Symbiote (comics)
The Klyntar are a fictional species of extraterrestrial symbiotes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with Spider-Man. The symbiotes form a symbiotic bond with their hosts, through which a single entity is created. They also are able to slightly alter their hosts' personalities, and/or memories by influencing their darkest desires and wants, along with amplifying their physical and emotional traits and personality, granting them super-human abilities. There are more than 40 known symbiotes in the Marvel Universe.
The first and most well-known symbiote is Venom, who originally attached itself to Spider-Man during the Secret Wars storyline, but after Spider-Man rejected it, Venom instead attached itself to Eddie Brock. The Eddie Brock incarnation of Venom is the most known version of the character, and has endured as both a villain and archenemy of Spider-Man, and as an antihero and occasional ally of the web-slinger. Other characters have later merged with the Venom symbiote, including the villain Mac Gargan, and Flash Thompson, who became the superhero Agent Venom. Other well-known symbiotes are Carnage, an offspring of Venom who, when merged with its most known host, Cletus Kasady, served as an enemy of both Spider-Man and Venom, and Anti-Venom, which originated when the Venom symbiote re-merged with Brock, who had been cured of his cancer by Martin Li's powers, giving it a new white appearance and additional powers.
The symbiotes have appeared in various other media, including films, television series, and video games. Venom has been the most featured one, appearing as the main antagonist of the 2007 film, Spider-Man 3, and the titular protagonist and antihero of the 2018 film, Venom. Carnage is also set to make its cinematic debut in the upcoming film, .
Publication history
The first appearance of a symbiote occurs in The Amazing Spider-Man #252, The Spectacular Spider-Man #90, and Marvel Team-Up #141, in which Spider-Man brings one home to Earth after the Secret Wars. The concept was created by a Marvel Comics reader, with the publisher purchasing the idea for $220. The original design was then modified by Mike Zeck, becoming the Venom symbiote. The concept would be explored and used throughout multiple story lines, spin-off comics, and derivative projects.Fictional history
symbiotes were originally created by an ancient malevolent primordial deity named Knull. When the Celestials began their vast plan to evolve the universe, Knull, seeing that his "Kingdom" was being touched, retaliated by constructing All-Black, the first symbiote, and cut off a Celestial's head. Then, the other Celestials banished Knull along with the severed Celestial head deeper in the Void. After that, he started using the head with its Cosmic energies as a Forge for the symbiotes, where they got the weaknesses of sound and fire – the head would later become Knowhere. He then embarked on a genocide against the other gods. When battling the other gods, he crashes on a desolate planet where All-Black left him and went to Gorr, since Gorr was full with hate and tried to kill the other god and Knull. Knull then reawakens and creates an army of symbiotes that he used to conquer planets and devour entire civilizations, establishing in the process the symbiote Imperium. However, when a dragon-like composite went to the medieval Earth, Thor defeated it and destroyed the connection between Knull and the symbiotes. Upon Knull's severed connection to the symbiotes, the symbiote hive-mind began to explore notions of honor and nobility as they bonded to benevolent hosts. The symbiotes subsequently rebelled against their god, imprisoning him at the heart of an artificial planet in the Andromeda Galaxy they called Klyntar, which is their species name. Ashamed of their dark past, the symbiotes desired to spread and maintain peace throughout the Cosmos by seeking out worthy hosts from various species in order to create an organization of noble warriors. However, these altruistic goals were imperfect, as the Klyntar symbiotes could be corrupted by hosts with harmful chemical imbalances or problematic personality attributes, turning them into destructive parasites who would spread lies and disinformation about their own kind in order to make other peoples fear and hate the Klyntar species as a whole.The corrupted Klyntar became more widespread than their benevolent counterparts, establishing a spacefaring culture dedicated to infecting and overtaking whole planets and reestablishing the Imperium. The corrupted symbiotes forced their hosts to perform death-defying feats in order to feed off of the resulting surges of hormones like adrenaline and phenethylamine. These hosts would die quickly, either because of the wear from constant stress and exertion or as a result of the inherent danger in the stunts performed.
At some point it was believed that a symbiote-run planet was devoured by Galactus. Due to their genetic memory, all symbiotes now loathe both Galactus and his former herald, the Silver Surfer, but it was later revealed that their loathe for the Silver Surfer was because he had time traveled to a time where the Klyntar were rebelling against Knull and the Silver Surfer had the God of the symbiotes bleed. ZZZXX, a symbiote with a predilection for eating brains, was also captured by the Shi'ar, and imprisoned and studied for years until it was released and employed as a Praetorian Guard by Gabriel Summers. The corrupted symbiotes had invaded the Microverse and tried to absorb the Enigma Force, but they were defeated by the avatar of the force, after they had caused destructive effects on this world and its people. One member of the symbiote race had arrived on the Savage Land, where it remained trapped for years to the point of madness and bonded to Conan, during a confrontation between the Savage Avengers and Kulan Gath.
'' #8, which details Spider-Man's first encounter with the black costume. Pencil art by Mike Zeck.
During the Kree-Skrull War, the Kree wanting to replicate the Skrull's shapeshifting abilities, they got a newborn symbiote which had been outcast from the other symbiotes, on the planet where Knull had created the symbiotes. They recruited Tel-Kar to be bonded to the young symbiote and modified both Tel-Kar and the symbiote so he could have full control over it. He infiltrated into the Skrulls using the symbiote's shapeshifting ability, but got discovered. He deleted the symbiote's memories and separated himself from it. The symbiote then reunited with the parasitic symbiotes, while retaining little memory of its first host. When the corrupted symbiotes found out that this symbiote wanted to commit to its host rather than use it up, they called it insane and trapped it in a canister to be condemned to die on a planet that would later become part of Beyonder's Battleworld where Spider-Man freed the symbiote and bonded with it. Spider-Man returned to Earth with the symbiote, where it later bonded with Eddie Brock in a church calling themselves Venom; during this time, it spawned seven offsprings and a clone, its first child later having three of its own, all of the symbiotes being Carnage, Scream, Lasher, Phage, Agony, and Riot.
The Venom symbiote eventually becomes too much for Eddie to handle and he separates himself from it. This separation causes a telepathic scream that is heard by the other corrupted symbiotes who then invade Earth. Eddie, Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider team up against the invasion. The battle comes to an end when Eddie rebonds with Venom causing another scream, this time making the symbiotes commit suicide.
When bonded to Flash Thompson as part of Project Rebirth, who originally struggled to control it, the symbiote developed a slight affection for him. It is later established that the host's mental state affects the symbiote just as much as the other way around, as Venom's first child, the Carnage symbiote is as psychotic as its host Cletus Kasady and the Venom suit's explosiveness got worse after bonding with Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan after Brock, both of which were career criminals. Likewise, the various symbiotes bonded to heroes are not shown to be as twisted, though they occasionally struggle with aggression.
A swarm of Brood that had been overtaken by symbiotes later invade the S.W.O.R.D. satellite and possess all of its inhabitants including Deathbird with her unborn child in order to expand the symbiote Imperium, but Spider-Man, who got bonded to a second symbiote and his class from Jean Grey's School defeats the symbiotes.
The Klyntar were later raided by the Poisons with help from Haze Mancer – a symbiote poacher – resulting in the apparent death of the Agents of the Cosmos and the abduction of all the symbiotes. The abducted symbiotes were later modified by the Poisons so they could use on the superheroes on Earth in order for the Poisons to consume. After the defeat of the Poisons, the surviving symbiotes were returned to Klyntar.
When the body of Grendel, the dragon-like composite symbiote defeated by Thor, is discovered on Earth,. This reawakens Knull enough to allow him to control the creature, before it was stopped by the combined efforts of Venom and Spider-Man and later incinerated by Eddie, denying Knull the chance to escape Klyntar.
