Carlton Drake (Earth-616)

Carlton Drake
Name	Carlton Drake
Aliases	Codenames: Homo Arachnis
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Alchemax, Absent Throne Formerly Life Foundation
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Eyeballs: Red (in arachnoid form) Irises: Blue No Visible (in arachnoid form)
Hair	Grey-haired, Brown (formerly), No Hair At All (in arachnoid form)
Unusual Features	Spider-like form with two smaller additional arms, fangs, horns and claws.
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human mutate, later turned zombiote
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Known to Authorities
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Former Leader of the Life Foundation
Base of Operations	Washington, D.C.; New York (formerly); New Jersey (formerly); Mojave Desert (formerly)
Creators and Appearances
Creators	David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane
First	Amazing Spider-Man #298 (November, 1987)
First	Amazing Spider-Man #298 (November, 1987)

History

Carlton Drake is the head of the Life Foundation, a consortium he established under the paranoid belief that the world was unavoidably headed for a nuclear holocaust brought about by the end of the Cold War. Searching for a means of survival for himself and his clients, with whom he intended to rebuild society as a utopia, Drake hired the supervillain mercenary Chance to steal advanced technology to use in the construction of a bunker called Sanctum Maximus, but betrayed him hoping to steal the technology used in his suit; Chance escaping with the assistance of Spider-Man.

Hunting Venom

Coming to see symbiotes as the key to human survival, Drake became obsessed with capturing and studying the Venom symbiote, becoming a benefactor of Roland Treece's corporation Treece International in exchange for Treece helping him capture the symbiote's host, Eddie Brock.

Separating the Venom symbiote from Eddie, Drake forcibly extracted five offspring from it and bonded them to mercenaries the Life Foundation had hired as security guards. Drake decided Eddie Brock had outlived his usefulness, but Donna Diego attacked a mall to test the capabilities of her new symbiote and drew the attention of Spider-Man, who helped Eddie escape, reunite with the Venom symbiote, and seemingly kill the Life Foundation's symbiote squad.

Arachnis Project

Discovering he had terminal cancer, Drake hired Professor Toshiro Mikashi through the Life Foundation to work on biogenic research. When Spider-Man was captured by the Jury, Drake had Professor Mikashi use him to accelerate their research. Seeking to assassinate Drake and usurp control of the Life Foundation, Roland Treece injected him with the results of Professor Mikashi's research, instead causing Drake to mutate into a humanoid spider-monster called Homo Arachnis. When Spoiler and the Jury turned on the Life Foundation and helped Spider-Man escape, Drake chased them down and got into a fight with Venom. Following Professor Mikashi self-destructing the facility to destroy his research, Drake reverted to human form and vowed to find a way to permanently regain his powers.

Absent Throne

At some point following the Life Foundation succumbing to bankruptcy, Drake made a pact with the King in Black called Meridius, who restored him to human form and manipulated history to help the Life Foundation make a comeback. In the wake of three symbiote attacks occurring within months of each other, Drake was approached by Senator Arthur Krane -- the leader of the anti-extraterrestrial hate-group Friends of Humanity -- and offered the authority to shape symbiote-related government policy. While annoyed about Meridius involving Alchemax, Drake acted in accordance with the King in Black's plans; dispatching his agent Spearhead to antagonize the Venom symbiote and ordering him to assemble a new Jury squad.

Attributes

Powers

Former Powers

Arachnid Monster: After Drake was infused with a combination of a formula formed from the blood of Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and radiation, he mutated into spider-like monster. This transformation was reversed by the enigmatic entity Meridius in exchange for Drake's cooperation.

• Superhuman Strength: He was to overpower the Jury.
• Superhuman Durability: Thanks to his Exoskeleton, he was able to withstand the weaponry of the Jury.
• Acidic Saliva: Drake was able to produce acid.

Abilities

• Knowledge of Symbiotes: Drake has an above average knowledge of symbiotes, able to surmise that the Venom symbiote contained five more "seeds," and subsequently extract them.

Weaknesses

Former Weaknesses

Cancer: Drake suffered from cancer, but was cured after transforming into the Homo arachnis.

Trivia

• Although Drake claimed to have extracted all of the seeds from the Venom symbiote, the Sleeper symbiote would be born out of Venom years later.

See Also

• 31 appearance(s) of Carlton Drake (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) of Carlton Drake (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Carlton Drake (Earth-616)
• 7 image(s) of Carlton Drake (Earth-616)
• 3 quotation(s) by or about Carlton Drake (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Carlton Drake at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe