Carnage Used His Rarest Power to Expose Spider-Man’s Secret Identity

Spider-Man has gone through so much effort to keep his identity a secret, which is why it’s so concerning that known serial killer Carnage used a rare power to learn who Spidey is. Superheroes have put a lot of criminals in prison, almost all of whom would love to take revenge on anyone related to the hero who sent them away. That’s why, for Peter Parker, keeping his real name a secret is so vital to protecting his loved ones.

Carnage learns of Spider-Man’s secret identity in 2019’s Absolute Carnage #3 by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles. During the event Absolute Carnage, Carnage begins hunting down anyone who’s ever been bonded with a symbiote so that he can tear a codex out of them. He hopes to use these codexes to reconnect to the dark god Knull the King in Black and unleash chaos on the world.

Part of this plan involves Carnage shapeshifting into Eddie Brock and sneaking into an Avengers base. Due to the Carnage symbiote’s unique relationship with Venom, Spider-Man is completely unable to sense that this is Carnage and not Eddie. Spider-Man only realizes it when the real Eddie calls out to “Peter” to get away from Carnage. The use of Spidey’s real name is a detail that Carnage definitely notices.

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Eddie Brock Accidentally Reveals Peter Parker’s Secret Identity

The reveal of a superhero’s secret identity can create major problems. When Daredevil’s identity leaked to the press, it threw his life into complete chaos for more than a year, and it ended with Daredevil going to prison. When Spider-Man’s identity was revealed during the events of Civil War, it resulted in Aunt May being shot on orders of the Kingpin. That threw Peter’s life into turmoil and ended up having drastic consequences that are still felt to this day. It’s important for characters to keep their identities secret and the absolute last person any hero would want to know their identity is a deranged serial killer like Cletus Kasady.

Carnage is able to get so close to Spider-Man and learn his secret identity because of the fact Spider-Man wore the Venom symbiote first, which allows the symbiote to bypass Peter’s Spider-Sense. Since the Carnage symbiote is the child of the Venom symbiote, it also inherited this ability. Peter literally cannot sense Carnage’s presence at all. This enables Carnage to use his most underrated ability to learn Peter’s biggest secret. While it’s true Eddie only calls Peter by his first name, Carnage isn’t an idiot. Carnage knows exactly who Eddie Brock is, so it’s unlikely that Carnage wouldn’t be able to figure out how many different people named Peter Eddie has interacted with over the years.

Carnage Reveals His True Form

The ability to shapeshift and impersonate others is one that symbiotes like Carnage don’t utilize too often. But Carnage’s clever usage of this skill grants him some dangerous knowledge. Plenty of characters have done a lot of damage to Spider-Man’s personal life with the knowledge that he is Peter Parker. Carnage having this information takes things to a completely new level of danger. Carnage is a serial killer who has absolutely no preference for whom he kills and loves nothing more than to cause pain and misery. If Carnage ever shifts his focus from Venom to Spider-Man, there’s no doubt that Carnage could hurt Peter unlike anyone ever has, and it would be entirely Eddie Brock’s fault.