Toxin is a fictional character, an anti hero, in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the third major Symbiote of the Spider-Man series.
| Toxin | |
|---|---|
 Cover to Toxin #3 Simon Bisley, artist | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Venom/Carnage #1 (Patrick Mulligan) Venom/Carnage #2 (Toxin) |
| Created by | Peter Milligan Clayton Crain |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Patrick Mulligan |
| Team affiliations | Spider-Man, NYPD |
| Notable aliases | Toxin |
| Abilities | Super-strength, Unlimited "webbing", ability to form blades and projectiles from symbiotic costume. Increased agility and durability. |
Character history
Much like his father Venom, Carnage produced a third Symbiote. Carnage felt only dislike and hatred towards his new spawn, even before he "gave birth" to it, both fearing that it could become much more powerful than himself, and being generally disgusted at the thought of giving birth. At the same time, Carnage's rival and "father" Venom became aware that Carnage was "pregnant" and sought out Carnage to talk about this new symbiote. Carnage had resolved to kill his spawn as soon as it was birthed. Venom was doing his best to protect the new symbiote, with the intention of raising it to become his new partner.
After the birth of his "son", Carnage felt too weak to kill his newborn (due in no small part to his attempt to repress the birth), so he tried blowing it up and burying it. Much to Carnage's dismay however, his newborn son would find a human host to live with, in the shape of Patrick Mulligan.
Prior to finding the alien symbiote, Patrick Mulligan was one of New York City's finest cops, yet he was also troubled with various personal problems. His stressful job, along with the strain of his new family (his wife just gave birth to their first son) were taking their toll on him. One night, while on duty, he came across the site where Carnage was giving birth and the newborn symbiote, needing a host to survive, bonded to him. Carnage resolved to kill both Pat and the symbiote currently hiding in his body (Toxin wasn't yet strong enough to manifest in a superpowered costume like the Venom and Carnage symbiotes.) Venom was still hopeful that he'd be able to use this new Symbiote as a partner, and fought Carnage to a standstill to protect Pat and the symbiote, who he christened Toxin, after himself.
At first, Patrick didn't realize quite what had happened to him, but before long, the Toxin symbiote had matured enough to gain both conscious thought, and the strength to form a symbiote costume on Pat's body. After Carnage attacked Patrick's wife and newborn son at his home, he realized the symbiote was a danger to both himself and his family. He walked out on his wife and child, and left the police force to try and come to terms with his new life. During a future confrontation between Venom, Carnage, and Toxin, Venom realized Patrick was dedicated to a life of virtue, or as close as he could come bearing the demon of the symbiote in him. Venom and Carnage formed a temporary pact to destroy Toxin, as it was clear by now that he was easily as strong as either of his predecessors, and was still growing. Spider-Man stumbled into the final confrontation between the symbiote trinity, 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.
In 2005, after Spider-Man joined the Avengers, Marvel started a six-issue Toxin limited series, which charts Toxin's battles with various supervillains who had escaped from Rikers Island as a result of the events beginning The New Avengers series, as well as his constant battle to keep the Toxin symbiote under control, as unlike Venom and Carnage, the host and symbiote minds stayed separate in Toxin, and they even had conversations and arguments with each other; like his "father" Carnage, Toxin does not refer to himself as "we". Throughout the course of the mini-series he battled King Cobra, The Wrecker, Piledriver, and Razor Fist. A one point, trying to live with Toxin becomes too much for Pat, and he attempts to commit suicide 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, but when Pat presses the issue it become clear that unlike the Venom and Carnage symbiotes, Toxin is not sure it could survive on its own and find a new host if it were separated from Pat, or if Pat were killed (both Venom and Carnage have left their normal hosts, Eddie Brock and Cletus Kasady, to bond with others.) It was in this limited series that Razor Fist murders Patrick Mulligan's father, but we see Pat/Toxin begin to show true signs of a Marvel Hero when he tracks Razor Fist down, but instead of slaughtering him as both the symbiote and Razor Fist himself urge, he controls himself and turns Razor Fist over to the police. At the end of the limited series we see Pat try to reconcile with his estranged wife, by 'introducing' her to the Toxin symbiote as way of explaining why he walked out on his family. It is unclear where Toxin went from there, as he has yet to appear in any more comics to date.
Powers and abilities
Toxin is considered to be stronger than both Carnage and Venom, and even possesses the "unique" special abilities of his two symbiote predecessors. He can stick to walls, can change his identity to that of a completely different person and also has unlimited webbing, which takes on a shape of a steel chain in his case. Toxin can also blend in with its surroundings and become undetectably camouflaged. He can also form solid weapons from his limbs like his father. Toxin also seems to have some sort of quick-healing ability, as his wounds from his first battle with Razor Fist healed remarkably quickly. Unlike the others, Toxin can track anyone, not just other symbiotes, as long as he has something to begin from. He can track easily within the entire city of New York, possibly further. Unlike the other symbiotes, Toxin does not try to take over the mind of his human host - instead, the symbiote actually thinks and voices its opinions to the human host (as evidenced in Toxin's Cut to the chase storyline). The symbiote usually speaks when the host is in his "human form". In addition to that, it seems that he has a stronger resistance to sonics and intense heat, compared to Venom or Carnage) though this does not mean that Toxin is completely perfect: It can get carried away with violence and fighting crime (even if it's something petty crime). When he's not angry or busy fighting a villain, Toxin is slim and smooth-lined, although still well muscled, closely resembling Spider-Man in his Symbiote costume, although colored black/blue and orange instead of just black. When he becomes upset or begins to battle someone, he grows into a much bigger, much stronger form, with vicious fangs and long curving claws, looking like a cross between Venom and Carnage, but larger than either of them.
Trivia
- Despite the fact that Spider-Man has allied with Venom on numerous occasions, Toxin is actually the first symbiote that Spider-Man considers a friend and ally.
- Toxin has two facial appearances: He can form a jaw with sharp teeth, or he can go without one. When he goes without a mouth, his appearance looks like a cross between Spider-Man and Deadpool. With a jaw, he looks somewhat identical to Carnage and Venom.
- Personality and character-wise, Toxin is very similar to Hybrid, his predecessor.
- Compared with the other symbiotes (She-Venom, Scream etc.), Toxin is considered to be a great success and not a "carbon copy" of his predecessors.
- His webbing form (which usually takes the shape and appearance of a steel chain) is said to be a reference to Ghost Rider.
See also
External links
- MDP: Toxin - Marvel Database Project