Even a casual Marvel fan will probably know all about Venom, and they might know a thing
or two about Carnage, as well. But many other alien symbiotes have appeared in the
comics over the years. Here's the low-down on the biggest and baddest of them all.
While trapped on another world, Spider-Man used an alien machine in Marvel Super Heroes
Secret Wars #8 to obtain a new, black-and-white costume. After he returned to earth, however,
he discovered that his new "outfit" was actually a living, alien, symbiotic organism.
Distraught, Peter used the loud bell tower of a
cathedral to divorce himself from the symbiote, but in doing so, he
hand-delivered it to a man who would become one of his greatest enemies: Eddie Brock.
First introduced as nothing more than a mysterious hand in Web of Spider-Man #16,
Eddie was a newspaper reporter who was blacklisted when Spider-Man debunked his claims about a local
serial killer. When Peter rejected the symbiote at the church tower, Eddie was praying below,
and the symbiote dropped down and bonded with Brock.
Their mutual hatred for Peter united them, and they became Venom.
"I like being bad. It makes me happy."
Topher Grace was the first actor to portray a live-action Venom in 2007's Spider-Man 3,
although it's safe to assume most fans prefer the Tom Hardy incarnation,
who appeared in Venom and its sequel, Let There Be Carnage. Speaking of whom…
When Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote were defeated and temporarily separated, Eddie was
imprisoned alongside a notorious serial killer named Cletus Kasady. The two didn't exactly get
along, and when the Venom symbiote finally came back for Eddie, it spawned a new symbiote — one
that bonded with Kasady at a cellular level, creating the monster known as Carnage.
Carnage possesses all the powers of Venom, but is stronger, faster,
and more durable. Additionally, because Kasady and Carnage are bonded at a cellular level,
they can’t be separated like Venom and his many hosts; Kasady can simply reform Carnage at will.
With his newfound powers, Carnage easily escaped from prison
and began a new killing spree. He was only stopped when Venom and Spider-Man teamed up
to defeat him in Amazing Spider-Man #362 and 363. Since then, Carnage has returned
time and time again to terrorize the planet. Cletus Kasady made his silver screen debut in
the first Venom movie before returning as the main antagonist in the sequel.
"That is a red one!"
"You need to come out right now."
Before 2018, Riot was one of the most obscure symbiotes in the Marvel Universe. In fact,
he didn't even get a name until Carnage, U.S.A. #2 in 2012, nearly a decade after he was introduced.
But that all changed when Sony Pictures decided to use Riot as the central antagonist in Venom.
"Oh God!"
"Where's Venom?"
"That is the ugliest looking thing I have ever seen!"
Since then, Riot has become far more popular with fans — although
the movie did take some liberties with the character's backstory. In the film,
Riot is the leader of an advance party sent to earth by the Klyntar species in order to
prepare for the symbiote invasion. He bonded with Carlton Drake, the head of the sinister
Life Foundation, and convinced him to help bring the rest of the symbiotes to Earth.
In the comics, the Riot symbiote wasn't a separate individual but
instead another of Venom's many offspring. Riot and four others were all created by
experimenting on the Venom symbiote and forcing it to reproduce five more times.
Introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #298,
the Life Foundation was created to ensure the richest and most powerful people on earth
could survive a nuclear war by sheltering in their own personal utopia. To that end,
they sought out creatures that could survive such a world. Enter the Klyntar.
Collectively referred to as the "Life Foundation Symbiotes," Riot, Phage, Agony, Lasher, and Scream
were all artificially created from the original Venom symbiote after it was briefly captured.
Phage initially bonded with Carl Mach, an officer of the Life Foundation's private security force.
When Venom finally escaped his imprisonment, Phage
and his siblings were sent to recapture him. Venom subsequently teamed up with Spider-Man
to fight the Life Foundation Symbiotes. Even though they were badly outnumbered,
the duo emerged victorious using a device that seemingly aged each of them to dust.
Originally bonded with Security Officer Leslie Gesneria, Agony was unique among
her Life Foundation siblings due to her ability to deconstruct and create chemical compounds.
She and her siblings all survived Brock's attempt to disintegrate them,
largely thanks to the Life Foundation's advanced technology.
When the symbiotes began to gain more control over their hosts' bodies, however,
the five hosts revealed themselves to Eddie Brock in the hopes that he would
teach them how to stay in charge. Eddie refused,believing that all of
Venom's children would eventually become psychopathic murderers like Carnage.
Agony's sibling, Scream, eventually proved Eddie's fears right and began systematically
killing off her other siblings one by one. After Scream believed all of her siblings were dead,
she confronted Eddie Brock — but was defeated after a pretty brief fight.
The outcast of the Life Foundation Symbiotes, Scream was originally bonded with Security
Officer Donna Diego, a woman with a history of schizophrenia. After she became Scream,
she decided to test out her abilities by attacking a mall in California. Spider-Man
stopped her assault and forced Scream to retreat to the Life Foundation's headquarters.
This allowed the Web-Slinger to follow her, free Venom, and defeat the five symbiotes.
Though they survived, the experience sent Scream down a
dark path. Suffering from her schizophrenia, she attempted to kill her symbiote siblings,
believing they would all eventually be corrupted.
Eventually, Donna learned to cope with her mental illness and came to an understanding
with her symbiote. This allowed her to operate as a hero for a short time.
She helped Venom defeat a number of foes, but was ultimately killed by Eddie — for
the same reason she had once used to justify betraying her own siblings.
Originally merged with Security Officer Ramón Hernández,
the green symbiote known as Lasher fought alongside his Life Foundation siblings
until they were all seemingly killed at the hands of Scream. Unknown to Venom, however,
the United States government discovered that the reports of their death were only half true.
Though the hosts had all died, their symbiotes had lived on, and the US government paired each
to a different member of the elite special ops military team known as "Mercury Team."
"Where do all these guys come from?"
Because the symbiotes were damaged from their last encounter with Eddie Brock, they were each
partially bonded to augment one specific part of the hosts' body. Riot was bonded with one member's
feet, Phage with another's hands and eyes, and Agony with the last member's shoulders.
Lasher, meanwhile, was partially bonded with both the team's leader, Marcus Simms, and his German
Shepherd, forging a leash-like tether between the pup and her master's hand. Though effective,
the symbiotes' new hosts were eventually killed by Carnage during one of his many rampages.
When Riot, Phage, Agony, and Lasher's symbiotes were imprisoned within the Vault, the government
decided to violently torture and experiment on them in a secret lab beneath the facility.
Weakened by the experiments, the four symbiotes merged together to survive when they were freed
by a symbiote invasion of earth. Together, this new "Hybrid" was incredibly powerful,
possessing each symbiote's unique abilities.
Free from its containment unit, the symbiote bonded with a prison guard named Scott Washington
and escaped. Though initially just as cruel and indifferent as the other guards, once they
bonded with him, Scott realized how much pain the creatures had experienced. This sudden epiphany
of empathy changed the pair for the better, creating one of the few true symbiote heroes.
Ultimately, Hybrid was killed by Eddie Brock when he tried to exterminate
every symbiote on Earth. Though the Hybrid itself managed to survive by
separating into four symbiotes once again, Scott himself was not so lucky.
Cloned by the Ararat Corporation from a severed piece of Venom's tongue, the symbiote that would
become known as Mania refused to permanently bond with anyone, instead choosing to kill and consume
everyone offered to it. Mania eventually escaped its prison and embarked on a killing spree across
the country until Venom could finally confront and absorb the symbiote back into his biomass.
Despite this, Mania lived on within the Venom symbiote, waiting to emerge once again. When
Flash Thompson became Agent Venom for a time, he used his symbiote to shield a student named
Andrea Benton. Much to their surprise, however, that piece of symbiote bonded with the young girl
and revealed itself as Mania. Flash helped Andrea control the symbiote,
and the two worked together as heroes until a criminal named Lee Price used sonic weapons
to steal the symbiote for himself. With a new host, Mania renamed himself “Maniac” and began a
short-lived crime empire — before being defeated by an alliance of heroes led by Spider-Man.
Because they reproduce asexually, each symbiote can trace its lineage directly back
along one straight line. Venom was the 998th symbiote in his line, and Carnage was the 999th.
Venom and Carnage also knew that the latter's offspring would be the 1000th
and believed that this symbiote would be more powerful than the two of them combined.
Fearing this, Carnage attempted to kill his offspring in Venom Vs. Carnage #1, but Venom
wanted to raise the newborn as his villainous ally, giving it the name "Toxin." Ultimately,
both villains failed when Toxin bonded with a New York City police officer named Patrick Mulligan.
Worried that this new host would turn Toxin into a superhero, Venom and Carnage teamed up in an
attempt to kill Toxin, but were ultimately beaten by the 1000th member of their line.
Despite this victory, Patrick was constantly terrified that the symbiote would take control
and become an unstoppable monster. Because of this, he fled from his family and attempted
to "raise" the young symbiote as a hero. His efforts were thwarted,
however, when the demon Blackheart killed Mulligan and took Toxin for his own ends.
Blackheart forced Toxin to bond with Eddie Brock in Venom #17,
setting the newly minted villain loose to kill Flash Thompson in his Agent Venom identity.
Toxin was defeated, however, and was left severely weakened as a shadow of his former self.
During a time when Venom was separated from Eddie Brock and
bonded with Mac Gargan, Eddie discovered that he had cancer.
Eddie was eventually healed, but the process completely altered the
traces of the Venom symbiote that were left within his cells. Because of this,
when Venom attempted to leave Gargan and reunite with Eddie, his cells rejected the symbiote.
The portions of Venom that had touched him became the new, separate Anti-Venom symbiote.
Anti-Venom was the villain's inverse in more ways than just his color scheme. The symbiote possessed
incredible healing powers that could be used to rejuvenate his host or anyone around him.
That healing ability eventually led to this version's death, however,
when it exhausted its life force to heal Manhattan of a Spider Virus.
A scientist later used remnants of Anti-Venom to create a cure for Venom's toxins,
but when it was given to Flash Thompson in a battle against Eddie Brock,
it didn't cure anything at all. Instead, it turned the portion of Venom attached
to Flash into a new Anti-Venom symbiote, allowing Flash to become "Agent Anti-Venom."
Before the current cosmos was created, there was nothing but a void,
and its name was "Knull." When the universe began, the nearly omnipotent Celestials attacked Knull,
and he created the first symbiote in order to fight them off. Knull shaped the first symbiote
into a blade and used it to decapitate a Celestial, driving the rest of them away.
Inspired by his success, Knull created an army of symbiotes and sent them out
to conquer the universe. When they reached Earth, however, a young Thor fought them off.
"Because that's what -".
"Because that's what heroes do."
He infected the symbiotes with a sense of honor that led them to unite against Knull
and imprison him — seemingly forever. In their language, "Klyntar" meant
"cage," and by literally becoming Knull's prison, they became the Klyntar race.
Eventually, Knull corrupted Scorn — yet another symbiote that originated from Carnage — and
used her to resurrect Carnage and free himself from his prison. The void god
attempted to conquer all of existence once again — but was ultimately killed
by the combined might of earth's heroes … with a little help from Eddie Brock.
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