Fictional Biography
See also: Venom (comics) and Carnage (comics)The backstory to the concept of the symbiotes has never been clearly established. It is implied that Galactus, devourer of worlds, consumed a world which they had conquered and where they had thrived, based on Carnage's reaction to the Silver Surfer, former herald of Galactus. It is shown through the Carnage symbiote that this was a world whose dominant life forms had been overrun by the marauding symbiotes, though whether or not it is the world on which the symbiotes originated is never clarified.
In Venom: Seed of Darkness #1, a symbiote named Krobaa was brought to Earth and bonded with the professor who found it to acquire (through the symbiosis) knowledge of humanity in order to bring the information to a high galactic order valueing "diversity of mind above all else". Instead, Krobaa was infected with the madness of the human mind, attacking all living things and claiming to feed on their fear. Only after Eddie Brock's camera flash had weakened him did Krobaa regain control of himself, committing suicide to save other planets from the "plague of madness."
The mini-series Planet of the Symbiotes presents a different story. Symbiotes were originally an unfeeling, conquering race, taking over any species they came in contact with to feed off their emotions; this mainly involved adrenaline rushes from death-defying feats and, as a consequence, the hosts tend to be short-lived. This was also evidenced in the Fantastic Four series, when a black cube (imprisoned by Devos the Devastator as a trophy of the most dangerous species he has ever faced) escapes and is revealed to be a sentient extraterrestrial symbiote (called Dreadface in the issue's title) that fuels (and then feeds off) the animosity between the Human Torch and the Thing before apparently being incinerated.
The Venom symbiote is the first permanent symbiote resident of Earth, brought by Spider-Man after the events of Secret Wars. It was later established that the Venom symbiote was considered crazy by its fellow parasites since it sought a mutual bond with a host rather than domination, and was imprisoned on a planet that later became part of Beyonder's Battleworld. Once on Earth, the Venom suit was bonded to Spider-Man for some time before being forced off onto Eddie Brock. Stung by the rejection, the symbiote came to hate the superhero and sought revenge with Brock. During this time it spawned six children, with its first child later having two of its own. Brock would soon reform and spent a considerable amount of time trying to become a hero with the suit.
Though originally happy with Brock, because Brock blamed Spider-Man for his failures, the symbiote gradually became increasingly possessive and abusive of him, eventually being sold off by Eddie. It is later revealed that it only stuck with him because of cancer of his adrenal glands. Since then, the Venom suit has gradually grown more and more monstrous and psychotic. It is currently bonded to Flash Thompson, who struggles to control it, but the symbiote has recently been shown to be developing some slight affection for him. This would suggest the host's mental state might affect the symbiote just as much as the other way around, as the Carnage symbiote is as psychotic as its host and the Venom suit's explosiveness got worse after bonding with its two hosts 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.
Angel Medina claims he was reluctant to start work on Mighty Avengers because he was working on a Venom project, only to be told he would be drawing a story with "the Avengers vs. an alien invasion—by the Venoms." This story arc was later confirmed to be drawn by Mark Bagley, as Medina would be unavailable. Solicitations state that the New Avengers will also be part of this arc, themselves becoming infested by symbiotes. New Avengers #34 revealed that Doctor Doom is responsible for dropping a "Venom Bomb" on New York that unleashes the symbiotes. The story was completed in Mighty Avengers #8. Further backstory reveals that Doctor Doom collected a tiny sample of the symbiote's cells from the drone he had sent in earlier. Later, it is revealed that Kristoff Vernard actually orchestrated this so that Doom would be arrested for the event above.
Read more about this topic: Trevor Cole (comics)
Famous quotes containing the words fictional and/or biography:
“One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world’s memory.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)