Highlights

  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 revolves around a symbiote invasion, with Venom as one of the main villains and other symbiotes appearing throughout the game.
  • The symbiotes in the Marvel Universe were created by Knull and are driven by a desire for world domination, using humans as their hosts.
  • Besides Venom, other symbiotes that make an appearance or are referenced in Spider-Man 2 include Scream, Carnage, Riot, Agony, Phage, Lasher, Hybrid, and Anti-Venom.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Proceed at your own risk.

The symbiote invasion is at the heart of the plot of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, with Venom being one of the key villains of the game. Following Venom's New York City rampage, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 players will find that other symbiotes have been left in his wake and have joined with many different hosts across the city. While it's clear Venom is the star of the show in this game, there are a variety of other symbiotes from across the Marvel Universe that are represented or referenced in one way or another.

Symbiotes in the Marvel Universe were created by Knull, a primordial deity who created the first symbiote All-Black to slay the Celestials. Knull then created more symbiotes out of the Living Abyss to create a hive-mind army with him at the center, and these inorganic parasites eventually made their way to Earth as part of Knull's planetary conquest. As the events of Spider-Man 2 show, the symbiotes are bent on world domination and will possess human hosts as a means to achieve this goal.

RELATED: Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Most Disturbing Symbiote Moments Don't Involve Violence

Spider-Man 2’s Symbiote References

  • Venom
  • Scream
  • Carnage
  • Riot
  • Agony
  • Phage
  • Lasher
  • Hybrid
  • Anti-Venom

The most obvious symbiote referenced in Spider-Man 2 is Venom given that he appears as one of the game's central antagonists, but Venom's depiction in Spider-Man 2 differs from other pieces of Marvel media in that it's Harry Osborn who bonds with the Venom symbiote rather than Eddie Brock. Scream is another symbiote that has a direct appearance in Spider-Man 2 after Venom uses one of its offspring to transform MJ into this symbiote, which Peter then has to defeat in a climactic yet heartbreaking boss fight. In the comics, Scream was forcibly created from Venom by the nefarious Life Foundation in an attempt to protect human society after a potential nuclear holocaust.

Along with Scream, four other symbiotes were created by the Life Foundation: Riot, Phage, Agony, and Lasher. Although these symbiotes are not directly named in Spider-Man 2, the designs and particular colors chosen for symbiote enemies that possess random New Yorkers and defend Spider-Man 2's symbiote nests seem to be based on these characters. Hybrid, the symbiote that was created by merging these four other parasites, also appears to be referenced among the generic symbiote enemies found across Spider-Man 2's late-game.

Aside from Venom, likely the most well-known symbiote is Carnage, who takes on serial killer Cletus Kasady as a host in the comics. While Carnage doesn't directly appear in Spider-Man 2, he is heavily hinted at to be coming as a villain in a future DLC or Spider-Man 3 game as The Flame quest alludes to. The final mission of this quest has Peter and Wraith confront The Flame only for him to escape with a contained symbiote vowing to return to spread carnage, and Yuri even mentions he has gone by the alias Cletus Kasady in the past, an obvious reference to Carnage's most iconic host.

The game's finale sees the creation of Anti-Venom as a gambit to defeat Venom once and for all. To do this, Peter gains the Anti-Venom suit by combining the remaining symbiote cells in his body with Martin Li's White Energy cells which allow him to utilize his powers as Mr. Negative. Although in the comics, Li himself becomes Anti-Venom after he uses his powers to cure Eddie Brock's cancer and mixes the symbiote cells with his own in the process, it is fitting for the story of Spider-Man 2 to give Peter the powers of Anti-Venom for a climactic showdown against Harry's version of Venom.