Scream (comics)

Scream is a fictional supervillainess appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Scream symbiote has appeared in Spider-Man comics, as one of five symbiote spawns created simultaneously and has had three different female hosts.

This article is about a character from the Marvel Spider-Man universe. For the British horror comics series, see Scream! (comics). For other uses, see Scream.
Scream
Donna Diego as Scream in Venom: Separation Anxiety #4 (March 1995).
Art by Ron Randall.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceVenom: Lethal Protector #4 (May 1993)
Created byDavid Michelinie
Ron Lim
In-story information
Alter egoDonna Diego
Patricia Robertson
Andi Benton
Team affiliationsSinister Syndicate
AbilitiesAlien symbiote grants:

Publication history

Scream first appeared in Venom: Lethal Protector #4 (May 1993), and was created by David Michelinie and Ron Lim.[1]

Hosts

Donna Diego
Scream (Donna Diego; far left) alongside Riot, Agony, Lasher and Phage in Venom: Lethal Protector #4 (May 1993). Art by Ron Lim.

The Scream symbiote was one of the five symbiotes that were forcefully spawned from the original Venom symbiote, and was their unofficial Californian leader. Donna Diego was a volunteer for the Life Foundation, a survivalist group within the American government preparing both for the mutually assured destruction fallout of the Cold War and to provide a comfortable life for their wealthy clients after the impending nuclear holocaust. Carlton Drake was experimenting with symbiotes in the hopes of creating so-called 'super-cops' to watch over the imagined fallout shelter utopia, and Donna was picked from the security force made up of police, soldiers and mercenaries.[2] During Scream's first public appearance, she encountered Spider-Man while terrorizing a shopping mall near Salinas, California. Quickly bested by the more experienced fighter, Scream escaped in a hovercraft which returned to the Life Foundation's base.[2] Unknown to her, Spider-Man had hitched a ride on that same hovercraft. Once Spider-Man helped Eddie Brock escape, Scream and the other guardian symbiotes, Lasher, Phage, Riot and Agony, then tangled with Spider-Man and Venom, but Venom turned an accelerated aging device on them. The age-accelerating machine appeared to make the symbiotes age to dust before the Life Foundation blew up the base.[2]

It was later revealed that Scream and her "siblings" survived, and the Life Foundation was able to save them and their symbiotes. All of a sudden for some reason, the guardians had a falling out with their employers and now were fugitives on the run. Scream led the others to New York City in search of Venom, hoping to help teach them how to control their symbiotes. Venom wanted nothing to do with them, and battled Scream. When Venom disappeared, Scream attempted to enlist the Scarlet Spider to help find Venom. When Scarlet Spider refused, Scream experienced a psychotic break and began a rampage in Times Square. Humiliated when Venom ripped pieces of her symbiote off her and narrowly saved by the Scarlet Spider, Scream disappeared again.[3][4]

Undiscouraged, Scream rounded up her "siblings" and broke Brock out of prison, kidnapping and imprisoning Brock in a Chicago warehouse. She once again asked for Brock's help in learning to communicate with the symbiotes. Eddie once again refused and tried to kill them all, even without the Venom symbiote as back up. Eddie escaped, and soon after the "sibling" symbiotes were murdered, one by one. Scream led them to believe that Brock was the killer, while in fact, it had been her the entire time. She had come to the conclusion that all symbiotes are evil, and those that bonded with symbiotes deserved to die.[5] It was revealed that Donna was mentally ill and had been hearing voices long before she was the Scream symbiote's host (suggesting that she is schizophrenic). Eddie managed to re-bond with the Venom symbiote before Scream could go for the kill. While unable to prevent her from murdering every other symbiotes' host, Venom was nevertheless able to beat her in combat yet again and Scream was taken in by the authorities.[5]

Following the symbiote invasion of Earth, Donna was one of the few remaining symbiotes on Earth. Seeking to redeem herself for her crimes, she busied herself tracking down and helping benevolent symbiotic survivors. After her companions began dying mysteriously, Donna tracked Xenophage, a huge alien that devours both symbiotes and their hosts' brains. Donna assisted Venom in slaying the Xenophage but was gravely injured.[6]

After her recovery, Scream sought out the Xenophage's hidden ship to help her track down more symbiotic survivors. The ship transported her and others (including Venom and Wolverine) into another dimension where Scream gets nearly killed once again by the villainous mutants Dirtnap and Chimera. Upon her successful return to Earth, she disappeared, presumably to continue her search for the few remaining symbiotes.[7]

Scream appeared in two panels of the Marvel Super Hero Island Adventures comic giveaway from 1999, as she is shown to be a member of the Sinister Syndicate. She is referred to as Scream in the comics for the first time. Donna's family name Diego is first established (many years after her first appearance as a character in the Marvel Universe) via files where she is quoted as being an "enemy combatant" to the Initiative's forces.[8]