After some months, a cult got hold of Cletus's damaged body – after being free from the Poison shell and falling through the atmosphere – inside a chamber and had planned to revive him by using the Grendel's remnants which they stole from Maker. This cult, who worships Knull and Carnage as Knull's prophet, was led by Scorn. They implanted the remnants inside Cletus reviving him and at first he resembled Ancient Venom, until the Carnage pieces were absorbed by the ancient symbiote and got Scorn's remnants by killing her. When Cletus came in contact with Knull, he got a new purpose and that was to free Knull and the only way left was to get every single Codex – the symbiote remnants containing the genetic information of the host – left inside the bodies of every single host, dead or alive who came in physical contact with the symbiotes on Earth in order to overload the symbiote hive mind and scatter the Klyntar.
Knull slowly began reawakening as a result of Carnage's efforts on Earth and the symbiotes of Klyntar began succumbing to his control once more. When Sleeper was drawn to Klyntar, the symbiotes attacked and tried to assimilate it into the hive-mind. Escaping, Sleeper realized that Eddie was in danger and returned to Earth as quickly as it could. When Knull fully awakened, he destroyed Klyntar and seized control of its constituent symbiotes, coalescing them into a horde of symbiote-dragons.
Culture
The symbiotes, when originally created, were used as tools by Knull in order to conquer the universe and at the time they had a symbiote dialect. When were freed from Knull's control and began learning about compassion, they established the lie about their nature in order to redeem themselves. They formed the Agents of Cosmos, which are symbiotes bonded to benevolent hosts forming noble warriors, in order of maintaining peace across the universe. However, some symbiotes were corrupted by malevolent hosts returning them into monsters and reestablishing the symbiote Imperium first formed by Knull and these symbiotes were cut from the Klyntar hive mind. The symbiote Imperium would conquer planets and infecting the inhabitants in order to drain and consume them whole.The symbiotes in general don't have an actual culture. As seen with Venom and Carnage, the symbiote's personality and psychology depends largely of the host's nature, as the link between the host and the symbiote gives the symbiote context and meaning to their life.
As for the Nameless, a group of Kree explorers infected by the Exolon parasites, after being infected by the parasites, which consumed their souls, they lost all sense of time and sentience and started doing gruesome self-inflicting pain rituals in order to remember their past lives.
Biology
The symbiotes are an alien species of inorganic, amorphous and multicellular symbiotic parasites formed from Knull's "Living Abyss" after he had experimented with his abilities. The symbiotes function as living extradimensional tesseracts, requiring living hosts to anchor them to the fabric of space and time. They empower a host's natural abilities to the point where they far exceed that of normal members of the host's species as well as recording the genetic material of each of its hosts in a genetic codex. These abilities include the following:- Superhuman strength, speed, endurance, agility, healing factor, and intelligence.
- Genetic memory, recalling information from previous hosts. They also leave traces of themselves, dubbed codex, in the bodies of their hosts attached to the host's DNA, in order to send information to the hive mind.
- The ability to negate damage caused by terminal illnesses and permanent injuries. While symbiotes can somewhat heal their hosts, they generally seek to force their hosts to depend on them and thus ensure the symbiotes' survival. For example, Eddie Brock was able to survive indefinitely with terminal cancer, and Scott Washington was able to walk despite being paraplegic. Similarly, Flash Thompson and Cletus Kasady had received "legs" when bonded with the Venom symbiote and Carnage symbiote when they lost their legs. Wraith was able to use his Exolon powers to cure the Kree who were infected by the Phalanx.
- Can reproduce asexually with a limited number of seeds inside their mass. Such as Venom which gave birth to seven "children", while its first child Carnage had three.
- Senses that extend over its entire surface, enabling hosts to "see" what is behind or otherwise not in their line of sight.
- Able to change shape and size at will. This ability functions regardless of the host's actual stature and bodily dimensions, as the symbiotes are living tesseracts. This includes expanding to any size as long as they have something to grow on, such as a host or an object. symbiotes can form multi-layered shields against powerful attacks, also get inside of small areas, such as electric wires and the insides of cars to completely disable them. This shapeshifting allows the symbiote to change its color and texture to allow it to blend into the environment as a form of camouflage or change the host's outward appearance.
- Able to sense the thoughts and will of the host. When Spider-Man was originally selected, he had been thinking about Spider-Woman's costume in the Secret Wars. The symbiote acted on this and formed a similar costume to hers and Knull's emblem, which is the one seen on Spider-Man and Venom.
- Venom and all its descendants possess the ability to bypass Spider-Man's Spider-Sense; because the original symbiote was attached to Peter Parker first, it took his genetic information and spider-powers, thanks to the symbiote's Parasitic Inheritance. This means that the symbiote attacking Peter would essentially be Peter attacking himself, which wouldn't set off his Spider-Sense.
- Can excrete matter that enters in its body like bullets turning those into the green saliva.
- The symbiotes are immortal as shown with Venom 2099 which was still alive in the year 2099 and All-Black which was created in the beginning of the Universe and was still alive in King Thor's timeline.
- Can merge with other symbiotes or straight up absorb one another. Similarly as Hybrid was formed or when Carnage absorbed another symbiote from the Negative Zone, regenerating itself. The symbiote can also absorp the codexes of other symbiotes, getting their genetic memory such as when Spider-Man bonded to two other symbiotes and they absorbed the Venom's codex, looking exactly like Venom.
- The symbiotes can put their hosts in a comatose state as shown with Zak-Del and Eddie Brock.
- The symbiotes can prolong its hosts' lives by replacing the hosts failing organs with simulacrums manifested from its living abyss but can not do so indefinitely.
- Block part of the host's mind.
- Form fangs or simple bladed weapons out of their limbs. The first appearance of this was the Carnage symbiote.
- Form tendrils and tentacles of various lengths from their body.
- Form wings, as shown when Venom came in contact with Knull and grew a pair of web-like wings, even though in some cases the symbiote did form gliding wings as shown with Venom-Punisher and Hybrid.
- The purified Klyntar possess Cosmic Awareness, allowing the Agents of Cosmos to the people in need.
- Project the surface of the symbiote to attack at a distance.
- Can sustain its humanoid body even without a host, but for a period of time.
- Stick to walls.
- Produce acid, toxins, and venoms, such as in the venomous bite Venom delivered to Sandman,as shown with Venom, Agony and Venom 2099.
- Produce webbing from its own mass.
- Sense the presence of other beings within a certain distance.
- Protect hosts from Ghost Rider's Penance Stare and the Inheritors's Life Absorption Touch.
- Can generate and manipulate an ice-like substance, use telepathy and telekinesis, create powerful kinetic blasts, increase strength and intelligence and grant the host with the ability to fly.
- Create storage portals inside of them.
- Filter breathable air for its host, allowing them to breathe underwater, inhale poisonous fumes, and even survive in the vacuum of space.
- Transfer symbiote traits to its host, such as when Carnage ate Karl Malus and then he became a symbiote-human hybrid.
- The Venom symbiote also has empathic abilities, and is able to project desires and needs into the thoughts of its host or potential hosts; this ability can also aid Venom in detecting the truth from those he interrogates.
- In some realities, the symbiote feeds on the baser emotions of its host, creating an increasingly hostile personality. The longer the host is exposed to the symbiote, the more overpowering this state of mind becomes.
- Each symbiote has its own abilities: such as Venom's venomous bite; Toxin's ability to change his shape and form into a Spider-Man-like build and Venom-like build depending on its mood; Scream can use its web-like hair as a weapon; Agony can spit acid and manipulate matter; Phage creates bladed weapons, Lasher uses tendrils on its back; Riot is particular to bludgeoning weapons and agility; Payback can produce electricity; Scorn can fuse itself with technology; All-Black can grant its host immortality and Sleeper possesses chemokinesis, the ability to manipulate chemicals, providing limited telepathy and excelled cloaking abilities through pheromones.
