Toxin (comics)

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Toxin is a fictional character, a superhero, in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the third major Symbiote of the Spider-Man series, and the eighth known to have appeared in the comics outside of the Planet of the Symbiotes storyline. He has managed to gain a small cult following even though he's rarely seen.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Character history

Much like his father Venom, Carnage produced offspring: 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: 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, Gina, was pregnant with their first son, Edward) 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 Gina and Edward 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.

Toxin vs. Carnage.

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 the Raft 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.

At 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. When Pat presses the issue, however, it becomes clear that, unlike the Venom and Carnage symbiotes, Toxin is not sure it could survive on its own and find a new host. (Both Venom and Carnage have left their original hosts, Peter Parker 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 hero; 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 reconcile with his estranged wife Gina, by 'introducing' her to the Toxin symbiote as way of explaining why he walked out on his family. Toxin has yet to appear in any more comics to date.

[edit] Powers and abilities

Toxin in his thin, mouthless form.

Toxin 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, and he can form solid weapons from his limbs like his father. Toxin also seems to have some sort of quick-healing ability like his predecessors, 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, within the entire city of New York and 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, he seems to have a stronger resistance to sonics and intense heat compared to Carnage, though this does not mean that Toxin is more resistant to violent urges: it can get carried away with violence and fighting crime, even if it's a petty crime. When he's not angry or fighting, Toxin is slim and smooth-lined, although still well muscled, closely resembling Spider-Man in his Symbiote costume. When he becomes upset or aggressive, he grows into his much bigger and stronger form, with vicious fangs and long curving claws.

Toxin is still quite child-like, seen here getting angry and accidentally destroying his host's laptop.

[edit] Trivia

• Despite the fact that Spider-Man has teamed-up with Venom on numerous occasions, Toxin appears to be the first symbiote that Spider-Man considers an ally.
• Toxin has two facial appearances: He can form a mouth 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 mouth, he resembles a Carnage-like mouth and Venom-like teeth.
• Personality and character-wise, Toxin is very similar to Hybrid, his predecessor\uncle(s).
• Compared with the other symbiotes (She-Venom, Scream etc.), Toxin is considered to not be 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.
• The symbiote inside him, having been just spawned, acts very immature and childlike, once refusing to aid Pat in battle until he apologized for an earlier argument.
• Toxin is a second hero in the symbiote family after Hybrid.

[edit] See also

• Symbiote

[edit] External links

• MDP: Toxin - Marvel Database Project
• Toxin's profile at Spiderfan.org
• Toxin on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki