Symbiotes 101: The Biology and Behavior of a Fictional Alien Race

OrionSTARB0Y shares another analysis:

The Marvel universe is filled with imaginative creatures and beings of various curiosities and abilities, but up until now, one of the most reader-popular species has been as amorphous in its nature as it appears on the page. The symbiote—once thought to be a super-science wonder material discovered by Spider-Man on Battleworld during the first Secret Wars—has been a character of awe and bad-assery since its first appearance. It has been 28 years since the creature’s debut, and it has spawned numerous iterations of itself, including popular characters Venom (the result of Spider-Man’s living costume bonding to a scorned journalist), one of the web crawler’s deadliest foes, and Carnage, it’s even deadlier offspring. Many writers and artists have graced their readers with hundreds of interesting and unique takes on the symbiote, but with the variety came discontinuity. A clear portrait of the symbiote’s biology, characteristics, and nature has never been achieved. In this analysis, I will take all 28 years’ worth of information and input into these properties and consolidate it all into one cohesive explanation of how and why the symbiote is what it is and does what it does.

Before I begin, I want to make one important note. Even though the topical species is officially titled “symbiote,” the title is debatable. This will be explained towards the end of the analysis. I’ll unofficially give the species the name Ineffigiatus parasites (Latin for “Amorphous parasite”), but for simplicity and in respect of the property and its fan base, I’ll continue to use “symbiote” to describe the species and its members.

First, let’s address a symbiote’s desires from its symbiotic relationship. Symbiotes seek three nutritional resources: phenethylamine, adrenaline, and emotions. Of the three, emotions are not palatable or tangible, and it is believed that symbiotes acquire a kind of psychic nutrition from emotions. We won’t touch upon a symbiote’s susceptibility to psychic influence just yet, though, so let’s focus on the other two sources. Adrenaline is primary in a symbiote’s diet, evidenced by Spider-Man’s repeated blackouts during the time he played host to the Venom symbiote. The symbiote would take control of Spider-Man’s body when he slept and ventured into the night for a little web slinging and crime fighting. Instead of being a thrill junkie as Spider-Man had surmised, the symbiote merely required a balanced diet of adrenaline—something Spider-Man could easily provide with the help of his powers, making Spider-Man the Venom symbiote’s most sought-after host. The second most important part of a symbiote’s diet is also the food source that truly holds the symbiote together. Phenethylamine is most often extracted by the Venom symbiote from two sources on Earth: human brains and chocolate. It is assumed symbiote prefer brains over chocolate (“We want to eat your brains!” becoming Venom’s famous tagline) because of the relatively low content of phenethylamine in chocolate. If consumed in mass quantities, symbiotes can sustain themselves with chocolate (as was depicted when Eddie Brock had learned this after the Venom symbiote went on a brain-eating rampage). Human brains produce sufficient amounts of beta-phenethylamine (PEA), and since it has been proven that PEA has a sort of youth elixir property to it for both physical and mental health, it is assumed PEA is a symbiote’s primary choice over the phenethylamine found in chocolate. The reason to this preference will be explained later on along with a symbiote’s diet of emotions.

Agent Venom using a sonic blow horn
against the Toxin symbiote.

Now, to truly understand a symbiote’s biology, one must understand its weaknesses. Symbiotes possess three natural weaknesses: intense thermal radiation (or more simply put, fire), high frequency sounds (sonics), and Brock’s Anti-Venom antibodies. The third is a newer development and the most unique of the three, as the antibodies are synthesized by the fusion of human white blood cells and mutated symbiote tissue. The antibodies act like white blood cells, attacking and incinerating normal symbiote tissue. The nature of the other weaknesses (fire and sonics) suggests that symbiote tissue is unstable or weak in its molecular bonds. (It should be noted that Hellfire supposedly has no effect on symbiote tissue, as demonstrated in Venom: Circle of Four.) This instability accounts for a symbiote’s amorphous physiology. It also explains the symbiote’s diet of phenethylamine, particularly PEA; the instability of a symbiote’s molecular bonds gives rise to a problem of rapid aging and organic degeneration, so the symbiote consumes and metabolizes PEA to constantly renew the strength of its molecular bonds. In short, symbiotes eat PEA to stay young, healthy, and alive. A disruption or the destruction of a symbiote’s molecular bonds via fire and sonics cause the organism intense pain and agony, and can result in death by disintegration.

