Life Foundation[]
The sinister Life Foundation, an organization that was preparing for the M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) fallout of the Cold War, or, in the event of world chaos, sought to provide a comfortable life for their wealthy clients after the impending apocalypse. Needing a superhuman police force to protect this Utopian future, the Foundation's leader, Carlton Drake, saw this future's guardians in the unborn offspring of Venom, and had Eddie Brock captured.[5]
Once the Foundation captured Venom, who was in San Francisco at the time, they brought him to their lab in Mojave Desert California. There they forcibly extracted five “seeds” from Venom and 5 newborn symbiotes emerged. Too young to control, the symbiote was merged with Donna Diego, codenamed Strike Agent Four- a mercenary suffering from schizophrenia. Together, Scream, her host Donna the other four pairings would become the Foundations guardian symbiotes.[6][7]
Testing the new abilities at her disposal, Donna attacked a mall near Salinas, California. Encountering Spider-Man, who was looking for Eddie Brock, she abruptly fled back to the Life Foundation's base in the Mojave Desert. When Spider-Man followed Strike Agent Four, she and the other guardian symbiotes attacked the wall crawler.[8] Before they could kill him, Eddie appeared, having escaped, once they removed the Venom symbiote. Merging with his symbiote, once again, Eddie defeated her and the others using a metabolic accelerator, aging the symbiotes and turning them into dust. The 5 symbiotes appeared to have died, when Venom increased the power of the device. The ensuing explosion seemed to have done away with the 5 hosts, as well, painting the end of the pairings.[9]
The Exile Returns[]
However, thanks to the efforts of the Life Foundation, they survived. As she and her fellow symbiote siblings began attempting to compel their hosts to violence, Donna and the other mercenaries left the Life Foundation and searched for Eddie Brock, the host of the Venom symbiote, hoping he would help them control their symbiotes. Eddie, dismissing them as lost causes who would turn out as bad as Carnage, refused to aid them.
Donna asked the Scarlet Spider to help her find Brock, but he also refused. Succumbing to her schizophrenia and the symbiote's bloodlust, Donna began rampaging through Times Square and was confronted by both Venom and the Scarlet Spider. Venom almost killed both the symbiote and Donna, but was stopped by the Scarlet Spider, who managed to separate Brock and his symbiote.[10][11][12]
Separation Anxiety[]
With her host still fighting for control they joined the rest of the former guardian symbiotes in Donna's third attempt in getting Brock to help. Together they broke Brock, who Venom symbiote was elsewhere, and a reporter pretending to be a doctor Ellis out of a New Mexico facility and brought them to an abandoned factory in a small city near Chicago to make him help them.[12][13]
Unfortunately yet again Brock refused, further pushing her host Donna to succumb to her schizophrenia again. But this time she hosts believing all symbiotes are evil would secretly turn on its siblings. When Brock and Ellis managed to escape, the host under her psychosis used a sonic blade Donna acquired and killed the symbiotes "sister" and its host Leslie Gesneria. Later, when Leslie's body was found, the others believed it was Eddie Brock who killed her wanted to make him pay.[14]
After following Brock to a warehouse its host had everyone's fan out, once alone, Donna killed its symbiote "brother" and his host Carl Mach. When Brock was found with not only Mach's body, but the sonic blade, Donna blamed him and attacked, but Roman Hernandez stopped her in the hopes Brock can still help them. But still not getting anywhere with Brock her host couldn't take it anymore, taking the sonic blade Donna killed its symbiote "brother" and his host Trevor Cole.[14][15]
Hernandez tried to help Donna get control of the symbiote but realized too late that Donna was mentally unstable, Donna killed the symbiotes last sibling and his host. Turning the sonic blade on Brock she attacked, but the Venom symbiote, who had been looking for Brock, rejoined with him and they easily beat her. After Venom escaped the Federal Agents that had been tracking the Venom symbiote, she and the others were contained, revealing that the symbiotes had survived though their hosts did not.[16][15]
Later, through unrevealed circ*mstances they managed to escape the Federal Agents, leaving her symbiote "siblings" behind.
The Hunt[]
Following an Invasion of symbiotes, a large number of New Yorkers had been taken over by symbiotes, and some had even managed to retain them even after the supposed mass-suicide of the invaders.[17][18][19][20] When its host regained a hold on her sanity, Donna took control, or at least reached an understanding with it. To make up for her past behavior, she began seeking out other symbiotes and helping their human hosts to cope.[21]
When another of those she was helping and their symbiotes turned up dead, the sixth in three weeks, she believed the reports by the NYPD that the brain-eating serial killer was Venom. Thinking her apartment was the safest place she left Zeena Hodges, another of those struggling with their symbiote, to find others that needed their help. The next day, she returned with another refugee of the symbiote invasion, George, they found police had blocked off the building. When the police left to chase down Venom they went to investigate, going through her personal things she got tired of George's constant badgering and a fight broke out. As she gained the upper hand on George she noticed an ugly piece of furniture that wasn't hers, it suddenly transformed, revealing itself to be a Xenophage.[21][22]
The Xenophage, a predator of the symbiotes who was attracted to Earth by their invasion, was the real killer of Zeena, and the other refugees Donna was trying to help. It attacked them, eating George's and his symbiote's brains, it paralyzed her with its paralytic saliva which the weight of the unconscious symbiote kept Donna from moving as well. Keeping her for later, the Xenophage turned back into a dining hutch, concealing Donna within itself as it waited for its main course, Venom and Eddie Brock. When the NYPD surrounded Venom outside Donna's building, the Xenophage revealed itself and used its symbiote paralytic saliva on Venom too.[21][22]
Though the symbiote briefly roused, allowing Donna to fight back, the Xenophage sprayed her again and escaped from the pursuing police with the two paralyzed symbiotes and their hosts by slipping into a subway tunnel. Eddie tried to fight back, but the Xenophage was simply too strong for him. A group of skateboarders that had befriended Eddie tried to help, but the Xenophage simply looked forward to dining on them as well, likening them to veal. Horrified, having woken again, Donna joined Eddie in fighting off the alien to keep it away from the kids. As the subway train they were on barreled past its station, an over-zealous officer tried to throw a white phosphorous grenade at Venom. The Venom symbiote woke up and Eddie used it to pocket the grenade before it went off. However, as the Xenophage was about to eat Scream and Donna, Eddie tricked the Xenophage into eating it by hiding the grenade in an extension of his symbiote shaped like his head. The grenade went off, and the Xenophage exploded into a fiery inferno, leaving it a charred and noxious mess on top of the subway train.[23]
When the NYPD showed up, one of the skateboarder kids, Rocky, told the detectives about Donna being on the roof of the first car and how she needed immediate medical attention. Meanwhile, Venom pretended to be "Rad Eddie" again slipped passed the detectives with the skateboarders.[23]
Hunted and Absolute Carnage[]
The Scream symbiote was ultimately killed alongside Donna by Eddie Brock, who incapacitated it with sonic feedback and stabbed her to death with a heated knife.[1]
Years later, Scream was resurrected by Knull, still bonded to Donna's corpse. When Patricia Robertson - a soldier who had formerly hosted a clone of the Venom symbiote - attacked it, Scream abandoned Donna's skeleton and bonded to her. Initially having assimilated Donna's personality and mental voices, Scream succumbed to Knull's control and attacked Andi Benton, who it recognized its host bore a grudge against for having bonded to and lost the cloned symbiote.[2] Patricia's strong will helped the Scream symbiote resist Knull's control, but it succumbed again when attacked by Carnage.[24] Persuading the Scream symbiote to resist Knull's control a second time, Patricia sacrificed herself in an attempt to save Andi's life, and the Scream symbiote left her corpse and bonded to Andi.[25]
Unlike Andi's amicable relationship with her previous symbiote, she came to loathe being bonded to the Scream symbiote, trying to shut it out of her mind and demanding that it abandon her like everyone else had. Despite Andi lashing out at it in her despair and anger, the Scream symbiote protected her whenever she was attacked, and helped her in hunting would-be rapists. When Andi attempted to commit suicide, the Scream symbiote regained its voice and saved her, though their subsequent argument was interrupted when Andi was attacked by Lovecraftian monsters. Taking over, Scream noted that the creatures were formed from drowned corpses fused to sea life and reanimated by living abyss, and scornfully killed them before telling the traumatized Andi that it would keep her safe. Following Andi angrily telling it that it was endangering her, the Scream symbiote fell silent for several days, only breaking its silence to desperately beg Andi not to listen to a woman claiming to be her mother.[26]
The woman was revealed to be a corpse reanimated by a symbiote, which pursued Andi to the F.E.A.S.T. shelter and took over the homeless people staying there. Absorbing a piece of the symbiote, the Scream symbiote succumbed to Knull's control and killed the infected homeless people.[27] Realizing that it and Andi were being hunted by a powerful ancient symbiote, the Scream symbiote and Andi declared a truce to deal with the threat and descended to the bottom of Upper New York Bay. Attacked by Big Mother, the Scream symbiote rebuked the ancient symbiote's desire to claim it as her "child". Battling Big Mother, the Scream symbiote was separated from Andi twice, but managed to break free of Big Mother's clutches and save her. The Scream symbiote and Andi acknowledging each other as family and accepting their bond, Scream lynched and decapitated Big Mother, though the Scream symbiote warned Andi that Big Mother was not dead and would likely return to seek revenge.[28]
King in Black[]
When Knull invaded Earth, he encountered his brothers Lasher, Agony, Riot and Phage under Knull's control who tried to eat a child. The four symbiotes merged into Hybrid to assimilate her, told Andi to use the Hell-Mark to conjure Hellfire. When Hybrid attempted to assimilate Scream he was immolated by Hellfire from within. Andi and Scream took the boy away, unaware that the amalgam symbiote had survived and escaped through the sewers.[29]
Andi and Scream later confronted Demagoblin, having learned that she was creating a cult of homeless children, and managed to free the children from Demagoblin's control. Scream's battle with Demagoblin was interrupted when Knull manifested an avatar to confront them, contemptuously tossing Demagoblin aside. Angered that the Scream symbiote refused to submit to him, Knull declared his intent to make it watch as he killed its host after tearing them from each other. Knull attempted to psychically force the Scream symbiote to submit to his will, leaving Scream immobilized as he summoned a horde of small symbiote-dragons and sicced them on her. With Andi's life in danger, the Scream symbiote was able to throw off Knull's influence and they incinerated the symbiote-dragons with hellfire. Knull's avatar attacked them directly, initially shrugging off their attacks, but by feeding their rage and pain into the Hell-Mark they were able to repel him with an omnidirectional explosion of hellfire.[30]
Extreme Carnage[]
Searching for Demagoblin, Scream found the Doppelgänger in the middle of escaping from Alchemax, which had taken to performing cruel and unethical experiments on captured extraterrestrials and monsters. Subduing Doppelgänger, Scream was attacked by one of Alchemax's Guardsmen, disarming and interrogating him as to why he was targeting them. As a broadcast of Senator Peter Krane's interview was played over a set of televisions on display at a nearby store, the Scream symbiote sensed an odd thrumming sound that only it could hear, but which made Andi feel nauseous as it increased in volume. Realizing that it was being called and unable to resist the urge to comply, the Scream symbiote began behaving erratically until Andi decided to retreat into a nearby sewer to figure out what was going on.
The Scream symbiote and Andi were abruptly pulled into the Symbiote Hive-Mind by Carnage, the source of the overwhelming urge that the Scream symbiote had felt. Silencing Andi, Carnage informed the Scream symbiote that he was planning on putting together his own Hive to rival Venom's and intended to recruit the other Life-Foundation symbiotes into it. Unable and unwilling to resist Carnage's influence, the Scream symbiote allowed him to take over - causing its to assume a Carnage-ized form and go on a rampage while puppeteering Andi's body. When Andi berated it for its betrayal, saying she thought they were family, the Scream symbiote retorted that Carnage was its true family. To put an end to the Carnage-Infested Scream's slaughter, Andi revoked its immunity from her Hell-Mark and blasted it with Hellfire until its hold on her mind was broken. As Andi lamented that she thought they would be together, demanding to know why it would betray her after everything they'd been through, the Scream symbiote - enraged and spurred on by Carnage - accused Andi of lying to and betraying it and tried to kill her. Out of desperation, Andi blasted the Scream symbiote with an explosion of hellfire, burning away Carnage's corruption but killing it in the process, leaving Andi sobbing in despair as it sloughed away from her.[3]
When Andi was arrested by Alchemax's Guardsmen, Scream's remains were taken and claimed by Dr. Steven, who attempted to resuscitate it.[31] Unable to do so, Dr. Steven combined its remains with Anti-Venom Serum, creating a new symbiote called Silence - which Andi bonded to it thinking it was Scream resurrected.[32]
Despite the main body being dead, a strain of the deceased Scream symbiote remains with Alchemax, though it was later stolen by Corwin Jones[4] who merged it with other strains from Agony, Lasher, Phage, Riot and Toxin symbiotes to form the Madness symbiote.[33] A strain harvested from the symbiote was bonded to a braindead human cyborg by Jones' employer, the Life Foundation, to create an obedient supersoldier.[34] The host was later killed by Spider-Man, leaving the symbiote strain to be secured by Alchemax.[35]
Iterations and Offshoots[]
- Silence - Following the death of the Scream symbiote,[3] Dr. Steven harvested samples obtained from the skin and blood of its host, Andi Benton.[31] When his efforts to revitalize the Scream symbiote proved unsuccessful, Dr. Steven combined its remains with Anti-Venom Serum, creating a new symbiote.[32]
The Scream symbiote gave its host the following powers:
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Durability
- Superhuman Stamina
- Regeneration
- Wallcrawling
- ESP (Spider-Sense)
- Immunity to Spider-Man's Spider Sense
- Organic Webbing
- Camouflage
- Constituent-Matter Generation
- Trichokinesis: Unlike her fellow symbiotes, Scream preferred to extend her hair-like tendrils to lash at or encircle her foes.
- Winged Flight: Scream is capable of manipulating her biomass to form wings.[36]
- Heat and Sonics: Like most symbiotes, Scream is vulnerable to intense heat and sonic vibrations, although it has been shown to be unharmed by hellfire while bonded to Andi Benton as long as she allows it.[25][29][3]
- The only name initially given to this character in the comics was Donna. The name Scream comes from the video-game (November 1995), where she is one of the boss characters. The name Diego first appears in both Spider-Man: Back in Black Handbook (March 2007) and in the appendix of Civil War: Battle Damage Report (May 2007), confirming her identity as Scream, aka Donna Diego.
- Scream appears as a villain in the ride "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man" at Islands of Adventure, Universal Resort theme park, Orlando, Florida.
- In April of 1999 Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures was released as a type of prequel to the ride, in it the character was named Scream and was a member of the Sinister Syndicate.
- Toy Biz produced a Scream action figure in 1996.
