Not sure if this happens with every team aoe, but when I use carnage’s symbiote scythes with red hulk on the team, despite the damage he takes and the availability of red basic tiles, his passive ability does not fire when carnage damages him
Defensive reaction abilities like Red Hulk’s never fire due to damage from your own abilities. The synergies of this would be out of control if they did. Imagine Carnage with Captain Marvel – every time you fired his red, it would generate nearly enough AP to fire it again, reducing the effective cost of his attack to 2 red AP.
Similarly, your own protect tiles do not protect against friendly damage.
Yes, the devs tend to destroy any sinergetic characters combinations can, nerfing the funnest part of the game.