The symbiotes, an alien race called the Klyntars, have always been one of the more fascinating
extraterrestrials in the Marvel universe.
A parasitic creature that requires bonding to a host, the symbiotes have always packed
quite the punch, and have proven themselves to be a force one should not take likely.
What originated as a plot point to introduce a new black and white costume for Spider-Man
soon turned into a sentient alien that would slink it’s disturbing gross self into the
hearts of many a reader.
So today, we’re taking a look at which of these symbiotes is the baddest of the bunch
with our list of the top 10 strongest symbiotes.
Note that we won’t be counting the hosts, only focusing on the alien creatures themselves.
With that in mind, let’s jump in!
10 Venom While Venom may be the most iconic symbiote,
and the first to make an appearance in the Marvel universe, he’s actually the weakest
of the symbiotes.
This is because he’s the first of the blood line; the off spring of a symbiote is stronger
than its parent, and since Venom was the first on Earth, all of the off spring symbiotes
born from him are exponentially more powerful than he is; each generation of symbiote is
intimately more powerful than its predecessor.
That being said, it does come down to a matter of how you use it.
Eddie Brock has always had a proficient amount of control over the Venom symbiote, and the
other hosts that have worn Venom in the past, from Flash Thompson to Mac Gargan to Peter
Parker himself, have all exhibited differences in the symbiotes functionality that are unique.
Venom first hit the scene in The amazing Spider-Man issue 252 back in 1984, first appearing as
an alien costume that bonded with Peter Parker during Secret Wars.
It wasn’t until The Amazing Spider-Man issue 300 four years later than Venom would take
shape as Venom and not just a parasitic symbiote; it bonded with Eddie Brock, who at the time
wanted revenge against Peter Parker for ruining his journalism career.
9 Mania/Maniac The Mania symbiote first appeared in Venom
volume 1 issue 1 in 2003; it was cloned from a piece of Venom that was obtained by the
Ararat Corporation, with the goal of using it to exterminate all life on Earth.
Mania was a bit of a weirdo; it refused to bond with hosts, and instead, would brutally
murder them, just for the fun of it.
At one point, it bonded with a prison inmate named Eric Moody, and then jumped ship to
an elderly mental patient named Alfonse Poina; Moody managed to fight off Mania, only for
it to bond with Alfonse and then mock Moody about getting raped in prison after seeing
his memories of the event.
It then raped and murdered Moody.
So yeah, not the kindest symbiote on the block, clearly.
It would later become Maniac, bonding with Lee Price, who had previously bonded with
Venom.
Price renamed Mania as Maniac after Price had ambushed the original host and badly injured
her with a sonic cannon and flamethrowers, taking the symbiote for himself.
Apparently, Price is permanently bonded with Mania, using his immense will power to remain
bonded to the symbiote at all times.
8 Scream In 1993, a Venom story arc came out called
Lethal Protector.
It followed the story of the sinister Life Foundation and its leader, a scientist named
Carlton Drake, who had discovered a way to create symbiote soldiers by extracting something
called seeds from the Klyntar alien race, and growing them into fully formed symbiotes.
The Life foundation aimed to use these symbiotes as guardians; they’re whole schtick was
that they were preparing for something called MAD, aka mutually assured destruction, and
they had a whole roster of wealthy clients who were paying for the Life foundation to
ensure they would have comfortable lives if the world went to s***.
Once Drake had kidnapped Eddie Brock and managed to forcibly extract these five seeds from
Venom, he was able to bond the offspring with members of the foundation’s security force,
one of which was named Donna Diego, who became the yellow and red Scream.
She eventually was defeated by Eddie Brock and killed, but her siblings would outlive
her and cause Brock a whole lot of trouble down the line.
7 Riot Riot has been getting a lot more attention
these days, thanks to his upcoming cinematic debut in the Sony Venom film, starring Tom
Hardy as Eddie Brock.
Riot is one of Scream’s siblings; bonding with Trevor Cole, a particularly aggressive
and unhinged mercenary working as part of the Life foundation’s security team, Riot
is known for being the largest symbiote of the five, and often using very aggressive
and violent tactics in combat.
He often created large bludgeoning weapons from his arms, along the lines of hammers
and maces, and tends to be considered the strongest out of the group, although his exact
strength level was never elaborated on.
After he and his siblings were defeated by Eddie Brock, they were all shipped off to
the Vault; a prison for superhuman criminals that had a wing specifically for extraterrestrial
threats.
There he was experimented on, and then in the Planet of the Symbiotes story arc in 1995,
Venom, in an attempt to subdue an invasion of symbiotes, lets out a powerful telekinetic
scream that causes them so much pain that they all commit suicide, which then affects
Riot and his siblings, which leads us to our next number-
6 Hybrid Riot and his siblings broke out of their confinement
at the vault after Venom’s psychic shriek.
They then merged into a super hybrid symbiote known aptly as Hybrid, who would then briefly
bond with a character named Scott Washington, a guard at the Vault.
Scott realized through bonding with Hybrid that Hybrid wasn’t actually a threat after
all; instead, the experiments they had undergone were causing it a lot of pain, and the symbiotes
were actually the ones preventing Scott, who had a lot of anger issues, from being violent.
Unfortunately for Hybrid and it’s desires to be a good intentioned vigilante, Eddie
Brock was on a mission to hunt down symbiotes, and ended up killing Scott Washington.
Hybrid would then be found by the US Army, be separated and put to use as part of the
Mercury Team in order to fight Carnage.
Needless to say, being the combination of Riot and the other symbiotes was significantly
stronger than just a singular symbiote.
Side note, the sibling symbiotes, Phage, Agony and Lasher, didn’t make this list because
of how similar they were to Scream and Riot in terms of abilities and power.