The Anti-Venom antibodies in action against the Venom symbiote.

As a symbiote is an amorphous organism, its physiological structure is a mystery. It can be assumed that its organs are amorphous as well, and can be naturally and cleverly concealed in its mass. Symbiotes do apparently possess organs, as evidenced by the Xenophage’s (a symbiote’s only known natural predator besides Anti-Venom) diet of symbiote brains and the Secret Avenger’s efforts to “neuter” the Venom symbiote to reduce its ferocity. Besides a symbiote’s brains and reproductive system, it is unknown whatever else a symbiote possesses for organs. It’s unsure what kind of sensory system a symbiote possesses as well, but the Carnage symbiote has proven that the symbiote is able to “see” in full spherical 360 degrees. As with any organism, a symbiote must possess a waste removal system. I have postulated that a symbiote expends its waste by detaching portions of its tissue loaded with waste, which—like with any detached extension of a symbiote’s tissue—totally and rapidly deteriorates.

The Carnage symbiote demonstrates
its ability to adapt to a digital environment.

A symbiote’s mass potential is great, but not infinite. The extent of its tissue growth is dependent on two factors: whether it’s bonded to a host organism and the amount of nutrition that is available at the given time. The symbiote can achieve a range of physical states spanning from solid to liquid, but has yet to exhibit a gaseous form. Both the Venom and Carnage symbiote have achieved a digital state in a past battle, suggesting that symbiotes are extremely adaptive to their environment. Traditional symbiotes cannot maintain the cohesiveness of the molecular bonds of a detached piece of tissue for long, but through evolution the Carnage symbiote and its offspring have been able to develop projectile weapon forms of their tissue that last much longer from the point of detachment. Symbiotes can develop a number of materials from their own tissue that are able to withstand the test of time to greater lengths than simple extensions of their mass, one example being the organic webbing the Venom symbiote learned to develop and perfect apart from Spider-Man’s chemical webbing.

As to bonding with a host, a symbiote naturally only maintains a temporary bond until it has drained the host organism of the required nutrition, often leading to the host’s demise. This relationship between the host and the symbiote often straddles the border between symbiotic and parasitic, with the symbiote offering only little benefit to the host. This is also true because, for the most part, the symbiote establishes itself as the dominant partner in the relationship, making the host all but powerless. The Venom symbiote was the first to actively pursue a more symbiotic and more permanent bond with a host as a result of a steady psychological degeneration over generations of spawns resulting in “insanity.” The Venom symbiote can’t bond to its host permanently as it hopes it could, but it can leave in its host organism traces of itself that can survive long past the natural expiration time and allow for simplicity in future bonds if the symbiote and its host somehow become detached from each other. Venom’s offspring, Carnage, is the very first symbiote in the race’s history to actually achieve a permanent bond with its first host, Cletus Kasady, by bonding at a molecular level. A large part of Carnage’s constituent mass can be separated from the host and survive for a short time after disconnection, but the symbiote traces in Kasady’s molecules can completely regenerate into the full symbiote organism at will. Separation between Kasady and the Carnage symbiote is impossible without killing both organisms, whereas separation between any of the Venom symbiote’s hosts and the symbiote itself is merely scarring and painful to both organisms. Ideally, this means that every true spawn after Carnage (i.e. Toxin) is able to achieve a permanent bond. The Toxin symbiote may have been unable to achieve a permanent bond with its first host, Patrick Mulligan, before it was forcefully separated from him by the Blackheart demon due to its infancy; however, the Carnage symbiote and Kasady were apparently able to quickly achieve a permanent bond not long after the symbiote’s birth.

