Symbiote (comics)
The Klyntar (colloquial: Symbiotes) are a fictional species of extraterrestrial symbiotes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Symbiotes bond with their hosts, creating a symbiotic bond through which a single entity is created. They also are able to slightly alter their hosts' personalities, and/or memories by influencing their darkest desires and wants, along with amplifying their physical and emotional traits and personality, granting them super-human abilities.

The symbiotes have appeared in various media. Venom appears in Spider-Man 3 and Venom, along with other symbiotes. A version of All-Black the Necrosword also appears in Thor: Ragnarok, part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Publication history 
The first appearance(s) of a symbiote occurs in The Amazing Spider-Man #252, The Spectacular Spider-Man #90, and Marvel Team-Up #141 (released concurrently in May 1984), in which Spider-Man brings one home to Earth after the Secret Wars (Secret Wars #8, which was released months later, details of his first encounter with it). The concept was created by a Marvel Comics reader, with the publisher purchasing the idea for $220. The original design was then modified by Mike Zeck, becoming the Venom symbiote. The concept would be explored and used throughout multiple story lines, spin-off comics, and derivative projects.

Fictional history 
Symbiotes were originally created by an ancient malevolent primordial deity named Knull. When the Celestials began their vast plan to evolve the universe, Knull, seeing that his "Kingdom" was being touched, retaliated by constructing All-Black, the first symbiote, and decapitated a Celestial. Then, the other Celestials banished Knull along with the severed Celestial head deeper in the Void. After that, he started using the head with its Cosmic energies as a Forge for the symbiotes, where they got the weaknesses of sound and fire – the head would later become Knowhere. He then went embarking on a genocide against the other gods. When battling the other gods, he crashes on a desolate planet where All-Black left him and went to Gorr, since Gorr was full with hate and tried to kill the other god and Knull. Knull then reawakens and created an army of symbiotes that he used to conquer planets and devour entire civilizations, establishing in the process the Symbiote Imperium. However, when a dragon-like composite went to the medieval Earth, Thor defeated it and destroyed the connection between Knull and the symbiotes. Upon Knull's severed connection to the symbiotes, the symbiote hive-mind began to explore notions of honor and nobility as they bonded to benevolent hosts. The symbiotes subsequently rebelled against their god, imprisoning him at the heart of an artificial planet in the Andromeda Galaxy they called Klyntar, which is their species name. Ashamed of their dark past, the symbiotes desired to spread and maintain peace throughout the Cosmos by seeking out worthy hosts from various species in order to create an organization of noble warriors. However, these altruistic goals were imperfect, as the Klyntar symbiotes could be corrupted by hosts with harmful chemical imbalances or problematic personality attributes, turning them into destructive parasites who would spread lies and disinformation about their own kind in order to make other peoples fear and hate the Klyntar species as a whole.

The corrupted Klyntar became more widespread than their benevolent counterparts, establishing a spacefaring culture dedicated to infecting and overtaking whole planets and reestablishing the Imperium. The corrupted Symbiotes forced their hosts to perform death-defying feats in order to feed off of the resulting surges of hormones like adrenaline and phenethylamine. These hosts would die quickly, either because of the wear from constant stress and exertion or as a result of the inherent danger in the stunts performed.

At some point it was believed that a symbiote-run planet was devoured by Galactus. Due to their genetic memory, all symbiotes now loathe both Galactus and his former herald, the Silver Surfer. however it was later revealed that their loathe for the Silver Surfer was because he had time traveled to a time where the Klyntar were rebelling against Knull and the Silver Surfer had the God of the Symbiotes bleed. ZZZXX, a symbiote with a predilection for eating brains, was also captured by the Shi'ar, and imprisoned and studied for years until it was released and employed as a Praetorian Guard by Gabriel Summers. The corrupted symbiotes had invaded the Microverse and tried to absorb the Enigma Force, but they were defeated by the avatar of the force, after they had caused destructive effects on this world and its people. One member of the symbiote race had arrived on the Savage Land, where it remained trapped for years to the point of madness and bonded to Conan, during a confrontation between the Savage Avengers and Kulan Gath.

During the Kree-Skrull War, the Kree wanting to replicate the Skrull's shapeshifting abilities, they got a newborn symbiote which had been outcast from the other symbiotes, on the planet where Knull had created the symbiotes. They recruited Tel-Kar to be bonded to the young symbiote and modified both Tel-Kar and the symbiote so he could have full control over it. He infiltrated into the Skrulls using the symbiote's shapeshifting ability, but got discovered. He deleted the symbiote's memories and separated himself  from it. The symbiote then reunited with the parasitic symbiotes, while retaining little memory of its first host. When the corrupted symbiotes found out that this symbiote wanted to commit to its host rather than use it up, they called it insane and trapped it in a canister to be condemned to die on a planet that would later become part of Beyonder's Battleworld where Spider-Man freed the symbiote and bonded with it. Spider-Man returned to Earth with the symbiote, where it later bonded with Eddie Brock in a church calling themselves Venom; during this time, it spawned seven offspring and a clone, its first child later having three of its own. All of the symbiotes being Carnage, Scream, Lasher, Phage, Agony, and Riot.

The Venom symbiote gradually grew more and more monstrous and psychotic, that Eddie at some point separated himself from the symbiote causing it to release a telepathic scream, making the other corrupted symbiotes to come to invade the Earth. Then Eddie, Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider teamed up to fight the invasion and in the end, Eddie rebonded to Venom and released another powerful scream that made the symbiotes commit suicide.

When bonded to Flash Thompson as part of Project Rebirth, who originally struggled to control it, the symbiote developed some slight affection for him. It is later established that the host's mental state affects the symbiote just as much as the other way around, as Venom's first child, the Carnage symbiote is as psychotic as its host Cletus Kasady and the Venom suit's explosiveness got worse after bonding with Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan after Brock, both of which were career criminals. Likewise, the various symbiotes bonded to heroes are not shown to be as twisted, though they occasionally struggle with aggression.

A swarm of Brood that had been overtaken by symbiotes later invade the S.W.O.R.D. satellite and possess all of its inhabitants including Deathbird with her unborn child in order to expand the Symbiote Imperium, but Spider-Man, who got bonded to a second symbiote and his class from Jean Grey's School defeats the symbiotes.

The Klyntar were later raided by the Poisons with help from Haze Mancer – a symbiote poacher – resulting in the apparent death of the Agents of the Cosmos and the abduction of all the symbiotes. The abducted symbiotes were later modified by the Poisons so they could use on the superheroes on Earth in order for the Poisons to consume. After the defeat of the Poisons, the surviving symbiotes were returned to Klyntar.

When the body of Grendel, the dragon-like composite symbiote defeated by Thor, is discovered on Earth, this reawakens Knull enough to allow him to control the creature before being stopped by the combined efforts of Venom and Spider-Man (Miles Morales). And later incinerated by Eddie denying Knull the chance to escape Klyntar.

After some months, a cult got hold of Cletus's damaged body – after being free from the Poison shell and falling through the atmosphere – inside a chamber and had planned to revive him by using the Grendel's remnants which they stole from Maker. This cult, who worships Knull and Carnage as Knull's prophet, was led by Scorn. They implanted the remnants inside Cletus reviving him and at first he resembled Ancient Venom (Venom possessed by Knull), until the Carnage pieces were absorbed by the ancient symbiote and got Scorn's remnants by killing her. When Cletus came in contact with Knull, he got a new purpose and that was to free Knull and the only way left was to get every single Codex – the symbiote remnants containing the genetic information of the host – left inside the bodies of every single host, dead or alive who came in physical contact with the symbiotes on Earth in order to overload the symbiote hive mind and scatter the Klyntar.

Knull slowly began reawakening as a result of Carnage's efforts on Earth and the symbiotes of Klyntar began succumbing to his control once more. When Sleeper was drawn to Klyntar, the symbiotes attacked and tried to assimilate it into the hive-mind. Escaping, Sleeper realized that Eddie was in danger and returned to Earth as quickly as it could. When Knull fully awakened, he destroyed Klyntar and seized control of its constituent symbiotes, coalescing them into a horde of symbiote-dragons.

Culture 
The symbiotes when originally created, they were used as tools by Knull in order to conquer the universe and at the time they had a symbiote dialect. When were freed from Knull's control and learning about compassion, they established the lie about their nature in order to redeem themselves. They formed the Agents of Cosmos, which are symbiotes bonded to benevolent hosts forming noble warriors, in order of maintaining peace across the universe. However, some symbiotes were corrupted by malevolent hosts returning them into monsters and reestablishing the Symbiote Imperium first formed by Knull and these symbiotes were cut from the Klyntar hive mind. The Symbiote Imperium would conquer planets and infecting the inhabitants in order to drain and consume them whole.

The symbiotes in general don't have an actual culture. As seen with Venom and Carnage, the symbiote's personality and psychology dependends largely of the host's nature, as the link between the host and the symbiote gives the symbiote context and meaning to their life.

As for the Nameless, a group of Kree explorers infected by the Exolon parasites, after being infected by the parasites, which consumed their souls, they lost all sense of time and sentience and started doing gruesome self-inflicting pain rituals in order to remember their past lives. The Venom symbiote was given form by Spider-Man, who believed it to be a symbiotic living costume; and after being bonded to Eddie Brock for years, it bonded to Peter's daughter May Parker, who managed to tame and rehabilitate it to start her career as the superhero Venom.

Spider-Man Unlimited 
In the Spider-Man Unlimited series, a Synoptic is introduced. Synoptic are parasites that can control organic beings by touch. Venom and Carnage, who acted as double agents to the High Evolutionary, were able to revive the Synoptic.

In other media

Television 
 Symbiotes appear in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series primarily Venom and Carnage. In the conclusion of The Alien Costume, Venom is defeated by Spider-Man and sent into space, however Dormammu and Baron Mordo divert the rocket allowing Venom back to Earth. When Venom fails to get a Stark Industries portal device for Mordo, they bond Venom's offspring who Cletus Kasady coins Carnage and send him to help Venom. With help from Iron Man, Eddie Brock willingly separates from Venom, after having a change of heart. When Carnage kidnaps Ashley Kafka who Eddie is in love with Eddie rejoins with the symbiote and helps Spider-Man, Iron Man and War Machine. When Carnage attempts to throw Kafka into limbo the place between portals Venom stops him and knocks them both into limbo, foiling Dormannu's plans for good. During the Spider Wars season finale, Carnage bonds with an alternate dejected Spider-Man to create Spider Carnage.
 In Spider-Man Unlimited, Venom and Carnage are primary villains, who in the pilot episode board a shuttle piloted by John Jameson for Counter-Earth to start a new empire of Symbiotes. Here the symbiotes are more amorphous creatures that rely on stretching bodies then webbing, and are more exaggerated such as Carnage sporting spikes. The in-universe explanation is that the Symbiotes have bonded completely with their hosts, although under the Synoptic's guide Venom & Carnage learned their shapeshifting abilities (into liquid, etc.) as Spidey referred to that as "new powers". 
 Venom appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man, with Spider-Man's version voiced by Josh Keaton, and Eddie Brock's version voiced by Benjamin Diskin. In the episode "The Uncertainly Principle", the Symbiote arrives on Earth by stowing away on the space shuttle. After being rejected by Spider-Man, it bonds with Eddie in the episode "Intervention", and is ultimately defeated in the episode "Nature vs. Nurture". Venom reappeared in the Season Two episodes "First Steps", "Growing Pains", and "Identity Crisis", where he attempts to expose Spider-Man's secret identity but his plans are foiled. Carnage was also set to appear in the third season.
 The Venom, Carnage, and Anti-Venom Symbiotes appear in Ultimate Spider-Man. Venom and Anti-Venom are created by Doctor Octopus for Oscorp. Venom was created by altering a sample of Spider-Man's DNA and Anti-Venom was created from the Venom sample used to counter and destroy the Venom Symbiote. The Carnage symbiote is created by Green Goblin and later recreated by Michael Morbius of HYDRA from the Venom symbiote he obtained.
 In the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "The Venom Within," Doctor Octopus creates "Gamma Venom" by having the Venom Symbiote combine with each members of the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. This version of the Venom Symbiote is destroyed by the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Spider-Man.
 The Symbiotes appear in the animated Guardians of the Galaxy series that debuted in 2015. Their origins revealed in the three-part "Symbiote War" as originally Klyntar who were altered by Thanos in his experiments on the mining planet later revealed to be what remained of Groot's homeworld. The Exolons are also referenced inhabiting Wraith's body.
 The Venom Symbiote appears in the animated Spider-Man series, referred to as the V-252 during the first season before assuming the name Venom in the second season. In this series, Horizon High headmaster Max Modell acquires the symbiote from the space program in hopes of discovering a new element for the periodic table. The V-252 first appeared in the episode "A Day in the Life", in which Black Cat steals the symbiote as a means to sell it to the black market, but Spider-Man recaptures and returns the V-252 to Horizon High. He briefly merged with Spider-Man from "Sandman" and "Stark Expo", and Flash Thompson during "Venom". In Season 2, the V-252 merges with Eddie Brock in "Dead Man's Party" but is incapacitated by an experimental sonic device in "Venom Returns". Venom is eventually reawakened by experimentation that ultimately alters his genealogy, enabling him to survive without the need for a host, yet is defeated by Spider-Man shortly after Otto Octavius undoes their body-swap in "Superior". Venom is slated to return during season 3, subtitled Maximum Venom, in which he unleashed a new threat upon humanity from his home planet, hinting the appearances of more symbiotes.