Although Lasher was trained to bond with a dog named War Dog which appeared in Carnage
vs Deadpool, and that’s pretty darn swell.
Symbiote dog!
Speaking of Carnage, though- 5 Carnage
Carnage has also never been one to hold back.
But that’s also what makes him a bit vulnerable; he’s a loose cannon at time.
Carnage first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 360 back in 1992.
Carnage was created with the intention of being a much darker version of Venom, a total
psychopath who had no sense of morality.
His host Cletus Kasady was modeled after DC’s Joker, and the character is often depicted
as Venom’s archenemy.
So how did he come to be?
He’s Venom’s offspring.
When Venom reattached to Eddie Brock in prison, Venom left it’s offspring inside the cell;
Klyntar have no emotional attachment to their offspring, and didn’t bother informing Eddie
about it, thinking it was of no importance.
That symbiote offspring bonded with Kasady, and Carnage was born, with their bond being
even stronger than Brock’s with Venom.
Carnage broke out of prison and starting murdering left right and center, leaving the word Carnage
at the scene of the crime each time, written in blood.
4 Scorn Scorn is the hybrid prosthesis created from
Carnage that combines both technology and the symbiote.
In Carnage Vol 1 issue 4, Carnage is taken back to Earth after breaking out of the Raft
prison by an American Industrialist by the name of Michael Hall who then locks up Cletus
Kasady and uses the symbiote to create new suits of armour.
Carnage breaks out of its containment, bonds with a psychiatrist named Tanis Nieves.
But then things get a little weird.
Carnage leaves his own offspring within Nieves’ prosthetic arm.
Nieves is horrified by this, cuts off her arm, but later would rebond with it, becoming
Scorn.
Scorn is essentially a techno-hybrid; a machine symbiote, it is able to fuse itself with different
kind of technology and mechanical weapons.
3 Anti-Venom Ant-Venom first debuted in the 2008 story
arc New Ways to Die in The Amazing Spider-Man 569.
At the time, Eddie Brock was not bonded with Venom.
He had cancer, and got a job at a soup kitchen.
His boss, a man named Martin Li, aka Mister Negative, who has a healing touch.
This cured Brock of his cancer, and when Venom tries to re bond with him, his skin becomes
caustic to Venom, causing him to be enveloped in a new white symbiote created from the remnants
of the venom symbiote, which merged with his white blood cells that were charged thanks
to Mister Negative.
Anti-Venom’s got a slew of standout abilities.
When Brock was the host, he was immune to fire, heat and sound based attacks.
Anti-Venom also has a very nifty healing ability; he produces antibodies that can cure things
like diseases, radioactivity, parasites and drugs.
Whenever he’s around Spider-Man, he cancels out Spidey’s powers.
That being said, Anti-Venom comes with a unique weakness, too.
Concentrations of Norman Osborn’s super venom via Freak’s DNA make it incredibly
vulnerable, and if touched by Mister Negative, his healing abilities can become void.
Brock would later sacrifice the symbiote to cure people from the Spider-Island virus.
2 Toxin Toxin, being Carnage’s offspring, has long
been considered the strongest of the symbiotes.
Carnage was disguised by his offspring and hated it, especially since he would be stronger
than him.
This makes his grandfather Venom.
Carnage tried to kill Toxin, whereas Venom tried to protect it, with the intention of
raising it to become his partner, but was also concerned that since it was the 1000th
symbiote of their line, that it may go insane due to a genetic breakdown.
Toxin can also do some pretty cool stuff.
He has inherited the abilities of his lineage, like sticking to walls and the ability to
shift his identity, he can blend into his surroundings to become practically invisible
and undetectable, unlimited webbing, and he can form solid weapons from his limbs.
But, in addition to that, he has a much more accelerated healing ability compared to his
predecessors, exceptional tracking abilities, and prefers to not take over the host’s
mind, listening to its opinions instead.
He has a stronger resistance to heat and sonic based attacks compared to Carnage, and has
a venomous bite.
1 Knull Knull is not only the newest symbiote to debut
in the Marvel universe on this list, but also the most powerful, all thanks to who it bonded
to.
He’s the god of symbiotes.
So, before we get into this number any further, heads up, this does contain spoilers for the
recent Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman Venom run.
So you’ve been warned.
Alright.
So in this Venom run, we’re getting a bit of a retelling about the history of the Klyntar.
The first issue revealed that something called the God of the Symbiotes had awoken, and it
kind of looked like a giant dragon when it first appeared.
Essentially, his back story is that Knull was a god who retailiated against the Celestials
when they created the universe, and created a living sword from his shadow, then used
a Celestial’s severed head to forge his syumbiote sword in its cosmic energies, along
with creating a symbiotic suit of armour from the eldritch darkness he commanded.
Essentially, he had manifested the first symbiote out of his SHADOW so he could kill a Celestial.
Knull’s rage of abilities are pretty vast.
He has something called Unbrakinesis, which gives him the ability to create, control,
and manipulate a fount of eldritch darkness, which is a manifestation of the primordial
void that existed before the universe, also known as the living abyss.
Yeah, intense.
He can dominate symbiotes, being the devine progenitor of the symbiotes and the nexus
of their hive mind.
Meaning he can take control of Venom and essentially revert him to more primitive and aggressive
behavior.
He’s immortal, has lived for at least 13.7 billion years, is self-sustaining, has a regenerative
healing factor, and all the strength and durability you can image.
His one weakness though is divine electricity; he’s vulnerable to it, so individualos like
Thor can mess him up real good, temporarily destabilizing him.
There we have it friends!
Which of these symbiotes is your favourite?
And which ones would you like to see get adapted up on the big screen?
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