Agony (Symbiote) (Earth-616)

Life Foundation[]

The sinister Life Foundation a 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 holocaust. Needing a superhuman police force to protect this Utopian future, the Foundation's leader Carlton Drake saw these futures guardians in the unborn offspring of the Venom symbiote and sent agents to capture Eddie Brock.^[3]

Once the Life Foundation had captured Venom, who was in San Francisco at the time, they brought him to their lab in Mojave Desert California. There, they forcible extracted five “seeds” from Venom and hatched them to give rise to a yellow-and-red symbiote, a green symbiote, a dark grey symbiote, a yellow-and-black symbiote, and a purple symbiote. Too young to control a host, the purple symbiote was bonded to Leslie Gesneria, a security force officer of the Life Foundation that comprised of cops, soldiers, and mercenaries. Together the purple symbiote and Gesneria - along with the other four hosts - would become the Life Foundation's Guardian Symbiotes.^[4]

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When Spider-Man followed her "sister" Strike Agent Four Donna Diego, Leslie and the other Guardian Symbiotes all attacked the wall-crawler. Before they could kill him, Eddie - who had gotten free once they removed the Venom symbiote - appeared. In order to beat them Eddie became Venom once again, and defeated the Guardians alongside Spider-Man using a metabolic accelerator, aging the symbiotes and into dust and seemingly killing them when Venom turned up the power. The purple symbiote's host, as well as the other symbiotes and their hosts, also appeared to die in the ensuing explosion.^[5]

Separation Anxiety[]

The symbiotes and their hosts were eventually resuscitated and reunited by the Life Foundation. However, the symbiotes began attempting to gain influence over their hosts, who planned to seek out Eddie Brock for help in learning how to control them.^[6]

When Leslie Gesneria and the others suddenly left the Life Foundation facility to get Eddie Brock's help, Donna went alone to talk to Venom but failed in her two attempts. She and other former Guardian Symbiotes - who joined her shortly after - broke Brock, who had lost the Venom symbiote, out of a New Mexico facility and brought him to an abandoned factory in a small city near Chicago to make him help them.^{[7][8][9][10][6]}

Unfortunately, Brock once again refused due to his belief that all of the Venom symbiote's “children” become psychopathic killers like Carnage had. While Brock later managed to escape, the purple symbiote attempted to take control of her host again before being killed by the yellow-and-red symbiote and Donna - who suffered from untreated schizophrenia - using a sonic blade. When the others found them dead, they assumed that Brock was responsible and wanted to make him pay.^[11] Donna next killed the the yellow-and-black symbiote's host Carl Mach, blaming Brock. Succumbing to her psychosis, Donna killed the grey symbiote's host Trevor Cole and the green symbiote's host Roman Hernandez, but when she tried to kill Brock he bonded to the Venom symbiote - who had been looking for him - just in time, and together they easily beat her.^[12] While presumed deceased by Donna and Brock, the purple symbiote and its siblings had survived the deaths of their hosts, and were captured by a team tracking the Venom symbiote.^[13][14]

The Vault[]

The purple symbiote and its four siblings were taken to the Vault, a prison for superhuman criminals, and were sent to Facility #12 for scientists to study and painfully experiment on them.^[15]

During the Symbiote Invasion, Venom and Brock sent a world-wide psychic shriek that seemingly wiped out the invading symbiotes. Due to this along with the pain they were already experiencing, Agony and the other symbiotes broke free and merged into one creature - a "Hybrid".^[16][17]

After briefly bonding with Guardsmen Six Scott Washington, the new symbiote escaped to find and bond with Scott once again and become the vigilante called Hybrid.^[18]

Carnage U.S.A.[]

After some time as the vigilante Hybrid, Eddie Brock ambushed Scott Washington and murdered him with anti-symbiote weaponry - having taken it upon himself to kill all symbiotes to prevent an event called the Spawning. Following Scott's death, the Hybrid symbiote was recovered by the U.S. Army and was defused into its four constituent symbiotes again - who were named Agony, Riot, Phage, and Lasher.^[19][1]

Agony and the others were left borderline catatonic from the trauma there had suffered, leaving them unable to totally bond with a host, and were given to the members of the Mercury Team to serve as superpowered prosthetics. A Contingency B team who has been training with Agony and the others for the soul purpose of eliminating Carnage. Agony was partly bonded to the left arm of Lieutenant James Murphy.^[1]

When Carnage began taking over the people of Doverton Colorado and the Avengers (Captain America, The Thing, Hawkeye, and Wolverine) save for Spider-Man, the team was sent in aided by Scorn. The team took on a large number of Carnage-possessed townspeople with the support of Spider-Man, the sheriff Eric Morrell, a few townies and the arrival of Agent Venom, but ran into trouble when Carnage and the Carnage-ized Avengers joined the fight.^[20]

Scorn's intervention led to Carnage - and accidentally Agent Venom as well - being separated from their symbiotes, which worsened the situation as without Kasady’s control the Carnage symbiote's offshoots rampaged and took over the local zoo life. As Agony and the others fought a losing battle, the team leader Marcus Simms ordered the go-ahead to firebomb the area and thanks to Captain America kept the blast localized.^[21] With the Carnage symbiotes destroyed, Thompson having rejoined the Venom symbiote, and Kasady captured and handed over to the Avengers. the Agony symbiote and its siblings were put back in their containers after Simms and the team left for the others to clean up.^[22]

Deadpool vs. Carnage[]

When Carnage began a seemingly random killing spree throughout Oklahoma, Deadpool tried to stop him and his girlfriend Shriek. Hunting down Mercury Team, Carnage found them in an underground base in an abandoned town and killed them all save for the German Shepherd war dog, who managed to get to Lasher and save Agony and the other symbiotes. Deadpool arrived to find the soldiers dead, the symbiote containers empty, and the base on fire, and was cut to pieces by Carnage and left to burn. Lasher brought Agony and the other symbiotes to him, and they bonded to him.^[23]

Instead of amalgamating into one like they did before, Agony and the other three symbiotes became a patchwork version of Hybrid, helping Deadpool hunt down Carnage - who was at Carrington Cottage Psychiatric Hospital torturing staff and patients with Shriek. Hybrid was able to separate Carnage and Shriek before tricking him into badly injuring her, leading to Carnage having a breakdown and shutting himself in one of the cells. Deadpool then relinquished Agony and the other three symbiotes to the war dog, telling them to return to the military.^[24]

In the Thrall of Knull[]

Following Knull's awakening, Agony and the other Life Foundation symbiotes succumbed to his control. When the German Shepherd was found by a young girl named Sadie - whose family was falling apart - Agony and its brethren separated from each other and took over Sadie's family to grant her wish that they be able to stay together, with Agony bonding to Sadie's mother Tess. Following this, the family set out for Manhattan in order to assist in Knull's reawakening.^[25][26]

They arrived at a warehouse where Dylan Brock - son of Eddie Brock - and Normie Osborn - former host of the Carnage symbiote - were hidden alongside the Maker. The Maker distracted the symbiotes while Dylan and Normie hid, however, Riot ordered Phage to go after them while it and Agony tried to kill him. Sleeper appeared just in time to save the boys from Phage,^[27] but the Maker managed to put it along with the other symbiotes in containment.

However, Normie and Dylan decided to flee, afraid of what the Maker could do to them. Coming up with an insane plan to keep the Maker distracted, Dylan grabbed an assault rifle and opened fire on the symbiote containment units, freeing all of them except for Sleeper. The symbiotes fused into Hybrid and bonded to the Maker, gaining his knowledge of Dylan's true nature and trying to claim his codex. Fortunately, The Thing, Wolverine, Captain America, and Spider-Man arrived and kept Hybrid occupied.^[28] Dylan freed Sleeper and used his powers to control the symbiote, dousing the Hybrid-controlled Maker in napalm. Hawkeye shot a flaming arrow at Hybrid, seemingly killing the four symbiotes,^[29] but the Maker escaped relatively unscathed.^[30]

When Knull invaded Earth, the four Life Foundation symbiotes were sent to hunt down Dylan Brock and came into conflict with their estranged sister Scream, who had bonded to Andi Benton. They merged into Hybrid and - remote-piloted by Knull - attempted to assimilate the Scream symbiote, but were blown apart by hellfire conjured by Andi's Hell-Mark. With Andi assuming them deceased, the four symbiotes regrouped and escaped into the sewers.^[31]

Extreme Carnage[]

At some point following Knull's invasion, Agony bonded to Gemma Shin, the deputy communications officer of Senator Peter Krane, and developed a habit of collecting body parts to use as decorations. At some point, Carnage used the power Knull had granted him to contact Agony through the Hive-Mind, brokering a deal with it and Gemma. Agony allowed Carnage to infecting it with his will, joining his hive.^[32] Together with Gemma, the Agony symbiote discovered Hank's betrayal of Peter Krane - Carnage's host - but did nothing as Krane himself was already aware of it.^[33] While on a run, Gemma was accosted by a trio of muggers, who Agony mutilated and devoured. Meeting with Carnage in the Hive-Mind, Agony reaffirmed its allegiance to him, and participated in his assassination attempt on Senator Krane.^[32] Unlike the other Life Foundation symbiotes, Agony escaped being captured by Alchemax and was later sent alongside Gemma to keep an eye on Arthur Krane.^[34]

Devil's Reign[]

Despite the Friends of Humanity's policy against symbiotes, as part of Senator Krane's partnership with Mayor Fisk, Agony and Gemma were sent to join Fisk's Thunderbolts to participate in his campaign to eliminate all superheroes.^[35][36] After the Thunderbolts were defeated, Agony was imprisoned alongside Gemma and the other members of the team.^[37]

Iterations and Offshoots[]

• Alchemax's Offshoot - A strain of the Agony symbiote was held by Alchemax, though it was later stolen by Corwin Jones who merged it with other strains from Scream, Lasher, Phage, Riot and Toxin symbiotes to form the Madness symbiote.^[38]
• Symbiotech's Offshoot - Another strain, harvested from the previous one, was bonded to a braindead human cyborg by the Life Foundation to create an obedient supersoldier.^[39] The host was later killed by Spider-Man, leaving the symbiote strain to be secured by Alchemax.^[40]

Symbiote Biology: The Agony symbiote covers its host with dark purple biomass mixed with dark pink and boosts its natural abilities to a superhuman level. Possibly due to Earth's environment, it has the ability to manipulate its biomass in a variety of ways.

• Superhuman Strength
  • Muscle Mass Enhancement: Agony had been modified by the U.S. Government to give its user added musculature growth in order to further bolster their physical strength. Enabling the usage and carrying around high end heavy duty ordinance normally found upon a aerial assault albatross.
• Superhuman Durability
• Superhuman Stamina
• Accelerated Healing Factor
• Wallcrawling
• ESP (Spider-Sense)
• Immunity to Spider-Man's Spider Sense
• Webbing Generation and Web-Slinging
• Camouflage
• Constituent-Matter Generation
• Acid Generation: Agony could also use her metabolism to spit acid, which could burn through most substances, however the full extent or limit and range of her acid projectiles are unknown.
  • Metabolic Chemical Absorption: Agony could even absorb and redistribute chemicals in different ways, such as regurgitating Spider-Man's artificial webbing. This ability has not been shown in any of the other LF symbiotes.

Sonic and Heat: Like all symbiotes, Agony can be severely injured by sonic and thermal attacks which makes her vulnerable even if she is fused with his Hybrid siblings.

• The names Agony, Screech, and Shriek are fan names for Agony and her host Leslie Gesneria. The fan-name Agony was devised as being a name suited for a symbiote that seems to be a female version of Carnage, due to her appearance and coloration.
  • The symbiote (and her hosts) wasn't officially named Agony until Carnage, U.S.A. #2, with James Murphy as its host.