Carnage As A Big Fan of Classic Horror Manga, Uzumaki by Junji Ito

Posted in: Comics, Manga, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, Venom, Viz Media | Tagged: carnage, Death Spiral, uzumaki

Carnage As A Big Fan of Classic Horror Manga, Uzumaki by Junji Ito

Carnage as a Big Fan of Classic Horror Manga, Uzumaki by Junji Ito, in Amazing Spider-Man #26 by Joe Kelly, Francesco Manna and Ed McGuinness

Published Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:58:09 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Carnage references horror manga Uzumaki by Junji Ito in Amazing Spider-Man #26’s Death Spiral storyline.
• The iconic spiral motif from Uzumaki is woven into Carnage and Venom’s Marvel Comics history.
• Uzumaki’s spiral curse inspires new threats as Carnage and Torment merge, changing the game for Spider-Man.
• Uzumaki, famed for its spirals and supernatural horror, may influence Marvel’s latest crossover drama.

Amazing Spider-Man #26 by Joe Kelly, Francesco Manna and Ed McGuinness from Marvel Comics, the seventh chapter in their Amazing Spider-Man/Venom/Carnage crossover, Death Spiral. The sixth chapter of which saw super-serial killer Torment kill Paul Rabin, Carnage leave his host, Eddie Brock, and join with Torment to create a brand new combination. So while Spider-Man is dealing with all this…

Carnage and Torment are finding out more about each other. Now, both have used the spiral image as an identifying token, introduced to Carange and Knull by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw, and it comes up.

…and Carnage is outing himself as a fan of the manga Uzumaki by Junji Ito…

That motif was first brought to the Spider-Verse by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman in Venom and Absolute Carnage. And now, even if they don't officially say where the spiral images came from, it looks like it may have been Carnage's reading habits. And that's canon.

If you haven't read any of it, Uzumaki, the Japanese for "spiral", was serialised in 1998, set in the fictional coastal town of Kurouzu-cho, in which schoolgirl Kirie Goshima narrates the bizarre events that unfold around her and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito. It begins subtly as Shuichi's father develops an intense obsession with spirals, snail shells, whirlpools, smoke patterns, even the shape of ferns, but escalates into something sinister and supernatural as their town becomes cursed by the spiral patterns, transforming nature, architecture, human behaviour, and then their own bodies… is that what Torment and Carnage are now going to do?

Amazing Spider-Man #26 by Joe Kelly, Francesco Manna and Ed McGuinness is published by Marvel Comics on Wednesday.

Amazing Spider-Man #26 by Joe Kelly, Francesco Manna, Ed McGuinness 
DEATH SPIRAL PART SEVEN! SPIDER-MAN is the LAST hero standing against TORMENT'S onslaught! MJ, Eddie and Dylan are in Torment's sights. Peter can't save them all! And Torment's newest ALLY just tipped the scales in the serial killer's favor!

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