Venom Movie Is Changing Villains The Five Symbiotes

Sony's Venom movie will introduce viewers to the Five Symbiotes - but the film has switched them up pretty dramatically. The Five Symbiotes were created by David Michelinie back in 1993, as the villains of the Venom: Lethal Protector miniseries. In the comics, the symbiotes were created when the sinister Life Foundation realized the Venom symbiote could spawn "children." They captured Venom, and forcibly extracted five symbiote "seeds." These seeds hatched, and each took a host, becoming one of the Life Foundation's symbiote warriors.

The Five Symbiotes have never been major characters - in fact, only one of them was even named in Venom: Lethal Protector, with the others given code-names by an action figure range. They've remained background characters over the decades, with several of the symbiotes moving from host to host.

Venom appears to be weaving the Five Symbiotes into an origin story, so it's not surprising to see a number of key changes. The most obvious example is that all of the symbiotes - including Venom - now came to Earth together, crashing upon the planet in an alien spacecraft. But there are a lot more subtle changes too. Here, we examine the most surprising ones.

This Page: Changes Colors and Powers
Page 2: Changes to Scream, Riot, and Toxin

The Powers of the Five Symbiotes Have Been Switched Up

In the comics, every one of the Five Symbiotes has their own distinctive and unusual power. Scream, for example, can generate a so-called "sonic knife," and uses her hair-like tendrils to choke her foes. Agony can absorb chemicals into herself - even including Spider-Man's webbing - and has an acid spit. Phage prefers to form his symbiote into long, serrated blades and axes, while Riot tends to opt for hammers and maces. Lasher, rounding the team out, likes to create tentacle-like tendrils on his back, whipping them out at his enemies. Although the symbiotes have switched hosts many times, they've always had their own characteristic powersets - like a trademark, if you will.

We don't yet know whether all five of the symbiotes will appear in Venom, but the trailers have made it clear that the powers have been switched up. In one scene, Riot transforms his arms into deadly axes, and launches a terrifying attack upon the Life Foundation. That move isn't typical for Riot. He usually prefers to form blunt-edged weapons, while Phage is the symbiote with a preference for blades and axes. In another scene, Scream projects a blast of deadly, razor-sharp projectiles from her back, tearing apart enemies who intended to attack her from behind. That particular trick is adapted from Lasher's playbook.

It looks as though the idea of a trademark powerset has been ditched, with each symbiote possessing similar abilities. The only exception seems to be Riot, who will be a unique symbiote, preferring to jump from person to person rather than possess a single host.

The Five Symbiote Colors Have Changed

Outside of behavioral changes, there's also a visual difference. In the comics, each one of the Five Symbiotes has a distinguishing color. This allows artists and colorists to differentiate between the symbiotes in an action sequence. But Sony has chosen to switch this up a bit, with the symbiotes defaulting to black, albeit with different colored "veins" running through them. Riot's are red, a marked contrast with his deep blue color scheme from the comics.

Page 2: Changes to Scream, Riot, and Toxin

Scream Has A Different Origin

Scream looks to play an important part in Venom. If you watch the latest trailer carefully, you'll note that a number of scenes are set in Asia rather than San Francisco. As a result, it's possible to reconstruct Scream's big-screen origin - and it's very different to the one she has in the comics.

An alien spaceship has crashlanded somewhere in Asia, one that contains multiple symbiote samples. One of these is the Scream symbiote, and it seems to possess one of the emergency services' first respondents. Presumably collapsing in some way, the victim is rushed away in an ambulance - only to escape after murdering the ambulance driver. She makes her way into the city, and then sets out on a devastating killing spree, murdering some with a bladed weapon and others with spikes that she blasts from her back. She's subsequently captured by the Life Foundation, though, as Scream is the woman discovered by Eddie Brock when he breaks in. In the comics, Scream is just another one of the Life Foundation's experiments. This is a very different origin story for the character.

Carlton Drake Becomes Riot

Venom's key villain is a ruthless symbiote named Riot. In Venom, the symbiotes themselves have an agenda and a personality, moreso than they've ever had in the comics. Riot's agenda is uncertain at this stage, but what is known is that the creature jumps from host to host, like a predator tracking its prey. It also seems to rejoice in death and destruction; one key scene showed Riot reveling in its onslaught upon the Life Foundation.

By the end of the film, Riot will have bonded with Dr. Carlton Drake, the man in charge of the Life Foundation. It's unclear why Riot seeks out this particular host, but it's an effective way of bringing the film's two bad guys - one symbiote, the other human - together. After all, Carlton Drake shows every sign of being a sociopath in his own right, believing that the ends justify the means and that it doesn't matter who dies in order to secure humanity's future.

In the comics, Carlton Drake was never a host for a symbiote. His motives were actually very different to those of the Venom movie, too; the comic book version of Drake was a businessman who believed the world was doomed to end in nuclear war. He saw a unique opportunity, and formed the Life Foundation as a way out for the rich and famous. If they could afford it, they could gain a place in one of the Life Foundation's bunkers. Ironically enough, for all he intended to outlive the apocalypse, Drake was ultimately diagnosed with cancer. His body ravaged by tumors, Drake focused on an experimental mutagenic technology to reverse the cancer. Although the cancer was reversed, it was destined to recur. The villain hasn't been seen in the comics since 1995, so presumably he ultimately died of the illness.

Toxin is in the Venom Movie

Finally, the trailer also revealed that one of the Life Foundation's symbiotes is a being named Toxin - a character who's never been associated with the Life Foundation. In the comics, Toxin was potentially the most powerful symbiote of them all, sired by Carnage himself. Carnage desperately resisted the biological imperative to sire a new symbiote, but was unable to do so; he bonded the symbiote to the first unwilling host to pass by, a police officer who investigated the ruckus. Officer Patrick Mulligan was a deeply moral man who refused to surrender to his symbiote's bloodlust. He became the one symbiote Spider-Man has acknowledged as an ally. The decision to make Toxin one of Venom's Five Symbiotes is a surprising one, and raises the question of whether or not this particular symbiote will actually prove to be an ally to Venom, rather than a foe.

It's interesting, to say the least, that Sony would mix and match the characteristics of The Five Symbiotes in this way, considering a more comic accurate portrayal would still contain all the elements Venom is looking for. Still, much about the symbiotes in the movie is still shrouded in mystery, so there may be a few surprises in store yet.