Toxin

Origin

Like all Symbiotes, Carnage became pregnant, but felt only hatred and fear for his new “son” because of its potential to become stronger that its predecessors. Venom found out about Carnage’s “pregnancy”, so he tracked him down and talked about the spawn. Carnage did not want to talk about the situation and fought Venom. Carnage was ready to kill his powerful child as soon as it was born. When Carnage did give birth, however, he was too weak to actually kill it. He tried to blow it up, and bury it, but to no luck. He would eventually put his symbiote spawn to an NYPD officer, Patrick Mulligan, hoping to destroy the symbiote later when he regained his strength.

Prior to the recent events, Patrick Mulligan is a cop who lives with his family, a wife and a son. Carnage attached his “child” to Patrick in a gas leak explosion and planned on killing him, but he realized he was too weak after birth and left promising to come back and finish the job. Carnage attempted to kill Toxin again, but was prevented from doing so by Black Cat and later Venom, who wanted to train it and make it his ally against Spider-Man and if he had to, Carnage. Venom fought Carnage, and named the new symbiote Toxin because to other symbiotes he smells like poison and has tendrils like Carnage but has a body similar to Venom.

Major Story Arcs

Venom vs. Carnage

After Carnage attacked his wife and Spider-Man fended him off in all the conflict, Patrick’s wife went into labor and a little boy was born named Edward Mulligan. Patrick left them, realizing what a danger he would be to them if he stayed. Venom, now realizing that Toxin’s host is a cop and more powerful than himself and Carnage, he will likely become a good guy. Venom allied himself with his son Carnage for the first time to kill Toxin, but in the final battle between the three symbiotes, Toxin defeated them both and his “parents” fled.

Spider-Man stumbled into the final confrontation between the symbiote trio and helped Toxin. After they fended off Venom and Carnage, Toxin had a conversation with Spider-Man, filling him in on what had happened to him. Spider-Man gave him a kind of superhero heart-to-heart and passed on his Uncle Ben’s message: “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.” Toxin resigned himself to a life of battling his base symbiote urges to indulge in violence and destruction, while trying to harness his power for good.

Toxin

In 2005, after Spider-Man joined the Avengers, Marvel started a six-issue Toxin limited series, which charts Toxin’s battles with various super-villains who had escaped from the Raft as a result of the events beginning The New Avengers series. Unlike Venom and Carnage, who embrace the power and give in to the symbiotes they have, Patrick Mulligan is always having to keep Toxin under control. Also, because Toxin is still a child, Pat is trying to teach the symbiote how to be good. Unlike his “grandfather” Venom, Toxin does not refer to himself as “we”. Throughout the course of the mini-series, he battled King Cobra, The Answer, Wrecker, Piledriver, and Razorfist.

Toxin first found Cobra in a hotel room. When Cobra tried to wrap himself around Toxin, Toxin grew, stretching Cobra beyond his limit. Toxin found Razorfist starting a cult of self-harming children in the sewers of New York City, using them as his slaves. Patrick searched for and found Razorfist, but because of an argument with Toxin, Toxin refused to help until Patrick admitted that he needed Toxin, even going so far as to turn Patrick into a small, middle-aged man Toxin referred to as “Larry.” Once Patrick admitted it, however, Toxin emerged and battled Razorfist briefly, before escaping. To have a compromise, Pat made a deal with Toxin that it will let him see his family with a disguise as “mild-mannered” Larry, in return Toxin can have his “play time,” but for only two hours and no criminal activities. When he faced the Answer, he defeated him but for not returning in Ryker’s, Pat asked the villain for advice on resolving a moral dilemma and he said try killing himself. He did attempted to commit suicide as advised by the Answer, by throwing himself in front of a train. Toxin interferes at the last moment, saving Pat and claiming that deep down, Pat didn’t really want to die. When Pat presses the issue, however, it became clear that unlike the Venom and Carnage symbiotes, Toxin is not sure it could survive on its own and find a new host. Wrecker and Piledriver decided to pull an art heist, Toxin stopped them but not before they demolished the museum.

Toxin showed very childlike behaviors, such as throwing a tantrum and breaking Pat’s laptop after seeing a blog where he referred to Toxin as a “monster.” Toxin then stole a stack of laptops to replace the one he broke, however, Spider-Man ran into him as he was running away with them and stopped the theft. Toxin runs into Razorfist again, now training an army of small children, dubbed the “Piranha Tots,” to kill their family members. Toxin finally defeated him by removing his razor fists, leaving him with his stumps and being unable to harm him. Even though Razorfist murders Patrick Mulligan’s father, Pat/Toxin begin to show true signs of a hero. He tracks Razorfist down, but instead of slaughtering him as both the symbiote and Razorfist himself urges, he controls himself and turns Razorfist over to the police. At the end of the limited series, we see Pat reconcile with his estranged wife Gina, by “introducing” her to the Toxin symbiote as way of explaining why he walked out on his family. Eventually, he and Gina reunite and stay together with the symbiote.

Venom

Venom (Flash Thompson) recently encountered the Toxin symbiote contained in a secret laboratory hidden in the Devil’s Den casino. The symbiote wanted to kill the Toxin symbiote, and went feral and took over. Jack O’Lantern managed to take it from Venom’s grip and fly back to Crime Master with it.

It is later revealed that Blackheart is responsible for the symbiote ending up in Las Vegas, having beaten Pat Mulligan to death in a gutter off panel to acquire the symbiote as part of his plan to bring Hell on Earth. He later uses a part of the symbiote and fuses it to clones of X-23 to create symbiote warriors, which were later killed by X-23 herself.

Savage Six

After a struggle involving Venom, Eddie Brock, and Crime Master, Eddie was left behind as Venom escaped. Crime Master then forcibly bonded the Toxin symbiote to Eddie. Toxin takes on a slightly different appearance, declaring that he wants to kill Venom above all else so only he can be around for the great spawning.

He later attacks Venom, only to be defeated rather easily by him, thanks to a sonic device he acquired from Betty Brant. While Venom is saving his sister, Toxin kidnaps Betty Brant and takes her to Crime Master. After entering Crime Masters hideout he is attacked by Megatak. Toxin comes from behind Megatak and kills him (hurting himself in the process), stating that Venom is his. Venom manages to remove the toxin symbiote Brock and throws a grenade into toxin’s mouth. Sadly for Eddie the Toxin symbiote drags into the fire from the explosion burning him. He later returns and is encountered by Agent Venom in Philadelphia.

Hunting Carnage

Eddie eventually gains more control over the Toxin suit, and uses it to hunt criminals. He and the symbiote are captured by FBI agent Claire Dixon, who forces them to help in her pursuit of Carnage. To keep him in line, Eddie is dosed with a chemical suppressant that renders him unable to summon Toxin unless she allows it. During a botched effort to trap Carnage in at a mine, Eddie is allowed to transform into Toxin to battle his old foe. The symbiote is shown taking on a new, armored form that resembles the Agent Venom costume.

Following this, Eddie travels with Dixon, Manuela Calderon, John Jameson Jr., Victoria Montesi and Yuvraj Singh on a globe-trotting mission to stop Carnage from resurrecting the ancient entity Chthon. During the final battle, Eddie allows Toxin to bond with Jubulile van Scotter, a young girl he’d earlier befriended. Combining Toxin with the Carnage particles in her own blood and the Raze symbiote she absorbed from Dixon, Jubulile creates an amalgamated symbiote that allows her to battle Chthon. However, the suit evaporates into smoke after this, seemingly indicating that all three symbiotes perished.

Extreme Carnage

After surviving the encounter to Chthon, Toxin bonded to a young boy named Bren Waters. Toxin admitted that Knull had rejected him during his invasion, so he and Bren had been playing superhero.

When a terrorist attack was reported at Bren’s father’s workplace, Toxin and Bren suited up and went to lend a hand. It is there where Toxin was attacked by Carnage in his personal void. After fighting him off, he also felt a hive-mind connection to the newly created Silence symbiote (bonded to Andi Benton). After sharing notes on Carnage, the trio decided to team up to against him.

Together, they confront Carnage and the Life Foundation symbiotes at a campaign event for Peter Krane, an anti-alien politician. They were not able to save Krane from being assassinated by Carnage, but they were able to stop any other deaths. Carnage and Agony successfully fled, but they did manage to capture Riot, Phage, and Lasher.

Toxin’s host, Bren, wanted the trio to stick together as a team. Flash and Andi were reluctant over Bren’s age, however, they agreed Toxin was an asset. Thus, they ultimately agreed to stick together.

State of Grace

Toxin helped Bren track down Dylan Brock, who was currently bonded to Venom. Dylan was trying to recruit symbiotes awaiting his father’s return, but Bren needed his help when he found out employees at Alchemax were being tortured for information about the corporation. Bren believed they should be spared, and Dylan reluctantly agreed.

Unfortunately, NoName got to Bren and used anti-symbiote weaponry to separate him from Toxin. He was to be the next relative of an Alchemax employee to be publicly poisoned by Alcehmax’s own chemicals. Venom, Sleeper, and Black Widow (on the trail of NoName and bonded to a new symbiote named Widow) are able to rescue Toxin by bonding him to a NoName enforcer.

Once that enforcer made it to the location Bren was being held, Toxin was able to send word to the rest of the symbiotes. With Venom and Sleeper’s help, Toxin broke in to save Bren from drowning. Unfortunately, Bren was not just chained up in a pool. The pool was filled with water poisoned with Alchemax chemicals. Both Toxin and Bren were sickened by the water, so Venom and Sleeper brought them to Flash Thompson to be cured with his Anti-Venom cells.

Powers

Like all symbiotes, the Toxin Symbiote possesses the powers of its parent to a greater degree; He can stick to walls, shapeshift, also has unlimited webbing (which takes on a shape of thick red and blue tendrils like the chains of Ghost Rider), camouflage to its environment extremely effectively, form solid weapons from his limbs like Carnage, and a healing factor like his predecessors. Unlike the others, Toxin can track anyone, not just other symbiotes, as long as he has something to pick up a scent. Also he has the abillity to hide in its host’s blood stream.

Also unlike other symbiotes, Toxin appears to be somewhat resistant to sonic waves and heat. Another difference is that Toxin, while dependent upon it’s host, does not appear to have bonded with him. In fact, Toxin and Patrick Mulligan will often converse while in their human form. Toxin’s eyes are sometimes transparent, showing Patrick’s eyes underneath. When he’s not angry or fighting, Toxin is slim and smooth-lined, although still well muscled, closely resembling Deadpool or Spider-Man in his Symbiote costume. When the symbiote starts to take more control, he grows a tooth filled mouth and his claws become bigger, similar to Carnage. When he becomes highly aggressive, he grows into his much bigger and stronger form, with vicious fangs and long curving claws that resembles Venom in red and blue. He is also stronger than both Venom and Carnage combined. Able to lift (press) over 35-45 tons originally. Now he is able to lift over 50-90 tons, He can also sense all other symbiotes instead of just his children as other symbiotes do.

Characteristics

Patrick Mulligan

• Height : 6’2″ (Mulligan), 6’10 1/2″ (Variable, with symbiote)
• Weight: 215 lbs (Mulligan), 695 lbs (Variable, with symbiote)
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Brown

Eddie Brock

• Height: 6’3 (Brock), 6’10 1/2” (with symbiote)
• Weight: 260 pounds (Brock)
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Blond

Other Media

Video Games

Marvel Heroes 2015

Toxin appears in the game as an alternate costume for Venom.

Spider-Man Unlimited

The Patrick Mulligan version of Toxin appears as a playable character.

Merchandise

• ToyBiz released a figure of the Patrick Mulligan version of Toxin for the Spider-Man Classics line.
• Toxin was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• Hasbro released a figure of the Eddie Brock version of Toxin for Marvel Legends, the sister line to Spider-Man Classics, as part of the Ultimate Green Goblin wave.
• Funko included Toxin in their Pop! line of bobbleheads.
• A deluxe version of the Eddie Brock Toxin was released as part of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.