Scorpion (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
Origins[]
After subjugating Black Cat's gang, Lee Price infected them with offshoots of his symbiote in order to enslave them to his will. Holding a grudge against Mac Gargan, Price infected him to see what would happen if he bonded a piece of his symbiote to someone who already contained remnants of a symbiote in their body.
Venom Inc.[]
Rather than simply covering Gargan's face like the other offshoots did to their victims, the piece of the Maniac symbiote interfaced with the remnants of the Venom symbiote still in his body and transformed into a green-and-black symbiote resembling Gargan's appearance from when he'd been forced to wear a heavily-modified suit of Scorpion armor over the Venom symbiote. Under the symbiote's influence, Gargan went from being terrified to revelling in regaining the power he'd become addicted to as Venom.[1]
When Spider-Man and Agent Anti-Venom crashed the party, the Scorpion attacked the latter but was ordered to fall back due to being too vulnerable to Agent Anti-Venom's altered symbiote. Changing targets to Spider-Man, the Scorpion easily subdued him and departed with Price and the other Inklings.[2] Ultimately, the Scorpion symbiote was destroyed in a rematch with Agent Anti-Venom despite Gargan's pleas to let him keep it.[3]
Legacy[]
Gargan subsequently became obsessed with obtaining another symbiote, even agreeing to become a soldier for the Anti-Symbiote Task Force if they bonded him to the Venom symbiote or its latest spawn.[4] Due to having bonded with multiple symbiotes, Gargan was targeted by Dark Carnage during his attack on the city and had his spine shredded by the Carnage-ized Norman Osborn.[5][6] Gargan was left a paraplegic as a result, but eventually succeeded in acquiring a new Scorpion symbiote.[7]
While it didn't possess a voice of its own, becoming the host of the Scorpion symbiote caused Mac Gargan to embrace his subconscious desire to rebond to a symbiote - having been in denial about being addicted to the power he'd possessed as Venom.[1][3]
- Heat
- Sonics
- Anti-Venom: Like other symbiotes, the Scorpion symbiote was vulnerable to the cleansing properties of the Anti-Venom serum and the altered symbiote born from it; with prolonged exposure ultimately killing it.
In addition to its fangs and claws, the symbiote manifests blades on Gargan's lower arms, and a telescopic tail tipped with a stinger.
- Mac Gargan's appearance while bonded to this symbiote is identical to his appearance as "Ven-orpion" - where he was forced to wear a modified version of the Scorpion armor over the Venom symbiote after it was poisoned by Anti-Venom - from Amazing Spider-Man #573.
- Despite not having been wearing his Scorpion suit when bonding to this symbiote, after it's killed Gargan is shown somehow wearing it again.[3]