Sometimes the seed of evil begin with the most noble of intentions. Sometimes the largest threats to mankind are linked to just one person that sought to "do right". Today we travel the path of an outside element that was first in the hands of a genuine hero, then changed hands to a dangerously driven individual, then infused a TRULY horrendous person, then... was kinda cloned..., and then changed hands to various morally-influenced people. You could say this element was rather close to its owners. Say... maybe forming a symbiosis with them...
It all began in "Secret Wars #8", the mini-series that basically threw the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe together like a spilled box of action figures. (More on that event in a future blog. Hey, even my most SOLID intentions can be switched, from time to time.) Spider-Man, finding his costume a wreck after many conflicts, happened upon a few of his fellow heroes who discovered a costume-repair device. In the words of the Knight Templar from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", Parker chose... poorly, because he accessed another machine that spat out a black sphere that soon spread out to create an all-black, with white highlights costume for Spidey. A new look? Not so bad. The consequences? Well... THAT could have gone better...
Despite what the 90's animated series and the third Sam Raimi movie would tell you, the "Black Costume" did NOT make Spider-Man "evil". But since it was a living entity, it started feeding off of Peter's energy, and caused him to go into action... even when Peter was resting. So in a way, being the first possessor of the Symbiote made Spidey in charge of an alien toddler. Reed Richards, of the Fantastic Four, discovered from a sampling of the costume, that the suit was inadvertently... or maybe NOT... killing Spider-Man. So he had to figure out a way to shed the costume. Symbiotes do not shed easily, and it took Peter nearly destroying himself to slough off the slimy suit! Y'see, sonics are not a Symbiote's best friend, so any loud noise will disrupt its bond, and cause it pain. Peter decided, on this discovery, to hang out in a church bell tower to absorb some sonic blasts, and after being bombarded by noise, the Symbiote costume supposed "died", and left Peter's body. ... I say "supposedly", because the Symbiote dripped down into the church, and found a new home...
Eddie Brock, a disgraced photo journalist, was praying for forgiveness for a coming act of suicide in the same church Peter Parker defeated the Symbiote costume. Symbiotes are kind of like nasty ex-lovers, and once spurned, they will find another partner, and try to make your life a living HELL. See, Eddie blamed Spider-Man for his career failure, and then his personal failures. The Symbiote, upon bonding with Eddie, fed off that anger, and instead of draining Eddie Brock, it STRENGTHENED him... all in the name of hatred. One interesting element of Eddie Brock... despite WEIRD characterization choices from time-to-time... is that his primary target was Spider-Man. Sure, he occasionally killed people that were in the way of his goal, and threatened innocent citizens in Parker's life, but as a whole, Eddie REALLY just wanted Spider-Man dead.
Eventually cooler heads prevail... or MAYBE it was because Marvel knew that Venom was becoming super-hot, and villains don't sell merchandise... and Venom became a "Lethal Protector" anti-hero. He STILL managed to find time to kill threats to the "innocents", but he did try his best to protect the underdog, and he launched a truce with Spider-Man. And thus was born a BAJILLION mini-series featuring the Brock Venom. Which also led to various appearance extremities. What began as just a steroided-up version of the black Spider-Man costume with an insane grin transformed into a slavering hulk with a maw that contained probably about 1,000 teeth, and saliva that consisted of green Jell-O.
Flash forward to many years later, with Eddie having been shed of the Symbiote for some time. Dying of cancer, a masquerading villain named Mr. Negative transformed the trace elements of the symbiosis in his system to create an entirely new being called Anti-Venom.
Aside from being a photo-negative clone of the previous costume, Anti-Venom's new ability included being able to inject itself into another Symbiote, and drain its life force. OH! And another new tweak that the Eddie Brock Venom Symbiote received was that the suit was able to project itself outwards in tentacles and feelers for additional attack fielding.
As a company, what do you do when you have one character that is just BURNING up the sales charts? Well, Marvel decided that one Symbiote was FAR too little to bank on! Before we go onto the next iconic Symbiote, in Venom's first mini-series, he was kidnapped by a military outfit, who sought to weaponize the uniform. Hence, the first cloning of the Symbiote material, and the creation of auxiliary Venoms!
They had names, and I KNOW the red/orange/yellow female one appeared a few more times after the initial "Lethal Protector" mini-series, but I'm too lazy to research them... and these Symbiotic "Morts" really don't deserve that level of attention. Because this was a chilling beginning to a trend that Marvel would pull at MORE than a few times in the future. But right now, let's talk about the next major Symbiote to appear in the Marvel Universe.
Say hello to Cletus Kassiday, AKA Carnage. When Eddie Brock was incarcerated, he shared a cell with Cletus, an avowed and proud-of-it serial killer. The Symbiote helped break Eddie out of their cell, Cletus had an open wound on his arm, and a Symbiote dripping fell into the broken skin. Seems that blood and alien-spawned oiliness DO mix, and create a blood-based Symbiote suit. Carnage had the ability to take the tendril projections Venom could produce, and took it a step further by being able to shape his suit into sharp implements... and EVEN use parts of the suit as projectile weapons. And Carnage was the opposite side of the Venom coin: sure, killing Spider-Man AND Venom was a major goal, but why not enjoy killing as MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE on the side? And also hooking up with a Marvel "Black Canary" rip-off called Shriek, and the Spider-Man evil doppleganger from the "Infinity War" crossover to start a 14-part crossover of your own is a side benefit.
During the rather questionable "Clone Saga" years for Spider-Man in the 90's, there was one crossover of unusual note called "Planet of the Symbiotes". It involved Spidey, Venom, and Carnage, as they faced off against an Earth-bound invasion by the Symbiote race, and we also learned of their origin and genesis. ... And it was a pretty big mess of a story that isn't much worth noting outside of this being ANOTHER dilution of the Venom/Symbiote "specialness".
I'm not sure how the transitions took place, but somehow Venom and Eddie Brock parted ways permanent-like. And this led to a storyline about the Symbiote being auctioned off. Before the suit could make the eBay listings, the winning in-person bid belonged to disgraced Spidey villain, Mac Gargan... AKA The Scorpion.
Another wrinkle that would develop with the Scorpion-Venom is that he became equal to Carnage for desire to murder... and even EAT his victims... but without Mac being in control of such savage urges. But hey, Mac had to have made some positive impact, because he was a part of Norman Osborne's initial grouping of the "Thunderbolts". (I'm FAIRLY certain that he was also a member of Norman's "Dark Avengers" team for a stretch of time.)
I should have mentioned this "Thunderbolts" team was founded during the "Civil War" event... AKA a truly garbage event for Marvel..., which led to a Tony Stark/Iron Man-helmed Avengers team. Sure, that team, and another "renegade" team of Avengers had their run-ins with the Thunderbolts, and by proxy, Venom, but it was Stark's team that encountered yet ANOTHER mass-production of Symbiotes, in the form of a Doctor Doom-produced "Venom Bomb".
This dropped down on New York, turning various citizens... and even some heroes... into ravaging Venom creatures. Sigh... spreading the brand even MORE thin does not make it more appealing or "special". But in recent years, the Symbiote seemed to have a branching path of influence.
I know of one possessor that was linked to Norman Osborne, again, that was a half-human/half-spider hybrid creature. (I BELIEVE that it was linked to the lineage of Kraven the Hunter.) But while that half of the Symbiote equation did have its time in the sun, it's the other half of the equation that probably achieved more of a foothold in the Marvel Universe, and indirectly brought the Symbiote concept back into the relative "good graces".
Once bully to Peter Parker, then solid friend, then disabled war veteran, Flash Thompson was given the opportunity to walk again by the government. The catch? He had to become the new possessor of the Symbiote suit, which was still a little bit "testy" from its ownership under Gargan. That proved to be an interesting element to Thompson's Symbiote possession, since he was still a noble soldier at heart, and had to FIGHT the urge to kill and eat anything breathing in its path. And the Thompson Symbiote was able to create firearms from the suit. (Which proves the fickle nature of comic fans, since they HATED this twist when Guy Gardner became a shape-shifter that could create guns from his body in the DC Universe.) As far as I know, Flash is still the sole possessor of the Symbiote, and he is still an integral part in a new Thunderbolts team.
In today's examination of evil, I think I came to the conclusion that sometimes the suit/weapon makes the man... but sometimes it's the choice of the man that makes the Symbiote decide if it's going to serve the heroic cause, or become a mass-murderer... or just fulfill a gory comic book quota for eating someone.
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