After the first Carrion died, in an effort to discredit the believed-dead Warren with the worshipful New Men who had started a Cult of the Jackal, the High Evolutionary planted a false journal that claimed Warren never cloned humans at all but rather used genetic viruses to rewrite DNA. He left a sample of the Carrion virus to "prove" the point, which was found by Malcolm McBride, a science graduate student at ESU who bore Peter Parker a grudge for losing a research grant to him. The virus infected Malcolm and another Carrion was born. The virus carried Warren's memories so Carrion initially believed he was a clone and again set out to avenge Gwen Stacy's death. However, since the memories stemmed from the time Warren modified the virus, Carrion did not know that the Professor was "dead". When Spider-Man lured him to Warren's grave, Carrion was so astonished that the wall-crawler was able to easily defeat him. Spidey turned Carrion over to the Vault, still not knowing who he was though he soon deduced he had to be the absent Malcolm McBride. Peter kept this knowledge to himself, and began working on finding a cure for the Carrion virus, eventually enlisting Reed Richards' help. The Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale) stole Richards' notes, and learning of Carrion, freed him from a Vault transport. Then, in a bid to win Carrion's loyalty, Hobgoblin led him home where Carrion confronted Malcolm McBride's mother, Beatrice. Spider-Man interceded until ambushed by the Hobgoblin while Carrion, tormented by conflicting memories of a past life, put himself in front of a thrown pumpkin bomb to save the mother he dimly remembered. It ignited a gas main, and he and Hobgoblin fell flaming into the sewers.
Carrion rose again during the "Maximum Carnage" affair, and was adopted by Shriek as a "son" into their twisted "family". His mind was a shambles but his low-level telepathy was partially responsible for many of the riots that occurred until the device called the Alpha Magni-Illuminizor drove the Carrion virus into remission, whereupon McBride was turned over to Ravencroft Institute for observation. He had regained his memories, but the guilt over what he had done as Carrion was destroying him. Dr. Ashley Kafka mistakenly took him to see Shriek who broke her restraints and kidnapped her "son". Shriek used her abilities to re-energize the Carrion virus, turning Malcolm into Carrion once more. Carrion, however, had conflicting memories of Shriek and his real mother, so Shriek took him to see Beatrice McBride and demanded that he kill her. Carrion refused, becoming so conflicted that he turned his death touch inward, but Shriek used her powers to send the virus into remission once more. She became infected herself, but her powers left the virus inert. Malcolm's mind was in a delicate state and he returned to Ravencroft. There, he was called in Judas Traveller's mock trial to accuse Peter Parker of inducing him to experiment with the Carrion virus. Traveller changed him back to a human after the trial was over. He is now cured from the Carrion Virus, but also so scarred by the experience that he is still in the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane.
