CARRION
Real Name: Dr. William Allen
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None;
formerly Masters of Evil, SHIELD
Affiliations: Gator Grant, Hive (Halphas), Jackal (Miles Warren), Man-Thing (Ted Sallis), various clones (of Gwen Stacy, Miles Warren & "spider-men");
unwilling hosts Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Dagger (Tandy Bowen), Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Gravity (Greg Willis), Hyperion, Iron Fist (Danny Rand), Moon Knight (Marc Spector), Dr. Stephen Strange, Sun Girl (Selah Burke)
Enemies: Agent (Rick Mason), Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan, High Evolutionary (Herbert Edgar Wyndham), Jack Flag, Jahrmarkt, Magik (Amanda Sefton), Dr. Leslie Miglietta, Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Scarlet Spider (Kaine), Secret Avengers (Black Ant, Black Widow/Natasha Romanova, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde, Venom/Eugene "Flash" Thompson), Spider-Man (Otto Octavius), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Star-Lord (Peter Quill), Margali Szardos, John Steele, Tinkerer (Phineas T. Mason)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Chuckles"
Place of Birth: Annapolis, Maryland
Base of Operations: New York City;
formerly Bagalia;
formerly Prison 42, the Negative Zone;
formerly a secure SHIELD facility;
formerly the Empire State Building, New York City;
formerly SHIELD's emergency bio-hazard facility, Bethesda,
Maryland
First Appearance: Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand (April, 1997)
Powers/Abilities: Exposure to the Carrion Virus transformed Allen into an aged, decayed duplicate of Miles Warren with sickly yellow skin and a persistent reek of decomposition. He can teleport over short distances (leaving behind a residue of sulfur), manipulate and rot organic matter, project repelling energy beams, levitate and become intangible. Carrion's touch can ignite fires or kill living beings. He possesses superhuman strength, enabling him to lift up to ten tons, and can also regenerate rapidly (although his body is highly fragile). Carrion is also telepathic; while the two previous Carrions possesses telepathy, Allen's is stronger than theirs. He used a modified version of the Red Dust of Death to create a "zombie virus" which rendered its victims mindless and highly suggestible to Carrion's telepathic commands, and also eventually killed its victims. Allen is a highly gifted scientist, possessing Ph.Ds in biochemistry and microbiology; he also possesses some of Miles Warren's knowledge and memories, which may include his vast expertise in cloning and genetics. Allen recently learned to possess others by dissipating his body and becoming the virus.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: None
History: (Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand (fb)/Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2005) - A scientist at SHIELD's emergency bio-hazard facility in Bethesda, Maryland, Dr. William Allen worked under Dr. Leslie Miglietta on a project to develop cures for bio-weapons. Assigned to study the corpse of the Jackal, Allen found a hidden pouch on the corpse containing a sample of the Carrion Virus. Exposing himself to it, he was transformed into a decayed duplicate of Warren, but due to his strong personality and mutated first and eighth chromosome, Allen's personality was not completely overwritten by Warren's, as previous Carrion Virus host Malcolm McBride's had. Instead, Allen received stronger telepathic powers than the previous Carrions, as well as incomplete copies of Warren's personality and memories. To prevent anyone else from gaining his power, Allen incinerated the Jackal's corpse, setting fire to himself in the process.
(Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand) - Dr. Miglietta extinguished the burning Allen, but he struck her aside in an attempt to silence Warren's voice inside his head. Muttering a cryptic warning about "aces and eights", Allen teleported away, cackling.
(Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand (fb) ) - As Carrion, Allen robbed at least six chemical plants, obtaining the ingredients he needed to create his zombie plague, infecting two dozen people with the contagion in the process (one of whom was Rick Mason, the Agent). During the last robbery, he killed a guard and wrote "THE DEAD WALK" in ash beside his body.
(Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand) - Carrion spread his plague on
Broadway, creating an army of mindless zombies. When Spider-Man arrived,
Carrion blasted him away and set the zombies after him. Attacking
Spider-Man with his death touch, Carrion soon found himself webbed up.
