Toxin (character)
Toxin is a
Stephen Graham portrayed Detective Mulligan in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Fictional character biography
Patrick Mulligan
Patrick Mulligan was one of New York City's finest cops, yet 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. One night while on duty, he came across the site where Carnage was giving birth to the new symbiote. Carnage, needing a host to hide the symbiote to keep it from Venom, bonded it to Mulligan. Carnage resolved to kill both Mulligan and the symbiote since they were not yet strong enough to manifest a super-powered costume like the Venom and Carnage symbiotes. Venom still hoped to use this new symbiote as a partner, and fought Carnage to a standstill to protect Mulligan and the symbiote, whom he christened Toxin, after himself.[1] At first, Mulligan did not realize what had happened to him. Before long, the Toxin symbiote had matured enough to gain both conscious thought and the strength to form a symbiote costume on Mulligan's body. After Carnage attacked Gina and Edward at their home, Mulligan realized the Toxin symbiote was a danger to both himself and his family. During a subsequent confrontation between Venom, Carnage, and Toxin, Venom realized Mulligan was dedicated to a life of virtue, or as close as he could come under the symbiote's influence. When it became clear that Toxin was easily as strong as either of his predecessors, and was still growing, Venom and Carnage formed a temporary pact to destroy Toxin.[2] Spider-Man stumbled into the final confrontation among the symbiote trio, and helped Toxin. After they fended off Venom and Carnage, Toxin had a conversation with Spider-Man, filling the latter in on what had happened. Spider-Man encouraged him, and Toxin resigned himself to a life of battling his base symbiote urges while trying to harness his power for good. He left his wife and child, and the police force, to try to come to terms with his new life.[3]
In 2005, after Spider-Man joined the
Mulligan is killed by Blackheart, resulting in the Toxin symbiote appearing in an underground lab in Las Vegas.[7]
Eddie Brock
Afterwards, the
Along with Venom,
After killing Hybrid and
Eddie and the Toxin symbiote eventually track down Venom and discover a group of creatures called the "symbiote slayers" that are determined to destroy the symbiotes. Venom and Toxin have to team up to fight the "slayers". After this, Toxin agrees to leave Venom alone, and Brock as Toxin reclaims his title as the "lethal protector".
Brock and the Toxin symbiote appear once more in the All-New, All-Different Marvel miniseries Carnage, where Brock serves in a task force led by John Jameson, in hopes to entrap Carnage who was hidden in a mine-shaft. Toxin is considered "Plan B" to the force, and Brock's transformation into Toxin is manually controlled through a button. The Toxin symbiote's look has changed into resembling Agent Venom's, in which he sports red body armor. But at the end, Brock loses the suit.
Carnage has taken hold of the book known as the Darkhold, to resurrect Chthon, Eddie Brock ultimately sacrifices the Toxin symbiote in the final issue against Chthon.
Bren Waters
Toxin returns during the
Powers and abilities
The Toxin symbiote possessed the special abilities of his two symbiote predecessors: he can stick to walls (which originally came from when Spider-Man was a host of the Venom symbiote), can change his identity to that of a completely different person, and also has unlimited webbing. With Patrick Mulligan as the host, Toxin is red from the abdomen up and black from the abdomen down.[15] With Eddie Brock as the host, Toxin resembles a combination of Venom and Carnage but with the entire body red—light on the chest, and dark on the arms and lower body.[16] Toxin can also blend in with his surroundings and become undetectable, an ability he gained from his grandfather Venom, and he can form solid weapons from his limbs, an ability first seen in his father Carnage. 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 or symbiote host—within the entire city of New York and possibly farther, as long as he has something to begin from.[15]
Unlike many of the other symbiotes, Toxin did not try to take over the mind of his human host. Instead, the Toxin symbiote actually thinks and voices its opinions to the human host (as evidenced in Toxin's "Cut to the Chase" storyline). The Toxin symbiote usually speaks when the host is in his "human form", and acts very immature and childlike because of its nascent existence, once refusing to aid Pat in battle until he apologized for an earlier argument. 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 is a petty crime. When he is not angry or fighting, Toxin is slim and smooth-lined, although still well muscled, closely resembling Carnage or Spider-Man's symbiote costume. When he becomes upset or aggressive, he grows into his much bigger and stronger form like Venom, with vicious fangs and long curving claws. The Toxin symbiote recently developed a venomous bite after bonding to Eddie.
