Andrea Benton (Earth-616)

Mania
Name	Andrea "Andi" Benton
Current Alias	Mania
Aliases	Friendly Neighborhood Mania
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Resistance, partner of Agent Venom
Relatives	Unnamed father (deceased); Unnamed mother; Sarah (aunt, deceased); Mania (former symbiote)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′2″ (1.57 m)
Weight	120 lbs (54.43 kg).
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Black
Unusual Features	Piercings; Claws, horns, and hooved hock-jointed legs (as a demon)
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human mutate, mystically-augmented by a Hell-Mark
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Record store clerk; Formerly vigilante, high-school student
Education	High-school
Base of Operations	Jenkintown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia Sewer System (formerly)
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Cullen Bunn, Declan Shalvey
First	Venom (Vol. 2) #31 (February, 2013) (as Andi Benton) Venom (Vol. 2) #38 (July, 2013) (as Mania)
First	Venom (Vol. 2) #31 (February, 2013) (as Andi Benton) Venom (Vol. 2) #38 (July, 2013) (as Mania)

History

Becoming Mania

Andi Benton was one of the first neighbors Flash Thompson met in Philadelphia, who moved to live upstairs. Andi happened to attend West Philadelphia High School, where Flash started working as an assistant coach. She usually skipped gym class, and one day she was the only witness when Flash used his symbiote-enhanced arm to throw a ball at a bully, and came to the conclusion Thompson was Venom.

When mob boss Lord Ogre put a price on Venom's head, Andi was targeted by Jack O'Lantern, a villain who knew Flash's alter-ego. Venom couldn't save Andi's father from being stabbed by the maniac, but when Jack released a poisonous gas, Flash protected Andi with a portion of his symbiote, which ended up bonding with Andrea rather than only protecting her from her imminent death.

Dubbing herself "Mania", Andi proceeded to brutally attack Jack O'Lantern, but after removing his mask, Venom realized it was actually an impostor brainwashed by the real Jack O'Lantern into replacing him while he was in prison. After a furious battle in which numerous supervillains looking for Venom stepped in, Mania started suffocating the fake Jack with the symbiote, but Venom convinced her not to cross that line.

Andi as a regular human

Partner of Agent Venom

Andi moved with her aunt to Jenkintown although she remained in touch with Flash, who let her have the symbiote, which mysteriously bonded to Andi faster than it could have bonded to any other host.

Flash went to attend other business outside the city, and Andi continued to battle the mob in order to threaten Lord Ogre, who she swore to kill in revenge, as Ogre was who sent Jack O'Lantern to kill her and her father. Unknown to her, Flash not only had transferred a part of his symbiote to Andi, but also the Hell-Mark the symbiote had received during his battle against Blackheart in Las Vegas, for which she had been targeted by Crossbones.

Mania confronted Ogre in his penthouse. Ogre stated he had a chemical bomb in his chest, and that it would go off and unleash a death-cloud that would kill many innocents if he died, Mania called it a bluff and attempted to kill him, but was stopped by Venom. The confrontation was interrupted by Crossbones.

One of Crossbones' allies, Master Mayhem, opened a dimensional portal in his chest which summoned numerous demons that attacked Mania, Venom, and Ogre. During the battle, Mania discovered the hell-mark gave her control over the demons and ordered them to turn on Crossbones. Venom and Mania escaped while Crossbones and his allies were fighting the demons.

File:Andrea Benton (Earth-616) from Venom Space Knight Vol 1 6 001.png

With the symbiote

Venom and Mania contacted Mephisto in order to remove Andi's hell-mark. When Crossbones located them once more, Mephisto helped the heroes battle him by summoning the Monsters of Evil, a legion of monsters at the command of whoever had the hell-mark. When Crossbones and his allies were defeated and before disappearing, Mephisto stated that the hell-mark wasn't Andi's, but the symbiote's. Flash promised he would help Andi remove the hell mark at any cost. However, they were unable to find any information on the Descent, and when Flash was summoned to join the Guardians of the Galaxy he left Andi behind, expressing the hope that everything would work out.

Possessed by the Hell-Mark

In Flash's absence, Andi continued to fight organized crime in Philadelphia as Mania. However, she slowly lost control of her anger, which caused the Hell-Mark to transfer from the Mania symbiote to her. This corrupted the Mania symbiote even further, turning it into a bloodthirsty monster she had no control over.

When Venom returned to Earth, Mania attacked him, demanding he fight back against her. She was separated from her symbiote by Spider-Man and passed out, before being taken to Parker Industries' Philadelphia branch by Flash. She regained consciousness when her Hell-Mark activated, summoning several demons. Attempting to take both the Mania and Venom symbiotes, Andi attacked Flash with an army of monsters, wreaking havoc in the city in the process. She was stopped when Venom's allies arrived, having retrieved a purifying elixir from the planet Wenb, which temporarily cured Andi's possession and brought her back to her senses. Venom decided to remain on Earth together with Andi and her symbiote so they could find a permanent cure.

