

The journey began with Carnage murdering Hydro-Man and Spot and taking their powers. Carnage expressed no interest in having a new host, but it decided to take Neely on its mysterious quest anyway. A fan of Carnage, Neely offered himself up as a new host for the symbiote, who had recently separated from Kasady and was operating independently. After that event, Neely tried to reach out to the villain by duplicating his iconic spiral using the blood of his victims.Ĭarnage sought out Neely after one of these kills. Neely’s life took a major turn following the KING IN BLACK (2020), an event that saw the villainous Knull unleash a symbiote army on Earth. These early experiences kicked off a fascination with death that led Neely to become the Artist, a serial killer obsessed with using murder to transform his victims into something he viewed as beautiful.

The son of a mortician, Neely helped his father prepare the bodies in his morgue when he was just a child. and Francesco Manna, Neely debuted in CARNAGE (2022) #1.
