Venom: Let It Be Carnage will bring the symbiote's greatest rival into the spotlight, but he won't be the only villain in the film. The villainous Shriek, played by
Naomie Harris, promises to cause a lot of trouble for the Lethal Protector.
Shriek was created in the early 1990s by Ron Lim and Tom Defalco in Spider-Man Unlimited #1. Considered a supervillain in the comics, she is a frequent Spider-Man adversary and Kasady's lover. She has the superpower to manipulate sound, besides messing with the people's dark side. Her childhood was turbulent, and she even had a drug problem, becoming a drug dealer.
The new movie version promises to highlight her insane longtime partnership with Carnage, Cletus Kasady. That's why I've pulled together everything you need to know about Shriek, the film's mutant villain.
Shriek's First Appearance
Shriek first appeared in the Spider-Man comics. The character was created by screenwriter Tom DeFalco, in collaboration with artist Ron Lim, as Cletus Kasady's romantic interest, since they needed an equally unbalanced partner to support him in his bloodthirsty plans.
His debut was in the 1993
Spider-Man Unlimited #1. In the story, Carnage is escaping from Ravencroft Psychiatric Penitentiary when he meets Shriek in one of its cells. In between friendly flirtations, the pair exchange tragic origin stories and decide to team up for revenge.
Shriek's Background
Sometimes called Sandra Deel, Shriek eventually became a villain after a series of tragic events that destroyed her emotionally. As a child, little Frances Louise Barrison suffered severe emotional abuse from her mother because of her overweight problem. She soon fell into the world of drugs, eventually becoming an influential drug dealer.
Living in the drug traffic exposed Frances to numerous situations that deteriorated her sanity. But the trigger for her to lose control was a shot in the head by a policeman. After that, she was never the same again.
To make matters worse, she ended up trapped in the dark dimension of the hero Cloak (Dagger's partner) and had her psyche further fragmented by the experience.
Shriek Powers and Abilities
In the comics, Shriek is a mutant with limited telepathic abilities. She can invade people's minds to access a dark empathy, which awakens the worst side of a human being. In the Maximum Carnage arc, this power is used to spread chaos in a city, causing innocent people to fight each other.
In addition, Shriek has also proven to possess telekinetic abilities, levitating objects and people with his mind. But her primary weapon, which justifies her villainous name, is the powerful sonic scream that she uses to attack and fly.
Is Shriek a Symbiote?
Shriek is not a Symbiote.
Frances was in therapy for years with Tanis Nieves. It took much effort to lessen her animosity. Still, all was lost to human greed when Hall Industries bought Ravencroft in hopes of combining Frances with the Carnage symbiote to create the perfect weapon. But the plan did not work as they had planned.
Carnage reunited with its original host, Cletus, and spawned a new symbiote that bonded with Shirek - the Scorn. It turned out that Frances' murderous mind was so twisted that the alien fled in fear, choosing to connect with Tanis, the psychologist, who turned out to be a great villain.
Shriek In Super Sinister Sextet
In The Superior Foes of Spider-Man arc, Shriek was part of a Sinister Sixteen member group based on the classic Sinister Six. In the story, Boomerang assembled a team of Spider-Man's greatest enemies for a risky mission that went wrong, which is why Boomerang abandoned them.
Outraged, Shriek teams up with her former allies at the Nameless Bar to seek revenge. In the end, even cooperating with each other, they were unable to defeat Boomerang's new allies. It is important to mention that Shriek was holding back her powers and did not get to use the full extent of his abilities in this fight.
Shriek In Absolute Carnage
In Absolute Carnage, Shriek became the representative of the Knull Cult, a sect dedicated to preparing for the King of the Symbionts' return. When they invaded Doverton town in Colorado, she helped Carnage and Doppelganger sacrifice the population to the alien god.
Her devotion to her boyfriend was so great that she agreed to participate in a ritual to increase Knull's dominance on Earth. In the process, Carnage ripped out her spine to access Scorn symbiote's remnants left in her central nervous system. From this, Shriek was reborn as the new Demogoblin.
Shriek As Saint D
After Black Carnage's death, Demogoblin ultimately founded her own religion where she was the highest saint: Saint D. At first and offered salvation and protection to homeless children. But when Knull invaded Earth, she brainwashed them into following her as her acolytes.
Determined to save the children, the symbiote Scream tried to defeat her in
King in Black: Scream. Using her mutant powers, the Demogoblin controlled the children, sending them to attack the anti-heroine. The yellow symbiote took great care not to harm the innocents. To defeat the villain, Scream needed to awaken new transformations.
Shriek In The Animations
Shriek made minor appearances in Earth-12041, the universe that brings together Marvel's most recent batch of children's animated series:
Hulk and the
Agents of S.m.a.s.h.,
Avengers United, and
Ultimate Spider-Man, where she was even invited by Doctor Octopus to be part of his new Sinister Sextet.
In
The Symbiote Saga, Shriek becomes Carnage's new host, spreading destruction by combining her sonic powers with the symbiote's abilities. In addition to Spider-Man himself, she also faces Captain America and Iron Fist throughout the episode, but she is ultimately stopped by Anti-Venom.
Shriek In The Games
Shriek appeared in two Spider-Man games. In 1994, she was one of the bosses in the game
Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage which adapted the comic arc of the same name for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
In 2007, she returned for
Spider-Man 3, inspired by the movie. This time, her participation differs significantly from the comics. She was Morbius' wife, and her powers came from a Venom-like symbiote. A similar change may occur in the new film.
Shriek In Venom: Let It Be Carnage
Shriek, Frances Barrison's alter-ego, will be incorporated into
Venom: Let It Be Carnage film starring Tom Hardy and takes place a year after the first movie's events.
In theaters, Shriek will be played by actress Naomie Harris, best known as Agent Eve Moneypenny, in the latest 007 films. The villain appeared briefly in the trailer as one of the victims of the Ravencroft experiments.
The “Venom sequel was scheduled to premiere in October 2020 but, due to the pandemic, was pushed to June 2021, then late September, and most recently, Oct. 15.