Teleporting away, he left Spider-Man at the mercy of the zombie army, which the
web-slinger managed to contain by blockading the street with a bus. The
zombies were soon pacified by gas-dropping SHIELD helicopters, under the command
of Dum Dum Dugan.
Setting up base on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, Carrion threatened to have his zombies jump over the side if they employed gas grenades again, and promised to release his zombie virus on the city unless Spider-Man arrived in the next half-hour. When Spider-Man invaded the tower, he saved a zombie sent on a suicide mission, then fought his way to Carrion. Carrion planned to use his zombie plague on Spider-Man, much to the displeasure of Warren's personality, which wanted to kill Spider-Man to avenge the death of Gwen Stacy. Battling Spider-Man, Carrion was soon outmatched, allowing Warren to take control of Allen's body. Spider-Man webbed up Carrion's hands to neutralize his death touch and tackled him out the window, where Allen and Warren struggled for control of Allen's body. Too distracted to levitate, he was saved by Spider-Man. Allen regained control of his body, just in time for Spider-Man to knock him (and his teeth) out.
Allen was placed in stasis, while the combined efforts of Dr. Miglietta and Dr. Wyndham (secretly the High Evolutionary, who had come to help thanks to the efforts of Spider-Man and the Tinkerer) cured Carrion's zombies. Wyndham also left an expunged version of Miles Warren's diary with SHIELD, in the hopes that they could use it to cure Allen.
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2005) - No cure could be found for Allen, who remained in stasis at a secure SHIELD facility.
(Nightcrawler III#9) - The demonic Hive possessed Carrion, Man-Thing, Gator Grant, and a horde of zombies, and sent them to attack the Amos Jardine's circus in Florida, searching for the Soulsword.
(Nightcrawler III#10) - Carrion attempted to use his death-touch on one of Jardine's performers, but Nightcrawler leapt on him. Before long, Margali Szardos, Magik, and Nightmare arrived on the scene, the latter of whom put Hive's minions, including Carrion, into a deep sleep.
(Guardians of the Galaxy II#9 - BTS) - At some point, Carrion was taken back into custody and transferred to the Negative Zone's Prison 42. He was there when Blastaar's forces attacked it.
(Guardians of the Galaxy II#9) - Jack Flag led Peter Quill, who needed to send a telepathic distress message to his teammates in the Guardians of the Galaxy, to Carrion. To ensure that Carrion sent the message to Mantis, Quill repeatedly punched him.
(Secret Avengers I#29) - Carrion joined the Masters of Evil alongside hundreds of members in Bagalia. They attacked John Steele on behalf of Max Fury; Steele later died.
(Secret Avengers I#30 - BTS) - The Masters of Evil were taken over by the Abyss, who sought to spread them to the outside world.
(Secret Avengers I#31) - The Abyss-possessed villains moved to Bagalia's borders as the Secret Avengers tried to stop them.
(Secret Avengers I#32) - During the fight against the Secret Avengers Carrion tried to infect Venom, but he jumped out of the way and Carrion touched Pink Pearl instead. The Abyss was vanquished and the Avengers let the villains go free, having no authority in Bagalia.
(Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#1 (fb) - BTS) - Carrion returned to NYC and allies with the Carrion virus' creator Jackal (Miles Warren).
(Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#1 - BTS) - Carrion attempted to take over a superhuman, but was detected by Spider-Man. Carrion fled from host to host all day each time Spider-Man found his host going from Dagger to Daredevil (Matt Murdock) to Gravity to Iron Fist to Sun Girl to Moon Knight to Dr. Strange to Ant-Man and finally the invulnerable Hyperion.
(Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#1) - After the Avengers captured Spider-Man atop Avengers Tower Carrion in possession of Hyperion destroyed the remote-controlled Iron Man and then assaulted the other Avengers mercilessly. The Avengers eventually overpowered Hyperion, but Carrion pointed out that they could not stop Hyperion and that he will soon bond with Hyperion forever. Showing no regard for Hyperion's life Spider-Man used a gun he had built to destroy the Carrion virus even though he wasn't sure if Hyperion would die along with the virus like Carrion suggested. Hyperion survived and the Carrion virus was gone.
It took Carrion hours to reform.
(Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#2) - Carrion aided Jackal and several clones in capturing Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider.
(Scarlet Spider II#20) - When Scarlet Spider broke his chains in Jackal's lab Carrion tried to possess him, but Scarlet Spider drove him out and then knocked out Carrion's humanoid form.
After the lab burnt down due to Spider-Man causing an explosion to destroy his DNA samples Carrion turned up alive alongside Jackal and a Gwen Stacy clone. He listened to Jackal's plan to create another clone from the clone Kaine's DNA.
Comments: Created by Roger Stern, Joe Edkin, Darick Robertson, Dan Lawlis, & Keith Aiken.
SHIELD apparently took the Jackal's body after his death at the conclusion of the Maximum Clonage storyline. The Jackal has since resurfaced, so it's unclear whether Allen destroyed Miles Warren's actual body, or that of a Warren clone.
Heroic Age: Villains confirms that the Carrion appearing in Nightcrawler and Guardians of the Galaxy was Allen.
Allen has a joint entry with the other Carrions in the Spider-Man 2005 Handbook.
Update by Markus Raymond: Secret Avengers & Super Spider-Man Team-Up.
Profile by Minor Irritant.
CLARIFICATIONS:
William Allen, alias Carrion, should be
distinguished from:
(Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand) - Dr. Leslie Miglietta headed a SHIELD project to develop cures and vaccines for bio-weapons. When one of her colleagues, Dr. William Allen, went rogue and infected himself with the Carrion Virus, setting himself on fire, she extinguished the flames but was knocked aside for her trouble. She watched as Allen muttered a cryptic warning about "aces and eights" and teleported away.
Dr. Miglietta became part of SHIELD's anti-Carrion task force, where she attempted to treat the two dozen victims of Allen's zombie plague. When the infection spread to hundreds of New Yorkers, Miglietta and the task force set up shop in the New York Coliseum, where she discussed the case with Spider-Man and Dum Dum Dugan. They were interrupted by the arrival of the Tinkerer, who demanded to see his son, one of the victims. Miglietta and Dugan watched as the old man teleported himself and the web-slinger away.
Miglietta soon received two powerful weapons against the zombie plague - the notes of Miles Warren, the Carrion Virus' creator, which was delivered by the Tinkerer, and Dr. Wyndham, from the Center for Disease Control (actually the High Evolutionary, Warren's old partner, in disguise). Devising that Allen's "aces and eights" comments referred to a mutation of the first and eighth chromosomes, Miglietta and Wyndham devised a cure for the plague. While viewing Allen's inert body, Miglietta was surprised by the sudden disappearance of Wyndham.
Dr. Miglietta is a skilled scientist.
--Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand
images: (without ads)
Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand, p12, pan1 (main image)
Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand, p15, pan2 (headshot)
Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand, p1, pan1 (William Allen)
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#1, p22, pan3 (reformed)
Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand, p20, pan1 (Miglietta)
Appearances:
Spider-Man: Dead Man's Hand (April, 1997) - Roger Stern (plotter), Joe Edkin
(scripter), Darick Robertson & Dan Lawlis (pencilers), Keith Aiken (inker), Tom
Brevoort (editor)
Nightcrawler III#9 (October, 2005) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Darick Robertson (pencils), Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Koblish, & Rodney Ramos (inkers), Mike Marts (editor)
Nightcrawler III#10 (November, 2005) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Darick Robertson (pencils), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Guardians of the Galaxy II#9 (March, 2009) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Brad Walker & Carlos Magno (pencils), Victor Olazaba & Jack Purcell (inkers), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Secret Avengers I#29-32 (September-December, 2012) - Rick Remender (writer), Matteo Scalera (penciler/inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#1 (September, 2013) - Chris Yost (writer), David Lopez (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Sana Amanat (editor)
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up#2 (October, 2013) - Chris Yost (writer), Marco Checchetto (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Sana Amanat (editor)
Scarlet Spider II#20 (October, 2013) - Chris Yost & Erik Burnham (writers), K Studio's In-Hyuk Lee (artist), Andy Owens (inks), Tom Brennan (editor)
First Posted: 11/04/2007
Last updated: 01/13/2015
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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