In other media
Film
Patrick Mulligan appears in
Video games
- The Patrick Mulligan incarnation of Toxin appears in Marvel: War of Heroes.
- The Eddie Brock incarnation of Toxin appears as an alternate skin for Eddie Brock / Venom in Marvel Heroes.
- The Toxin symbiote, renamed Carnom, appears as a playable character and boss in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. This version was created by Green Goblin 2099 using a shard of the Nexus of All Realities to fuse the Venom and Carnage symbiotes. Carnom is initially controlled by the Goblin, but he is defeated and freed by the heroes and starts chasing the Goblin in retaliation for his abuse.
- The Patrick Mulligan and Eddie Brock incarnations of Toxin appear as playable characters in Spider-Man Unlimited.
- The Bren Waters incarnation of Toxin appears as a playable character in Marvel: Future Fight.
Merchandise
- The Patrick Mulligan and Eddie Brock incarnations of Toxin received figures in the Spider-Man Classics line.
- The Patrick Mulligan incarnation of Toxin received a figure in the Marvel Heroclixline via the "Web of Spider-Man" sub-line.
- The head and arm of the Toxin symbiote, packed with an Ultron figure, appear in Hasbro's "Marvel Mashers" line of figures.
- The Patrick Mulligan incarnation of Toxin received a Marvel Fan Channel exclusive Marvel Legends figure.
- Several accessories of Toxin have been produced, including a T-shirt.
- Blankets and hats have also been produced, displaying the Patrick Mulligan incarnation of Toxin, but were mistakenly labelled as Carnage.[19]
Collected editions
Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|
Toxin: The Devil You Know | Toxin #1-6 | November 2005 | 978-0785118046 |
Extreme Carnage | Extreme Carnage: Toxin and Extreme Carnage: Alpha, Scream, Phage, Riot, Lasher, Agony, Omega | February 2022 | 978-1302932077 |
References
- ^ a b Peter Milligan (w), Clayton Crain (a). Venom vs. Carnage, no. 1 of 4 (September 2004). New York, NY: Marvel Comics.
- ^ Venom vs. Carnage #2-3
- ^ Venom vs. Carnage #4
- ^ Toxin #1-3
- ^ Toxin #6
- ^ Toxin #5
- ^ a b Venom vol. 2 #11 (December 2011)
- ^ Venom vol. 2 #13 (February 2012)
- ^ Carnage U.S.A. #1 (December 2011)
- ^ Carnage U.S.A. #2 (January 2012)
- ^ Venom vol. 2 #17 (May 2012)
- ^ Venom vol. 2 #18 (May 2012)
- ^ Venom vol. 2 #21 (July 2012)
- ^ King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes #3 (April 2021)
- ^ a b Spider-Man: Venom Vs. Carnage. Marvel. 2007.
- ^ Bunn, Cullen (2011). Venom #31. Marvel.
- ^ Venom: Let There Be Carnage - Exclusive Trailer Breakdown with Director Andy Serkis - IGN, 10 May 2021, retrieved 2021-08-05
- ^ D'Alessandro, Amanda N'Duka, Anthony; N'Duka, Amanda; D'Alessandro, Anthony (2019-12-05). "'Venom 2': 'The Irishman' & 'Rocketman' Actor Stephen Graham Boards Sony Sequel". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Spider-Man Toxin Carnage Fleece Throw Blanket".
External links
- Toxin at the Marvel Universe wiki
- Toxin's profile at Spiderfan.org
- Toxin on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
- Toxin's comics at TheVenomSite.com