The downside though is that it sadly doesn’t include any alternate hands or weapons, so as far as a traditional Carnage figure goes it is a little limited. The head looks pretty great and hits all of the right Carnage beats, so it’s a great alternative for anyone who missed that previous release and purchased this for a more traditional Carnage. While it looks somewhat similar to the 2018 Monster Venom wave Carnage, it’s actually a new (or at the very least modified) sculpt with a more closed mouth. This version of Carnage comes with only a single accessory - an alternate head of his more traditional look.

Since there’s only a handful of colours at work here the paintwork from Hasbro really is top tier - not a single blemish or piece out of place. Also protruding from the body on the arms, legs and back are various red tendrils, giving the figure a more Carnage-like silhouette and well as emphasising the fluid-like nature of the symbiote. Despite the relative simplicity of Carnage’s design this is a really great looking figure, the red body all sculpted with sinewy muscular texturing and then the black veins moulded and painted on top. It’s a very slight divergence that probably won’t be for everyone, but I appreciate Hasbro’s efforts to produce a specific version of Carnage and hope it leads to other Dark Carnage forms in the future. The eyes are much thinner than the traditional Carnage look, and his forehead sports the white spiral symbol of the symbiote god Knull.

Most significantly of all though this version also has a unique head sculpt, based on the third form “Dark Carnage” took whilst gathering the codexes from the various symbiotes. This Carnage has features thinner almost vein-like black running through the body, as well as clawed feet. Whereas the 2018 Carnage was a more generic version of the character, this is a more modern interpretation that specifically draws from the 2019 comic event Absolute Carnage. While there are some similarities between the previous 2018 release and this figure (they are the same character after all), there are some pretty significant differences between them when you compare them up close.

Marvel legends monster venom arm