- Some symbiotes have shown to be immune to sonic and fire through modification as shown with Anti-Venom, Red Goblin, Mayhem, Payback and Grendel.
- It can change the mood of its host by manipulating the brain chemicals.
- It can replicate itself as seen with Carnage and All-Black in the mainstream universe and Venom in Spider-Man Reign.
- symbiotes have a natural weakness to sonic-based attacks and heat-based attacks, after Knull unintentionally gave while forging them. However, symbiotes have a growing resistance to sound and fire due to their evolution. Still, there has not been an invulnerable symbiote in mainstream continuity, because the newest breeds can be harmed by incredible amounts of sonic waves and heat. symbiotes like Krobaa are also seemingly vulnerable to light. The symbiotes in the Ultimate Marvel are only vulnerable to the heat produced by high voltage electricity.
- symbiotes have shown vulnerability to chemical and biological attacks, such as when Iron Man created a cure to a virus-like bio-weapon based on the Venom symbiote that was created by Doctor Doom. Venom and Carnage, have shown susceptibility to chemical inhibitors. Whether a symbiote can mutate and reduce the effect of these weaknesses is unknown.
- Potential hosts with advanced healing factors, such as Wolverine, have shown resistance to symbiosis.
- In some incarnations, the symbiote is depicted as requiring a certain chemical to stay sane and healthy, which has been said to be found abundantly in two sources: chocolate and human brain tissue. Thus, the host is forced to either consume large amounts of chocolate or become a cannibal who devours the brains of those they kill. This peculiar trait has only been witnessed in the Venom symbiote. However, both Carnage and Toxin have threatened their enemies with aspirations to "eating their brains", as well as various other body parts. When Toxin teamed up with Spider-Man and Black Cat, he struggled to keep himself together, telling Spider-Man that he was only "joking" about eating the robbers' brains. Similarly, the Exolons feed on the immortal soul of the hosts resulting in the hosts becoming immortal, however, descending their hosts into madness, as well making them forget all of their old memories, unless they inflict pain to themselves to keep their memories longer, as shown with Zak-Del and the Nameless.
- On at least one occasion, Spider-Man was able to exhaust the Venom symbiote by taking advantage of the fact that it made its webbing out of itself; after the symbiote had already used a great deal of webbing to bind him to a bell, Spider-Man forced Venom to use further webbing so that it would exhaust itself, like blood dripping from a wound.
- The symbiotes are unable to bond to more than one host as shown when Venom tried to bond to both Eddie and Peter at the same time and again with Flash and Eddie, even though the Carnage symbiote didn't display this weakness when bonded to people in Doverton Colorado.
- Another weakness that they have is their hunger for feelings. In the storyline Planet of the symbiotes, Eddie Brock releases a cry of pain and agony so great that the entire symbiote race commits mass suicide, but how they kill themselves is not clear.
- The Xenophages, a race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters which prey on symbiotes, possess the ability to spew an unknown incendiary chemical that can paralyze symbiotes and enhance their taste.
- Numerous occasions have shown that when a corrupted symbiote remains bonded to a host for too long, the symbiote will eventually consume the body of the host leaving the host a dead husk as shown with the soldiers who were bonded to the Grendel symbiotes and with Peter Parker in two What If?!.
- When Eddie Brock was diagnosed with cancer, Martin Li used his Lightforce healing ability to cure Eddie from his cancer, accidentally making the white blood cells in Eddie's blood to combat the Venom's symbiote remnants creating a new non-sentient symbiote called Anti-Venom. This symbiote had the ability to cure every sickness and it was also corrosive to the symbiotes as shown when Eddie and Flash nearly killed Venom, Mania, the Poisons and Red Goblin. There have been no symbiotes shown to be immune to Anti-Venom.
- The symbiotes have been shown to be vulnerable to the abilities of the telepaths.
- A new and still mysteriously extraterrestrial race known as Poisons, apparently nature's answer to the symbiotes, prey on them through direct contact infection, which forms an unstoppable one-sided union that the symbiote wants no part of.
List of symbiotes
Major symbiote characters
The following symbiotes have appeared throughout several years of Spider-Man's history, appeared in multiple media such as film and video games and were main characters/villains in story arcs.| Name | First appearance | Notable host | Description |
| Venom | The Amazing Spider-Man #300 | Eddie Brock | Chronologically introduced in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8, merged with Spider-Man, and notably Eddie Brock. Mac Gargan then went on to be the symbiote's host for a while, later it was acquired by the government and was being used by Flash Thompson under the alias Agent Venom until it separated from Flash and moved on to Lee Price, only to eventually return to Eddie Brock. It is revealed in Venom: First Host that a Kree soldier named Tel-Kar is chronologically the first to wear the suit, before Spider-Man. He is ranked by S.H.I.E.L.D. as one of the biggest threats along with Magneto, Doctor Doom and Red Skull. |
| Carnage | The Amazing Spider-Man #361 | Cletus Kasady | A child-spawn of Venom bonded to serial killer Cletus Kasady through his bloodstream. The symbiote would occasionally be separated from Cletus and bonding to other hosts, such as Ben Reilly and Karl Malus, only to be reunited with Kasady again. Some time later Cletus got separated from Carnage and Norman Osborn got bonded to the Carnage symbiote in order to defeat Spider-Man. |
| Toxin | Venom Vs. Carnage #2 | Jubil van Scotter | A spawn of Carnage in the 1,000th generation that bonded with police officer Patrick Mulligan, becoming a hero. This was the first symbiote that Spider-Man considered an ally and becomes a bit of a mentee of Spider-Man. Later forcibly bonded to Eddie Brock by the Crime Master sometime after Patrick was beaten to death by Blackheart. |
| Anti-Venom | The Amazing Spider-Man #569 | Flash Thompson | An hybrid symbiote created accidentally when the codexes of the Venom symbiote in Eddie Brock's body were combined with his white blood cells by the mystical energies of Mister Negative. Unlike other symbiotes, Anti-Venom is completely mindless and Eddie Brock is in full control of his actions. It possesses tremendous healing powers and other powers that differ from the Venom symbiote, such as producing antibodies that can cure any known disease and remove any other impurities within a human body and its touch is corrosive to the other symbiotes. Anti-Venom was seemingly destroyed in the 2011 "Spider-Island" story arc. However, in 2017's "Venom Inc." Dr. Steven recreates the symbiote and it bonds with Flash Thompson, creating the same look as Agent Venom but with inverted colours. |
| Knull | Venom #3 | No host. | A primordial god of darkness that manifested the first symbiote from his shadow in order to kill a Celestial and used the head's cosmic properties to form a suit of symbiote-armor when embarking on his deicidal crusade. While stranded on Gorr's desolate world, Knull discovered he could infect "lesser creatures" with the living abyss, therefore creating the symbiotes to conquer the universe. He's considered the God of the symbiotes and also the unidentified entity seen in Thor: God of Thunder #6. |
Other symbiote characters
The following symbiotes have made only a few other appearances in comic books and are usually excluded from adaptations in other media.| Name | First appearance | Description |
| Dreadface | Fantastic Four #360 | A symbiote capable of mind-controlling subjects by touch. The alien was captured aboard the ship of Devos the Devastator but escaped during an altercation between Devos and the Fantastic Four. Dreadface is presumed destroyed. |
| Scream | ' #4 | In an attempt to create "super-cops" to police their new Utopia, the Life Foundation probed the Venom symbiote and extracted the last five of its "seeds" – the materials used to create its spawn. These were cultured and bonded to five of the Life Foundation's best security personnel to form the Guardians: Donna Diego, Carl Mach, Leslie Gesneria, Trevor Cole, and Ramon Hernandez. In the comics none of the five symbiotes were originally given names. However, in the Venom: Planet of the symbiotes toy line, the yellow symbiote was named Scream and the green symbiote was named Lasher. The name Scream was eventually used in Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures #1 and the Spider-Man Back in Black Handbook. The toyline also featured a four armed symbiote named Riot that was loosely based on the unnamed symbiote in the comic What if Scarlet Spider killed Spider-Man?. The name Phage comes from an unrelated character from the comic Venom The Hunted and Venom: Along Came A Spider toyline. The other symbiote names became popular among fans but did not appear in an official Marvel work until the 2011 Carnage U.S.A. mini-series. Mach, Cole, Hernandez, and Gesneria were all murdered by Diego after she decided that symbiotes were "evil"; the murdered guards' symbiotes fused to create Hybrid. Diego would later herself be killed by a powerless Eddie Brock, when the latter was also eliminating the "evil" of the symbiotes from the Earth. |
| Lasher | ' #4 | In an attempt to create "super-cops" to police their new Utopia, the Life Foundation probed the Venom symbiote and extracted the last five of its "seeds" – the materials used to create its spawn. These were cultured and bonded to five of the Life Foundation's best security personnel to form the Guardians: Donna Diego, Carl Mach, Leslie Gesneria, Trevor Cole, and Ramon Hernandez. In the comics none of the five symbiotes were originally given names. However, in the Venom: Planet of the symbiotes toy line, the yellow symbiote was named Scream and the green symbiote was named Lasher. The name Scream was eventually used in Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures #1 and the Spider-Man Back in Black Handbook. The toyline also featured a four armed symbiote named Riot that was loosely based on the unnamed symbiote in the comic What if Scarlet Spider killed Spider-Man?. The name Phage comes from an unrelated character from the comic Venom The Hunted and Venom: Along Came A Spider toyline. The other symbiote names became popular among fans but did not appear in an official Marvel work until the 2011 Carnage U.S.A. mini-series. Mach, Cole, Hernandez, and Gesneria were all murdered by Diego after she decided that symbiotes were "evil"; the murdered guards' symbiotes fused to create Hybrid. Diego would later herself be killed by a powerless Eddie Brock, when the latter was also eliminating the "evil" of the symbiotes from the Earth. |
| Phage | ' #4 | In an attempt to create "super-cops" to police their new Utopia, the Life Foundation probed the Venom symbiote and extracted the last five of its "seeds" – the materials used to create its spawn. These were cultured and bonded to five of the Life Foundation's best security personnel to form the Guardians: Donna Diego, Carl Mach, Leslie Gesneria, Trevor Cole, and Ramon Hernandez. In the comics none of the five symbiotes were originally given names. However, in the Venom: Planet of the symbiotes toy line, the yellow symbiote was named Scream and the green symbiote was named Lasher. The name Scream was eventually used in Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures #1 and the Spider-Man Back in Black Handbook. The toyline also featured a four armed symbiote named Riot that was loosely based on the unnamed symbiote in the comic What if Scarlet Spider killed Spider-Man?. The name Phage comes from an unrelated character from the comic Venom The Hunted and Venom: Along Came A Spider toyline. The other symbiote names became popular among fans but did not appear in an official Marvel work until the 2011 Carnage U.S.A. mini-series. Mach, Cole, Hernandez, and Gesneria were all murdered by Diego after she decided that symbiotes were "evil"; the murdered guards' symbiotes fused to create Hybrid. Diego would later herself be killed by a powerless Eddie Brock, when the latter was also eliminating the "evil" of the symbiotes from the Earth. |
| Agony | ' #4 | In an attempt to create "super-cops" to police their new Utopia, the Life Foundation probed the Venom symbiote and extracted the last five of its "seeds" – the materials used to create its spawn. These were cultured and bonded to five of the Life Foundation's best security personnel to form the Guardians: Donna Diego, Carl Mach, Leslie Gesneria, Trevor Cole, and Ramon Hernandez. In the comics none of the five symbiotes were originally given names. However, in the Venom: Planet of the symbiotes toy line, the yellow symbiote was named Scream and the green symbiote was named Lasher. The name Scream was eventually used in Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures #1 and the Spider-Man Back in Black Handbook. The toyline also featured a four armed symbiote named Riot that was loosely based on the unnamed symbiote in the comic What if Scarlet Spider killed Spider-Man?. The name Phage comes from an unrelated character from the comic Venom The Hunted and Venom: Along Came A Spider toyline. The other symbiote names became popular among fans but did not appear in an official Marvel work until the 2011 Carnage U.S.A. mini-series. Mach, Cole, Hernandez, and Gesneria were all murdered by Diego after she decided that symbiotes were "evil"; the murdered guards' symbiotes fused to create Hybrid. Diego would later herself be killed by a powerless Eddie Brock, when the latter was also eliminating the "evil" of the symbiotes from the Earth. |
| Riot | ' #4 | In an attempt to create "super-cops" to police their new Utopia, the Life Foundation probed the Venom symbiote and extracted the last five of its "seeds" – the materials used to create its spawn. These were cultured and bonded to five of the Life Foundation's best security personnel to form the Guardians: Donna Diego, Carl Mach, Leslie Gesneria, Trevor Cole, and Ramon Hernandez. In the comics none of the five symbiotes were originally given names. However, in the Venom: Planet of the symbiotes toy line, the yellow symbiote was named Scream and the green symbiote was named Lasher. The name Scream was eventually used in Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures #1 and the Spider-Man Back in Black Handbook. The toyline also featured a four armed symbiote named Riot that was loosely based on the unnamed symbiote in the comic What if Scarlet Spider killed Spider-Man?. The name Phage comes from an unrelated character from the comic Venom The Hunted and Venom: Along Came A Spider toyline. The other symbiote names became popular among fans but did not appear in an official Marvel work until the 2011 Carnage U.S.A. mini-series. Mach, Cole, Hernandez, and Gesneria were all murdered by Diego after she decided that symbiotes were "evil"; the murdered guards' symbiotes fused to create Hybrid. Diego would later herself be killed by a powerless Eddie Brock, when the latter was also eliminating the "evil" of the symbiotes from the Earth. |
| Rune-Venom | Rune vs Venom #1 | A leftover symbiote from the Planet of the symbiotes arc bonds with Rune and begins to frame Venom for the murder of civilians. He was later defeated by Venom, after Rune consumed his symbiote due to its influence. |
| Hybrid | Venom: Along Came A Spider #1 | The character was introduced as the fusion of four symbiotes, bonded to prison guard Scott Washington. Years later, Scream and Hybrid are hunted and killed by Eddie Brock who was eliminating the "evil" of the symbiotes from the Earth. The Hybrid symbiote was able to survive and was taken in by the US Government, forcibly separated, and bonded to four soldiers to battle Carnage: Rico Axelson, James Murphy, Howard Ogden, and Marcus Simms. The four soldiers come to be known as the Mercury Team. While on another rampage, Carnage kills the Mercury Team without their symbiotes. The four symbiotes temporarily bond with Deadpool to fight Carnage. After Carnage's defeat, Deadpool unbonds with the symbiotes and the symbiotes bond to Mercury Team's dog. |
| Krobaa | Venom: Seed of Darkness #1 | This symbiote got bonded to a scientist who drove him mad and went on a destructive rampage across city. Eddie used his camera's flash to defeat the creature. |
| Neo-symbiote | Spider-Man Family Vol. 2 #3 | When Mac Gargan encountered Scorpion, was outraged due to her using the Scorpion name and attacked her. However, Carmilla used her stinger to create a neo-symbiote form Venom's webbing and proved to be harmful to the Venom symbiote. In the end, the symbiote died, due to Camilla's body being too toxic to sustain it. |
| Exolon | Annihilation Conquest: Wraith #2 | The Exolon – created by Knull – are parasites which feeds on the souls of living creatures. These parasites eventually infected some Kree explores turning them into the Nameless and inhabiting The Exoteric Latitude thousands of years ago. Zak-Del eventually gets infected and becomes one of them. |
| Venom symbiote Virus | Mighty Avengers #7 | When Doctor Doom got a sample of the Venom symbiote, he created a virus-like symbiote bio-weapon, but it was accidentally spread on New York, which bonded to various New Yorkers and heroes such as: Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Black Widow, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye and eventually Wasp. Iron Man eventually finds a cure and frees everyone from the symbiote virus. |
| Payback | True Believers | Bonded to a more evolved cousin of normal race of symbiotes. Is currently a vigilante and head of the True Believers. |
| ZZZXX | ' #2 | He is a unique brain-eating member of the symbiote species that was discovered several years ago by Shi'ar Emperor D'Ken. Unlike other symbiotes, ZZZXX was a mutant symbiote and didn't bother to ask permission or care to know his host. After being experimented and tamed, it got bonded to Raza Longknife and became a Praetorian Guard. Then, the Nova Corps captured him and then surgically removed the symbiote from Raza. The symbiote was then used as a weapon against an evil version of Charles Xavier from the Cancerverse, who became a planet-size brain, which proved to be a feast for the symbiote. |
| Scorn | Carnage #5 | Originally a piece of Carnage recovered after his apparent destruction by Sentry. The piece was used to develop an advanced prosthetic arm used by Dr. Tanis Nieves. After she rejected its attempt to bond with her, it became attached to Shriek but grew fearful of her. Dr. Nieves accepted its desire to return to her and bonded with the symbiote to become Scorn. Because the symbiote's first host was a prosthetic arm, it can bond to technology. Dr. Tanis was later corrupted by the presence of Knull, the creator of the symbiotes, and built a cult in order to release him from his prison. She freely submitted herself to Cletus who killed her in order to absorb her codex inside her. |
| symbiote Warriors | Venom Vol. 2 #13 | Four clones of X-23 created by Blackheart and bonded to symbiote pieces – seemingly from Toxin. They are all killed by Laura. |
| Black Berserkers | Thor: God of Thunder #1 | Creatures created by Gorr using All-Black in order to help him in his quest to kill all of the universe's gods. |
| All-Black The Necrosword | Thor: God of Thunder #2 | The first symbiote ever created from the shadow of the evil deity Knull and tempered using the divine power of a slain Celestial head. It takes the form of a sword made from living darkness and responds to intense negative emotions, often corrupting its user into committing divine atrocities. After taking The All Black from Knull, Gorr is corrupted by the symbiote and continues the "God killing spree" started by Knull and becomes Gorr the God Butcher. After Gorr's plan to kill all of the universe's gods fails, Odinson, Thor and King Thor kill him and cast the Necrosword into a black hole. Then in King Thor's timeline, King Thor uses it to stop Galactus from consuming Earth. Then the All-Black bonds to an injured Galactus, who becomes Galactus the World Butcher. When Ego the Living Planet arrives, the All-Black goes to Ego and turns him into Ego the Necroplanet, who then eats Galactus. Then Ego is destroyed by this timelines Loki, who is disguised as a worm. Loki takes the Necrosword and becomes Loki the All-Butcher. |
| Mania | Venom #31 | First introduced in Venom #1, when Venom was fighting The Thing his tongue got cut off in the fight. Then the tongue got retrieved from a scientist who was working for the Arat corporation which was led by Bob – mini alien spider robots working together. They turned the tongue into an unstable clone of Venom which killed every human it saw. The clone got bonded to Patricia Robertson and became the second She-Venom but she got defeated by Eddie and the clone got absorbed into Venom. Then Eugene Thompson's neighbor in Philadelphia named Andy bonded with the clone by Flash to save her from Jack O'Lantern. In "Venom Inc" Lee Price who was bonded to Venom stole the Mania symbiote to become Maniac. He was later defeated by Spider-Man, Venom, Black Cat and Agent Anti-Venom, but the weakened clone remained bonded to Lee leaving Andy without a symbiote. Eventually, Cletus absorbed the symbiote, after killing Lee. |
| Marcus | Deadpool: The Gauntlet #8 | An ancient centaur/werewolf hybrid with a black symbiote and diabetes, Marcus was hired by Dracula to be a member of the New Frightful Four. |
| Endo-Sym Armor | Superior Iron Man #1 | When Tony Stark's personality was switched during The AXIS storyline he created the Armor Mark 50 or The Endo-Sym Armor. This armor was an artificial symbiote based on the Venom symbiote but it didn't have any of the symbiotes weaknesses. Tony controlled the artificial symbiote through a device which it reads his thoughts. This symbiote didn't have a mind of his own like the original symbiotes. When Tony's mind got back to normal he got rid of this armor. |
| Agents of the Cosmos | Guardians of the Galaxy #23 | An organization of noble warriors from various species that were sought by symbiotes to act as champions dedicated in protecting those in need and capable of maintaining peace across the universe. Flash Thompson was formerly a member of this organization while possessing the Venom symbiote. |
| Karl Malus | Captain America: Sam Wilson #3 | Somehow surviving within the Carnage symbiote after being consumed by it during the events of Superior Carnage, Malus later emerged from it as a symbiote/human hybrid. |
| Tarna | Venom Spaceknight #2 | A female Skrull who was part of the Agents of Cosmos and was bonded to a purple symbiote. She assisted Flash Thompson with Venom and after an argument Venom nearly killed the purple symbiote. The symbiote would be separated from Tarna to be bonded to another host. |
| Raze | Carnage #10 | Spawned by Carnage and bonded with former FBI special agent Claire Dixon as part of a ritual involving the Darkhold. The symbiote was eventually absorbed into the Toxin symbiote so it could defeat the newly resurrected Chthon. |
| Killer Thrill | X-Men Blue #21 | A woman who bonded with a sadistic symbiote after purchasing it from a poacher. Before becoming Killer Thrill, she had came into conflict with Drax the Destroyer. She led her team of bounty hunters on a mission to kidnap the Starjammers and sell them to the highest bidder. Killer Thrill enjoyed torturing her captives with her symbiote powers, which enhances her telepathic abilities and allowed them to become more powerful when she gets excited. She was defeated during a battle with Venom and the X-Men and was killed when her symbiote was taken over by a Poison. |
| X-Men Blue | X-Men Blue #21 | When Cyclops' father and the Starjammers got captured from symbiote-bonded bounty hunters, the young X-Men forced Eddie Brock to help them since he was bonded to Venom. After going to space, they found a poacher who had sold the symbiotes to the bounty hunters and during the fight, the X-Men accidentally got bonded to symbiotes. When they started fighting the bounty hunters, Poisons arrived and consumed them. The X-Men survived and gave their symbiotes to the Starjammers to send them to their home. |
