WE ARE HYBRID

Some sources were reporting that it had started with a batch of ecstasy that had been cut with a sample of Spider-Man’s irradiated blood, salvaged after a fight with some supervillain or other by some enterprising scavenger who’d auctioned off on the black market to the highest bidder. 

By this point, where it had come from was by and large irrelevant. What mattered was that it was an epidemic; street trash with spider-powers were popping up all over Brooklyn, and Hybrid was perhaps the only person besides Spider-Man himself who was equipped to stop them.

Not that others weren’t trying, of course. 

Scott made his first appearance in New Warriors volume 1 as a Guardsman at The Vault ( a now-defunct prison built by Tony Stark to house supervillains ) but it wasn’t until the miniseries Venom: Along Came A Spider that his character was expanded upon and he was given the identity of Hybrid.

The Hybrid symbiote itself is composed of four separate symbiotes- Agony, Phage, Lasher, and Riot- that bonded together for protection, forming a single entity ( referred to as a “Hybrid” symbiote, hence the name ) after being weakened by torture while being kept under observation at a testing facility during the events of Planet of the Symbiotes.

Previously, the symbiotes had been bonded to mercenaries under the employ of the Life Foundation, who had forcibly spawned them from Venom in order to create super-soldiers ( see Venom: Lethal Protector ) but after their hosts were killed by Donna Diego, aka Scream, at the climax of Venom: Separation Anxiety, the symbiotes were re-captured and imprisoned by the government.

After the symbiotes merged, escaped, and bonded to Scott, he was stated to be permanently bonded to them in Venom: The Hunted. Furthermore, the Hybrid symbiotes were stated to be inseparable as the trauma of being torn apart would be fatal to them, but despite this, after Scott was unceremoniously killed off in Rick Remender’s run on Venom, the Hybrid symbiote was somehow recovered and separated into its four components before each symbiote was given to a member of the four-man U.S. special operations team codenamed Mercury Team.

Mercury Team were killed off just as unceremoniously by Carnage in the Deadpool vs. Carnage limited series, but for the purposes of my blog canon I’m choosing to incorporate them- albeit with a few chronological changes- in order to update Scott’s backstory, thus allowing them to be acknowledged within my blog canon and saving the hassle of having to ignore the events of Carnage U.S.A. and Deadpool vs. Carnage completely.

I’ve put together a timeline containing the events which led Scott to become Hybrid, including a chronological reading order for the events and the issues they occur in and links to the comics for anyone who wants to read them. Hopefully this’ll make it a little easier for anyone who’s interested to learn more about Scott’s character, as well as the origins of the Hybrid symbiote, and make sense of where Hybrid’s appearances fit in with the canon that my blog goes by.

TIMELINE:

The Life Foundation forcibly spawns the four symbiotes from Venom ( Venom: Lethal Protector #4 )

LF symbiotes’ are separated from their hosts after their hosts are killed by Scream ( Venom: Separation Anxiety )

LF symbiotes are recovered by the U.S. government and given to Mercury Team to combat with Carnage alongside Spider-Man and Agent Venom ( Carnage U.S.A. )

Mercury Team are killed in action ( Deadpool vs. Carnage ) the four symbiotes are returned to U.S. government custody for observation and experimentation

Scott Washington is assigned to the testing facility where the symbiotes are being experimented on ( Venom: Along Came A Spider #1 ) the symbiotes merge into Hybrid and temporarily bond with Scott after escaping containment, but are forced to retreat after being attacked with sonic weapons by the other Guardsmen

Scott develops an empathic link with the Hybrid symbiote due to being bonded with it; he senses the creature’s pain and takes pity on it, allowing it to escape the facility ( Venom: Along Came A Spider #1 )

Scott is court-martialed and discharged after being found complicit in the Hybrid symbiote’s escape; he returns to his family home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and is paralyzed in a gangland shooting that also claims the life of his young brother Derek ( Venom: Along Came A Spider #2 )

EVERYTHING’S CHANGED. I WAS PARALYZED...NOW “WE” CAN WALK.

I WAS HELPLESS...

Needless to say, she got a running start from the rooftops. Leaping and staying silent for the most part, she KNEW the spider genetics were breaking out all because a kid thought it’d be funny to lace that shit with something along the lines of ecstasy—pop a pill and you’re able to climb walls, shoot webs and you name it. Some were cut clean, while others were a little more MUTATED. Regardless, there was no cure yet, and she’d be squashing them like bugs every other night.