Andi possessed by the Hell-Mark

War against the Poisons

Andi was later recruited by Venomized versions of Captain America and Doctor Strange to fight against the Poisons that were trying to consume symbiotes and their hosts. Eddie Brock, who was in possession of the Venom symbiote of her reality, was later recruited as well. She recognized the symbiote but not its host, who she dismissed as not being her Venom. At the end, the Venoms were able to plant a bomb that destroyed the Poisons' ship before the Venomized Doctor Strange sent them and Mania to their proper realities.

Venom Inc.

Now knowing that Eddie Brock was Venom's current host and reading about their actions in the newspaper, she offered to help Flash find them so that he could be Agent Venom again. However, Lee Price — a former Army Ranger who had bonded to the Venom symbiote for a short period of time — and his allies separated the Mania symbiote from Andi using a sonic disruptor and flamethrowers. Price took the Mania symbiote for himself and used it to build his own crime organization, sharing the symbiote with its members to control them. Badly injured by Price's attack, Andi was sent to a hospital, where she was visited by Flash and informed him about what had happened. Andi traveled to New York intending to help Flash hunt down her symbiote, using her lingering connection to it and the Hell-Mark to ambush a group of Inklings about to execute the new Anti-Venom - who she realized was Flash Thompson. Andi tried to help Agent Anti-Venom fight Spider-Man, who had been infected with part of her symbiote, but was unable to be of much use.

After Spider-Man was freed from Maniac's control by the Black Cat, using an Anti-Venom serum developed by Alchemax, the heroes mounted an attack on a gathering of the five biggest crime families in the world, on whose attendees Maniac had used his powers. Andi used her powers to provide cover from above. Maniac was eventually struck down and weakened by Anti-Venom, but the symbiote remained bonded to him. While she couldn't regain the symbiote, Andi was proud she could prove herself without it and set out to return to Philadelphia while Flash stayed in New York to keep an eye on Venom and Spider-Man.

Absolute Carnage

Back in Philadelphia, Andi struggled to adjust to civilian life and cope with the death of her mentor, graduating from high-school and obtaining a job at Mitch's record store. Still living with her Aunt Sarah, she began suffering from recurring nightmares and hallucinations of the Mania symbiote attacking her and those around her. While the nightmares and hallucinations got worse over time, Andi dismissed them until she was attacked by Carnage, who killed her aunt and attacked her to claim the remnants of the Mania symbiote in her body. Andi used the Hell-Mark to summon the Monsters of Evil and transform into a demonic form of her own, but the symbiote-augmented serial killer proved immune to their hellfire - having been empowered by Knull, the god of the symbiotes - and slaughtered the demonically-augmented monsters. Andi managed to escape through Hell, and set out to New York to find and warn Eddie Brock. While fending off a horde of symbiote doppelgangers sent by Carnage to kill her, Andi was attacked by Patricia Robertson - another former host of the Mania symbiote who had been taken over by the Scream symbiote, which had been resurrected and corrupted by Knull.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Hell-Mark: The Hell-Mark bestowed upon the Venom symbiote by Mephisto marks Andi as a potential candidate to become a Hell-Lord during the Descent and gives her the ability to conjure hellfire and summon, subjugate, and control lesser demons, although powerful demons are able to resist this. As a side-effect of its ability to conjure hellfire, the Hell-Mark makes Andi immune to fire. The Hell-Mark also has a corruptive effect on symbiotes. By drawing on the full power of the Hellmark, Andi can transform into a demon.

Former Powers

Black Symbiotic Costume: The Mania symbiote granted Andi the following powers:

• Superhuman Strength
• Superhuman Stamina
• Superhuman Durability
• Superhuman Speed, Agility, and Reflexes
• Accelerated Healing Factor
• Wall-Crawling
• ESP (Spider-Sense)
• Immunity to Spider-Man's Spider-Sense
• Camouflage Capabilities
• Constituent-Matter Generation
• Constituent-Matter Manipulation

Weaknesses

Former Weaknesses

Sonic and Heat: The Mania symbiote, like all others of its kind, is extremely vulnerable to heat and sonic based attacks. They can cause the symbiote physical pain and discomfort, where as "more powerful" attacks might be completely ineffective.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Demonic Armor: By tapping into the full power of the Hellmark and transforming into a demon, Andi conjures a suit of demonic black and red armor.

Weapons

• Demonic Pipe Wrench: After transforming into a demon, Andi conjures a demonically-augmented pipe wrench to use as a weapon.

Notes

• Andi's family name was first revealed by Cullen Bunn on his blog.
• At the end of Venom: Space Knight #12, Andi's Hell-Mark is shown on her forehead. However, in Venom: Space Knight #13, it is shown on her chest.

Trivia

• Initially, Cullen Bunn planned for Eddie Brock to take the Venom symbiote's clone, creating a second hellish version of Venom. However, since Eddie was bonded to Toxin around that time and he decided they could stay together longer, Bunn decided to keep the plot point, but introduce Mania instead.

See Also

• 50 appearance(s) of Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 5 minor appearance(s) of Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) of Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 109 image(s) of Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 5 quotation(s) by or about Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Andrea Benton (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Andrea Benton (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Mania on Appendix