| Grendel | Venom Vol. 4 #2 | These symbiotes had arrived on earth in Northern Europe. At this time it was controlled by Knull to invade this planet as part of Knull's Imperium, until Thor arrived and defeated the symbiote dragon. This caused to destroy the connection between Knull and the symbiotes, but Knull had still full control of Grendel. These symbiotes remained trapped in ice for years until Nick Fury discovered it. He bonded the symbiotes to soldiers to create symbiote enhanced supersoldiers dubbed Sym-soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War. However the symbiotes under the control of Knull took over their hosts except one soldier named Rex Strickland who removed his symbiote from himself, but the others started killing everyone. Fury – as a Life Model Decoy – with the help of Logan – who briefly bonded to the removed symbiote in the fight – captured the symbiote infected soldiers except that one removed symbiote nicknamed Tyrannosaurus who escaped Knull's control and took the form of his original human host who got consumed by it in action. The Tyrannosaurus symbiote after escaping Knull's control thank to Logan, saw how beautiful the light was and wanted show that to his friends. With the appearance of its host Rex, he started working for S.H.I.E.L.D. with no one noticing. He worked there for years until Secret Empire where S.H.I.E.L.D. got dismantled so he asked Eddie to free his friends. Unfortunately the symbiotes where still under the control of Knull and in dragon form started searching for Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurus then merged with Venom and tricked the dragon to come to them. Tyrannosaurus went to the dragon and weakened it with sonic bombs. Then he ordered Eddie to put them inside the furnace and burn them denying Knull the chance to escape Klyntar. Their codex are eventually retrieved by Maker which are later stolen by Scorn's cult who implanted them into Cletus reviving him. |
| Tyrannosaurus | Venom Vol. 4 #2 | These symbiotes had arrived on earth in Northern Europe. At this time it was controlled by Knull to invade this planet as part of Knull's Imperium, until Thor arrived and defeated the symbiote dragon. This caused to destroy the connection between Knull and the symbiotes, but Knull had still full control of Grendel. These symbiotes remained trapped in ice for years until Nick Fury discovered it. He bonded the symbiotes to soldiers to create symbiote enhanced supersoldiers dubbed Sym-soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War. However the symbiotes under the control of Knull took over their hosts except one soldier named Rex Strickland who removed his symbiote from himself, but the others started killing everyone. Fury – as a Life Model Decoy – with the help of Logan – who briefly bonded to the removed symbiote in the fight – captured the symbiote infected soldiers except that one removed symbiote nicknamed Tyrannosaurus who escaped Knull's control and took the form of his original human host who got consumed by it in action. The Tyrannosaurus symbiote after escaping Knull's control thank to Logan, saw how beautiful the light was and wanted show that to his friends. With the appearance of its host Rex, he started working for S.H.I.E.L.D. with no one noticing. He worked there for years until Secret Empire where S.H.I.E.L.D. got dismantled so he asked Eddie to free his friends. Unfortunately the symbiotes where still under the control of Knull and in dragon form started searching for Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurus then merged with Venom and tricked the dragon to come to them. Tyrannosaurus went to the dragon and weakened it with sonic bombs. Then he ordered Eddie to put them inside the furnace and burn them denying Knull the chance to escape Klyntar. Their codex are eventually retrieved by Maker which are later stolen by Scorn's cult who implanted them into Cletus reviving him. |
| Sleeper | Venom: First Host #3 | First introduced in Venom #165, it's revealed that one seed inside Venom had remained after the Life Foundation extracted the seeds of Scream, Phage, Lasher, Agony and Riot. Venom after got "purified" wanted to keep his new offspring safe from people who would use it for bad things and wanted to make it a hero like itself instead of becoming another evil symbiote like Carnage so gave birth to it in Alchemax. After the Venom symbiote was stolen from its first host Tel-Kar, the offspring bonded to Eddie so they would save Venom with the help of the Skrull Warbride M'Lanz. In the battle against Tel-Kar, Sleeper briefly bonds to M'Lanz and her and Eddie with Venom return to Earth where she leaves them. When Tel-Kar returned to Earth and tried to kill Eddie, Sleeper intervened and bonded with Tel-Kar, lobotomizing him in the process as revenge for what he had done to the Venom symbiote and Eddie. Despite Brock being dismayed by this, Sleeper bid him farewell and set out to explore the cosmos. |
| N'Jadaka | Black Panther Vol. 7 #4 | After 2,000 years in the future, N'Jadaka – a man named after Erik Killmonger's real name – and his team were exploring the other planets to expand the Wakanda Empire in the Galaxy and while exploring a planet they were attacked by the Between. He and his men were trying to survive until he encountered a symbiote. He bonded to the symbiote since they had hatred against the current Wakandan Emperor who send N'Jadaka to get killed and had made the symbiotes an endangered species. With its power, he killed the Shadow People and the Emperor and became the new ruler of Wakanda. Then he with the symbiote killed the current Avatar of Bast and became the new Avatar. |
| Magic Venom | Venom Vol. 4 #13 | During the War of the Realms event, after Eddie Brock was separated from Venom, he with his son Dylan are approached by one of Malekith's War Witches. She gave Eddie one of the Dark Elves' Dreamstone in hopes of recruiting Eddie into Malekith's army. The Dreamstone turned into an artificial symbiote similar to Venom, but without a mind of its own. Eddie eventually bonded the pieces of the suit to civilians in order to save them from the invasion. |
| Void Knight | Silver Surfer: Black #2 | During a confrontation between Knull and the Silver Surfer, Knull infected the Surfer with his Abyss, turning him into his Void Knight. However, Ego freed the Silver Surfer from Knull's control, destroying the symbiote and allowing him to escape. |
Other versions
Ultimate Marvel
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Venom suit is a man-made creation born of an experiment by Richard Parker and to develop a protoplasmic cure for severe illness, while Bolivar Trask, who was funding the research, intended to weaponized it. It used Richard's DNA as the starting base for it, thus himself and Peter are "related" to it. When bonding to a host, the organic matter that comprises the suit envelops the host, regardless of resistance, temporarily blinding it, before encasing itself in a hard, casing, similar to a pupa. When the host emerges, the suit then shifts its appearance and function to assist its host, such as creating eyes for it to see through, or tries to take it over, inducing a homicidal rage and attempting to feed itself if bonded with an incompatible host. When bonded with a host and forcibly removed, the suit leaves trace amounts of itself in their bloodstream, which attracts other samples of Venom to itself, and can overload Peter's spider-sense. In the video game Ultimate Spider-Man, absorbing the trace amounts in Peter's blood allowed Eddie to take complete control of the suit, gaining a greater ability to talk and a spider symbol on his chest.Venom's only known weakness is electricity, and larger amounts of the suit will need more electricity to kill, as varying amounts of the suit will be stunned or vaporized by electric shocks. This was first seen in Ultimate Spider-Man #38, when an electric wire got tangled around Venom's foot. An electrocution from live power-lines vaporised the smaller amount on Peter, while a similar amount disabled Eddie. Note in the video game Ultimate Spider-Man, when Electro electrocutes Venom during a cutscene, the suit is not affected by the shock like the live power-line did in the "Venom" arc. The suit can take the Shocker's vibro-shocks, and can protect its host from a bullet, who feels nothing more than a relaxing vibration. When worn by a host other than Richard's son Peter, the host is compelled to take the life energy of other human beings or else have their own be consumed by the suit instead. The original Spider-Man was able to control the suit to a greater extent than anyone because of his powers and because the suit was designed for his father.
