Marvel’s Calvin and Hobbes Parody Puts Gory Twist on Wholesome Comic
Hobbes #Hobbes
Warning! This article contains spoilers for Extreme Venomverse #3 Calvin and Hobbes is one of the most beloved comic strips in the world, though fans of the original may not like the direction taken by Marvel Comics in an extremely dark parody that puts a gory twist on the wholesome comic.
The widely-popular comic strip by cartoonist Bill Waterson, Calvin and Hobbes, followed the adventures of a six-year-old boy named Calvin and his stuffed animal tiger named Hobbes, who Calvin imagined was an anthropomorphic tiger. The two were best friends, and while they did get up to childish mischief from time to time, Calvin and Hobbes mostly just played like any other 80s/90s-era kid. In-between the wacky and imaginative adventures that any child reading it would likely connect with, the comic strip itself oftentimes delved into social and political commentary that resonated mostly with older readers. Calvin and Hobbes is truly a comic for the whole family, as everyone reading it will likely find something they find entertaining or relatable. That is something that cannot be said for the Calvin and Hobbes Marvel Comics parody, as it utterly corrupts the innocence of Calvin and Hobbes by replacing Calvin with Cletus Kasady and Hobbes with Carnage.
In Extreme Venomverse #3, there’s a faux-comic strip section reminiscent of the ‘Funny Papers’ found in newspapers (script and art by Ty Templeton), and the one parodying Calvin and Hobbes is titled Carnage and Clete. In that comic strip, Cletus is sitting in the waiting room of his psychiatrist’s office with his stuffed toy, Carnage, which is just a little plushy of the Spider-Man villain, but to Cletus, he’s the life-sized symbiote. Cletus is there because Carnage attacked a school bus, but no one believes that Cletus wasn’t responsible for it himself. So, when he’s speaking with his psychiatrist, the doctor asks Cletus what the cause of his aggression is, to which Cletus responds by blaming the Carnage doll. The psychiatrist takes the doll, calling it a soft, harmless toy–and Carnage gets offended by that. The next panel shows a slaughtered psychiatrist lying dead on the floor of his office, with police officers barging in with their guns drawn. The comic ends with Carnage and Clete sitting together in a jail cell.
Cletus’ relationship with Carnage is exactly like the one between Calvin and Hobbes–at least, on the surface. While Hobbes is a healthy imaginary friend who Calvin goes on fun and kid-friendly adventures with, Carnage is something more akin to a demon sitting on Cletus’ shoulder, committing heinous atrocities against human life right in front of him, and then leaving Cletus to take the blame. In a way, this comic strip is one of the most upsetting Carnage stories ever told, as it shows Cletus–who wants to be good and gets mad at Carnage for getting him in trouble–become completely isolated by everyone in his life, all because of a murderous, gaslighting doll.
What makes this even more upsetting is that readers can’t help but relate this horrific comic strip to the famously wholesome Calvin and Hobbes, thereby corrupting the original with this dark and twisted Marvel Comics parody.
Extreme Venomverse #3 by Marvel Comics is available now.