Leslie Gesneria (Earth-616)

The Life Foundation[]

Leslie was a volunteer/mercenary for the sinister Life Foundation, an organization that was preparing for the M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) fallout of the Cold War and sought to provide a comfortable life for their wealthy clients after the impending nuclear holocaust. Leslie was picked from the organization's security force made up of cops, soldiers, and mercenaries to take part in an experiment. Venom went through a procedure where multiple 'offspring' were created from him - thus Agony, the product of a symbiote spawn and Leslie become one. During Venom's time as Lethal Protector of San Francisco, Riot and her "siblings" were defeated by the combined efforts of Venom and Spider-Man. Leslie's symbiote was artificially aged to dust and his body was caught in a massive explosion.^[2]

It was later revealed that Agony and the other symbiotes had survived due to efforts by the Life Foundation. They broke Eddie Brock out of prison and kidnapped him in a last ditch effort to communicate with their alien "others." Unfortunately Eddie refused to aid them, due to Carnage's example that his "children" became psychopathic killers. Looking in a mirror at a hotel she and the others were staying, Leslie revealed her face and showed remorse for her actions as Agony. She was the first to be killed by Scream while off guard, the latter having snapped from her schizophrenia and her symbiote's influence, believing that the symbiotes and any/all who hosted them were evil. Leslie's death assisted Donna in misleading the others into thinking Eddie Brock was picking them off.^[3]

After Death[]

Leslie's symbiote (Agony) survived, and was imprisoned/experimented upon in The Vault along with its siblings (with the exception of Carnage and Scream.) The symbiotes eventually merged together, and bonded with a man known as Scott Washington to form Hybrid.^[4]

• Purple Symbiotic Costume: Agony possessed all the powers the original Venom symbiote had, including an ability even her "father" did not have. Unfortunately since Leslie could not properly control her "other," and the fact that she died early on in her career, Agony only displayed some powers granted by the symbiote.
  • Metabolic 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 chemicals (such as Spider-Man's artificial webbing.) This ability has not been shown in any of the other LF symbiotes.

• Security Training: With her background as a security guard, Leslie presumably had training in hand-to-hand combat, firearms, various hand weapons, and tactics.

• Intense Sound: The symbiote is extremely sensitive to high frequencies of sound and Sonic attacks. This was best exhibited when Trevor was killed instantly by Donna using a Sonic knife.
• Intense Heat: The symbiote is also vulnerable to intense levels of heat.

Web-Slinging

• The names (Agony, Screech and Shriek) are fan names for Leslie and her symbiote. 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 his hosts) wasn't officially named Agony, until Carnage, U.S.A. #2, with James Murphy as host.
• Agony is one of the six symbiote bosses in the video game Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety.