Carrion II
Attributes
| Eyes: | Yellow. |
| Features: | Rather yellow and cadaverous looking. Wears tattered shroud, when he isn't wearing his spiffy new brown outfit. |
| Height: | 5'10" |
| Weight: | 175 pounds. |
Powers
| Abilities: | Telepathic (until he says he isn't), can levitate (until he says the ground repels him because he is dead or something like that). |
| Equipment: | Shoulder bag. |
| Limitations: | Can't decide if he's a Miles Warren clone or a virus-infected college student. Then can't decide who is mother is. |
| Powers: | Deadly touch, body repels organic matter, can alter his density. |
| Strength Level: | Super-human. Many times normal. |
| Weapons: | Red dust. |
Summary
| Citizenship: | USA. |
| Created By: | Bill Mantlo, Jim Mooney, Frank Springer, Gerry Conway, Sal Buscema |
| Current Occupation: | Ravencroft Inmate. |
| Dual Identity: | Known to Ravencroft Institute. |
| Education: | Undergraduate degree. Never finished graduate program. |
| Former Bases: | ESU, Manhattan, Queens, upstate New York. |
| Former Groups: | Maximum Carnage. |
| Former Occupation: | Empire State University Science Graduate Student. |
| Known Allies: | Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale), Carnage, Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin. |
| Known Confidants: | Hobgoblin, Shriek, Beatrice McBride. |
| Known Relatives: | Beatrice McBride (mother, originally called "Martha"), Shriek (surrogate mother), Carnage (surrogate father), Demogoblin and Doppelganger (surrogate brothers). |
| Legal Status: | Incarcerated in Ravencroft Institute. |
| Major Enemies: | Spider-Man, Venom, Black Cat, Cloak and Dagger, Firestar, Captain America, Nightwatch, Iron Fist, Deathlok, NYPD Extreme Emergency Team, Morbius. |
| Marital Status: | Single. |
| Place of Birth: | Astoria, Queens. |
| Real Name: | Malcolm McBride (sometimes spelled MacBride). |
| Usual Bases: | Ravencroft Institute. |
Background
"Origin"
Malcolm McBride was an Empire State University science graduate student. He applied for a research grant that went to Peter Parker. Resentful, feeling that his rival is not a serious student, Malcolm follows Peter into the bowels of ESU's science building, to the wrecked secret lab used by the Jackal and the original Carrion. Peter is searching for the truth of the clones and comes away with a research journal written by the Jackal. Malcolm finds a test tube containing a glowing green liquid. Back at his dorm, Malcolm studies the liquid and determines that it is a virus that "was created by recombinant DNA technology". It also grows rapidly when exposed to air, slips off the microscope slide and attacks Malcolm in his face and eyes. This exposure turns Malcolm into Carrion, not only giving him the knowledge of Spider-Man's identity but also garbing him in Carrion's rags and shoulder bag containing the deadly red dust.
Initially Malcolm is so absorbed by the virus that he thinks of himself as a clone of Prof. Miles Warren created to avenge Gwen Stacy's death. Carrion displays a variety of powers from levitation to telepathy to altering his density but he also believes that Miles Warren is still alive. When Spider- Man leads him to Warren's grave, Carrion is so startled that the web-slinger defeats him easily and has him shipped off to the prison known as the Vault. (Spectacular Spider-Man #149)
"The Demon and the Dead Man"
On his way back to the Vault from a court appearance (THAT I'd have liked to have seen), Carrion is freed by the Hobgoblin, Jason Macendale in his demonic phase. The two villains establish a base in the New York sewer system and Carrion reveals that he can't read minds after all and that his red dust is merely freeze-dried acid crystals. (Plus, he seems to have forgotten Spider- Man's secret identity.) He also remembers enough of being Malcolm to go to Astoria, Queens (later referred to as "Briarwood" but switched back to Astoria again) to seek out his mother (first named "Martha", later called "Beatrice"). Spider-Man intervenes but he is, in turn, ambushed by Hobgoblin. The two villains drag the web-slinger down into the sewers. (The Spectacular Spider-Man #162)
"The Carrion Cure"
While Hobgoblin goes to Hammerhead to try to get money for killing Spider-Man, the web-spinner taunts Carrion into accidentally releasing him. Later, when Hobgoblin returns, the battle moves above ground. Hobby tries to kill Martha McBride and Mary Jane, who has tracked Martha down, only to be stopped by Carrion who is protecting his mother. A pumpkin bomb ignites the gas from a broken sewer line and both villains go up in flames and fall back into the sewer system. (The Spectacular Spider-Man #163)
"Maximum Carnage"
Carrion returned to the sewers, only to re-emerge after Carnage, Doppelganger, Shriek and Demogoblin killed the occupants of a hoity-toity restaurant. He silently followed them. (Spectacular Spider-Man #201)
He caught up to them at the Metropolitan Museum, as they were destroying artwork and killing police special emergency forces. He silently went out using his withering touch on the police, earning cheers from the psychopaths. Shriek mentioned that he had supposedly died in an explosion, and Carnage replied that as long as he kept the body count rising, he didn't care. The group moved to Times Square, killing everyone they could. They were confronted by a vigilante called Dethlok, who was quickly beaten and strung up. (Amazing Spider-Man #379)
Carrion followed Carnage and the others to Kasady's former orphanage and later fought off the heroes that arrived. (Spider-Man #36)
The gang of killers moved to southern Manhattan, and Carnage and Shriek took the captured Venom to the Statue of Liberty for torture. Carrion, Demogoblin and Doppelganger, meanwhile, doubled back and attacked Cloak, Morbius and Black Cat. He used his fatal touch on Morbius, who screamed in pain but was taken to safety by Cloak. This left Black Cat alone, and the killers nearly beat her to death. She was rescued by Nightwatch. (Web of Spider-Man #103)
The fight moved to the Statue of Liberty, and the bad guys followed after Morbius and Nightwatch fled. (Amazing Spider-Man #380)
Carrion showed surprising compassion when his "mother," Shriek, flipped out when Dagger seemed to reappear from the dead. (Shriek had killed her early in the riot.) He urged her to not upset herself, and she blasted him for his effort. Despite it, he wanted to help her as she again tried to kill Dagger. He was held back by Carnage, who wanted to see if she could do the job herself. The heroes used a device called the Alpha-Magni-Illuminizer on the killers, a bio feedback machine that amplified the brain's calming properties. The calming effect returned Carrion to Malcolm McBride. The last thing he remembered was being in Warren's lab. (Spectacular Spider-Man #203)
"Shrieking"
Malcolm was sent to Ravencroft Asylum after the Maximum Carnage riot ended. He was put on a prescription of anti viral medication to kill the remainder of the Carrion virus in his system. He was under the care of Dr. Ashley Kafka and Edward Whelan, and both observed his lack of sleep and heavy guilt. Dr. Kafka spoke to Malcolm about his sleeplessness and he responded, "How can I sleep? Every time I close my eyes, I see them. Corpses. Mounds of them. Like something out of the Holocaust! But--but its not! Its not Dachau or Buchenwald. Its New York City. Its now."
Later on, Kafka and McBride were walking down the halls of the asylum and he was blaming himself for the murders committed by Carrion. In frustration, Dr. Kafka took him to Shriek's holding cell, explaining to him that this is what genuine insanity looked like. After a moment, Shriek recognized Malcolm as her "son" and broke out of her plexiglass prison. She soon chased him down, smashed through a wall and flew away with him. (Amazing Spider-Man #390)
Free and away from the hospital, Malcolm begged Shriek to let him go. She sadly wondered what the doctors had done to her son and again pleaded not to be called Carrion. She found a random home for them to rest in and Malcolm tried to run into the woods. She managed to grab him and knocked him to the ground, then dragged him by the throat to the house. Shriek burst into the house and when they were confronted by the home owner, Malcolm tried to warn him to run but she threw him out a window. She turned to Malcolm, demanding to know why he called her crazy. She said it was their little secret, not to be shared. She told him he was all that was left of their family, and they had to stay together.
Later, Malcolm was growing agitated over needing his medication that would keep him from regressing back to Carrion. Shriek told him that Carrion was the truth, and Malcolm McBride was the lie. He lashed out, saying she may be rotten and angry but he had been raised in a good loving family. She hit him with a sonic blast, sending him across the room. Furious, she she told him she had suffered and strived for him and given him food and shelter and her life would be better without him. She immediately apologized, telling him he was her world. He then told her if she loved him, to send him back to Ravencroft hospital. Spider-Man then showed up, and began mercilessly beating Shriek. She fooled him into stopping, then hit him with a blast. She considered using her psychic ability to reach into Spidey's mind and nurture his inner anger. That gave her the idea to do the same to Malcolm and bring out Carrion. After Carrion became the dominant personality again and Shriek had fainted, Carrion set about killing Spider-Man with his decaying touch. (Amazing Spider-Man #391)
He was stopped by Shriek, who wanted Spider-Man to become their new "father." A confused Carrion was slammed into a wall by Shriek, who wanted to force the psychologically damaged Spider-Man to become even less stable. Carrion struggled to remember the family he had but she told him those weren't memories, just nightmares. They left together, and came to a leather clothing store for a new costume. The clothing triggered a memory in Shriek of her disturbing childhood and she had an emotional outburst. Her psychic powers in the moment tortured Carrion and after begging her to stop, he murmured that she wasn't his mother and he wanted to go home.
