see him fight Deadpool! From a Bleeding Cool tease, the announcement will be coming soon. My guess is Sunday during the X-Men SDCC panel.
[Thanks to thecollector22 for the tip]
What do you think of (possibly a non Cletus) Carnage vs Deadpool?