Warning! This article contains spoilers for King In Black: Scream #1
Marvel revealed their greatest symbiote hero in one of the latest King In Black crossover comics, and it’s not Venom. Andi Benton A.K.A. Scream battles the Lord of the Abyss one-on-one in her latest issue and gives the intergalactic god a run for his money. During the fight, Scream shows off her considerable power level which is extra impressive when considering her godly opponent. While Scream shares some of the powers fans saw her use in her latest book with Venom, the origins of those abilities are what make her more powerful, including one that is completely separate from Andi’s symbiote.
In King In Black: Scream #1 by Clay McLeod Chapman with art by Garry Brown and Rachelle Rosenberg, Scream is hunting a demonic entity summoned to Earth and imbued with the essence of a murdered symbiote by Carnage in the Absolute Carnage story arc who is known as Demagoblin. Demagoblin is seen kidnapping children and turning them into brainwashed cultists following her every demand. Scream attempts to stop Demagoblin, fighting her through the city and freeing the children along the way. During the battle, Scream grows a pair of symbiote wings, similar to what Venom was able to achieve in Venom Vol. 4 #5, and uses that advantage to defeat Demagoblin and bring the fight to an end, unfortunately, the fight didn’t end with Demagoblin.
The King in Black is drawn to Scream as she has proven herself to be an adversary of the symbiote god since the days of Absolute Carnage. Knull means to end Scream and the symbiote’s “host”, Andi, once and for all. While Scream can do little more than run away from the King in Black and his Grendels at first, it isn’t until the symbiote pulls back where their true power shines. Thanks to a previously worn symbiote, Andi Benton has a Hell-Mark, meaning she can summon hellfire similar to Ghost Rider. The hellfire Andi controls is enough to melt half of Knull’s face after he tries to kill Andi and Scream himself and eventually leads the King in Black to retreat altogether.
The powers Scream exhibits in King In Black: Scream #1 are significant for multiple reasons. While Venom has been able to sprout wings in the past as fans just saw Scream show off, Venom had to be tapped into Knull's hive mind to achieve that level of power whereas Scream conjures her wings without the help of the King in Black’s dark influence. Stepping away from symbiotic powers for a moment, Scream also has the ability to summon hellfire, an ability that ironically came from a piece of the Venom symbiote itself. When Venom was bonded with Flash Thompson and was known as Agent Venom, he and a group of other anti-heroes battled Blackheart in Las Vegas where the symbiote received a Hell-Mark. After Flash gave Andi a piece of the Venom symbiote to save her life, the Hell-Mark carried over and settled into Andi permanently even after taking on the Scream symbiote.
Taking a look at Scream and Venom side by side throughout the King In Black storyline, it is easy to see who is the more powerful between the two. Eddie Brock fought the King in Black and had his symbiote ripped from his body, then was thrown off a building and later died. Benton went toe-to-toe with the Lord of the Abyss and by the end of the battle, she had him running away scared. The higher power level exhibited by Scream compared to Venom plus their respective encounters with Knull leaving Venom defeated and Scream victorious proves that Marvel has indeed revealed their greatest symbiote hero in the King In Black, and it’s not Venom.