Top 10 Symbiotes (Or rather the Venom family tree explained)

Symbiotes are a staple of the Spiderman universe at this point along with Animal themed super villains. The most famous of which is venom, the over grown behemoth of an alien made entirely out of black tar. But Venom is far from the only alien goo monster present in the Spider-verse so here are ten of the more colorful Symbiote variants out there.

Venom

Let’s start with the big black bag of teeth himself: Venom. The Symbiotes have the ability to gain certain powers from their first host. So it’s really lucky The Venom Symbiotes first human host was Spider-Man. This grant’s venom abilities such as superhuman strength, wall climbing and he even produces his own version of spider-webs although in the form of black tendrils.

 

His charming smile however is all his own.

Carnage

The second most famous Symbiote out there is Carnage. This red Symbiote is technically Venom’s “Son” and bonded with the serial killer Cletus Kasady first. And as expected of physically bonding with a deranged killer, Carnage is a lot more violent and blood thirsty than his papa.

Carnage is also said to be stronger than venom, and also has a fondness for using tendrils ending in sharp blades from his back while fighting or slicing up innocent bystanders.

Toxin

Toxin is the ‘Son’ of Carnage, which makes him Venom’s grandson in a weird way. But unlike Carnage, Toxin bonded with a decent police officer by the name of Patrick Mulligan who in-turn made Toxin a lot more heroic and a lot less murdery than dear old dad.

Toxin has the potential to be more powerful than Carnage or Venom and had a virtuous side to him thanks to Patrick Mulligan. This prompts Spiderman to take him under his wing. He is a combination of black and red like an amalgam of his forebears, but his design is more akin to his mentor Spiderman.

The Life Foundation Symbiotes

The Life foundation is one of those eye-rollingly evil mega corporations that prioritize making Super-villains over a profit (see also the Umbrella cooperation from resident evil). So when they captured Venom, they did what evil corporations do best and extracted 5 “children” from Venom.

These where  Phage, Agony, Lasher, Riot and Scream and they all came with their unique quirks:

Phage was orange, and preferred to use knife-hands to fight. and knife everything really, all over his body.

Agony was purple, a bright eye-scorning purple. Oh, and she could also spit acid which burns you more than her look does.

Lasher was green and had tentacles growing out of his back which he used as his primary weapons in combat. The tentacles and green aesthetics make me think his designer was a Lovecraft fan (praise Chtulhu!).