Symbiote (comics)

In the Marvel Comics universe, a symbiote is a living alien organism that bonds with another living organism (usually a human, although it may bond with animals) in order to survive. Since it has no classifying name, it is referred to as a "symbiote" because of its symbiotic relationships. Often it appears as a "Living Costume" because of the way the amorphous creature envelopes its host.

The history of the symbiote

It is unclear where the Symbiotes actually originated, nor is it fully explained how the Symbiote (in its true form) manages to survive without a human host. It is implied that while the symbiotes have lived for millions of years, they are able to remember and genetically encode information - to which the wearer of the symbiote is automatically gained access. They are plotting, scheming creatures. Due to the reaction the Carnage symbiote had to the Silver Surfer, it is clear that their home planet was devoured by Galactus.

While embroiled in a major crossover storyline fighting the Secret Wars on an alien planet, Spider-Man acquired an alien costume, the symbiote, in a lab. The application of a symbiote provokes a cool feeling as the black plasmic ooze covers its host. It stimulates them, provides for them, and protects them by itself when the host is unconscious or unaware of a true symbiotic relationship. Symbiotes rely on human hosts because they are able to feed off adrenaline which is essential to their survival. They also feed off diseases fatal to humans, due to the type of energy or "adrenaline" it may produce; for example, the Venom symbiote was able to save Eddie Brock's life from cancer by feeding off it, since Eddie's cancer produced the exact type of adrenaline that the symbiote feeds on.

Symbiotes are fully aware and sentient creatures. They also are vicious and wild, compelling their human hosts to violence. They are much more effective if the human host has the same feelings and urges as the symbiote; for example, the Venom symbiote bonded successfully with Eddie Brock because they shared anger and desires for revenge towards Spider-Man. As this shows, symbiotes have their own emotions and are able to react and reflect one's emotions on their personal desires.

By nature, symbiotes try to permanently bond with their human hosts, ensuring that they live longer. They can, however, leave a human host (or at least try to) at their own will, although this is very rare. If a symbiote is strongly bonded, as the Venom symbiote was to Eddie Brock, attempting to break the bond causes a shock sufficient to render both host and costume unconscious. However, a symbiote can easily sever a weak bond, such as when the Carnage symbiote abandoned Cletus Kasady for the Silver Surfer, or when Angelo Fortunato was left to plummet to his death, mid-jump, by the Venom suit.

Symbiotes also are naturally weakened from intense sonics and intense infrared heat.

Symbiotes have no gender, and as such have the ability to asexually spawn another symbiote. It is normal for a symbiote to hate its newborn spawn. Venom, for example, tries to kill and destroy its offspring, Carnage, and Carnage himself tries to kill his 'son' Toxin by leaving it for dead without a human host to find. Symbiotes appear to have a finite number of 'seeds' that can be grown into suits; The Venom symbiote spawned the Carnage one itself, but the remaining five 'seeds' that it contained were harvested by the Life Foundation using sonics.

According to the mini-series planet of the symbiotes, symbiotes are an unfeeling, conquering race, taking over any species they come in contact with to feed off of emotions, mainly adrenaline rushes from death-defying feats. As a consequence, the hosts are short-lived. The Venom symbiote was different because it wanted to bond with a host instead of dominating it, leading to its imprisonment by its own race. The Venom-symbiote describes itself as a mutation though it may just as likely be an atavism among its species 1. It would seem that Earth-spawned suits (i.e. Venom's family), such as the Carnage and Toxin symbiotes, are more comfortable being controlled by their hosts than the rest of their race.

Special abilities

Symbiotes empower the natural abilities of a host to the point where they far exceed that of normal humans. These abilities include the following:

Super strength
Superior speed and agility
Provide protection (from guns or other damage)
Genetic memory, recalling information from previous hosts.
Limited healing ability.

The symbiote also reacts to 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, the one seen on him and Venom. The following are functions that have been demonstrated from various hosts' wills (but are not limited to):

The ability to transform its mass into clothing
The ability to form fangs or simple bladed weapons out of their limbs
The ability to mimic the appearance of anyone, or anything, including dead tissue.
The ability to blend with its surroundings.
The ability to stick to walls (adopted from Spider-Man).
The ability to produce webbing from its own mass (adopted from Spider-Man).
The ability to bypass the Spider-Sense (because the original symbiote was attached to Peter first, it took his genetic information and spider-powers. This means that the symbiote attacking Peter would essentially be Peter attacking himself, which wouldn't set off his Spider-Sense)
The ability to process breathable gasses when the host normally cannot breathe (for example, in water).