The three known true spawns of the Venom symbiote line: Venom, Carnage, and Toxin.

Venom's first use of the psychic scream,
which caused the symbiotes invading
Manhattan to commit suicide.

As mentioned before, symbiotes are susceptible to psychic influence. On the other side of that coin, they also possess psychic characteristics and abilities. Symbiotes can communicate between each other and their hosts through a psychic connection. Whether this ability is natural or had been acquired by a common predecessor is still unknown, so for all intensive purposes, I shall state that these psychic characteristics are natural (consider: Charles Xavier of the X-Men acquired psychic abilities through natural mutation, most likely involving a greater use of his brain’s potential than a normal human being’s; perhaps the symbiote brain possesses a psychic receptor and other appendages). The most powerful psychic influence a symbiote can experience and digest is emotion. Symbiotes naturally lack emotion, and find a sort of psychic nourishment in their hosts’ emotional responses. However, their stomach for psychic nourishment is very sensitive and delicate as it is either physically or psychologically connected to their own psychology and mental construction. Any kind of psychic overload can prove detrimental—even fatal, as demonstrated in both the Planet of the Symbiotes and Minimum Carnage storylines when Venom used a “psychic scream,” in which the symbiote and its host released a powerful emotional burst through the symbiotes’ collective psychic communications network. Insanity, as exhibited in the Venom symbiote line and the Krobaa symbiote, is a most common result of a symbiote’s psyche becoming imbalanced.

Krobaa, the most dramatic victim of a psychological
overload brought on by the intensity of human emotions

The Foundation Five are examples of evolved/differentiated
copy spawn of the Venom symbiote.

As to the topic of reproduction, symbiotes spawn asexually and possess the ability to produce only one true spawn. Symbiotes can also produce additional spawn, but these are most likely spawn cloned from the original reproducer (both evolved/differentiated and carbon copies). The true spawn is more powerful than its reproducer and the reproducer’s spawned copies. Every spawn, true and copied, is evolved to a degree from their reproducer and exhibits and learns new abilities and characteristics with each generation, all the while carrying their predecessors’ abilities and characteristics passed down in a form of genetic memory. Therefore, whatever the predecessor learned or inherited will be passed down to the new spawn. As revealed in Venom vs. Carnage, the thousandth (1,000th) spawn in a line’s generations suffers a complete mental breakdown, resulting in the spawn’s psyche becoming completely malleable to influence. Toxin was the thousandth spawn in Venom’s line, and Venom declared itself to be the 998th spawn, supporting the theory that symbiotes only spawn one true offspring per reproducer. Venom, Carnage, and Toxin are all the known true symbiote spawns in Venom’s line present in the mainstream (616) Marvel universe. An event known only as “The Spawning” has been teased by both Rick Remender and Cullen Bunn (writers of the current ongoing Venom title), but the workings of the Spawning with the symbiotes is yet to be known to the general public. I assume it may be correlated to a species-wide, shared reproductive event involving the rapid spawning of more than one true spawn per reproducer. When the event does come about in the comics, I will update this piece on the events and how they fit into or change my definitions.

Toxin first mentioning the mysterious event known only as "The Spawning."

The reproducing “parent” symbiote and its spawn naturally antagonize each other to the point of homicidal intent. This is due in part to their violent nature and a struggle for precious nutritional resources. This murderous relationship can be thought of as a Darwinist one: a survival of the fittest between parent and offspring.