She’d doesn’t bother keeping her entrance QUIET. She leaped, silver consuming her entire being to weigh her down, hurling her down FAST as she thumbed the switch of her staff, either end CRACKLING with electricity. several strands of web shoot at her at once, but she lands with THUNK on of the many hybrids, a single taser end pressed flat against his neck as her wight caused his ribcage to snap. She might not have a 6th sense, but she has pretty good timing. Jerking back her elbow to hear the sound of a crunch, a NOSE breaking, Anastasia twirled quick on her feet, still on his chest—-her staff THRUSTING forward, the electricity crackling through another hybrid and forcing him back against the wall. 

She’s dainty and weightless on her toes, dodging swings as she continued to electrocute one of the many mutated-thugs. Another one running towards her with a shriek, her legs LOCK, iron stance and unmovable as he SLAMMED into her. With the right amount of lean as they collided, another CRUNCH could be heard—she guessed his jaw from the momentum of how he ran into her, expecting her to collapse.

Subtle smirk and ragged pant, she yanked her staff back—the OTHER had done most of the work needed, but god she wasn’t used to his LOOK at all. Hearing footsteps from behind, Anastasia sighed, dropping her staff to shift a single leg silver, before pivoting her hips, legged kicked up and SWINGING her weight. a sickening crack and the mans head meeting brick, the vigilante dusted off her hands. The gurgle of groans all around the two of them—blue eyes glace towards the other. 

If he was one of them, he would’ve came running after her, too. She doesn’t mean to stare, it’s just not a look you see everyday. Smile gentle as she crouched down to collapse her staff in two, thrusting it back into place on her thigh holster—

     “ —the more I fight these guys, the more I realize how much I hate spiders. You okay? ”

{ …We’re fine. }

Hybrid- or Scott, rather- is aware of the irony in the statement that had preceded Ana’s last question. With the tendrils protruding from his back, he resembles nothing so much as a monstrous, spider-like creature himself, despite the fact that the way the appendages sprout from his back are more akin to wings that might be found in contemporary depictions of angels- or demons. He’s been mistaken for a vampire in the past; perhaps that has something to do with it. Certainly, it’s nothing as grisly as him draining his victims of blood- for all his intimidation tactics, fearsome appearance and reputation for brutality, the so-called Terror of Brooklyn doesn’t kill.

Then again, most people northeast of Bushwick seemed to think that he was an urban legend until proven otherwise. In fact, he’s even met people who think the same of Spider-Man.

I been living here fifteen years and I ain’t never seen him once. You ask me, it’s just a whaddyacallit, a scam to bring in tourists. The Daily Bugle’s probably got two or three of ‘em on the payroll- 

The spider-like aspect of his own symbiote’s appearance seems to be an affectation that’s carried over from Hybrid’s “father” Venom, whose trademark- aside from having a penchant for brains and more teeth than the Osmond Family- was the distinctive white spider logo emblazoned across his chest. He’d read somewhere that the infamous black symbiote had started out as a living costume that Spider-Man had picked up on an alien world, and even after the creature had separated from its original host it had retained the symbol in addition to being able to emulate its previous owner’s powers- which explained how Venom was able to shoot webbing and cling to walls, and also how all of Hybrid’s symbiotes could do the same. His symbiotes’ other abilities- Agony’s acid generation and the ability to fly, for example- were presumably just the result of mutation. A kind of evolution of the genetic material that the symbiotes had inherited from their ancestors.

For a brief moment, he made the mistake of wondering what an army of gangbangers with symbiotes would be capable of, and suppressed the urge to shudder. The goons hopped up on Spider-Ecstasy were bad enough. The mental image of New York’s streets crawling with hoods who had the powers of Spider-Man’s arguably most dangerous enemy didn’t bear thinking about.

The tazer’s electrodes buzz and crackle as they make contact with the symbiote’s viscous form. Embedded squarely in the centre of Hybrid’s broad chest, the symbiote sucks the dart-like projectiles in with a noise like someone slurping up the dregs of a milkshake before expelling them with a sound that’s almost comically similar to flatulence.

Even without the symbiotes, Scott Washington is over half a foot taller than Darcy ( although it’s difficult to tell while he’s in a wheelchair ), who stands at 5′2; as Hybrid, he’s almost 6′4. he doesn’t even need to raise his hand to point a clawed finger at the young woman’s face, simply bending his arm at the elbow and holding it under her nose though admonishing a naughty child- although his wicked tip of his clawed digit makes the gesture seem more akin to him threatening her with a knife.