The Carnage symbiote also appears in the Ultimate universe as a parasite genetically engineered by Curt Conners and Ben Reilly from Peter's DNA based on Richard's research. Traces of the Venom suit remaining in Peter's blood give Carnage similar properties to those of the Venom suit. It also devours people, but does not require a host. When first introduced, the organism was a blob of instinct, with no intelligence or self-awareness, with its only aim to feed on the DNA of others, including Gwen Stacy, to stabilize itself. After feeding on multiple people, Carnage turns into a damaged form of Richard and Peter with the memories of itself as Spider-Man. Carnage tries to absorb Peter so it can become whole, but Peter throws Carnage into a smokestack, burning the beast, although it is revealed that the organism had survived and turned into a replica of Gwen's form with Gwen's memories. During an encounter with Eddie Brock, the Venom suit absorbs the Carnage suit into itself making itself complete and leaving Gwen a normal human being.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen's universe, Dr. Elsa Brock created a cure to Harry Osborn's Lizard DNA by using Spider-Gwen's radioactive isotopes given to her by S.I.L.K. Leader Cindy Moon. When Gwen injected the isotopes in Harry, the Lizard serum combined with the Spider isotopes and transformed into Venom which bonded to Spider-Gwen giving her powers back and becoming Gwenom. This symbiote in natural form is actually some spiders working together and is weak to sonic only when bonded to a host, otherwise is not affected by this weakness when without a host.Amalgam Comics
In the Amalgam Comics universe, the facility which created Spider-Boy, started experimenting on a substance which they got from an alien spaceship. Accidentally, they created a crystalline symbiote named Bizarnage. It had the powers of Spider-Boy and started attacking everyone until Spider-Boy defeated it.MC2
In the alternate universe of the Marvel Comics 2, or MC2 imprint, Norman Osborn got Eddie's blood, who was still bonded to Venom at the time, and extracted the symbiote codex from the blood. Then, Norman combined the codices with May's DNA and created a symbiote/human hybrid clone of Mayday Parker. The clone stayed in stasis inside a chamber, until Peter with Norman's mind became Goblin God and awakens the hybrid. When Peter got back to normal, the hybrid under the alias of Mayhem/Spider-Girl went to live with the Parker family, naming herself April Parker.In a later timeline, Mayhem accidentally kills the real Spider-Girl and became a murderous vigilante after killing American Dream. The government in an attempt to stop her, they used pieces of the dead Carnage symbiote to create living weapons dubbed Bio-Predators. The Bio-preds run wild, however, decimating the world and its defenders. Mayhem, seeing the error of her ways, goes back in time and sacrifices herself to stop her past self from killing Spider-Girl, ensuring the events that led to the Biopreds' creation never occurred, even though she may have survived.
"Spider-Verse"
During the 2014 "Spider-Verse" storyline, in Spider-Punk's universe, V.E.N.O.M, also known as Variable Engagement Neuro-sensitive Organic Mesh is created by Oscorp and is worn by the Thunderbolt Department, the police and fire department of President Osborn so he could have full control over the city, but they are all defeated by Spider-Punk using his guitar."Spider-Geddon"
During the 2018 "Spider-Geddon" storyline, in the universe of Peni Parker, aka SP//dr, VEN#m is a giant mech-suit, powered by a Sym Engine, created to serve as back-up in case the SP//dr failed. It was piloted by Addy Brock until in a battle against a technological monster named M.O.R.B.I.U.S., the suit gained a conscience and went rogue. Though SP//dr was able to defeat VEN#m, she was too late to stop it from consuming Addy as well as her version of Aunt May, who flew in to fix the problem manually.What If...
...Spider-Man had rejected the Spider?
"What if?: The Other", set during "" storyline, features an alternative version of Peter who abandons the Spider when given the choice. Some time afterward, the Venom symbiote leaves its current host Mac Gargan and merges with Peter, who was inside a cocoon to become Poison. Poison now calling himself "I", chooses Mary Jane to be his companion. He fails to gain her affection and instead, he digs up the grave of Gwen Stacy. The last images reveals Poison watching over a new cocoon like his own, as it bursts forth showing a hand similar to Carnage's, even though the normal symbiotes are unable to bond with dead hosts."Age of Apocalypse"
In a "What if?" "Age of Apocalypse" reality, in which both Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr were killed, Apocalypse is served by clones of a symbiote Spider-Man, although the clones seem to be more symbiote than man.Spider-Man: India
In , the symbiotes are parasitic demons with outward tusk-like fangs, who had ruled the world in the past, but got trapped inside an amulet. The amulet was eventually found by and transformed him into the Green Goblin. During a fight with Spider-Man, the Green Goblin releases a to possess Spider-Man, but is expelled. After the defeat of Green Goblin, the amulet is thrown into ocean, leaving Venom the only demon alive.What The--?!
In the What The--?!, "The Bee-Yonder" gives Spider-Ham a version of the black uniform, but Spider-Ham loved his classic suit more, so he got rid of it. In #20, Pork Grind, a pig version of Venom is introduced as an enemy of Spider-Ham.Contest of Champions
In the 2016 Contest of Champions series, where Maestro and Collector use the heroes of different worlds to battle with each other, when this version of Venom was killed by Punisher 2099, the remnants fused with the remains of the Void creating the Symbioids.Earth X
In the universe of Earth-9997, the symbiotes, like all sentient life, were created by the Celestials as "antibodies" to protect the embryos which resided in the core of the planets. Like the Asgardians and Mephisto, the symbiotes eventually reached the third stage of metamorphosis and apotheosized into metaphysical entities given physical form by what others believed them to be and required of them. The Venom symbiote was given form by Spider-Man, who believed it to be a symbiotic living costume; after being bonded to Eddie Brock for years, it bonded to Peter's daughter May Parker, who managed to tame and rehabilitate it to start her career as the superhero Venom.Spider-Man Unlimited
In the Spider-Man Unlimited series, a Synoptic is introduced. Synoptic are parasites that can control organic beings by touch. Venom and Carnage, who acted as double agents to the High Evolutionary, were able to revive the Synoptic.In other media
Television
- The symbiotes appear in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, primarily Venom and Carnage. In the conclusion of The Alien Costume, Venom is defeated by Spider-Man and sent into space, but Dormammu and Baron Mordo divert the rocket, allowing Venom to return Earth. When Venom fails to get a Stark Industries portal device for Mordo, they provide Cletus Kasady with Venom's offspring, which he names Carnage, and send him to assist Venom. With help from Iron Man, Eddie Brock willingly separates from Venom, after having a change of heart. When Carnage kidnaps Ashley Kafka, Eddie's love interest, he rebonds with Venom and helps Spider-Man, Iron Man and War Machine fight him. When Carnage attempts to throw Kafka into the limbo, a place in between dimensions, Venom stops him and knocks them both into limbo, foiling Dormannu's plans for good. During the Spider Wars season finale, Carnage bonds with an alternate dejected Spider-Man to create Spider Carnage.
- Venom and Carnage appear in Spider-Man Unlimited. In the pilot episode, they board a shuttle piloted by John Jameson and crash it on Counter-Earth to start a new empire of symbiotes. Here, the symbiotes are more amorphous creatures that rely on stretching bodies then webbing, and adopt diffrent looks, such as Carnage sporting spikes. The in-universe explanation is that the symbiotes have bonded completely with their hosts, although Spider-Man claims that these are newly-acquired powers.
- Venom appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man, with Spider-Man's version voiced by Josh Keaton, and Eddie Brock's version voiced by Benjamin Diskin. In the episode "The Uncertainly Principle", the symbiote arrives on Earth by stowing away on the space shuttle. After being rejected by Spider-Man, it bonds with Eddie in the episode "Intervention", and is defeated in the episode "Nature vs. Nurture". Venom reappeared in the Season Two episodes "First Steps", "Growing Pains", and "Identity Crisis", where he attempts to expose Spider-Man's secret identity but his plans are foiled; in the latter episode, Venom is separated from Eddie and retreats into the sewers. Carnage was also set to appear in the third season.
- Venom, Carnage, and Anti-Venom appear in Ultimate Spider-Man. Venom and Anti-Venom are created by Doctor Octopus for Oscorp, with Venom being made from an altered sample of Spider-Man's DNA and Anti-Venom from a sample of Venom as a countermeasure. The Carnage symbiote is created by Green Goblin and later recreated by Michael Morbius of HYDRA from a sample of the Venom symbiote he obtained.
- The Venom symbiote appears in the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "The Venom Within". Doctor Octopus creates a "Gamma Venom" variant of the symbiote by having the Venom symbiote combine with each members of the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. The Gamma Venom symbiote was ultimately destroyed by the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., with Spider-Man's help.
- The Klyntar appear in the 2015 Guardians of the Galaxy animated series. As revealed in the three-part episode "Symbiote War", the Klyntar's original homeworld was destroyed by Thanos, who captured most of the Klyntar and took them to a mining planet, whereupon he altered their genealogy to weaponize them. The Exolons are also referenced as inhabiting Wraith's body. Carnage and Venom both appear in the episodes "Back in the New York Groove" and "Drive My Carnage", which cross over with the 2017 Spider-Man animated series. In this iteration, Carnage is an original Klyntar and not an offspring of Venom.
- The Klyntar appear in the 2017 Spider-Man animated series. Venom arrives on Earth inside a meteor, and is recovered by the Space Program, who leave it at Horizon High so that Max Modell can analyze it. The V-252 first appeared in the episode "A Day in the Life", and briefly bonded with Spider-Man from "Sandman" until "Stark Expo", until he rejected and returned it. In "Venom", the V-252 briefly escaped and possessed Flash Thompson, until Spider-Man defeated it and again returned it to its rightful place. In season two, the V-252 merged with Eddie Brock, who renamed it Venom in "Dead Man's Party". In "Venom Returns", Venom was incapacitated by an experimental sonic device during a fail attempt to publicly expose Spider-Man's secret identity. In "Superior", Venom is reawakened by experimentation that ultimately alters his genealogy, enabling it to survive without the need for a host, yet was defeated by Spider-Man shortly after Otto Octavius undid their body-swap. Season three, subtitled Maximum Venom, introduced more symbiotes, including Scream, Scorn, and Mania. In "Web of Venom" Pt. 2, Venom was accidentally freed by Dr. Curt Connors and absorbed the synthetic copy that Max had Spider-Man test. It then made its way to the meteor crash site and used an energy seed to shoot a beam into space before he was ultimately killed by Spider-Man. In "Amazing Friends", the beam was revealed to be a beacon, which summoned the other Klyntar on Venom's home planet to Earth. While Groot came to Earth to warn Peter of the impending invasion, the symbiotes captured Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Star-Lord while en route to the same planet. In "Vengeance Of Venom", the Klyntar sent an advance hunting party to capture the remaining superheroes on Earth. Spider-Man and Marc Spector rescue Max so he could create a synthetic antithesis of Venom, dubbed "Anti-Venom", to counteract the invading Klyntar and cure everyone. Anti-Venom possessed Groot, who cured everyone on Earth infected by the symbiotes, before being taken into space by Doctor Strange so that the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy could be cured as well.
Film
Sam Raimi film series
The Venom symbiote appears in Spider-Man 3. In this version, instead of brought to Earth in a human spaceship, it came from space after it landed on Earth inside a meteorite. The symbiote fused with the sleeping Peter Parker / Spider-Man's suit enhancing his powers, abilities and his anger. A small is studied and analyzed by Curt Conners. After being rejected by Parker following the dark influence it had on him at the church when ringing the bell, the alien attaches to Eddie Brock, turning him into Venom. Later, Spider-Man exploits the symbiote's weakness to ringing noises to defeat Venom and free Brock from it. However, with it now being strong enough to survive without a host, Parker destroys it with one of the New Goblin's pumpkin bombs. Brock attempts to bond with it again, which results in him being killed along with it.Marc Webb films
In trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the Venom symbiote appeared briefly among various elements of supervillain technology seen in the Gustav Fiers / The Gentleman's agency. In the final cut of the film the symbiote was replaced by the Rhino's armor as Richard Parker has a strong connection with Oscorp's Special Projects equipment used by many Spider-Man villains. Sony Pictures had plans to create a Spider-Man cinematic universe with various spin-off films including a Venom film, but those plans were abandoned following the studio agreement reached with Marvel Studios.Marvel Cinematic Universe
- In Guardians of the Galaxy, the Exolons are referenced via the Exolon Monks, who serve Ronan the Accuser.
- In , Hela uses a weapon called the Necrosword which is based on All-Black the Necrosword. However, in the movie there is no mention that the weapon is a symbiote, because, similar to the Exolons, in its introduction All-Black wasn't intended to be a symbiote before a retcon in the comics, hence why Marvel Studios has the rights of All-Black.
Sony's Marvel Universe
Video games
Multiple video games have featured symbiotes, primarily Venom and Carnage, who made numerous appearances in Spider-Man games over the years. The following is a list of games notable for featuring multiple symbiotes, other than Venom or Carnage, or introducing new symbiotes that did not appear in the comics:- In the arcade title ', the final boss fight consists of a battle against an infinite number of symbiote clones created by Doctor Doom. The only way to win is to kill the "prime clone".
- Most of the main symbiotes appear in the video game '.
- In the 2000 video game Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus clones Carnage's symbiote as part of a plot to replace humanity with symbiotes, under his command. The symbiotes become the main type of enemies towards the end of the game, and are significantly tougher than other enemies, although they can be easily killed using fire-imbued web cartridge that are hidden throughout levels.
- In the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii versions of Spider-Man 3, Shriek's powers come from a symbiote which covers half of her body.
- In ', Venom infests New York with symbiotes. There are multiple symbiote variants that are fought throughout the game, including Snatcher symbiotes, Zombie symbiotes, Berserker symbiotes, Grappler symbiotes, and Slasher symbiotes. The symbiotes also infect characters like Electro and Vulture, who go on to spawn other symbiote types with powers similar to theirs: Electrolings and Vulturelings. There are also Symbiote Pods, which absorb civilians and convert them into one of these symbiote variants, before releasing them.
- In ', Carnage absorbs a fragment of the Tablet of Order and Chaos, allowing him to reanimate the S.H.I.E.L.D. he kills into mindless zombies. These zombies eventually evolve into symbiotes resembling Carnage, and take over the Triskelion.
- Various symbiotes appear in the Facebook game ', including Venom, Anti-Venom, Sream, and Hybrid.
- In Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Venom has infected numerous Oscorp scientists with his symbiote, whom he uses as his mindless minions to fight the heroes.
- In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Cletus Kasady obtains the Carange symbiote after being injected with a version of the Venom symbiote, following a secret experiment run at Ravencroft, which involves using nanites as a regenerating body armor. After escaping, Carnage goes on to infect numerous Ravencroft inmates with his symbiote and take over the institute.
- Various symbiote characters are featured in the mobile game Spider-Man Unlimited. There is also a bonus level set within the Symbiote Dimension.
- In the Spider-Man playset of Dinsey Infinity 2.0, the Green Goblin and Mysterio clone the Venom symbiote and plan to infest New York with symbiotes.
- In the 2014 fighting video game ', the Symbioids are symbiotes merged with the Adaptioids. Venom, Carnage and Agent Venom appear as playable characters. Also featured are VenomPool, Venom the Duck and Symbiote Supreme.
- symbiotes "connect together" in a Marvel Puzzle Quest storyline. Besides Venom and Carnage, the game features four original symbiotes: a green male named Carrier, an orange female named Horror, a teal teethy creature named Demolisher, and a magenta dog-like creature named Mutation.
- In Marvel Avengers Academy, the symbiotes are taken away from their home planet by Oscorp, forcing Spider-Man to try and save. However, the symbiotes then bond with various hosts and attempt to take over the Academy. While they fail in doing so, they decide to remain on Earth.
- The symbiotes appears in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. In the game's story, Jedah Dohma uses the Soul Stone to steal a million souls from Earth and feed them to a Giant Symbiote, planning to strengthen it and use it as a weapon against Ultron Sigma. He gives pieces of the symbiotes to A.I.M.brella to bond the pieces to virus-infected subjects to stabilize them. In a battle against Jedah the heroes are successful, but then he unleashes the creature on the New Metro City. When Chris Redfield tries attacking it, he accidentally causes part of the symbiote to bond to Spider-Man, forcing the latter to fight against Frank West and Mike Haggar against his will. The creature is unleashed on New Metro City, but is destroyed by the heroes using three of the Infinity Stones. Venom also appears as a playable character via downloadable content.
Attractions
- Scream appears as one of the villains in Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride.