Characters / SSU: Venom's Enemies

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Venom | San Francisco | New York City | Venom's Enemies

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Life Foundation

Carlton Drake

Dr. Carlton Drake

Species: Human

Citizenship: British, American

Portrayed By: Riz Ahmed

Appearances: Venom

"Thank-you for bringing us collectively to this moment. It is a moment that so many have... dreamed of claiming. History... starts today."

The CEO of the Life Foundation, who believes that the symbiotes are the key to human evolution.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Ahmed is younger and easier on the eyes compared to the comics' Drake, who was generally a middle-aged to old man.
• Adaptational Nationality: His comic self was just American, while this version had British parents which makes him British-American.
• Adapted Out: He lacks the Man-Spider transformation of his comic book counterpart, but this does not make him a complete Adaptational Wimp, thanks to the presence of Riot.
• Admiring the Abomination: He considers the symbiotes a better species than mankind, and eventually sides with Riot to bring millions more to Earth.
• Age Lift: Drake in the comics is usually written as middle-aged or in his later years. Here, he's played by Riz Ahmed who was thirty-five when the film was released.
• Ambiguously Brown: Aside from a throw away line abkut having British parents that immigrated to the US. Carlton's ethnicity is never clear or stated. Though is likely he is South Asian like his British Pakistani actor. His name does not indicate Asian heritage.
• Asshole Victim: Considering his Bad Boss tendencies and his uncaring attitude towards humanity, nobody mourned when he and Riot were blown up.
• Bad Boss: His dislike for mankind is also shown by how he treats his employees. He fires one of his security guards for failing to realize one of Drake's own doctors snuck Eddie into the lab, executes Doctor Skirth for betraying him by feeding her to a symbiote, and later transforms into Riot to kill a scientist for attempting to sabotage him before killing the others for no reason.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With the Riot symbiote. Drake funded the discovery of the symbiotes and is using them unlawfully on test subjects that could die as a result of the exposure, while the Riot symbiote intends on bringing more of its kind to Earth in order to conquer it.
• Big Bad Wannabe: His experiments with the symbiotes quickly crash and burn when they all die due to being imperfect matches with their hosts, and it's abundantly clear that Riot has no intention to share his rule over Earth with him.
  Riot: There are more of us. Millions more. They will follow wherever I lead.
  Drake: ...Wherever we lead.
  Riot: Yes, we.
• Composite Character: He’s the human host of Riot, a role occupied in the comics by the likes of Trevor Cole and Howard Ogden.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets locked in a rocket spaceship which is blown up while he himself is being immolated.
• Disposable Vagrant: He takes homeless people from the city and uses them for his experiments, and that's before he acquires the symbiotes.
• Establishing Character Moment: When a class is touring the labs, Carlton Drake commends one girl for wanting to ask him something despite getting shushed by her classmates, but doesn't actually let her get a word in. Right away the audience can see that he's a disingenuous person whose philanthropic nature is just for the sake of good publicity.
• Evil Wears Black: Dresses in an entirely black outfit, though he wears a white shirt underneath his suit.
• Evilutionary Biologist: He sees bonding to symbiotes as the next step in human evolution, though his experiments with them quickly go awry.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: A handsome, intelligent and charming young man, who plans to help aliens conquer Earth.
• Fantastic Racism: Almost every scene Drake appears in has him speak ill of humanity, to the point where one has to wonder if he's actually a Misanthrope Supreme.
• Faux Affably Evil: Drake is soft-spoken, charismatic, and genuinely believes his work is a necessary evil in order to save humanity from certain extinction. Said work, however, involves abducting homeless people and subjecting them to unethical and more-often-than-not fatal experiments. This is best illustrated when he convinces a test subject that being locked up with the blue symbiote is the noble choice for him.
• Foil:
  • To Eddie. Carlton Drake is well-respected and always presents himself immaculately with an air of class, which barely hides the fact that he's a glory-seeking sociopath. Eddie meanwhile looks like a thug, is socially awkward, and has a sullied reputation, but is ultimately a good person.
  • To the combined Venom. Multiple instances are made throughout both movies comparing Eddie and the symbiote to parasites; both take from the world around them, but what nobody acknowledges is that both are actively trying to make things better even when they both look like monsters for it. Drake, meanwhile, is a Villain with Good Publicity who puts on a show about helping the world.... but is only concerned with helping himself. He inherited his initial wealth and built on it by testing unsafe drugs on uninformed people, leading to several deaths. After avoiding responsibility for that, he turned to space exploration and symbiote experiments, killing plenty of people in both endeavors, all for his own benefit. Drake is the real parasite of the film, gobbling up plenty of resources and leaving behind nothing but misery and bodies just to get ahead.
• Friend to All Children: Subverted. He acts nice to a group of kids touring his labs, and later appears to be concerned that a little girl is wandering his facilities when things go south, yet it is all fake: he only pretends to be civil and affable for the sake of good publicity.
• A God Am I: Downplayed, but when he talks to the homeless "volunteer" Isaac about the symbiote experiment, he relates the story of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Drake states that he considers Isaac to be the hero of that story, being willing to go through with being sacrificed. He then goes off on a tangent about how he would argue God has abandoned humanity, "but I won't abandon us", casting himself as God in his personal modern remake of the Biblical story.
• The Heavy: Drake's research into the symbiotes brings both Venom and Riot to Earth, and his hunt for Eddie takes up the majority of the movie before he bonds to Riot in the climax.
• Hypocrite:
  • Says he wants to deal with issues like overpopulation and overconsumption, but works with Riot, who devours his hosts over time and wants to let his entire species hunt Earth's population to extinction.
  • He tells a group of kids that there will always be those who try to silence those who ask too many questions, clearly portraying himself as part of the second group. Yet, he is the one to end his interview with Eddie and send him away when he starts making too many questions. Even in that first exchange, he uses the speech about silencing in order to avoid actually taking the question himself.
  • For all his talk on how flawed mankind is (calling them selfish, arrogant, and only knowing how to take from others), he displays all these "flaws" himself.
  • Specifically, Drake refers to Eddie as a parasite; someone who just leeches life out of people and society without any regard for anyone but himself. Drake, however, made his fortune by testing unsafe drugs on uninformed participants, and is happily killing people in order to test the viability of symbiote hosts. He's a parasite feeding off society to benefit nobody but himself.
• Idiot Ball: It never occurs to Drake that the reason the symbiotes in his custody die with their hosts while Venom and Riot don't is because he neglects to feed them properly. To elaborate, the Life Foundation scientists only give the symbiotes liquid nutrition, but Venom makes it clear to Eddie that they won't survive without living meat.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Responds to Maria's death by telling his henchmen to "get it out of here".
• Lack of Empathy: Best seen with his first test subject, a homeless man called Isaac. Drake shows no concern over the man's terror, insisting he's being part of a noble cause.
• Lean and Mean: He has a slender body and is a cold, misanthropic sociopath.
• Misanthrope Supreme: When Riot infests him, he is more or less instantly on board with Plan Let Alien Goo Monsters Eat Most Of Humanity.
• Monstrous Humanoid: As Riot, Dr. Drake is a towering, bulky humanoid monster with viscous silvery-grey skin, red vein-like markings, large white eyespots, claws, a gaping maw full of fangs, and a long prehensile tongue. He can also shapeshift his limbs into weapons.
• Never My Fault: Blames the scientists for not watching over Dr. Skirth properly and causing the death of the blue symbiote, when the situation wouldn't have occurred at all if he had just chosen a mundane method of killing her instead of choosing agonizing death via the symbiote.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His character draws obvious inspiration from Elon Musk. He's a relatively young billionaire whose business is focused on technology and science. Both like to talk a lot about using technology to solve global environmental issues. Like Elon Musk's SpaceX, Drake owns a company that works in the field of space exploration and seeks to bring that to the masses with long term goal of space colonization. Both also seek to symbiotically merge humanity with non-human intelligence. The goal of Musk's Neuralink is to do this with Artificial Intelligence using Brain Computer Interfaces in order to help create Benevolent A.I.. Lastly, the Life Foundation is based in the Bay area, much like Musk's Tesla formerly was, and is similarly named to the Future of Life Institute, which has a scientific advisory board on which Musk sits. Fortunately, Drake's ethics and views on humanity are not inspired by Musk.
• Non-Action Big Bad: As Drake, he initially has no fighting skills, sending his men to do his job instead. As Riot, however, he becomes a match even for Venom itself. Subverted in the final fight as Drake, he gets the first few punches in against Eddie Brock despite being of scrawnier build but is quickly defeated when Brock fights back.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He aims to fight global issues such as poverty and war by basically eradicating and replacing humanity with a new predator species, by performing some extremely unethical experiments. It's made clear however that he's much more concerned with his own ego and taking an elevated position above the rest of humanity who he sees himself as superior to.
• One-Winged Angel: He bonds with the Riot symbiote as part of their shared goal to bring more symbiotes to Earth. He consumes Venom at one point in their fight in the climax, becoming even bigger and more powerful.
• Race Lift: Dr. Carlton Drake was an Anglo-American in the comics, but here is played by Riz Ahmed, a British-Pakistani.
• Shame If Something Happened: As he threatens Dr. Skirth to keep participating in his unethical experiments, he ominously brings up her children in the conversation.
• Smug Snake: Drake just oozes smarmy self-confidence and condescension in every scene he is in and clearly imagines himself as superior to everyone around him. His ego is why he never figures out he's being used by the Riot symbiote.
• Social Darwinist: He expresses the misanthropic belief that the human race has grown out of control and needs a new apex predator to cull it.
  Carlton Drake: Look around at the world. What do you see? A planet on the brink of collapse. Human beings... are disposable! But man and symbiote, combined? This is a new race, a new species... a higher life form.
• The Sociopath: Willing to sell out his own species for the sake of his ego and never shows any hint of empathy or remorse for any of the horrible things he does.
• Tech Bro: The villainous Carlton Drake is a clean-cut and fairly young billionaire whose company is focused on scientific and technological research. He's got a good reputation as a philanthropist, and positions himself as a big believer in the ability of technology to solve the world's problems.
• Transhuman Treachery: While the Riot symbiote forcibly bonds to Drake, he willingly goes along with it in order to bring more symbiotes to Earth. In an unusual twist, Drake believes himself to be a Pro-Human Transhuman, but he doesn't seem to realize the symbiotes intend to enslave and wipe out humanity.
• Two First Names: "Drake" can also be used as a first name.
• Unwitting Pawn: Drake is unaware that he's Riot's host more out of convenience than them being compatible, and Riot clearly doesn't intend to keep him around once Earth is conquered.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Though Eddie and his higher-ups are rightly suspicious of his true nature, to the world at large Drake is a respectable CEO and philanthropist. His wealth and influence also deter most people from going after him.
• Would Hurt a Child: He keeps Dora in line by threatening her children and it's heavily implied he does the same with anyone else who thinks of whistleblowing.

