Venom and Spider-Man’s feud is legendary in the comics, but when Venom spawned a new symbiote, things reached a new level of chaos. The symbiote first bonded with Eddie Brock’s cellmate Cletus Kassidy, a serial killer already in prison with seven consecutive life sentences. Kassidy’s crimes (and body count) soon rose astronomically, however, when the symbiote mutated his blood and transformed them into the nigh-unstoppable Carnage!
Like Venom, however, the Carnage symbiote has had many different hosts, including some equally dangerous villains like Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin). The most tragic human host the Carnage symbiote bonded with, however, was none other than Peter Parker’s own infant son Benjy! The terrifyingly sad tale occurred in The Amazing Spider-Girl #9-12 which took place in the alternate future of the MC2 universe where old-school heroes like Spider-Man have retired, leaving new superheroes like Peter Parker’s teenage daughter May “Mayday” Parker (aka Spider-Girl) to continue the family tradition. For the most part, the MC2 future is an optimistic place full of heroes who protect the innocent - but there were exceptions…
Although many villains had either retired or died in this future, remnants of some of them survived, including a portion of the Carnage symbiote which was kept imprisoned and experimented on. Some scientists actually thought the symbiote could hold the cure for cancer, but the symbiote had other plans when it escaped and bonded with a new host: May’s school friend Moose Mansfield! Carnage kidnaps Benjy, but fortunately Moose is able to keep him from killing the child. May switches to Spider-Girl and tracks down her baby brother, but Carnage reveals he’s shared a little too much of himself with Benjy when Spider-Girl saves her brother, only for him to morph into a mini-Carnage.
Unfortunately, the adult Carnage continues attacking innocent people, forcing May to save them. In the chaos, Baby-Carnage escapes and resumes his attack. Caught between protecting and fighting with her brother, May manages to get a message to her father to get an armored suit from the police that can fire sonic blasts. Meanwhile, the Carnage symbiote manages to entice his human host by convincing Moose that if he stops fighting him, he’ll bond with his father, who’s dying of terminal cancer, and cure him.
Things reach a climactic peak when Carnage, Baby-Carnage, Spider-Girl, and Peter Parker all meet up at the hospital where Moose’s dying father is being treated. Upon seeing what Carnage has done to Benjy, Peter is unable to fire, forcing May to shoot her own brother with the sonic canon. She then uses the weapon on the older Carnage before he can cure Moose’s father, leaving Moose furious at Spider-Girl. But it’s Benjy who suffers the most when Peter discovers that the sonic blast left his infant son deaf.
May is left horribly guilt ridden, but fortunately Benjy later receives an operation that restores most of his hearing. In a further twist, Benjy’s own spider-powers end up emerging prematurely, granting him super strength, wall crawling powers, and even the ability to shoot his own webbing. Luckily, even as an infant, his sense of responsibility is very high and he only uses his powers to help others (and play on the ceiling), showing this infant Spider-Man wasn’t corrupted by his time with the Carnage symbiote!