Scream is next seen investigating the murder of Scott Washington (aka the symbiotic hero Hybrid). She is trapped by Brock. With the Scream symbiote incapacitated by a sonic device, Brock uses a super-heated knife to kill Donna.[9]

Patricia Robertson

During "Absolute Carnage", the Scream symbiote (still bonded to Donna's corpse after having absorbed Donna's consciousness) is resurrected by Knull and goes to help Carnage harvest the codices of previous civilians who at some point had been bonded to symbiotes. Patricia Robertson (who had previously hosted a clone of Venom) later ambushes but the Scream symbiote decides to bond to her, leaving Donna's bones behind. Patricia struggles for control, but eventually the Scream symbiote forces Patricia to hunt other previous hosts.[10]

Andi Benton

Persuading the Scream symbiote to resist Knull's control a second time, Patricia sacrificed herself in an attempt to save Andi's life, and the Scream symbiote left her corpse and bonded to Andi. Transformed into a black-haired version of Scream, Andi breaks free of the meathook and feels the Scream symbiote healing her wounds; reveling in the power of being bonded to a symbiote once more. Andi notes that she can feel not only the Scream symbiote's mental voice, but those of Carnage's doppelgänger horde. She feels Carnage trying to compel her to obey his will, but sneers that she never liked doing what she was told. Snaring Carnage's arm with tendril-hair, Scream unleashes a torrent of hellfire from her maw - blasting Carnage in the face. Retorting that he thought she would have remembered his immunity to fire after their last encounter, Carnage attempts to impale the new Scream like he'd done with Patricia, but she leaps over him. Lunging at her, Carnage impales Scream with his hand and snarls that he's the voice inside her head telling her to stay and die. Scream snares him with tendril hair and slams him into the dangling meat, Andi noting that even with a symbiote she's not powerful enough to fight him. Lamenting that she hadn't even known Patricia Robertson's name before the Scream symbiote bonded to her, Andi vows not to let her sacrifice be in vain. Cocooning Carnage in her hair, Scream tosses him into a meat locker, slams the door, and flees. Smashing the door off its hinges, Carnage notes that Andi has escaped and grouses that he'll have to wait for another rematch with her before turning to harvest the Mania and Scream codices from Patricia's corpse.

Powers and abilities

Donna Diego's superhuman abilities stem from the Scream symbiote. Scream often uses her 'hair' as a weapon to wrap or tangle enemies (much like Medusa of the Inhumans), and can mimic clothing as camouflage. Like Spider-Man and the Venom symbiote, Scream has wall-crawling and web-slinging abilities, and boasts an early-warning sense. Scream also possesses some degree of superhuman strength but the exact limits of which are unknown.

In other media

Television

Scream will appear in Spider-Man: Maximum Venom, voiced by Meg Donnelly.[11]

Video games
  • Scream (Donna Diego) appeared as a boss character in Spider-Man and Venom: Separation Anxiety.
  • Scream (Donna Diego) appears as a boss character in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
  • Scream (Donna Diego) appears as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.

Theme parks

Scream (Donna Diego) appears in the Islands of Adventure ride The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, voiced by Candi Milo. This version is a member of the Sinister Syndicate. During the ride, she attacks guests with her claws and hisses at them, but is pulled backwards by Doctor Octopus, attempting to claim the guests for himself. Later, she and the Hobgoblin charge at Spider-Man while the vehicles are in the air, and is seen being kicked backwards by Spider-Man. She appears during the final scene, webbed up with the Sinister Syndicate's other members. A Japanese language version of the ride later opened at Universal Studios Japan.

Toys
Scream as an action figure released by Toy Biz.
  • Scream (Donna Diego) has her own action figure in the 1996 Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes action figure series by Toy Biz. It has a "living tendril hair" feature. Along with Lasher, her name was christened by the toy line, however, she was not officially called that by Marvel until 2007 when she was titled with the alias in Civil War: Battle Damage Report handbook.
  • Scream (Donna Diego) received her own Marvel Legends figure in 2018.
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References
  1. DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 310. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
  2. Venom: Lethal Protector #1-6
  3. Peter Parker: Spider-Man #52
  4. Web of Spider-Man #119
  5. Venom: Separation Anxiety #1-4
  6. Venom: The Hunted #1-3
  7. Venom: Tooth & Claw #1-3
  8. Anthony Flamini & Ronald Byrd (w), Scott Kolins (p), Scott Kolins (i). Civil War: Battle Damage Report 1 (March 2007), Marvel Comics
  9. Venom Vol. 2 #15
  10. Absolute Carnage: Scream #1. Marvel Comics
  11. Spider-Man: Maximum Venom Debut at Marvel.com
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