Roland Treece

Roland Treece

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Scott Haze

Appearances: Venom

The leader of a band of mercenaries under the Life Foundation's employment.

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• Adaptational Badass: His counterpart from the comics was just a Corrupt Corporate Executive, but here he is a mercenary.
• Badass Normal: An evil example, since he can put up quite a fight with Eddie when his symbiote abilities do all the fighting, and later a relentless car chase with him.
• Bald of Evil: He's a PMC with a shaved head who has no problem causing large amounts of collateral damage in order to capture Eddie.
• Cleanup Crew: After it's discovered Eddie doesn't have the Venom symbiote anymore, Treece takes him out into the woods to kill him and dump the body where he'll never be found.
• The Dragon: He's sent to retrieve Eddie once Drake discovers he has the symbiote.
• Eaten Alive: Just as he's about to execute Eddie, She-Venom grabs him from behind and eats his head.
• Oh, Crap!: When Eddie transforms into Venom for the first time, Treece cringes as the symbiote licks his face.
• Oddly Overtrained Security: He's a PMC who's the head of the Life Foundation's security team and takes his job very seriously. Even the threat of being eaten by an alien monster doesn't deter him. Justified in that Life Foundation isn't your average corner shop security detail but highly rich.
• In Name Only: His counterpart from the comics was the head of a company and a board member of the Life Foundation.
• Tempting Fate: Tells Eddie "I don't believe in Karma" approximately 2 seconds before She-Venom grabs him from behind and bites his head off.

Symbiote Invasion

Riot Symbiote

The Riot Symbiote

Species: Klyntar

Citizenship: None

Voiced By: Riz Ahmed

Appearances: Venom

"You are nothing."

An evil symbiote who jumps from host to host, ultimately bonding to Dr. Carlton Drake.

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• The Ace: Stated to be this by the Venom symbiote, who describes it as a "team leader" who has "shit you've never seen". Given that it can jump hosts without burning them out, is bigger and stronger than the other symbiotes, can create more complex weapons from its biomass, can forcibly remove a symbiote from its host, and even contain another symbiote within itself, it definitely shows that Riot is on a whole other level.
  Drake: Your friends... the others, I apologize, I tried to keep them alive.
  Riot: There are more of us. Millions more. They will follow wherever I lead.
  Drake: ...Wherever we lead.
  Riot: Yes, we. But first, we must retrieve him.
• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Riot can use its shapeshifting abilities to lengthen its claws into blades.
• Adaptational Badass: In the comics, Riot serves as The Brute of a Quirky Miniboss Squad and never really battles Venom individually. In the movie, he's more analogous to Carnage in terms of abilities, with Venom being something of a "runt" in comparison. He is stated to be a team leader among his people, is shown to also be completely capable of working entirely on his own (going as far as to dismiss the deaths of his kind), is bonded to Carlton Drake, the leader of the Life Foundation, and even Venom admits that his chances of beating Riot in combat is a dead zero.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Rather than being the spawn of the Venom symbiote, Riot is an unrelated individual of the same species.
• Always Someone Better: Riot is more physically powerful than Venom and has superior fighting abilities, like creating weapons out of his body. Though Venom is quite powerful in his own right and manages to keep up with Riot, he is manhandled for most of the fight against him. In the end, he isn't even beaten by force, but gets incinerated when Venom explodes his ship's fuel tanks with Riot/Drake inside it.
• The Assimilator: In the final battle, Riot assimilates the Venom symbiote — host and all — to become truly enormous, only for Anne Weying to intercede with a sonic attack that separates them.
• Ax-Crazy: Best shown in the scene where he kills a bunch of Drake's staff because one of them tried to sabotage his rocket.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: It forms this with Carlton Drake, intending to bring more of its kind to Earth in order to conquer it.
• Bishōnen Line: Falls on the far end despite being physically stronger than Venom, who draws closer to the line. Compare Venom's basically humanoid form with a weird mouth and eye structure to Riot's oddly bumpy skin, hunched and loping posture, and somewhat crocodilian head structure.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Riot can transform its arms into enormous bladed weapons.
• Body Surf: Riot is a "body hopper" who jumps from host to host — jumping from John Jameson to a Malaysian paramedic to an old woman to a little girl and finally to Carlton Drake.
• Bright Is Not Good: Riot is primarily silver in coloration, helping distinguish him from Venom and the other symbiotes. It's also the film's symbiote Big Bad.
• Censored Child Death: At one point, Riot made its host follow a little girl into a public bathroom. The next time Riot appears, it has taken the girl as its new host. It abandons the girl to bond to Carlton Drake, and it's not shown what became of her afterwards.
• Composite Character: Riot usually stuck to shapeshifting to smashing weapons like hammers or maces in the comics. Here, he seems to prefer blades and claws, as well as growing spikes on his back, traits lifted from Phage and Carnage. He does use a mace in his fight against Venom though.
• Creepy Child: When he possesses the little girl in the Sarawak airport just before he meets Drake.
• Dual Wielding: He transforms his arms into two giant blades to slaughter the scientists at the rocket launch.
• Evil Counterpart: Riot is an evil symbiote who stands in contrast to the marginally more heroic Venom. While Venom grows to appreciate Earth, Riot just sees it as another feeding ground.
• Evil Is Bigger: Riot towers over the already massive Venom, and is also far stronger. According to the VFX crew he's about 8'6 to Venom's 7'6.
• Evil Is Petty: Riot, while possessing a Malaysian EMT, steals and eats a live eel; the eel vendor yells at him, only for Riot to slash his throat with an arm blade.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has a deeper voice than Venom's, although not by very much.
• Fantastic Racism: Its ultimate goal is to enslave and kill all of humanity, and for the alien symbiotes to rule Earth.
• Flechette Storm: While bonded to the Malaysian paramedic, Riot kills a group of thugs with a barrage of spikes fired from her back.
• Foil: To Venom. Where Riot is a "team leader" and capable of extraordinary physical feats such as turning his arms into weapons and fully overriding a host's body, Venom is a self-described "loser" who is a strong combatant but mostly relies on an Unskilled, but Strong fighting style, and either allows Eddie autonomy for a majority of the time or is incapable of taking it from him entirely. Venom begins to change for the better thanks to Eddie's influence, while Riot cares nothing for Drake.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After stabbing Eddie in the back with a blade, Venom uses said blade to destroy the rocket Riot is using to leave Earth, destroying both Riot and Drake.
• Join or Die: Riot orders Venom to get in the rocket that will bring back more of their alien kind to Earth. Venom refuses, so Riot decides to execute him.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: During the final battle, Riot rips the Venom symbiote off Eddie and prepares to eat it, only for Eddie to rebond to it at the last second.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Inverted. Riot's a bit brighter than its comic counterpart, given that its black sections are gone and red veins are visible beneath its silver surface.
• My Brain Is Big: It's kind of hard to see but the top of Riot's head is designed like an exposed brain, down to having the groove running down the middle, as well having visible lobes.
• Our Zombies Are Different: While he doesn't start a Zombie Apocalypse, his first few hosts before getting to Drake are disturbingly zombie-like in behavior.
• Oh, Crap!: While not immediately apparent due to symbiotes being Perpetual Smilers, he clearly has one when seeing Venom rupture the rocket's fuel tanks - at that point Riot clearly seems to realize that he's a dead man and symbiote.
• Possession Burnout: The Malaysian paramedic collapses after the symbiote leaves her, though it's not shown what happened to the old woman or the little girl it bonded to.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Unlike Venom, Riot's head resembles a crocodile or alligator.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Riot transforms its arms into massive blades and a giant mace.
• Spikes of Villainy: During its battle with Venom, it sprouts several spikes and tendrils from its back.
• Strong and Skilled: This sets up Riot’s huge advantage over Venom. He not only has the strength to match the other symbiote, but has a more versatile powerset that lets him form weapons and projectiles from his body. If he had a host more compatible than Drake, his defeating Venom and Eddie would have been a foregone conclusion, and even then he would have won after assimilating Venom had Anne Weying not intervened.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: Played entirely straight. His rocket that he wanted to board to leave Earth and start a symbiote invasion ends up being destroyed by Venom, using his discarded blade no less, and immediately doing away with Riot and Drake.
• Tainted Veins: The Riot symbiote has prominent red veins on its arms, chest, and back.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: In the comics, the Riot symbiote was one of many that spawned from Venom. While the comics scarcely explores their relation, in this film they seemingly have no "relation" at all and are merely members of the same species.
• Villain Respect: It does seem a bit impressed by how compatible Eddie is with Venom.
  Riot: [after taking a few hits] You have a strong host! But not strong enough...
• We Can Rule Together: While Riot only gives Venom this opportunity once, it is still his offer nonetheless.
  Riot: Venom... get in the rocket!
  Venom: No! We won't let you destroy this world!
  Riot: Then, die!
• We Have Reserves: When Drake apologizes for letting the other members of Riot's infiltration team die, Riot remarks there are millions more of its kind.
• Would Hit a Girl: It has no problems possessing a female paramedic and a little girl.
• Would Hurt a Child: It isn't picky when selecting a temporary host to feed and travel by, such as a little girl. And that's not mentioning the fact that its plan is having legions of symbiotes feast on humanity, adults and children alike.

SYM-A 02

Blue Symbiote

Species: Klyntar

Appearances: Venom

One of the four symbiotes collected by the Life Foundation. It is bonded to a man named Isaac, whom it immediately kills.

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• Body Horror: After bonding to Isaac, it causes him to spasm and twitch horrifically as it consumes him from the inside out.
• Code Name: The Life Foundation codenames it SYM-A02.
• Possession Burnout: Inflicted this on its hosts. After it does this to Dr. Skirth, the other Life Foundation scientists kill it by not returning it to its containment unit.

SYM-A 03

Yellow Symbiote

Species: Klyntar

Appearances: Venom

One of the four symbiotes collected by the Life Foundation. It successfully bonds to a rabbit, but is later shown to have perished when Eddie infiltrates the lab.

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• Code Name: The Life Foundation codenames it SYM-A03.
• Hair-Raising Hare: Its first successful host is a white lab rabbit, though it isn't shown assuming a monstrous form, and presumably consumed it from the inside-out.
• Mythology Gag: Its yellow and black appearance is one to the Scream symbiote from the comics, though it's never established if that's who it's meant to be.
• Possession Burnout: Inflicted this on its hosts, which ultimately led to its death when the Life Foundation failed to return it to its containment unit quickly enough.

Carnage and his Bride

Cletus Kasady

Cletus Kasady

"Soon come chaos... chaos soon comes!"

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Woody Harrelson and Jack Bandeira (teenager)

Appearances: Venom ^note  In The Stinger | Venom: Let There Be Carnage

"When I get out of here, and I will... there's gonna be carnage!"

A notorious serial killer who has been locked away for good. Eddie Brock interviews him after dealing with Carlton Drake.

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• Abusive Parents: As a child, Cletus was abused by his parents and grandmother. He doesn't go into great detail on what happened to his father, but he murdered his mother and grandmother in retaliation.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: He has green eyes in the comics, but has blue eyes in this iteration.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: A rather minor example, as he is still very much an unhinged murderous sociopath, but in the comics Cletus is generally dismissive at best and abusive at worst towards Shriek. In this version, they are childhood friends, and Cletus very much seems to actually care about her. His love of her is the only thing that can make him and Carnage lose their sync.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • His original comics incarnation set himself apart from Venom by having the symbiote be completely submissive towards Cletus, with Cletus telling it that he should be the one in control in his first appearance as Carnage, and the symbiote — for the most part — respecting that. Here, Kasady's glimmer of conflicting morality out of love for his girlfriend being threatened by Carnage shows that there are two beings at play here, and they can be at odds just like Venom.
    • Cletus and the symbiote also have a very special and unique relationship in the comics as they are really, really close. In the movie it is shown to be the opposite as Eddie and Venom use them being disharmonic to eventually defeat them.
  • Cletus and Eddie were cell-mates in the comics. In the movie Eddie never went to jail so they never were cell-mates. Instead, Eddie was interviewing Cletus in his role as a journalist.
  • Shriek is portrayed as being more of a groupie of Cletus with no real romantic feelings involved on either side in the comics. Here, they know each other since childhood and really do love each other.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Cletus is more sympathetic than his comic book counterpart in regards to his backstory, though he's still a psychotic Serial Killer.
• Alas, Poor Villain: When Cletus tells Eddie Brock that he just wanted Eddie’s friendship, Eddie appears sad and responds by genuinely apologizing to Cletus before letting Venom eat Cletus.
• Alliterative Name: His first and last name begin with the same sound.
• Ambiguous Situation: How Cletus found out so much about Eddie's childhood is never explained, nor is it explained why he's so obsessed with him. Though given that he's a deranged serial killer, the latter can easily be explained as him just having become obsessed with with Eddie by chance, either through reading his work or after their initial meeting in The Stinger to Venom.
• Art Shift: When Eddie reads his letter, Cletus's backstory is told through an animated sequence that resembles a Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book in red ink scribbles.
• Ax-Crazy: The man is so deranged that he has to be kept in a straitjacket within a smaller cell within his cell. When Eddie enters his cell, Cletus is writing "Welcome Eddie" with his blood. He claims he can turn the creepy-serial-killer act on and off, though, and mocks the idea of waxing lyrical about the beauty of arterial spray.
• Badass Normal: In contrast to Carlton Drake, Cletus is no slouch in fighting Eddie in hand-to-hand combat when both hosts are briefly separated from their respective symbiotes.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The host of the titular symbiote in Let There Be Carnage.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Cletus is entirely reliant on Carnage for his rampage, and has to resort to desperate pleading whenever the symbiote goes against his wishes by attacking Shriek.
• Break Them by Talking: His "Reason You Suck" Speech is this, as it not only gets Venom riled up but also leads to Carnage's creation.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Cletus obtains the Carnage symbiote in this continuity by eating a piece of the Venom symbiote he noticed clinging to him after it attacked him.
• Consulting a Convicted Killer: Eddie goes to interview him to see if he will help the FBI identify some more bodies.
• Cool Car: After escaping prison, he sees a red Ford Mustang on the street that he steals using the Carnage symbiote and takes for a joyride while causing chaos.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Carlton Drake. Drake is a rich, powerful billionaire with an army of mercs at his beck and call, and seeks to use the Symbiotes as a way to end suffering on earth, with himself on top. He projects a front of being civil and respectable, gaining the support of many, and few know of his true sociopathy. Cletus, on the other hand, is a lower-class criminal from a broken home and only has himself, his Symbiote and Shriek to call on. His use of Carnage is largely to obtain a simple, personal goal and go wild, while his own cover of sophistication is more simple and easily seen through, and Cletus is far more hated and reviled by everyone but Frances.
• Cultured Badass: One of Cletus's illustrations has a quote from Prometheus, a poem by Lord Byron, written on it. When the Carnage symbiote begins emerging from him during his execution, he quotes Macbeth by saying "Something... wicked... this way... comes!"
• Dark and Troubled Past: In Let There Be Carnage, Cletus reveals he was horrifically abused by his parents and grandmother, and then by the staff and other children at a group home.
• Deep South: He's a convicted murderer named Cletus with Woody Harrelson's famous Texas drawl.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A crazed psychopath who murders people at the drop of a hat, but to Frances Barrison he is her tender lover and she is his angel. He gets absolutely furious and pleads with the Carnage symbiote to not hurt her when it tries to kill her due to her sonic screams.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In a deleted scene, Cletus expresses discomfort with the Carnage symbiote plotting to commit genocide against humanity and replace them with a species of human/symbiote hybrids, with Carnage calling him a small thinker for focusing on petty vengeance.
  • He is against killing the church priest at his and Shriek's wedding. Carnage... not so much.
• Evil Is Petty: After his execution is ordered, he writes a childish letter to Eddie blaming him for his impending death, and when Eddie visits him while he’s on death row he gives Brock a horrible "The Reason You Suck" Speech where he brings up Brock’s dead mother and abusive father for no reason other than to make Eddie hurt.
• Evil Redhead: Cletus Kasady's red hair is maintained courtesy of Woody Harrelson rocking a curly-haired red wig, which is changed to a much shorter haircut in Let There Be Carnage. And as for the evil part, it's Cletus Kasady.
• Eye Scream: At one point during the extended DVD/Blu-ray cut of the first film, Cletus mentions that he sucked out and ate his victims' eyeballs. As he puts it:
  "Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside."
• Faux Affably Evil: Always has a polite tone and a smile on his face, but is definitely not someone to take lightly, being a cannibalistic serial killer.
• Freudian Excuse: His heart stopped on the day of his birth and he claims to have been violently abused by his parents and grandmother, which is why he killed his mother and grandmother in retribution. He was then beaten to near death by his father, who sent him to an orphanage where the other children bullied him until Shriek arrived to save him.
• Genre Savvy: He seems to be aware that he's the stereotypical "Ax-Crazy Soft-Spoken Sadist" usually seen in media, and both he and Eddie snarkily put a lampshade on how played out the archetype is getting:
  Cletus: Do you mind if we forgo the whole "creepy Serial Killer" thing here?
  Eddie: Sure, it's good with me.
  Cletus: I mean, I can turn it on if you want. I can talk about Dadaist patterns of arterial spray.
  Eddie: [smirking despite himself] I bet you can.
• The Heavy: Eddie has a greater connection to Cletus than the Carnage symbiote, and the former's desire to rescue Shriek directs the latter's murderous rampage.
• Horrifying the Horror: A subdued version. You wouldn't think much could bother Cletus as he's an unhinged cannibalistic serial killer, but he is genuinely distressed and concerned when he bites Eddie's hand and tastes the symbiote instead of his blood.
• Hypocrite: He feels that Eddie’s journalism leading to his execution is a horrible betrayal on Eddie’s part, despite the fact that he is a petty, unrepentant, cannibalistic serial killer.
• Icy Blue Eyes: A deranged serial killer who possesses bright blue eyes.
• I Am a Humanitarian: In the extended edition of the first film, Cletus quips that he enjoyed eating his victims' eyeballs. In Let There Be Carnage, he angrily takes a bite out of Eddie's hand and is confused at not tasting blood, something he freely admits he's tasted before, and quips that the San Quentin warden tasted just like ham when singing a parody of the Johnny Cash's song bearing the prison's name.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: At the end of Let There Be Carnage, after he is defeated and the Carnage symbiote slain, Cletus tells Venom that all he really wanted was for Eddie to be his friend. Eddie apologizes, but the Venom symbiote couldn't care less and angrily bites Cletus's head off.
• Incest Subtext: Eddie's journal notes speculate Cletus might have an Oedipus Complex, based on him digging up his mother's grave.
• Knight of Cerebus: Let There Be Carnage is practically a buddy comedy for the most part. But it quickly turns to horror once he shows up, especially after bonding with Carnage.
• Large Ham: Evil Is Hammy, so Woody Harrelson plays a complete sociopath without any hints at subtlety.
  Cletus: I walk out a wiser, stronger man. And Warden, you tasted just like ham.
• Mad Artist: He loves to scribble and draw whenever he can. He also has some knowledge of art, when he refers to Dadaism.
• Monstrous Humanoid: As shown in Let There Be Carnage, when he becomes Carnage, he is a towering blood-red humanoid monster with black vein-like markings, claws, a fanged maw, serpentine tongue, and large white eyespots. He can also spawn chaotic tentacles and transform his limbs into weapons.
• Mythology Gag:
  • He tells Eddie to expect "Carnage" when he breaks out of prison. Given that he doesn't gain powers in the first Venom movie, that's the extent of the character's presence in that film.
  • Eddie's prop notes, which were put up on display at New York Comic Con 2018◊, also reveal that his history is more or less identical to his comic counterpart's outside of the bit about him digging up his mother's grave, which occurred after he became Carnage in the comics.
  • He's also introduced writing "Welcome Eddie" on the bars of his cell with his own blood, calling back to his first comics appearance after bonding with the Carnage symbiote, where he made doing the same with "Carnage Rules!" in his victim's blood as a Calling Card.
• Never My Fault: Blames Eddie for him getting the death penalty rather than the fact that they were his own fault for killing so many people. It's implied he might only be upset that Eddie was somehow able to actually prove he did it.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In one of his meetings with Eddie, Cletus comments on how he and Eddie are quite alike, such as both of them having killed their mother (though in Eddie's case she died due to complications of childbirth) and having an abusive father.
• Off with His Head!: Venom finishes him off by biting off his head.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Andy Serkis considers his portrayal to be this.
• Psychotic Smirk: After promising to cause carnage when he escapes, Kasady distorts his facial features into a creepy cross between a Kubrick Stare and a grin.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In Let There Be Carnage, Cletus is shown delivering a scathing rant to Eddie, mocking him over how pathetic he is. Venom gets angry and attacks Cletus with a tendril, but Cletus bites Eddie's hand to get away, and ends up ingesting a piece of the symbiote.
• Red Is Violent: Cletus is a violent murderer with red hair and later a red symbiote. In fact, he loves the color so much that when he needs to steal a car, he goes for the first red one he sees.
• Rescue Romance: Cletus fell in love with Frances Barrison when she saved him from being beaten up by the other "troubled youngsters" at St. Estes.
• Sequel Hook: Exists in The Stinger of the first Venom movie to be one, setting up his role as one of the villains of Let There Be Carnage.
• Serial Killer: He's responsible for murdering countless people, starting with his own grandmother.
• Slasher Smile: Seems to be his default expression. It's unsettling, to say the least.
• The Sociopath: Gives off this creepy vibe as a first impression and is an unrepentant serial killer. Somewhat subverted in that he's capable of forming meaningful connections with other people, namely his genuine love for Frances.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He never raises his voice above a casual tone, even when he's talking about murdering people. He yells a lot more in the second film, though.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Cletus agrees to be the Carnage symbiote's host and help it kill Venom in exchange for its help rescuing his childhood friend-turned-lover Frances Barrison, and for the most part the two are on the same page. However, the Carnage symbiote quickly develops an intense hatred towards Frances due to her sonic powers — lashing out at her whenever she accidentally clips it — and Cletus has to plead with it not to kill her. This costs them the final battle, as when Carnage decides Frances has outlived her usefulness and tries to kill her, the two start to have a falling out — distracting Carnage long enough for Venom to get his second wind and save Anne. Carnage would've won anyway had Venom not knocked Frances into the church's bell tower, her dying scream separating both symbiotes from their hosts.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Shriek. They even get hitched in the climax of Let There Be Carnage.
• Unreliable Narrator: During the final battle, Cletus shouts that he didn't kill his mother and grandmother For the Evulz, but as retribution for their abuse of him. Considering how much of an Ax-Crazy psycho he's been throughout the film and his blaming Eddie for him getting the death penalty for the murders he committed, this can be taken with a grain of salt. And even if it were true, it wouldn't justify all the other murders he committed.
• Walking Spoiler: His very presence is the surprise of the stinger of the first movie.
• Would Harm a Senior: He killed his own grandmother. Granted, she abused him with his parents.
• Younger Than They Look: Harrelson was in his 58 during the filming of Let There Be Carnage but given that Cletus was shown to be a teenager in 1996, it's likely the character is intended to be in his mid to late 30s.

Carnage Symbiote

The Carnage Symbiote

^{Click here to see the Carnage symbiote in humanoid form}
"There you are. Death to you, Father."

Species: Klyntar

Citizenship: None

Voiced By: Woody Harrelson

Appearances: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

An offshoot of the Venom symbiote bonded to Cletus Kasady.

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• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, the Carnage symbiote was spawned from the Venom symbiote when it broke Eddie out of prison, and bonded to Cletus through a cut on his hand — merging with his bloodstream in the process. In Let There Be Carnage, Carnage is born from Cletus biting Eddie's hand and swallowing his symbiote-laced blood.
• Adaptational Badass: Carnage is typically equal to or smaller than Venom in the comics. Here, he ends up much larger.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Carnage in the comics was largely submissive to Cletus, viewing him as the perfect host and acting like a Bratty Teenage Daughter to Venom and an example of a Proud Warrior Race on the rare occasions it was given a voice of its own. Here, Carnage threatens and defies Cletus multiple times in the film, has no deeply personal grudge against Venom, and has no pride for its species. It simply wants to kill Venom to be the only symbiote on Earth. A deleted scene shows it scornfully dismissing Cletus and Frances as small thinkers for focusing on personal vengeance when they have an opportunity to leave an indelible mark on history itself, and plotting to use Cletus and Frances to sire a species of human-symbiote hybrids that will cleanse the Earth of all it deems unworthy.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Unlike the comics, this incarnation of Carnage displays some form of wind manipulation, as it creates a miniature tornado using its tentacles while escaping San Quentin.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the comic books, Carnage´s violence and brutality is clearly driven by Cletus who corrupted the symbiote from the beginning. In the movie the symbiote is the more brutal and violent one of the duo, killing the priest and even wanting to kill Shriek despite Cletus being clearly against this.
• Adaptational Wimp: Zigzagged. While still stronger than Venom by a significant margin, Carnage does not have a good symbiotic relationship with Cletus, which results in their defeat; whereas in the comics where they are practically one and the same.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the comics, the Carnage symbiote sees Cletus as his ultimate host, these leading to an unusual deep connection between host and symbiote. In Let There Carnage however, Carnage seems ultimatly annoyed by Cletus and in fact, it is their disharmony that let to them being defeated by Eddie and Venom.
• Answers to the Name of God: In a deleted scene, the Carnage symbiote smugly says "Why look to God when you have Him right here?" in response to Cletus being off-put by its plan to commit genocide on the Earth.
• Antagonistic Offspring: It wants to kill its father Venom in order to be the sole Symbiote on Earth.
• Asshole Victim: Carnage is more deserving of being eaten by Venom than its partner after showing itself to be more evil than Cletus.
• Ax-Crazy: Just like Cletus, Carnage has a passion for murder.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The titular villain of Let There Be Carnage, with Kasady as his host.
• Bio-Armor: When fully manifested, the Carnage symbiote covers its host's body in its biomass and manifests a fanged maw, huge white eyes, and a long prehensile tongue which it uses to suffocate a guard.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: One of its preferred means of attacking is morphing its host's limbs into blades.
• Bloody Murder: It has merged with its host's blood, giving it a Red and Black and Evil All Over coloration.
• Combat Tentacles: The symbiote is able to create spike- and blade-tipped tentacles, which it can flail fast enough to create a vortex.
• Composite Character: While this Carnage has some similarities to the original version of Carnage, his origins are very similar to Ultimate Carnage, being created when Venom's bio-matter is mixed together with another party, Ultimate Spider-Man in the comics and Eddie in the movie. He has a strong similarity to Anti-Venom, being created when some of Eddie's blood and a piece of the Venom symbiote mutate into a whole new symbiote after its host was exposed to an outside influence, Mr. Negative's Lightforce energies in the comics, and the lethal injection drugs in the movie, and he is a more powerful clone of Venom. Carnage's ability to interface with and hack technology is similar to that of Scorn, one of Carnage's offspring in the comics.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Riot is another powerful Symbiote above Venom in strength, but he is focused on invading the Earth and turning it into a colony for his kind to devour humanity, making it clear that Carlton is just a tool almost from the start. Its fighting style largely focuses on brute force attacks with mace-like weapons, ax blades, and elongated claws. Carnage, meanwhile, is only focused on itself and its desires, and wants to be the only Symbiote on Earth so it can run wild, clashing with Cletus only after growing increasingly annoyed with Frances. Carnage makes uses of tendrils, human-shields, and shards from its body, using every tool it can to defeat its "father".
• The Cracker: Carnage can bypass any firewalls on the Internet, no matter how restricted, by inserting its tentacles right into a computer.
• Create Your Own Villain: Carnage only came into being when Venom's attempt to attack Cletus results in the latter biting Eddie, infecting him with a piece of Venom.
• Combo Platter Powers: In addition to the powers it inherited from its father (super strength, speed, toughness, and limited shapeshifting), Carnage can also hack computers by inserting its tentacles into a USB port, suck out peoples' organs with its tongue, shoot spikey projectiles made of its own biomass, drastically shift in size, and manipulate wind, all on top of being physically stronger than the other symbiotes.
• Dragon-in-Chief: While Carnage needs Cletus as a host to function, it is clear that Carnage is the dominant one of the pair while Cletus is only a threat to Venom because of the symbiote and has to resort to making desperate pleas to Carnage to get him under his control.
• The Dreaded: When Cletus turns into Carnage and prepares to fight Eddie, Venom reacts with shock and fear, before retreating back into Eddie. Compare this reaction to Riot, who Venom was willing to fight despite acknowledging that Riot's abilities far exceeded his own.
  Venom: Oh, shit! [retreats into Eddie] [...] That is a red one!
• Enfant Terrible: In a sense, Carnage is not more than two days old, but has already developed a taste for violence and human flesh, in addition to wanting to kill its parent.
• Evil Is Bigger: Initially, Carnage seems to be the same size as Venom, but grows to be absolutely gigantic in the final battle, even more so than his predecessor Riot. In the shot where they leap at each other◊ he looks to be 11-12 feet tall compared to the 7'6, 500-pound Venom (which would also imply that Carnage masses about a ton).
• Evil Is Visceral: The red parts of it look to be made of exposed muscle and raw meat, as seen in close-ups, and it is an extraterrestrial predator bonded to a cannibalistic serial killer.
• Flechette Storm: Carnage can fire volleys of spiked projectiles from its tendrils.
• A God Am I: In a deleted scene, the Carnage symbiote refers to itself as God when outlining its plan to commit genocide on Earth — something even Cletus Kasady is put off by.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Red symbiotes appear to be particularly dangerous among their kind, as Venom shows greater fear of Carnage than he did of Riot, not even being willing to fight Carnage without an assurance from Eddie that he could eat anyone he wanted.
• Mythology Gag: The Carnage symbiote is able to jack into computers and interface with the Internet, a reference to the "Venom: Carnage Unleashed" storyline.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Like Venom, the Carnage symbiote has a serpentine prehensile tongue. Carnage is shown extending its tongue and shoving it down the throat of a prison guard.
• Patricide: Carnage's greatest desire is to kill its own father Venom.
• Power-Up Food: In order to increase its strength during the final battle, Carnage bites off the head of the priest. It even says "power up" right before eating him.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Due to merging with Cletus's blood, the symbiote is predominantly red with black vein-like markings and a black patch on its face.
• Red Is Violent: The Carnage symbiote is predominantly red in color and it is far more violent than Venom.
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: Riot is a very minor character in the comics, while Carnage is far more famous and iconic as an enemy to both Spider-Man and Venom.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: Even among the already implausible abilities of symbiotes, Carnage stands out for being able to produce nearly endless amounts of biomass. He can create webs of tentacles to suspend objects above the ground, multiple Combat Tentacles, and in the climax nearly envelops the exterior of an entire church.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Carnage wants to kill Venom in order to be the sole symbiote on Earth, and agrees to help Cletus rescue his lover Frances Barrison to that end, as well as both being completely psychotic. While they're mostly on the same page, when it discovers Frances has sonic abilities, it decides she's too dangerous to let live and Cletus has to beg it not to kill her. This disharmony proves to be Carnage's downfall, as Cletus and the Symbiote start disagreeing and fighting when it backhands Frances for accidentally blasting it and when it attempts to throttle her after deciding she's outlived her usefulness; providing Venom with the opening he needs to take Carnage down.
• Title Drop: During the final battle, as Carnage repeatedly skewers Venom with his tendrils he triumphantly shouts the title of the movie:
  Carnage: Let there be CARNAGE!
• Torso with a View: Displays the ability to voluntarily open a see-through hole in his midsection during battle, notably during the prison escape and in the final battle against Venom.
• To Serve Man: Carnage attempts to devour the prison warden after jailbreaking Cletus, only to be distracted by the alarm going off. It later eats the priest to "power up" during Carnage's fight with Venom.
• Transformation Horror: The film shows that — unlike Venom smoothly enveloping Eddie's body — the Carnage symbiote cancerously bubbles and bursts out of Cletus, horrifically warping his body in the process.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Carnage is clearly much more powerful than Venom, but since he's only about a day old, the more experienced Venom manages to hold his own for most of their final fight, although Carnage ultimately wins.

Frances Barrison / Shriek

Frances Barrison / Shriek

Species: Enhanced Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Naomie Harris and Olumide Olorunfemi (teenager)

Appearances: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

A woman with the power to create sonic blasts by screaming.

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• Adaptational Modesty: The comic version tends to wear skimpy leather outfits while this version dresses more conservatively.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Downplayed but this version has a disfiguring scar the comic version lacks.
• Adaptation Species Change: She is a mutant in the comics but can´t be called that thanks to copyright issues in the movie. The closest they get to calling her one is when she explains to Cletus that they are moving her to Ravencroft because of her mutation.
• Affectionate Nickname: Cletus calls her his "one bright light."
• Ambiguously Evil: As a child, at least. It is not clear what crimes she committed to be locked up in Ravencroft, or whether she did not commit crimes to begin with, and was only locked up as a preventative measure due to her powers.
• Bully Hunter: When she was a child, she used her power to save Cletus from three boys who were beating him up.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Mostly played straight. She’s only called Shriek once by Carnage, and every other time, she's referred to by her real name.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: She has one piercing, icy blue iris that accentuates her status as a maniacal serial killer.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Her speaking voice is noticeably shrill and high pitched, possibly as a result of her powers.
• The Dragon: To Cletus.
• Disney Villain Death: Subverted. Venom shoves her off the bell tower, but she is still alive after she lands and prepares to scream again before the bell crushes her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She sees Carnage’s intent to kill Anne as going too far, and her asking Cletus to stop is what prompts Carnage to try to kill her against Cletus's desperate protests.
  Shriek: Baby, that's too much!
• Evil Is Hammy: Naomie Harris takes her sultry performance as Tia Dalma, adds in utter delight joining Carnage's hideous acts, and the result is her clearly having the time of her life.
• Evil Wears Black: She wears a black wedding dress to her and Cletus's “wedding”.
• Eye Scream: When she was a teenager, Frances' left eye was shot out by a young Detective Mulligan — who assumed he'd killed her. As an adult, she has an icy blue prosthetic eye surrounded by scars while her right eye is brown.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Obvious puns aside, she clearly enjoys the destruction that Cletus and Carnage inflict when busting her out of Ravencroft.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Let There Be Carnage shows she can launch sonic attacks by screaming — hence her supervillain codename of Shriek.
• Man of Kryptonite: Her sound-based powers on display in the film zero in on one of the symbiotes' key weaknesses, which sets her up as a significant threat to both Venom and Carnage. It's for this reason that Carnage decides to kill her.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As she plummets to her death, she instinctively screams, separating Cletus and Carnage (as well as Eddie and Venom, who recover quicker). Her very existence also prevented Cletus from becoming an absolute monster and in turn a perfect match for the Carnage symbiote.
• Never Found the Body: A bell dropped on her, yes. Bottom down. Bells are hollow on the inside, and this one had had the clapper torn out. And we never see her corpse...
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Downplayed — while she enjoys the wanton destruction wreaked by Cletus and Carnage, Frances appears to have a standard of not directly killing anyone who doesn't stand in her way or hasn't personally wronged her. While she's willing to kidnap Anne and force her to witness her and Cletus's wedding, she tries to stop the Carnage symbiote when it wants to kill her.
• Nightmare Fetishist: When Cletus sprouts tentacles from his body, she immediately declares it "so hot".
• Only Friend: Frances and Cletus were each other's only friends at the orphanage. In fact, considering Cletus's relationship with his family members, Frances may be the only person he has ever cared about in his entire life.
• Out of the Inferno: Let There Be Carnage shows Shriek and Cletus exiting the burning ruins of St. Estes, silhouetted by the flames.
• Outside-Genre Foe: The first explicit superhuman in the SSU, as she's a human with an outright superpower in contrast to the more monstrous Symbiote Hosts. Her appearance and the presence of Ravencroft heavily imply that other superhumans exist in this setting but have been locked up.
• Race Lift: In Let There Be Carnage, Shriek is African-American, while in the comics Frances Barrison is Caucasian and has unnaturally pale skin due to being a mutant.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Let There Be Carnage shows her contained in a soundproofed cell in the Ravencroft Institute, with the guards being equipped with noise-canceling headphones on top of noise-canceling earbuds as a counter to her sonic abilities.
• Tears of Joy: Subtly, but she is letting out quiet sobs of happiness when she sees that Cletus has come back for her after so many years.
• Unholy Matrimony: After Frances used her powers to incapacitate the other children bullying Cletus, the two of them became very close — with Cletus slipping her a makeshift engagement ring on the night she was taken to Ravencroft. After rescuing her, the two of them plan to get married only for Venom to interrupt the ceremony before they can finish exchanging vows.

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