Well known symbiotes

Here is a complete list of existing symbiotes whom have/had human hosts

Venom has had several hosts:
- first worn by Spider-Man, who is also the first known human to host a symbiote
- Eddie Brock
- Scorpion (current wearer of the Venom Symbiote. Sometimes referred to as "Scorpion-Venom" or "Scorpom")

Carnage (worn by Cletus Kasady)

Scream (worn by "Donna")

Phage, Riot, Lasher, Agony merged to form Hybrid (worn by Scott Washington)

She-Venom (Venom symbiote, worn by Anne Weying)
She-Venom II (Clone of the Venom symbiote, worn by Communications Specialist Patricia Robertson.)

Toxin (symbiotic offspring of Carnage, worn by Patrick Mulligan)

The Punisher wore the Venom symbiote in Marvel's "What If" comic series, which is outside regular continuity.

There was also an incident where Wolverine wore the Venom symbiote for a brief time (Sometimes referred to as "Wolvenom"). He managed to tear it from his body and fought with it during the series "Venom vs. Wolverine". Wolverine later faced a clone of the Venom symbiote, which briefly merged with him during the "Venom: Run" series.

Normie Osborn, the grandson of the original Green Goblin and friend of Spider-Girl, is the current host of the Venom Symbiote in the MC2 Universe. (This character is sometimes referred to as "Goblin-Venom".)

In the series Exiles (which involves inter-dimensional travel) there is an alternate-universe version of Peter Parker merged with an alternate-universe version of the Carnage-symbiote. This symbiote is known as The Spider. They are a psychotic killer that "likes hurting people" and they have a sense of humor akin to Deadpool. They originate from Earth-15 and are members of the Weapon X team.

Araña possesses an entity called the Hunter which is some kind of extradimensional symbiote. It is similar in appearance to the Guyver and has similar powers to other Marvel symbiotes with some added mystical abilities (much like the Witchblade of Image Comics).

Active and inactive symbiotes

The activity of the symbiotes and their hosts vary.

Spider-Man: Inactive (no longer wearing any symbiote)
Venom: Currently in jail. The Venom symbiote's host is now The Scorpion (Mac Gargan), but Eddie Brock may return
Carnage: Unknown; The Sentry ripped the Carnage in two, but Cletus Kasady may not have been wearing the suit
Scream: Inactive (Last seen alive but status unknown).
Hybrid: Inactive
She Venom: Deceased: Ann Weying committed suicide
She Venom II: Unknown, Venom absorbed Patricia's symbiote and it is likely she is deceased.
Toxin: Active

Trivia

The majority of the human hosts to the symbiotes are citizens of New York. It happens because Spider-Man (who brought the first Symbiote to Earth) lives there; the symbiote invasion of Earth was also focused on New York.
Venom is the oldest of all the introduced symbiotes of the Marvel universe... this makes him highly-prized to the Xenophage, as symbiotes that have been bonded to hosts for long periods of time are considered a delicacy.
Hybrid was the first truly heroic symbiote, while Toxin is the first heroic symbiote to be well-known. While Venom has shown certain heroic tendencies, having on occasion acted to protect those people he considers to be "innocents", he is also frequently portrayed as obsessive, mentally unstable, and even psychotic. He has also displayed ample willingness to use lethal force. His mental instability and his intense hatred of Spider-Man has usually contributed to his portrayal as a villain.
The Venom symbiote is the only symbiote to have been worn by both men and women. Normally, the symbiotes in general are worn by men.
Carnage surpassed his "father" Venom by being the first symbiote shown to produce weapons from his limbs. He does not shoot webbing, but strands of tissue. There is some speculation that this is due to the symbiote's gestation on Earth.
Toxin is said to be the most powerful symbiote of them all - having the abilities of both Venom and Carnage combined. Again, this may be due to his gestation on Earth.
The Venom symbiote is confirmed to appear in Spider-Man 3.
Scream appears as one of the villains in Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride.

External links

http://members.aol.com/SpookMango/symbiote.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~outsidetl/features/symbiote.html
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f47/t304364.html