The new Spider-Man storyline is almost more about the symbiotes than the Web-Crawler, and Carnage is front and center in the new storyline. This has been the norm for many years, as Marvel has been infatuated with the symbiotes since introducing Venom in the late 1980s and then the other symbiotes soon joined the fray. While Venom has become more of a hero over time than a villain, or even an anti-hero, especially with Mary Jane Watson in the role, there are other symbiote hosts who are as deadly as any villain. This is true of Cletus Kasady as Carnage, but there are many others.
Here is a look at the seven deadliest symbiote hosts in Marvel Comics.
7) Eddie Brock
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Eddie Brock is a hero most of the time, but he is also someone who has always been willing to kill people when bonded with a symbiote. He started out just wanting to kill Spider-Man, while serving as the protector of the innocent people on the streets who had no one else to look out for them. However, he has gone over the edge more than once in comics.
This happened most recently when Eddie chose to take on the Carnage symbiote because he felt he could control Carnage better than anyone else could. However, Eddie had to make a deal with Carnage and agreed to kill bad people just so Carnage could continue to kill but not hurt innocents. Of course, Carnage betrayed him, but if anything, it proved that Eddie was as deadly as anyone when the need arose.
6) Torment
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Torment is the newest Spider-Man villain, and he is someone who has become a slight fan favorite because he just killed one of Spider-Man’s most hated supporting characters in Paul Rabin. However, Torment is a relentless killer who not only murders his target, but everyone connected to them. This means he killed countless relatives of Eddie Brock, including his father, and Shocker, who he claims was connected to Mary Jane.
The story then saw Carnage flee from Eddie Brock and attach himself to Torment, almost against the serial killer’s will. Whether he stays attached to the killer or not, this is one of the most brutal killers that has ever had a symbiote attached to him, and it this sticks, he could easily move up the list.
5) Jonathan Shayde
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Jonathan Shayde was another Carnage symbiote host. He was an NYPD detective who dedicated his life to his job, even at the expense of his friends and family. It was after a confrontation with Wilson Fisk, where he realized the justice system was failing, that he had a confrontation with Carnage and was almost killed by the symbiote. This led to Carnage taking notice and soon the symbiote bonded a piece of itself into the cop to see how far this man would go.
Jon realized Carnage was killing other supervillains to absorb their abilities and he set out to stop the symbiote. However, he soon learned that he had no chance to really stop the criminals and the justice system was continuously failing and he finally gave into the inner darkness and became a monster himself. This was a strong storyline that showed how Carnage could turn even a good man into a killer.
4) Donna Diego
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Donna Diego is Scream, and she was the deadliest and most dangerous of the Life Foundation symbiotes. Donna proved she was dominant when she killed the other Life Foundation symbiotes, showing she was not only the most powerful, but also the deadliest and most violent of them all. That made her a dangerous enemy for Venom to battle.
Donna was a security guard before she became Scream, but she had previous mental health issues and psychotic episodes, which led into her role as a symbiote when the time came. She was also devious, as she killed several people later and framed Eddie Brock for their deaths, showing she was a formidable villain as well as a deadly one. However, Eddie ended up killing her mercilessly to finally end her reign of terror.
3) Malekith
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While it might seem strange, Malekith was, at one time, the deadliest symbiote host in history. This is the same Malekith the Accursed who was the Dark Elf who started the War of the Realms event series. That is, in fact, where Malekith bonded with a symbiote. It was, in fact, the Venom symbiote that he captured and used dark magic to bend to his will.
This led Malekith to do the unthinkable when he manifested All-Black the Necrosword, which was the symbiote weapon used by both Knull and Gorr the God Butcher. This not only have him more powers from the symbiote, but it also augmented his acolytes and he used it to kill countless people before Thor finally used Mjolnir to separate the Dark Elf from Venom. This eventually also led to Jon Shayde’s Carnage to start to hunt him down after the Dark Elf escaped from Hel.
2) Mac Gargan
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Mac Gargan was Scorpion before he became Venom, and he is the deadliest host to ever bond with that specific symbiote. While a lot of Spider-Man villains are mostly just people who rob banks and commit smaller crimes, Scorpion was a villain who was a murderer and actually got his powers originally to kill Spider-Man. It was after leaving Eddie Brock that Venom looked for a new host and finally settled on Mac Gargan, since both had the desire to kill Spider-Man.
Venom killed more people while bonded with Mac than almost any other host, and this became even more dangerous when they began working as part of the Dark Avengers and had government clearance since Norman Osborn had gained a position of power. It took the battle of Siege and the fall of Norman for Gargan to fall in defeat and end up stripped of the symbiote, where it was then given to Flash Thompson to work for the U.S. military as a hero.
1) Cletus Kasady
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The deadliest symbiote host in history was easily Cletus Kasady, and his dark influence has lasted even since his death. When a symbiote bonds with someone for the first time, the symbiote is almost an innocent, and it develops the personality of its first host. That is why Venom mostly wants to be a hero, even if he has an irrational hatred of Spider-Man for abandoning him. However, Carnage first bonded to a serial killer.
Cletus Kasady was a sociopath who murdered his own grandmother as a child and then went on to kill countless people until he finally ended up imprisoned, which is where he met Eddie Brock and ended up getting his symbiote. Carnage wants nothing more than to kill people, which comes from his original connection to Kasady. Even when Carnage was bonded to Eddie Brock recently, he still had to kill, and this is all thanks to Cletus Kasady being the deadliest symbiote host in Marvel Comics history.
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