Riot

Origin

Trevor Cole was a volunteer/mercenary for the 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. Trevor was picked from the organization’s security force made up of cops, soldiers, and mercenaries to take part in an experiment. The alien creature known as Venom went through a procedure where multiple “offspring” were forcibly extracted from it and then artificially aged to maturity. Trevor was paired up with one of these symbiotes, and he and his fellow Guardians were intended to serve as the superhuman police force for the utopian future the Life Foundation sought to bring about.

Creation

Riot was created by David Michelinie, Ron Lim, Sam DeLarosa and Al Milgrom in 1993 and first appeared in Venom: Lethal Protector #4.

Trevor Cole was often identified as Riot, but this name comes from the Venom action figure line. A mere glance at the Riot action figure – or reading the backstory of the action figure on the card (“a sewer-dwelling mutant bonded with a symbiote during the invasion”) – leaves many questions as to how this association first occurred. The made-for-toys character of Riot is not Trevor Cole, and bares zero resemblance to him, so Trevor being known as Riot began unofficially on the internet. In 2012’s Carnage U.S.A. however, Trevor’s symbiote was officially identified by the name of Riot for the first time. Despite it never truly having been his, it seems that the name “Riot” has stuck.

Major Story Arcs

Lethal Protector

During Venom’s time as Lethal Protector of San Francisco, Trevor and his “siblings” were defeated by Venom and Spider-Man. Trevor’s symbiote was artificially aged to dust and his body was caught in a massive explosion.

Separation Anxiety

It was later revealed that the 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. Scream killed Carl with a sonic knife after killing Leslie, having snapped from her schizophrenia and her symbiote’s influence, believing that the symbiotes and any who host them were evil. Carl’s death assisted Donna in misleading the others into thinking Eddie Brock was picking them off. When her ruse was revealed she stabbed Trevor in the chest and killed him.

Hybrid

Trevor’s symbiote survived, and was imprisoned/experimented upon in the Vault along with its siblings except Carnage and Scream. The symbiotes eventually merged together, and bonded with a man known as Scott Washington to form Hybrid.

Mercury Team

In Carnage: USA, the Hybrid symbiote was revealed to have been forcibly separated behind the scenes. The Riot symbiote, along with its siblings, were rendered catatonic as a result of the trauma of the separation. Covert Government Mercury Team, trained with them to teach them specialized tasks. Riot was bonded to Petty Officer Howard Ogden, of Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) Reconnaissance. It made his footsteps silent for spycraft.

They were called on as a contingency team when the Avengers failed to free the town of Doverton, Colorado from Carnage’s control.

Deadpool vs. Carnage

In Deadpool vs. Carnage, Deadpool stole the symbiotes from a government facility to help him combat Carnage. After defeating Carnage he puts the symbiotes on a dog and instructs it to take them back to the government.

Absolute Carnage & King In Black

Following Knull’s awakening, Lasher 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 – Riot 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 Riot bonding to Sadie’s father. Following this, the family set out for Manhattan in order to assist in Knull’s reawakening.

They arrived at a warehouse where Dylan Brock – son of Eddie Brock – and Normie Osborn – former host of the Carnage Symbiote – hid alongside the Maker. The Maker distracted the symbiotes while Dylan and Normie hid, however, Riot ordered Phage to go after them. Sleeper appeared just in time to save them, but the Maker managed to put it along with the other symbiotes under containment.

However, Normie and Dylan decided to flee, afraid of what the Maker could do to them. They tried to use firearms on him but it ended up freeing the symbiotes, except for Sleeper. They fused itselfs into the Maker and tried to get Dylan’s codex. Fortunately, The Thing, Wolverine, Captain America and Spider-Man arrived and kept Hybrid occupied. Dylan freed Sleeper and used his powers to control the symbiote, enter the Maker’s body and alter his chemicals, so Hawkeye shooted a flaming arrow at him, seemingly killing the symbiotes.

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.

Extreme Carnage

Riot is riding a host on the bus when Carnage locates him in the hive-mind. He tells Riot he is getting the family back together, which Riot agrees to rather quickly, earning a red faced possession. He leaves his current host looking for a new one among the bus riders, before finding the perfect host to get a job with the campaign of Peter Krane, where all his siblings had been hiding.

When Carnage killed Flash Thompson’s mole, Hank, in the campaign, Riot guarded the body and used his phone to taunt Flash and his team. Riot was then beheaded by Sleeper, who had secretly bonded to Hank on Flash’s order.

When the fight ended, Riot was taken by Alchemax along with Lasher and Phage.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

The Riot symbiote gives its host the following powers:

Superhuman Strength: Riot appeared to have the greatest physical build of the LF symbiotes, but his precise strength level was never revealed.

Superhuman Durability

Superhuman Stamina

Superhuman Speed: Riot can move at a very fast velocity, even faster than the human eye can see.

Accelerated Healing Factor

Wall-Crawling

ESP (Spider-Sense)

Immunity to Spider-man’s Spider-Sense

Webbing Generation

Camouflage Capabilities

Constituent-Matter Generation

Constituent-Matter Manipulation (Blunt Weapons): Unlike his fellow symbiotes, Riot’s symbiote preferred to create large bludgeoning weapons like hammers and maces from his arms. This was presumably caused by Trevor’s aggressive mentality.

Weaknesses

Fire and sound

Other Media

Film

Venom (2018)

The Riot symbiote appears in the 2018 Venom film. In a departure from the comics, Riot does not have Trevor Cole as a host, instead bonding with Carlton Drake, the corrupt CEO of the Life Foundation. Riot is initially one of the symbiotes brought back from a comet by the Life Foundation, ending up in Malaysia. It eventually makes its way to San Francisco by hopping from person from person before finally bonding with Drake. Drake agrees to take Riot back into space by using a probe so that they can bring the rest of the symbiotes from the comet to Earth. Eddie Brock and Venom attempt to stop the probe, leading to a final battle with Riot. The heroes manage to destroy the probe, which results in an explosion that kills both Drake and Riot.

Video Games

• Riot appears as a boss enemy in Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety.
• Riot appears as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.
• A faction enemy type resembles Riot in Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. It is a gray tank type enemy.

Merchandise

• Riot was featured in ToyBiz’s Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes toy line. The figure was actually the first instance of Cole’s symbiote being called “Riot,” as it had no known name in the comics prior to that.
• Riot was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of an Amazon-exclusive box set that also included Venom and Agony.