As to the other end of a symbiotic relationship, we shall now explore the benefits a host organism receives from a symbiote. Traditionally, a symbiote restricts the benefits it offers to its host to a minimum, preferring complete dominion with little to no resistance or compromise. A symbiote will keep its host alive long enough to extract the required nourishment, granting the host limited increases in required fields for the host to execute self-preservation and to protect the symbiote from harm and danger. Though the symbiote feeds on PEA, thusly reducing the host’s lifespan dramatically, the symbiote substitutes the loss of PEA with a synthesized substance to keep the host alive until the PEA has been completely extracted, resulting in a quick death for the host. The symbiote synthesizes and provides basic nutrition for its host, especially medical care in the form of an increased healing factor closely related to that exhibited in mutants such as Wolverine and Deadpool. Overall, symbiotes traditionally try to maintain their hosts’ status quo in health and well-being and care little, if at all, when the host dies after detachment. The value and quality of a symbiote’s care plays in the symbiote’s favor as well: the host organism becomes dependent and addicted to the symbiote’s “gifts,” and increased exposure to a symbiote makes it harder for a host to give up the bond, regardless of the symbiote’s true intent. The Venom symbiote and its offspring, however, are more caring about their hosts than the rest of their species (again, resulting from the psychological degeneration). This may also result from a stronger emotional attachment to their hosts, considering humanity’s emotional strength and influence. A notable example of this line’s stronger attachment to their hosts is the Venom symbiote’s selfless sacrifice for Spider-Man’s life; under this circumstance, a “normal” symbiote would have sacrificed its host to save itself.

In the end, what have I learned from all of my efforts to give the symbiotes continuity in their nature and biology? The powers-that-be at Marvel did not really put much thought into continuity about minor details back then. Not like über-fans like I do these days. (I’m not the only one…right?) I’m a detail junkie, and I love it when things and processes are explained. It’s like bringing fiction into reality, even if most people read fiction to escape reality. I began this effort because I wanted to understand what it would be like if symbiotes were actually real, and I’ve come to a logical conclusion: if symbiotes were real, we’d be lucky if we bonded to the “crazy” ones like Venom and its offspring. Symbiotes really are a violent, harsh, uncaring species, bent on self-preservation and domination. But they are cool as hell, too. So would I want symbiotes to be real? No. I’d prefer if they stayed in the pulps where they belong, and should be appreciated from a distance.

The Psycho-Logical Profile of Edward Brock

Guest Blogger OrionSTARB0Y brings us The Psycho-Logical Profile of Edward Brock:

Eddie Brock suffers primarily from a victimhood complex stemming from his relationship with his father. Carl blames Eddie for his wife’s death, and Eddie suffers with this dilemma when others tell him her death wasn’t his fault. Eddie was affected by Carl’s coldness, and strove to please his father any way he could, but never pleased Carl. Eddie’s later compulsion for bodybuilding stemmed from his football track record in high school—a sport Eddie took up in an attempt to please his father. Eddie’s only source of comfort from his childhood was from skateboarding with his friends, in which he excelled and enjoyed his friends’ praise. It should be noted, however, that even though Eddie was born into a wealthy family and has often tried to impress his father with success, true success has never been of much importance to Eddie. Rather, success, for him, brings recognition and praise, and not respect or security as is often of additional concern to those who seek wealth and success.

Eddie's victimhood complex at it's peak.

Eddie’s eagerness to impress often got him into or near trouble. Isolated cases include kidnapping a peer’s cat to return it as a hero during his adolescence, lying about an internship with the San Francisco Chronicle to be admitted into ESU, and concealing the (false) truth about the Sin Eater’s identity for his own gain.

Eddie’s victimhood complex became overindulged with the events that led to his departure from the Daily Globe. He saw himself as a victim of plight from the hands of Spider-Man, and became obsessed with hatred to the point of insanity and suicide. When he came in contact with the alien symbiote suit, the psychological melding of his and the symbiote’s consciousnesses unified and focused their hatred into a war and existence of vengeance.

The heroic horror.

Together, Eddie and the symbiote became Venom and obsessed over their victimhood, developing a warped view on innocence and its loss. Believing that Spider-Man had robbed them both of their innocence, Venom reversed the hero-villain roles between them and Spider-Man, giving rise to a hero complex of deadly magnitude. At one point, Venom indulged in their hero complex by returning to Eddie Brock’s hometown in San Francisco and establishing themselves as the city’s “Lethal Protector,” preying on whomever they deemed guilty and protecting, for the most part, the city’s homeless population. The extent of their manic obsession over innocence and its protection did not expand to those whom society would deem “good” (most often, being the case, the police force) if those same “good people” stood in Venom’s self-righteous path of vengeance and vigilantism. This landed Venom on the wrong side of the law, and though they had several moments of arguable “heroism,” their extreme methods deemed them a danger and enemy to the public.


Over time, Eddie’s victimhood complex has exhibited itself as a general refusal to accept responsibility. This is most evident in the events that led to Eddie’s transformation into Venom, as Eddie placed the blame for his own faults onto Spider-Man. After Eddie parted with the symbiote and resigned himself to his fate with the resurgence of his cancer, another series of events, involving the return of the Venom symbiote—then attached to fellow criminal, MacDonald “Mac” Gargan, a.k.a. the Scorpion—during an unprecedented attack on the F.E.A.S.T. soup kitchen Eddie volunteered in by the Thunderbolts, transformed Eddie into the Anti-Venom vigilante. Before this transformation, Eddie had been coming to terms with his impending death and making amends in retribution for the wrongs he had committed—the motivations for which stemmed primarily from his strong Roman Catholic ideology. When Eddie had learned that his cancer was mysteriously and miraculously cured by the unknowing hand of criminal mastermind Mr. Negative, he naturally took this as an ethereal sign for a second chance at life and reconciled himself to becoming a better man than he was before. During his transformation into the Anti-Venom, Spider-Man had joined him in fighting back Venom. With a new understanding and outlook for his life, Eddie forgave Spider-Man for his initial crime. It is believed that at that moment, Eddie had subtly accepted responsibility for his downfall before becoming Venom. If Eddie had accepted responsibility for all of the other wrongs he had committed as Venom is still unknown.

All it took was the perfect storm that was Spider-Island to push Eddie into the deep end.

Eddie’s emergence as the Anti-Venom was marked as a major turning point in his life. His new role as the amender of his greatest “sin”—the Venom symbiote—brought with it hope for growth. He still struggled with his violent tendencies—a reemergence of his Lethal Protector persona—but Eddie became markedly more responsible for his actions. However, a God complex dominated his new identity as his powers were nearly unrivaled. His faux symbiote exhibited none of a normal symbiote’s innate weaknesses and adopted a new power that could seemingly cure a human body of all foreign substances—including symbiotes. Combined with his strong Catholicism, Eddie launched a righteous war against all symbiotes. His God complex came to a climax during a viral breakout on Manhattan Island, the effects of which transformed humans, superhumans, and mutants alike into giant arachnoids. Eddie’s antibodies, fused with the faux symbiote, proved to be the only viable cure to the plague, and Eddie established himself in a church as the “Right Hand of God.” It is assumed that Eddie’s God complex was shattered when the Venom symbiote managed to briefly bond with him again while his faux symbiote was weakened from overuse during an operation in which Eugene “Flash” Thompson—a U.S. Government super spy endowed with the Venom symbiote—was ordered to bring Eddie to Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four to synthesize a cure to the plague. When Eddie finally surrendered and met with Richards, he valiantly sacrificed his faux symbiote to save Manhattan, validating his hero complex when he was recognized as the hero of the outbreak.

Agent Venom brings Eddie down from his altar.