They soon arrived at the home of Mrs. McBride and Shriek said it was time for them to have a woman to woman talk about her son. Carrion was conflicted between the two of them claiming to be his mother, which Shriek didn't like at all. She demanded that he kill his mother. Carrion stammered that he wanted to please Shriek but he also remembered his mother's kindness. Shriek planned to kill her herself when Spider-Man arrived. He was silent and intimidating, with only vengeance on his mind. (Amazing Spider-Man #392)
Spider-Man silently battered Shriek, until she lay still on the floor. Carrion pounced on him, swearing to make him suffer. Mrs. McBride told him to stop, and that Spider-Man was trying to help them. Still confused, Carrion stopped himself. Spider-Man ordered Mrs. McBride to leave and his cold demeanor scared her. Seeing her fear, Carrion attacked him again, at least knowing he could hate Spider-Man without confusion. He beat the surprised webhead, promising to make every cell in his body rot away. Spidey rebounded quickly, throwing Carrion into a wall.
He continued to punch Carrion, blindly lashing out at him. He only stopped after Mrs. McBride begged him. Coming to his senses for a moment, Spider-Man stopped and apologized to her, leaving him open to Shriek hitting him with a sonic blast from behind. With Spider-Man out of the fight for a moment, she again demanded that Carrion choose one of them as his mother. Too split to decide, Carrion turned his rotting power on himself. Mrs. McBride ran to pull his hands away from his face only to be stopped by Shriek. Touched that she was willing to risk her own life to save Carrion, Shriek finally saw that Mrs. McBride loved her son. Still, in her own way, Shriek loved him too. She went to where he was laying on the floor and touched him, letting the virus effect her. Despite the pain, she kept her hands on him until she absorbed the entire virus. This returned Carrion to Malcolm McBride and Spider-Man took Shriek to a hospital. (Amazing Spider-Man #393)
"The Trial of Peter Parker"
Some time later, Spider-Man was held hostage at Ravencroft Asylum. He had been captured and put on trial for "creating" super criminals. This was all planned by a powerful mutant named Judas Traveller, who was fascinated by the nature of good and evil. Traveller had found a common hatred of Spider-Man in the inmates of the asylum and he wanted to know the extent of which he was responsible for their insanity. The other possibility was that he was a good man trying to keep innocent people safe from dangerous psychopaths. Traveller acted as judge, Carnage as the prosecutor, Kaine as the defense attorney. Sitting at the defense table with him was Ashley Kafka and John Jameson. The jury was made up of Spider-Man's enemies at the asylum: Shriek, Chameleon, Malcolm McBride, Edward Whelan, and others.
Carnage eventually called Malcolm to testify, despite the man's terror. Carnage forced him to tell the jury how he had become Carrion and Malcolm reluctantly said he had been jealous of Peter Parker. He wanted to build on Miles Warren's research to show Peter up. Carnage then unmasked Spider-Man and showed him to be Peter Parker. Traveller asked the jury for their judgement and they all called out his guilt. Malcolm and Edward protested that the defense hadn't made its case, but they were silenced after they were forced to become Carrion and Vermin. Traveller called for the jury to carry out the execution and they were about to tear Peter apart when Kaine tried to stop them. He would have been killed if Traveller hadn't used his teleportation powers to send the inmates back to their cells. He then explained that he was testing Kaine the whole time, to see if someone that hated Spider-Man would defend him. Kaine's willingness to risk himself for Peter spoke volume's about Peter. (Amazing Spider-Man #403)
"The Humanity Agenda"
Soon after Peter's trial, it was believed that he was a clone and Ben Reilly was the actual Peter Parker. Peter and Mary Jane had left New York and moved to Portland, Oregon, leaving Ben to continue as Spider-Man. Ben learned that Carrion had escaped and was in a cemetery battling the police. Oddly, he hadn't killed any of them but they were laid out and non-responsive. Malcolm briefly re-emerged and told Spider-Man that he needed Carrion to keep him safe. When Carrion put his hand on Spider-Man's mask Ben felt a psychic flood of pain and he was unsure if it was his or Carrion's. Spider-Man broke free and began to beat Carrion into submission but offered him the chance to meld their minds again to see why he was lashing out. Carrion showed him that Dr. Kafka had told him that his mother had passed away from a stroke. Beatrice McBride was the only family that Malcolm had and the news broke him. Dr. Kafka arrived soon after and took Malcolm back to Ravencroft, where he was strongly medicated. (Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #1)
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