Venom is one of Spider-Man's most popular – and most powerful – enemies. A villain turned anti-hero turned hero, he has battled against a who's who of the Marvel Universe. However, while the Venom symbiote was one of the most popular Marvel characters for many years, he was not the only symbiote to appear in the comic book line.
Venom wasn't even the strongest of the symbiotes that would come throughout the years. Marvel created Carnage to show there was a symbiote stronger than both Spider-Man and Venom – prompting the two rivals to team up and neutralize the threat. When Marvel created offspring for Venom and Carnage, the world of symbiotes was destined to become crazier as it grew larger.
Updated on March 30, 2022 by Scoot Allan: The popularity of Venom, Carnage and the ever-growing family of symbiotes has continued to increase over the years, with more symbiotic characters appearing in the comics every few storylines. This has resulted in quite a large extended family of symbiotes, each with slightly different abilities and talents that make some of them stand out. This can create an ongoing debate over which symbiote could be considered the most powerful, which can be difficult with so many different symbiotes in the Marvel universe.
34 Dr. Karl Malus Was Turned Into A Symbiote/Human Hybrid After He Was Eaten And Digested By Carnage
While he was normally a villain to characters like Captain America, Dr. Karl Malus briefly teamed with a group of villains to form a new Frightful Four. After they attempted to bond with and control the hostless Carnage symbiote using technology, it turned on the team and nearly killed them all. Carnage even consumed Dr. Karl Malus whole, though the character later reappeared.
Dr. Malus had been transformed by the symbiote into a new hybrid that reworked his genetic makeup and gave him the ability to shape-shift and create symbiotic tendrils like Carnage, though to a lesser extent. Although he is one of the least powerful symbiotes that have appeared, he is one of the most unique versions of the symbiotes fans have ever seen.
33 Deadpool Was Revealed To Have Briefly Bonded With The Venom Symbiote On More Than One Occasion
While it is intriguing to wonder how powerful a version of Deadpool bonded to the Venom symbiote might be, this is something fans won't really ever know. The only reason anyone knows about a Deadpool Venom is because Wade Wilson said something about it.
It was eventually revealed Deadpool was the first Earth hero to bond with the Venom symbiote on Battleworld in Secret Wars before later rejecting it. In Deadpool: Back in Black, the two had a small fling and went on a battle together before Venom found Eddie Brock. There was also a character known as Venompool from Earth-90211 who appeared in Deadpool Kills Deadpool #2.
32 Phage Was One Of The Life Foundation Symbiotes Who Eventually Took On The Role Of A Hunter
Phage should have been a much stronger symbiote. Phage had the strength and power of the Venom symbiote and could create Carnage-styled knives from his hands. However, Phage later took on a mercenary as a host and tried to act as the leader of the Life Foundation's team of symbiotes.
In the end Phage proved less powerful than Carnage or Venom and he lost his position of power to Scream. Phage eventually took over a dog becoming its new host and delighted in its new life as a hunter. Phage later fell under the control of Carnage's new symbiote hive mind and was forced to bond with a new host.
31 Lasher Was Another Life Foundation Symbiote That Was Able To Create Powerful Whip-Like Tendrils
While most of the Life Foundation symbiotes were alternate versions of Venom (mostly weaker than the original), Lasher powers gave him more of an edge. Lasher has unique weapon with whip-like tendrils which are very powerful and lethal – something fitting of his name.
Sadly, like the other Life Foundation members, the mercenary host Ramon Hernandez was never able to fully control his symbiote and fell in Separation Anxiety. Lasher was later enhanced and bonded with a soldier as part of the Mercury Team before it was forced to join Carnage's hive-mind in the Extreme Carnage event.
30 Four Of The Life Foundation Symbiotes Bonded With A Former Guardsman To Become Hybrid
After Separation Anxiety's conclusion and Scream's departure from Life Foundation, the remaining symbiotes were captured and taken to the Raft. A Guardsman named Scott Washington saw the symbiotes being experimented on. Although he was initially indifferent to their plight, he later felt their pain and helped the symbiotes escape.
The symbiotes combined to form one extremely powerful symbiote known as Hybrid, sought out Scott Washington, and bonded with him. Washington used the Hybrid symbiote to take revenge on the gang that had left him paralyzed and had killed his little brother. Washington hoped to become a hero, but he was eventually killed by Eddie Brock during the former Venom's symbiote-hunting phase.
29 Raze Was Created By A Darkhold-Enhanced Carnage And Bonded To A Well-Trained FBI Agent
Raze had more powers than most of the children of Venom and Carnage. As one of Carnage's offspring, she was stronger than any of Venom's. Raze bonded with FBI agent Claire Dixon, acquiring additional skills and access to all the classified information in the agent's brain.
Employing her newfound resources, Raze could use her powers to create weapons. Coupled with her cunning intellect, Raze was as intelligent as she was dangerous. Unfortunately, Raze's impact was short-lived – sacrificed in the final battle against a Chthon-powered Carnage.
28 Payback Was An Electricity-Generating Symbiote Who Appeared Alongside The Short-Lived True Believers
Payback redefined the definition of Marvel's symbiote. Payback was sleek and looked more like a machine than a symbiote. Her powers were different, feeding not on adrenaline as other symbiotes did, but on pleasure.
Payback merged with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and worked as a hero on the True Believers team. She had many of the same powers as other symbiotes but could also fly and generate electricity. Payback was an original character who truly stood out. However, she never really made a splash and the origins of her symbiote were never fully explored after the disappearance of the True Believers.
27 Lee Price Was A Short-Lived Venom Before Stealing A New Symbiote And Becoming A Symbiote Gang-Controlling Maniac
Lee Price hosted the Venom symbiote for a short time when it was desperate for a host. Price was a former Army Ranger who became an enforcer for Mac Gargan. He was about to be killed when the symbiote saved him and attempted to bond.
However, Price was able to exert his control over the symbiote and dominated it, forcing Venom to kill until it was able to escape him and rejoin with Eddie Brock. Price later stole the Mania symbiote from Andi Benton and bonded with it becoming Maniac. During the Venom, Inc. storyline, Price spread the symbiote around his gang so he could control them.
26 Agony Was One Of The Weakest Life Foundation Symbiotes Until She Was Infected By The Carnage Symbiote
There were two female symbiotes in the Life Foundation. Scream was the most powerful of all the symbiotes created there. The second female was Agony, was sadly, just a female Venom. Agony ws a purple symbiote that merged with Leslie Gesneria, a security officer.
Agony was one of the main Life Foundation members who tried to get Eddie Brock to help them learn to control their symbiotes. Tragically, she was also the first to fall during the Separation Anxiety storyline. However, Agony later bonded with a woman named Gemma Chin and allowed herself to be infected by Carnage to further increase their power level.
25 Dr. Tanis Nieves Was Bonded With A Techno-Organic Spawn Of Carnage Named Scorn
Dr. Tanis Nieves had an experimental prosthetic arm created by advanced technology and was temporarily bonded to the Carnage symbiote. While the two were bonded, Carnage spawned a new symbiote Scorn. The new symbiote took root in the doctor's prosthetic and developed new technopathic abilities, allowing Scorn to interface and bond with technology.
Scorn helped Spider-Man defeat Carnage by separating him from his latest host – but she couldn't do it without the help of Shriek. Scorn later helped bring about the return of Carnage along with a cult of followers, though it cost her life.
24 Venom 2099 Was A Mutated Version Of The Symbiote With Advanced Abilities That Bonded With Kron Stone In The Future
By 2099, the Venom symbiote had mutated and developed additional powers, including the ability to create acidic saliva and blood. This evolved symbiote was also smarter and much more dangerous. However, its host in 2099 was Kron Stone, who simply wanted to use the symbiote to torture Spider-Man 2099.
Kron bonded with the Venom symbiote molecularly, meaning Kron was capable of the extreme shape-shifting feats signature to symbiotes even in his human form. When Kron fell in battle, the symbiote attached itself to the Sub-Mariner of the future and disappeared before reappearing in an Alchemax lab.
23 Venomsaurus Rex Was A Giant Dinosaur Bonded To The Venom Symbiote In Old Man Logan's Future
The symbiote is strong on its own. Now, imagine the symbiote attached to a giant T-Rex in the future. That is what happened in Old Man Logan when Logan and Hawkeye found themselves chased by the giant Venomsaurus Rex.
With the villains taking over the United States, things were bad enough. The Multiple Man had been the most recent host of Venom's but when he was defeated in the Savage Land, the symbiote bonded to the T-Rex – a monster so powerful, it took the power of Black Bolt to defeat it. While Venomsaurus Rex had a size advantage, it wasn't the smartest host and was sometimes more bark than bite.
22 The Amalgam Universe Introduced A Mixture Of Powerful Villains Known as Bizarnage
Bizarnage is from Earth-9602 and exists in the Amalgam universe, which combined Marvel and DC Comics. The byproduct of Project Cadmus' attempts to replicate alien DNA synthetically, Bizarnage is the combination of Carnage and Bizarro.
After Reed Richards set Bizarnage free, it attached itself to Johnny Storm who wreaked havoc until Spider-Boy stopped him. Bizarnage possessed most of Carnage's abilities and could graft onto any human host, though he had a single-minded desire to bond with Spider-Boy.
21 Riot Was Given A Powerful Boost When He Was Reimagined As The Villain Of The First Venom Movie
It's interesting that the Venom movie chose Riot as its main villain. Out of all the Life Foundation symbiotes, Riot seemed the least inspired and tended to rank at the bottom of the list. However, thanks to the movie, Riot received a second chance at life and was extremely powerful when battling Venom throughout the film.
In the movie, Riot was not a child of Venom but was an alien that arrived on Earth at the same time as Venom. Furthermore, Riot was more equipped for battle and proved to be stronger than Venom every step of the way. It wasn't until Eddie Brock and his symbiote combined their willpower to trick Riot that they secured their victory.
20 Mayhem Was A Symbiotic Clone Of May "Mayday" Parker/Spider-Girl From The Futuristic MC2 Timeline
In the futuristic MC2 reality, May "Mayday" parker followed in her father's footsteps as Spider-Girl and later Spider-Woman. She eventually learned she had been cloned as a baby by Norman Osborn, who had transformed her into a symbiote hybrid that contained his memories.
Spider-Woman was eventually released and took on the name of April Parker, however, her symbiotic nature took over and she transformed into the evil Mayhem. She had the same powers as Spider-Girl as well as those of the symbiote, allowing her to form weapons out of her body like both Venom and Carnage.
19 Zzzxx Is A Parasitic Symbiote Living In The Shi'Ar Empire That Controlled Its Hosts Before Consuming Them Entirely
Zzzxx was one of the worst villains to ever exist according to the Shi'ar Empire. The Zzzxx symbiote could control the brains of its hosts while it fed on their bodies, consuming them entirely. The psychopathic symbiote was captured by the Shi'ar Empire who'd discovered it could never perish and determined containing the symbiote was their only course of action.
However, when Vulcan took over the Shi'ar empire he released a number of dangerous prisoners to serve as his new Imperial Guard, including Zzzxx. The symbiote took over the Starjammer known as Raza and began to slowly feed off of him while using his body to fight against his former teammates. Raza was eventually freed and recovered from the Zzzxx symbiotes' powers.
18 Scream Was The Only Life Foundation Symbiote To Go Solo And Bond With A Few Different Hosts Over The Years
At first, Scream was just another member of the Life Foundation. Over time she proved to be the strongest of them all and eventually pushed her way into a leadership role. Scream became increasingly dangerous after bonding with Donna Diego, someone already suffering from mental health problems.
Scream became a psychotic symbiote and turned on her own kind while also trying to prove she never needed any of them. When Scream's host was killed by Eddie Brock, the symbiote bonded with former Venom Patricia Richardson before ultimately bonding with Andi Benton following her time with the Mania symbiote.
17 Ultimate Venom Didn't Have The Same Abilities But Was Physically Stronger Than The Mainstream Version
The Ultimate version of Venom was not an alien symbiote but was instead something created by Richard Parker and Eddie Brock Sr. as an advanced healing suit. After Brock passed, his son wanted to continue working on his dad's project and developed a hatred for Peter Parker when he destroyed the samples of the suit.
That didn't stop Eddie and he finally achieved bonding with Venom. In the Ultimate Universe, Venom didn't have all the powers of the mainstream version, but it was much, much stronger — causing its various hosts to become unstable.
16 Mac Gargan Was Bonded To The Venom Symbiote But Couldn't Control Its Hunger Without A Special Serum
Mac Gargan was never much of a threat before he bonded with the Venom symbiote. Gargan was the Scorpion, a villain so minor he really didn't even deserve the ranking of a B-level villain. He mostly served as someone Spider-Man could easily beat or someone who was the weak member of the Sinister Six.
Marvel decided to elevate Mac Gargan's threat level by making him Venom on both the Thunderbolts and the Dark Avengers. Gargan never properly bonded with the symbiote and had trouble controlling its anger and hunger — requiring a special serum from Norman Osborn to control it.
15 Conrad Marcus Was A Former Oscorp Scientist Who Bonded With The Symbiote Becoming The Second Ultimate Venom
Conrad Marcus was the second man in the Ultimate Marvel Universe to take on the Venom symbiote after Eddie Brock. However, unlike Brock, Marcus stole the symbiote and used it as a power play, seeking to end the life of that world's Spider-Man.
In addition to his larger size, Marcus was just as powerful as Eddie Brock was before him, making him significantly stronger than Miles Morales. Although Marcus had a single-minded goal, he had no idea who Spider-Man was and didn't last long before falling in defeat to Miles' venom blasts.