Merge:Scream

Scream is a supervillain (and later anti-hero) from the Spider-Man comic books. She is one of the six 'children' of Venom. Scream is the first female symbiote in the Marvel Universe. Her real name is Donna. She is the "daughter" of Venom and has five symbiote brothers and sisters, including Carnage, and a nephew in Toxin.

Character history


Scream was one of the five Life Foundation Symbiotes that were forcefully spawned from the Venom symbiote. She was their unofficial leader. Like the other LF symbiotes, she was a volunteer for the Life Foundation Organization, an organization that was preparing for the M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) fallout of the Cold War and provide a comfortable life for their wealthy clients after the impending nuclear holocaust. The Life Foundation was experimenting with the Venom symbiote in the hopes of creating so-called 'super-cops' to watch over their imagined fallout shelter utopia. Donna was picked from the organization's security force, made up of police, soldiers, and mercenaries.

In Scream's first appearance, she ran into Spider-Man while terrorizing a shopping mall near Salinas, California. Quickly bested by the more experienced fighter, Scream escaped in a hovercraft which returned to the Life Foundation's base.

Unknown to her, Spider-Man had hitched a ride on that same hovercraft. Once inside he helped Eddie Brock (who was being held prisoner there) escape and rebond with his symbiote. Scream and the other guardian symbiotes then tangled with Spider-Man and Venom, but Venom turned an accelerated aging device on them. The age-accelerating machine appeared to make Scream and the other symbiotes age to dust. Venom and Spider-Man escaped and the Life Foundation blew up the base.



Later it was revealed that Scream and her "siblings" survived, and the Life Foundation was able to save them and their symbiotes. However, for some reason, the Guardians had had a falling out with their previous employers and now were fugitives on the run, struggling to remain in control of their symbiotes. Scream led the others to New York City in search of Venom, hoping that he would help teach them how to control their symbiotes. Venom wanted nothing to do with them, and battled Scream. Venom disappeared, and Scream attempted to enlist the Scarlet Spider to help find him. When he refused, Scream experienced a psychotic break and began a rampage in Times Square. Humiliated by Venom (who ripped pieces of her symbiote off her) and narrowly saved by the Scarlet Spider, Scream disappeared again.

Undiscouraged, Scream rounded up her "siblings" and broke the now-powerless Eddie Brock out of prison, kidnapping him and imprisoning him in a Chicago warehouse. She once again asked for his help in learning to communicate with the symbiotes. Eddie once again refused and tried to kill them all, even though he had no symbiote to back him up. Eddie escaped, and soon after the Life Foundation symbiotes were murdered, one by one. Scream lead them to believe that Eddie Brock was the killer, while in fact, it had been her the entire time. She had come to the conclusion that all symbiotes are evil, and, "We're evil for bonding with them so we all have to die."

It was revealed that she was insane and had been hearing voices long before she became host to her "other" (suggesting that she was schizophrenic.) Eddie managed to re-bond with the Venom symbiote before Scream killed him. While he could not prevent her from murdering every other symbiote, Venom was nevertheless able to best her in combat yet again, and Scream was taken in by the authorities.

Recently, Donna busied herself tracking down and helping benevolent symbiotic survivors from the symbiote invasion of Earth. This is a significant change in character; Donna seeks to redeem herself for her past murders. After many of the symbiotes (and their human hosts) were murdered, Donna tracked the monstrous Xenophage, a huge alien monster that devours both symbiotes and the brains of their hosts. Donna assisted Venom in slaying the beast, but was gravely injured.

Donna is never referred to as Scream in the comics, but is named as Scream in her appearance in the video game, Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety.

Final appearance?


In Scream's final appearance to date, she sought out the Xenophage's hidden ship to help her track down more of the symbiotic survivors. The ship transported her and others (including Venom and Wolverine) into another dimension where Scream was nearly killed once again by the villainous mutant Dirt Nap. Upon her successful return to Earth, she disappeared, presumably to continue her search for the few remaining symbiotes.

Powers and abilities
Donna's superhuman abilities are due to her the alien symbiote. The creature can mimic clothing and camouflage Donna. Scream often uses her 'hair' as a weapon, to wrap or tangle enemies, much like Medusa of the Inhumans. Like Spider-Man and Venom, Scream has wall-crawling and web-slinging abilities, and also boasts an early-warning sense. Scream has superhuman strength, allowing her to lift around 30-35 tons.

Scream in other media
Scream can be seen in the Islands of Adventure ride The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man as one of the villains.

Toys
Scream has her own action figure. It has a "living tendrils hair" feature.

Video game appearances
Scream is one of the six symbiote bosses in the video game, Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety.

Links

 * A Scream profile at Samruby.com
 * A Scream profile at Spiderfan.org
 * Brief Scream bio