Though his God complex had diminished, Eddie still carried out his religious war against the symbiotes with a strong religious fervor. However, when Eddie was captured by criminal mastermind Crime-Master and forced to bond with one of the Venom symbiote’s decedents, Toxin, Eddie suffered a traumatic blow to his psyche. When Agent Thompson failed to rescue him from the burning symbiote during their last battle, it is assumed Eddie has relapsed to his vengeful Venom persona, and that this time the target of his manic wrath is Agent Thompson. It is unknown at this time whether Eddie still carries with him his utter hatred for symbiotes, whom fuel his underlying victimhood complex, as his relationship with the Toxin symbiote cannot be determined; but one thing is for certain: Eddie Brock’s vendetta against the Venom symbiote will take on a new ferocity, regardless of whomever is bonded to it.

Eddie probably has 'Nam Flashbacks now when
Iron Man cruises overhead blaring "Back in Black."

A final note to take into consideration is an overarching theme to Eddie’s psychology besides his victimhood complex. The definition of a “symbiote” actually applies quite well to Eddie’s character: Eddie has proven that he cannot function well by himself and requires a companion to give him motivation. Yes, it can be argued that Eddie had functioned just fine during his cancer period between auctioning the Venom symbiote and transforming into the Anti-Venom, specifically after he had begun his volunteer work at F.E.A.S.T. But consider Eddie’s stability during the times he was not host to a symbiote: before he became Venom, Eddie desperately sought approval from his peers (especially from his father, as already discussed), and both considered and attempted suicide when he met with the hardship that led him to Our Lady of Saints that fateful day; during his stay at the hospital for his cancer treatment, Eddie attempted suicide again when he was convinced the Venom symbiote he had parted with still influenced him to do evil; and after he sacrificed his Anti-Venom faux symbiote, Eddie fanatically set out to commit genocide against the symbiote population on Earth with an immensely antisocial response. During his possession of the Venom symbiote, Eddie may have been psychologically unstable, but his motivations were more focused and less self-destructive than before and after playing host. During his time as Anti-Venom, Eddie’s motivation for killing all symbiotes was clear, but he still struggled with morality. But when Jenna Cole was introduced into his life and fought beside him in his war against corruption and crime, she served as a reminder of who he wanted to be. This was especially evident when he was separated from her for a brief time after she had been kidnapped: Eddie reverted to his more lethal vigilantism, bordering if not crossing into homicide. During these times of companionship, Eddie not only benefitted from his relationships psychologically and morally, but he provided relative (to the full extent of the adjective) psychological balance to the Venom symbiote and a moral example to Jenna, who, in return, stood as his moral example. In these examples, Eddie could be thought of as a “human symbiote”: functioning best when he is in a mutually beneficial relationship with a companion, whether the companion is a symbiote or human being.

Agent Venom & The U.S. Army

Hi TVS users, J.H. Stryker here (Freddie Block to long term users) and I’d like to tell you about some of the silly and sometimes unforgivable errors present throughout Venom's and Flash Thompson's adventures in regards to the U.S. Army.

Now before you yell me off the internet for nitpicking a comic book, I’d first like to tell you that I still enjoy these comics, I’ve been enjoying these comics since I was 8 years old and picked up Amazing Spider-Man 363 in the back of a long box. 

But now 10 years later I’ve graduated high-school and joined the Army, Armored Infantry is my MOS (MOS means job) oddly enough it’s the same job Flash Thompson had in Amazing Spider-Man 574 (An excellent and very accurate issue), unlike Thompson I’m only a lowly Private. Now being a Soldier myself I sometimes find myself pulled out from the comic by a stupid and easily avoided error.

I know comics are made on a short schedule and the writers don’t always have time to check every single thing they write, just like I don’t expect the artists to know exactly what the uniforms or guns should look like, I get that. And I’m willing to expand my suspension of disbelief a little bit because of that. But when I see Flash refer to himself as a Marine or do something a Soldier would never do, it puts me off a little bit to say the least.

These ‘mistakes’ as I will call them can be broken up into 3 categories: Artistic Mistakes, Writing Mistakes, and Plot mistakes. I tend to be more forgiving of artistic mistakes because hey shit happens and artists don’t always have time to go and look the way all kinds of things look, while most writing mistakes on the other hand can usually be solved by using Google. Plot mistakes are things that the comics portray the Army doing, which they would never do, considering this is a comic book and most characters aside from the Hero are usually relegated to bumbling morons so he can save the day you would probably expect a lot of these, you’d be surprised.


Artistic Mistakes

Surprisingly there aren’t that many artistic mistakes to be found throughout Agent Venoms 57 issue career. Still his record isn’t spotless take this example from Amazing Spider-Man 648.

What does that even mean Indeed Mr.Parker

What USMC stands for is United States Marine Corps. Flash Thompson is a Soldier part of the United States Army. The Army and The Marines are two very different things and they don’t exactly like each other. Military rivalry is similar to the way a Dodgers fan would treat an Angels fan except multiplied by ten-thousand. The only way a Soldier would be caught dead in a USMC shirt is if he lost the mother of all bets. Now being as Flash Thompson is a Marvel character and Marvel isn’t exactly known for their flawless continuity I went back and checked if Flash was ever in the Marines, he wasn’t. The only other time he was in the Military was when he joined the Army during Vietnam. The fact that Thompson served in both Vietnam and Iraq is an issue for another day.

So I guess we can write this off as Flash losing a bet. I could continue to nitpick and point out things like that the Army would force Mackenzie to shave his hippie hair or things like that. But I would rather move on to some real mistakes.


Writing Mistakes 

I know that most comic book writers haven’t served in the military and the closest they’ve come to it is watching Saving Private Ryan but the way they write military characters is ridiculous.

These words literally mean nothing

To be honest the above example doesn’t annoy me very much, I actually find it kind of funny. I don’t really expect writers to look up military phrases id just prefer they just try not to use them. But not all mistakes are as harmless as that.

For example the word Jarhead, it’s a word Remender used often and for reasons unknown to me. Jarhead is used to describe a member of the Marines, once again Flash is a soldier. The thing that weirds me out about this is if you don’t know the meaning of a word why use it?

Apparently the Marvel office doesn’t have Internet.

Plot Mistakes 

Now to most people continuing to use an alien symbiote which already took over and caused you to kill one Soldier might seem a little stupid, that’s because it is. But if you think this is the part where I tell you that the Army would never do something that stupid, you’re wrong.

While I do love the Army and the opportunities it’s given me I’m not going to come out and defend its intelligence, because just like there’s Army Strong, there’s also Army Stupid. You see when the Army makes a decision it usually comes down from some guy up top whose unfamiliar with the whole picture thinking he’s got a great idea and then ordering people to follow through with it, and because of chain of command no one’s going to tell him he’s a goddamn moron for thinking he can contain and use an alien symbiote which has killed more people than Operation: Desert Storm.

What could go wrong?

Honestly if the Army had access to Symbiotes they probably would use them. If anything they would probably do a lot more than what General Dodge and Project Rebirth used Venom for.

The main plot problems with the idea of taking a soldier and having him use the Venom Symbiote lies more with the fact that they would never choose Flash Thompson to be the one to do it. He was Armored Infantry, not Special Forces not a Ranger. They’d probably do something more like Mercury Team from Carnage USA which was a group of Navy Seals and other Special Forces.

This time the USMC shirt isn’t a mistake

They wouldn’t use some random grunt with a crush on Spider-Man. Aside from that though the things the Army does with the Symbiote are pretty believable, that is for a world in which super-powered men dressed in spandex fight crime.

Closing Thoughts

Do	Don’t
Use the words Hooah, Roger, or any of the lines from Aliens Insult the Marines at any opportunity possible Bring back Anti-Venom	Call Flash a Jarhead, Devil Dog or any variation of Marine Make up Military jargon, if you want to say something just say it in laymans terms. Bring back Mac Gargan

With all that being said, I still enjoy reading these comics and I hope you enjoyed this post. In case a Mr. Bunn happens to stumble across this I would like to give him a little list of do’s and don’ts.