Film

Sam Raimi film series 

The Venom symbiote appears in Spider-Man 3. In this version, instead of brought to Earth in a human spaceship, it came from space after it landed on Earth inside a meteorite. The symbiote fused with the sleeping Peter Parker / Spider-Man's suit enhancing his powers, abilities and his anger. A small is studied and analyzed by Curt Conners. After being rejected by Parker following the dark influence it had on him at the church when ringing the bell, the alien attaches to Eddie Brock (Topher Grace). Later, both are killed in an explosion at the climax.

Marc Webb films 

In trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the Venom symbiote appeared briefly among various elements of supervillain technology seen in the Gustav Fiers / The Gentleman's agency. In the final cut of the film the symbiote was replaced by the Rhino's armor as Richard Parker has a strong connection with Oscorp's Special Projects equipment used by many Spider-Man villains. Sony Pictures had plans to create a Spider-Man cinematic universe with various spin-off films including a Venom film, but those plans were abandoned following the studio agreement reached with Marvel Studios.

Marvel Cinematic Universe 
 In Guardians of the Galaxy, the Exolons are referenced via the Exolon Monks, who serve Ronan the Accuser.
 In Thor: Ragnarok, Hela uses a weapon called the Necrosword which is based on All-Black the Necrosword. However, in the movie there is no mention that the weapon is a symbiote, because, similar to the Exolons, in its introduction All-Black wasn't intended to be a symbiote before a retcon in the comics, hence why Marvel Studios has the rights of All-Black.

Sony's Marvel Universe 
Following the success of reintroducing Spider-Man in film with Captain America: Civil War (2016) and the expected reception of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Sony Pictures stated that they were moving forward with Venom, written by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, and directed by Ruben Fleischer, released on October 5, 2018, with Tom Hardy portraying Eddie Brock / Venom. While initial reports stated that the film would be separate from the MCU, instead set within its own continuity entitled Sony's Marvel Universe, with no connections to the Spider-Man character, in June 2017, Amy Pascal revealed in an interview that the film would have connections to Spider-Man: Homecoming and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an "adjunct" film, with Tom Holland possibly reprising his role as Spider-Man in Venom as well as future spin-off films. In the international teaser trailer, the Venom symbiote was seen in a glass capsule, before Venom himself is revealed at the end of the first trailer. Riot appeared as the film's main antagonist, played by Riz Ahmed.

Video games 

 In the arcade title Spider-Man: The Video Game after the defeat of Dr. Doom, the final boss fight consists of a battle against an infinite number of Doom-created symbiote clones. All the clones can be killed, but there is one "prime clone" with much more life. Defeating this clone is the only way to win.
 In the N64/PlayStation title Spider-Man, the symbiotes become the more common enemy after the player rescues Mary Jane and heads back to the Daily Bugle. The fastest way to kill these symbiotes is to find a fire-imbued web cartridge. It is revealed that Doctor Octopus and Carnage plan to unleash the symbiotes on all of humanity and rule a new world order.
 The symbiote family are major characters in the video game Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety.
 Venom appears as the final boss in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
 Venom appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game (for Game Boy Advance) as a playable character. Carnage appears too, but as a boss, Venom also appears as a boss a few times when playing as Spider-Man.
 Venom is a playable character in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.
 In the Spider-Man 3 video game, Shriek appears. Shriek's powers come from a symbiote in this game which is also black in color. However, the symbiote only covers half of her body. This is only found on the Wii/PS2 versions of the game.
 In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Venom returns to New York. During a fight with Venom, the Symbiote suddenly reproduces and the spawn bonds with Spider-Man creating a replica of the Black Suit, but with considerably more Carnage-like abilities such as projecting bladed tentacles. Over the course of the game, Venom creates symbiote "seed-pods" in various locations around the city which absorb passing civilians and infect them with various types of symbiote ranging from Snatcher Symbiotes (the small black Symbiotes that drag unsuspecting victims to the "seed-pods"), Zombie Symbiotes (the weak white Symbiotes), Berserker Symbiotes (the red shiny Symbiotes), Grappler Symbiotes (black and red versions of the Berserkers), and Slasher Symbiotes (the white and pink Symbiotes). The Symbiotes even manage to infect Electro, Vulture, Black Cat and Wolverine. Symbiote-Electro and Symbiote-Vulture go on to spawn other symbiotes with powers similar to their hosts resulting in Electrolings and Vulturelings. All are eventually defeated by Spider-Man and the symbiotes are separated from them.
 In Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the Ultimate Marvel version of Spider-Man in his symbiote suit is a playable character. Madame Web had restored the black suit as it provides this world's Peter Parker with additional abilities that he will require to succeed in his mission, while she uses her psychic abilities to prevent the suit attempting to take over his mind. However, Madame Web's abilities do not seem to be absolute, as Ultimate Spider-Man experiences occasional bouts of anger. Also, the Ultimate version of Carnage appears as the final boss in the Ultimate levels where it was granted the ability to reanimate its victims into symbiotic zombie-like creatures thanks to the powers of a fragment of the Tablet of Order and Chaos when S.H.I.E.L.D. are foolishly mixing the fragment with Carnage.
 In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, it is revealed that the brainwashed Anti-Venom is responsible for killing present-day Spider-Man, altering the future of the Marvel 2099 timeline and prompting Spider-Man 2099 to tamper with the timeline further in order to save his predecessor's life and repair the timestream. In one of their battles, Anti-Venom, Doctor Octopus (who in the new timeline was never a villain, but still uses his trademark arms) and game exclusive villain Dr. Walker Sloan (the man from 2099 who tried to alter the timeline) are knocked into a portal and become Atrocity (vocal effects provided by Fred Tatasciore), a bloated version of Anti-Venom with tentacles. Both Atrocity and the future Peter Parker are defeated with the time resetting presumably separating Atrocity back into Walker Sloan, Anti-Venom, and Doctor Octopus.
 Two versions of the black suit appear as an optional costume in The Amazing Spider-Man video game, based on its appearance in the Spider-Man 3 film, and a modified version of Spider-Man's costume from The Amazing Spider-Man film. Backstory for the game also reveals that the game version of the Symbiote is based on a "black goo" recovered from space and that it is bonded with the game's version of the Scorpion. This is an allusion to the comics, where Mac Gargan briefly assumed the role of Venom.
 In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a version of Venom exists in the secret Oscorp experiment run in Ravencroft called "The Venom Project", using nanites as a regenerating body armor. It is used on notorious serial killer Cletus Kasady/"Carnage Killer" which transforms him under the direction of Donald Menken and Kingpin.
 Symbiote Scientists appear in Lego Marvel Super Heroes.
 Various Symbiote characters are featured in the mobile game Spider-Man Unlimited with the Symbiote World featured as a level.
 Various Symbiotes appear in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance: Venom, Agent Venom, Anti-Venom, Scream and Hybrid.
 Symbiotes "connect together" in a Marvel Puzzle Quest storyline. Besides Mac Gargan and Eddie Brock as Venom and Cletus Kasady's Carnage, there are four new Symbiotes: A green male named Carrier, an orange female named Horror, a teal teethy creature named Demolisher, and a magenta dog-like creature named Mutation.
 In Marvel Avengers Academy, the symbiotes appear which were taken from their home planet by Oscorp. Spider-Man tried to save the symbiotes, but got bonded to them and then they tried to take over the Academy. They failed, but decided to remain on Earth.
 The Symbiotes appears in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. In the game's story, Jedah Dohma uses the Soul Stone to steal a million souls from Earth and feed them to a Giant Symbiote, planning to strengthen it and use it as a weapon against Ultron Sigma. He gives pieces of the symbiotes to A.I.M.brella to bond the pieces to virus-infected subjects to stabilize them. In a battle against Jedah the heroes are successful, but then he unleashes the creature on the New Metro City. When Chris Redfield tries attacking it, he accidentally causes part of the symbiote to bond to Spider-Man, forcing the latter to fight against Frank West and Mike Haggar against his will (though the symbiote is removed after Frank causes some car alarms to go off). The creature is unleashed on New Metro City, but is destroyed by the heroes using three of the Infinity Stones. Venom also appears as a playable character via downloadable content.
 In Spider-Man, during a conversation between Spider-Man and Yuri Watanabe, she quickly ask Spider-Man as a joke if he has a black and white suit indicating that Spider-Man at some point had a black suit but he got rid of it. In the post credit scene Norman Osborn goes into a secret lab inside his house where it shows his son Harry Osborn, inside a chamber labeled G-35 with black web-like substance attached to his body. When Spider-Man looks through certain windows there is a few collectibles on a shelf, including a black suit Spider-Man figure.
 In the 2014 fighting video game Marvel: Contest of Champions, the Symbioids are symbiotes merged with the Adaptioids. Venom, Carnage and Agent Venom appear as playable characters. Also featured are also VenomPool (amalgamation of Deadpool and Venom), Venom the Duck (amalgamation of Howard the Duck and Venom) and Symbiote Supreme (amalgamation of Doctor Strange and Venom).

Attractions 
 Scream appears as one of the villains in Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride.