Marvel Confirms Next Major Carnage Appearance With One Incredible Easter Egg

17 hours ago 10

Published Jun 7, 2026, 10:59 PM EDT

Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.

As far as major, character-defining Spider-Man supervillains go, Carnage is rarely included in the conversation. Carnage is unfortunately fairly one-note as a classic Spider-Man villain, wherein the symbiote’s violent tendencies typically make for a fiendish or gory tale, though the stories themselves aren’t usually the most profound or significant, besides a handful.

Two Words: Carnage. Shark.

Before he was officially revealed, Carnage being teased for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls was exceptional due to the consideration of how wild Arc System Works’ redesign for the red, murderous symbiote would be. The design itself turned out to be relatively tame, whereas some characters’ default designs are a bit more grandiose or distinguished, but the studio obviously went all out for Carnage’s Tōkon Assemble Super, which is a direct reference to Donny Cates, Kyle Hotz, and Rachelle Rosenberg’s “Carnage Shark” story in Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2.

“Carnage Shark” is an admittedly quaint and fleeting tale. Seeing that the red symbiote fled to the sea and bonded with “the greatest predator in the deep” to become “the crimson leviathan” is sensational, and yet the actual Carnage Shark form sadly only appears for a few pages.

The greatest features of the Carnage Shark are its enormous jaws full of thousands of sharp teeth, piercing white eyes, and a hulking mass of tissue, bones, spikes, and fins, all blood-red.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Has Great Spider-Man Villain Representation

Venom has been a hero now longer than he’s ever been a villain. It’s fully possible that Venom will be added to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ character roster as post-launch DLC, as well, but Carnage is wonderful as a launch roster character due to how unprecedented and novel his addition is.

It was arguably quite obvious that Carnage was one of the villain characters being teased for Doctor Doom’s Knights of Doom team at the end of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ Fighting Avengers trailer, and yet that didn’t make the notion of Carnage finally debuting in a fighting game any less arresting. In fact, Carnage might have been unrivaled as the most fascinating Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls character if it wasn’t for Green Goblin appearing in the same PlayStation State of Play trailer.

It will be neat to see what Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls alternate skins Carnage receives, and whether or not he’ll be considered meta in a team of three other tag fighters. Either way, this is some of the best representation Carnage has had in a long while, and with him and Green Goblin both in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it’s a great era for Spider-Man villains in video games altogether.

Plus, there’s no ceiling concerning how many other Spider-Man villains may arrive as post-launch DLC characters. But even if characters like Doctor Octopus, Mister Negative, and Scorpion were to be featured, Carnage and Green Goblin are already a terrific foundation for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is scheduled to be released for PC and PS5 on August 6, 2026.