CARRION

Real Name: None

Occupation: Seeker of vengeance

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None;
    formerly Darter (Randy Vale), Spider-Amoeba

Enemies: Darter, Holly Gillis, Maggia (Masked Marauder/Frank Farnum, others), Spider-Amoeba, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), White Tiger (Hector Ayala)

Known Relatives: Miles Warren (creator and genetic progenitor)

Base of Operations: Empire State University, Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: Spectacular Spider-Man II#25 (December, 1978)

Powers/Abilities: Carrion's touch could disintegrate any organic material, reducing it to ash in seconds. Carrion could become intangible, or levitate. He wielded the Red Dust of Death, a powder that could, in varying doses, cause unconsciousness or death

Height: 5'10"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: None

History:
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#30 (fb) / Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand (fb) ) - Before setting out for what he believed would be his final battle with Spider-Man, Miles Warren began growing a clone of himself to act as a failsafe, to be released in the event of his death. He infected the clone with the Carrion Virus, mutating it into an undead abomination programmed to seek out and destroy Spider-Man.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#31 (fb) ) - ESU student Randy Vale stumbled into Warren's disused lab, and accidentally awoke the clone, which dubbed itself Carrion. Apparently unaware of the virus, it believed that it had aged too far - past old age, and beyond death, resulting in its cadaverous appearance. The clone offered Vale a choice; serve him, and receive Spider-Man's power, or refuse, and die. Vale accepted Carrion's offer, and became his spy on campus, watching both Parker and Spider-Man (who Vale didn't realize were one and the same); Carrion also outfitted Vale with a costume and equipment to become the villain Darter, although he knew he would never give Spider-Man's power to Vale. All the while, Carrion experimented with his powers and began to plot against Spider-Man.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#25) - Carrion submitted a proposal to the Maggia, offering to kill Spider-Man for them. Appearing before the Maggia's ruling council, led by the Masked Marauder, he told them he could guarantee Spider-Man's destruction, but they rejected his offer, and, as he was aware of recent covert Maggia activities, ordered his death. Carrion quickly slew the hitmen the Marauder unleashed on him; when the Marauder opened a trapdoor beneath him, the clone merely teleported away.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#26) - Carrion broke into Peter Parker's apartment, and listened from within as Betty Brant and Mary Jane Watson spoke outside the door.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#27) - Carrion ransacked Parker's apartment, burning THE DEAD WALK PARKER into a wall. He flew off, knowing that Parker would see his message.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#28) - Learning that Parker was meeting Hector Ayala at the ESU library, Carrion got there first, knocking out a security guard and Ayala, writing ASHES TO ASHES PARKER across the latter in dust. When Parker arrived, Carrion ambushed him, knocking him and the unconscious Ayala off a balcony and revealing that he knew Parker's identity. Parker threw a table at him, but Carrion's death-touch reduced it to ash. When ESU student Holly Gillis heard the commotion and turned on the lights, she temporarily blinded Parker, whose eyes had been damaged in a battle with the Masked Marauder, and allowed Carrion to get him in a stranglehold...

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#29) - Parker broke out of Carrion's grip, but Carrion turned his attention to Gillis; Parker tackled him, giving Gillis time to escape with Ayala. Carrion used his telekinetic powers to hurl book at Parker, then tossed a handful of Red Dust in his face - only enough to hurt him, however. Swearing they would meet again, Carrion teleported away. Later. Vale came to Warren's lab to report that he'd made contact with Parker. Carrion sent Vale to attack Ayala as Darter, then isolated Parker, attacking him on campus himself. He lured him to the ESU gymnasium, taunting Parker with his failure to graduate thanks to a missing gym credit. Carrion kicked Spider-Man off the roof, forcing him to crash into the basketball court. As Darter and the White Tiger's battle crashed into the court as well, Carrion accused Spider-Man of the murders of Gwen Stacy and Miles Warren!

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#30) - As Carrion continued to accuse him of murder, Spider-Man evaded the villain's death-touch and corrosive Red Dust, eventually leading Carrion to the swimming pool. Carrion knocked him into it, but Spider-Man leapt out and sent Carrion in. Repelled by Carrion's unnatural nature, the water turned black and boiled away. Before he could resume his attack on Spider-Man, however, the White Tiger tossed Darter into Carrion, knocking Darter out and disorienting Carrion. However, he recovered, knocked out the Tiger, and stunned Spider-Man with Red Dust. He dragged Spider-Man back to the lab, leaving Darter and the Tiger behind. At the lab, he strapped Spider-Man to an examination table and took a sample from him, injecting it into a protoplasmic pre-clone in a tank. As Spider-Man awoke, Carrion revealed that he was a clone of Professor Warren!

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#31) - Carrion explained his origins to Spider-Man, then unleashed the pre-clone, now fully-grown into the massive Spider-Amoeba, and unleashed it to devour the prone wall-crawler. However, Darter had returned, and was infuriated that Carrion had given Spider-Man's power to the mindless, shambling Spider-Amoeba instead of him. He fired on Carrion...who went intangible, allowing the shot to pass through him harmlessly. With Darter's usefulness at an end, Carrion threw a lethal dose of Red Dust in Darter's face, killing him. It also prompted Darter to drop his blaster, which fired on Spider-Man's electro-shackles, freeing him. Spider-Man and Carrion battled again until Carrion knocked Spider-Man back towards the Spider-Amoeba, which engulfed him. However, Carrion was confronted with the revived White Tiger, who attacked him. Their battle destroyed Carrion's clone chamber and started a fire which began to spread through the entire lab. Meanwhile, Spider-Man pushed the creature off him and towards Carrion; as they were both created via the same process, the Spider-Amoeba nullified Carrion's powers, rendering him helpless as it began to draw him into its mass. Carrion scrabbled for purchase on the floor, but found only Vale's bleached skull, and lamented that Vale could have helped him if he was still alive. As the Spider-Amoeba devoured Carrion, the flames consumed the lab, apparently incinerating both of them.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo, Jim Mooney, and Frank Springer.

Carrion's origin was briefly retconned after the revelation in Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #14 that Warren had never really created clones, but merely transformed human subjects into duplicates with a genetic virus. Peter Parker later surmised in Spectacular #149 that Carrion must also have been an unlucky human subject - a suspicion that was seemingly confirmed in that issue when Malcolm McBride was transformed into a new Carrion. However, then came the Clone Saga, which reiterated that Warren did indeed make real-deal clones, and explained away the earlier retcon by having it be a deception of the High Evolutionary, who was covering up his involvement in Warren's early research. Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand then confirmed that the original Carrion was, indeed, a clone.

Of course, it was allegedly almost someone else entirely. According to this article by Tony Isabella, Bill Mantlo's plan was that Carrion was going to be the original Spider-clone, who had survived but been mutated after Spider-Man dumped him into a smokestack, and that his ragged, Green-Goblin-esque costume was due to the Goblin gear that Spider-Man had later dumped into that same smokestack! This was nixed by Marv Wolfman, who was writing Amazing at the time and didn't want two Peter Parkers running around.

Carrion received profiles in the OHotMU Deluxe Edition, Master Edition, Spider-Man 2005, and in the All-New OHotMU HCs.

Profile by Minor Irritant.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Carrion, a mutated clone of Miles Warren, should not be confused with:

images: (without ads)
All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe HC vol. 3, Carrion profile (main image)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#31, page 16, panel 4 (headshot)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#31, page 8, panel 4 (using Red Dust of Death on Darter)

Appearances:
Spectacular Spider-Man II#25 (December, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils), Frank Springer (inks), Bob Hall (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#26 (January, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils), Frank Springer (inks), Jo Duffy (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#27 (February, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Frank Miller (pencils), Frank Springer (inks), Jo Duffy (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#28 (March, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Frank Miller (pencils), Frank Springer (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#29-31 (April-June, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils), Frank Springer (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)

First Posted: 10/25/2018
Last updated: 10/25/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters