Symbiotes are arguably some of the most horrifying
creatures to be established in comic books. Not only are they unique in characterization,
but the Klyntars have a very specific aesthetic that makes them stand out in comparison to
other fearsome creatures found in our favourite panels. So today, we’ll be counting down our picks
for the top 10 scariest symbiotes! We’ll be talking about symbiotes who are
not only scary in terms of their actions or behaviour, but also pretty darn petrifying
to look at. So with that in mind, let’s jump in! 10 Venom
I sometimes feel a little bit bad about these symbiote lists; Venom, whose sort of the poster
boy for the Klyntar race, often ends up in early on in our lists. Yes, he’s powerful, but compared to his
offspring, thanks to the genetic rules of his race, he isn’t the strongest Klyntar
on the block. And in terms of being the scariest, well,
despite making one hell of an impression when he first hit the scene beyond being just an
alien costume back in April of 1988 in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 299 and 300, he was
utterly terrifying. These days, as an anti-hero, the character
is arguably one of the more scarier looking superheroes of the Marvel universe. But Venom, and Todd McFarlane, are largely
to thank for the horrific aesthetic of the other Klyntar characters that will be appearing
on our list coming up; the symbiotes have become utterly iconic and unmistakable in
terms of appearance, and that’s a legacy that continues to preserver in comics to this
day. 9 Hybrid
Hybrid ain’t a pretty amalgamation, that’s for sure. Hybrid is a combination of four of Venom’s
offspring: Agony, Phage, Lasher and Riot. Having previously appeared in the Venom Lethal
Protector series back in 1993, these symbiotes went through a bit of a rough time after they
were defeated by Eddie Brock, and found themselves in the Vault, a prison for super villains,
being experimented on in a lab facility. After they had broken out of confinement,
they fused together into a single symbiote and bonded with a host named Scott Washington,
who was a guard at the Vault. They would later be defused, but would end
up fusing once more during the Deadpool vs Carnage series, defeating Carnage and then
passing from Deadpool to a dog that had been trained to bond with Lasher. 8 Krobaa
Krobaa is likely the least known symbiote on our list, but just one look at it screams
frightening. So Krobaa is an entity that comes from the
pits of darkness, naturally. It bonded with a scientist and drives him
mad, causing him to go on a rampage of New York (which, when you really think about it,
is unsurprisingly common in the Marvel Universe it seems). It’s also one of the only symbiote characters
to appear in the comics that doesn’t have some sort of familial connection to Venom,
and isn’t one of his offsprings, first appearing in Venom Seed of Darkness in 1997. But, despite it’s appearance, it went down
in a pretty lack lustre way, being defeated by Eddie Brock thanks to the flash on his
camera. Jeez. 7 Riot
Riot is one of the symbiotes who makes up our previous number, Hybrid, but he’s arguably
scarier on his own. The character, who first appeared in Lethal
Protector, came to be after the Life Foundation removed multiple offspring from Venom in hopes
to use them as super soldiers. Riot, along with his siblings, were bonded
to various mercenaries that worked for the foundation, with his being Trevor Cole. Trevor was particularly volatile, described
by his peers to be unhinged, thus making Riot a much more violent and vicious symbiote compared
to his siblings, which is saying a lot. Riot would later bond with a new host in hunting
down Carnage, a group formed by the government after being retrieved from his Hybrid state,
which would eventually lead him and his siblings into encountering Deadpool. Riot will also be making his cinematic debut
in this year’s Venom movie, bonding with Riz Ahmed’s Doctor Carlton Drake, who runs
the Life Foundation. The character’s origins will obviously be
slightly altered, being with a different host, but since the Venom movie is removed from
the symbiote’s Spider-Man alien costume storyline, that should be no surprise. 6 Venomsaurus Rex
What happens when a T-Rex bonds with a Klyntar? This big fella, that’s what. While some of you might be like, push, dinosaurs
are cool! Consider how utterly horrific it would be
to come face to face with not only a real live dinosaur, but one with the blood lust
of a Klyntar symbiotic. Real life dinosaur, count me on board, but
one that wants to eat my brains for sustenance? Yeah, I might pass. There’s not a whole lot to say about the
Venomsaurus Rex, aside from the fact that it’s a symbiote who was bonded with a savage
t-rex, and has made a handful of appearances in the Marvel universe over the years, including
in the Venomverse, and Old Man Logan. 5 Scream
Scream fits the bill as one of the scariest symbiotes for both being aesthetically chilling
and straight up bat s*** crazy. For starters, Scream was another of the Venom
offspring characters to first appear in Lethal Protector. But unlike her four other siblings, she would’ve
survive into the later Hybrid plot lines. Rather, she was killed off in Venom vol 1
issue 15 in 2012 after Eddie Brock began to hunt down symbiotes, trapped her by paralyzing
her with a sonic emitter, and then stabbed her multiple times in the head with a heated
dagger. Forget symbiotes, Eddie Brock should be at
the top of this list! Dude gets gruesome at times. Anywho, Scream’s host Donna had a history
of psychotic episodes prior to her becoming one of the Life foundation’s hosts. After bonding with Scream, she attacked a
mall in California, and was initially defeated by Venom and Spider-Man thanks to a metabolic
accelerator. The Life Foundation managed to recover her
and her siblings, though, and later, she returned, killing the hosts of the other symbiotes with
a powerful psychic ability (thanks to Donna’s schizophrenia apparently), and framed Eddie
Brock for all of their murders, which pissed off her symbiote siblings quite a bit. 4 Mania
Mania, also known as Maniac in later years, is one of the most vicious symbiotes to date. A clone of Venom’s, specifically his tongue,
this symbiote was initially created as a means of exterminating all life on Earth, but refused
to bond with any of the hosts it was exposed to. Instead of bonding, Mania would brutally maul
and murder each of these potential hosts for fun. At one point, it comes into contact with a
perspective host who is a prison inmate, who manages to reject the symbiote. So how does Mania react? By bonding with an elderly mental patient
and taunting the inmate about how he was raped in prison, and then proceeding to reenact
the event before murdering him. All in all, pretty f***ed up character, yeah? Mania would go on to mass murder a bunch of
individuals before a new host by the name of Lee Price took over the symbiote and reshaped
it, calling themselves Maniac instead. 3 Grendel
Grendel, compared to some of the other characters on this list, hasn’t had a whole lot of
panel time. But that doesn’t make Grendel any less terrifying. So this creature is a dragon symbiotic that
was a servant of Knull. More of Knull later. Grendel would take on Eddie Brock’s Venom
and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man in the 2018 Venom run, volume 4. Grendel has the blood of multiple civilizations
on his, well, teeth? It ravaged societies during the earlier medieval
period, including Norse soldiers, which caused Thor to trap it inside a glacier. Flash forward to 1966, SHIELD discovered it,
and ran many experiment on it, which ultimately led to a bunch of destruction in Vietnam during
the war. It would later be incapacitated and put to
sleep until it was awakened by Knull and unleashed on New York. To make matters worse, this symbiote dragon
isn’t affected by sonic waves or heat, and rather, was defeated thanks to Thor’s lightning
and Spider-Man’s venom blast, which caused it to destabilize and unravel into a giant
amorphous mass. 2 Knull
Knull may not look as scary as any of our previous numbers on our list initially, but
it’s more so his capabilities that make him utterly terrifying. Knull is often considered as the symbiote
god. He’s the deity that created the klyntars
(an origin that was crafted in that 2018 Venom run). So long story short, Knull’s existence predates
that of the universe’s. Back when the Celestials created the universe,
Knull had some serious beef with them, and fought against them with a living sword called
the All-Black that was created from his shadow. He chopped off one of their heads, and was
cast back into the void by the other Celestials in retaliation. But Knull used that severed celestial head
to forge a symbiote sword and symbiotic armour, right from the eldritch darkness that he commanded,
and set out on a mission to kill all of the other gods. When coming out of the void, he landed on
a desolate planet, and created an army of symbiotes, who would later rebel against them;
they imprisoned him in the core of their planet, which they would call Klyntar, which is their
word for cage. So if that isn’t enough to vouch for why
he’s scary, dude is a literal god, who has divine physiology, is self-sustaining, immortal
andhas lived for over 13.7 billion years, can shape shift, create life, and also wants
to commit mass god genocide. So yeah, not an overly pleasant being to encounter. 1 Carnage
Well, Carnage may not be able to compete with a god in terms of power, but it would be criminal
to not give the symbiote the top spot on our list. He’s by far the most terrifying, nefarious
and sinister of the symbiotes, and has the aesthetic to match it. Carnage has one of the more interesting stories
of the symbiotes in the Marvel universe. Eddie Brock had landed himself in prison at
one point, and had the unfortunate experience of having an individual named Cletus Kasady
as his cell mate. Kasady was a psychotic murderer, serving 11
life sentences at the time. Now at this point, it was believed that the
Venom symbiote was dead, but turns out it was just incapacitated, and bonded with Eddie
once more, allowing him to break out of prison. But, without Eddie knowing, Venom had done
something; it left behind one of its spawn in the prison, which ended up bonding with
Casady, making him the 999th naturally born symbiotic. Thus Carnage was born, and he was bigger and
much badder than Venom. Casady, being such a ruthless and contemptuous
killer, made Carnage even more so, and over a period of several months he would go on
a killing spree leaving the words Carnage Rules in blood at the scenes of crimes. Carnage has been a long lasting character
in the Venom mythos, an antagonist character always trying to kill his father since first
appearing in Amazing Spider-Man issue 345 back in 1991. There we have it friends! Do you agree with our picks? Or do you think there’s other Klyntars out
there much more deserving? And which ones give you the heebe jee-bees? Give us a shout in those comments below and
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