The symbiote that would later be known as Phage was one of five symbiotes created by the Life Foundation that extracted and incubated the "seeds" of the Venom symbiote in order to provide a comfortable life for their wealthy clients after the impending holocaust. The symbiote was bonded to a mercenary named Carl Mach to become the guardians of the Life Foundation, after several problems his host would be killed by Donna Diego, who was the host of his sister Scream, however he would survive and merge with his three brothers to form Hybrid.
After a stint as the Hybrid vigilante, he dropped the Gestalt symbiote at the hands of Eddie Brock and was found by the U.S. Army and then de-fused. He was trained to bond with Lieutenant Rico Axelson and was first named Phage.
