Venom: 10 Strongest Marvel Symbiotes, Ranked By Power

Symbiotes in the Marvel universe are hard to pin down. They are extraterrestrial beings that bond with human hosts to create some pretty amazing effects. A symbiote was responsible for giving Spider-Man his black suit, but with a different host it became Venom. Symbiotes come with a wide range of abilities, but all can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.

The "Venom" movies had their problems, but proved the cinematic potential of symbiotes. Select symbiote-bonded antagonists are among the strongest villains not in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even despite overwhelming fan demand for characters like Venom and Carnage to make their MCU debut. When they finally arrive, these innocuous globs of alien goo may actually have the power to shape entire phases of the MCU.

The weakest can go toe-to-toe with just about any Marvel hero, so long as they have a strong enough host. Some symbiotes don't even require a human host to use the full extent of their powers, and those are the ones to be feared the most. Venom is one of the most iconic Marvel supervillains for good reason, but he's barely in the middle of the pack when you take a broader view of the strongest symbiotes in the Marvel universe.

Riot is one of the more well-known symbiotes thanks to his role as the main antagonist in the first live-action "Venom" movie, where he is played by Riz Ahmed. In it, the incredibly dangerous symbiote effortlessly tears through squads of armed humans, but is ultimately no match for Venom and Eddie (Tom Hardy). Riot is a great example of a symbiote's power being restrained because it hasn't found the perfect host just yet. 

Riot's comic book history goes back significantly further. In 1993, Riot made his debut appearance in the "Venom: Lethal Protector" series. The Life Foundation, a morally bankrupt research institute, created Riot and a slew of other minor symbiotes like Phage, Agony, and Lasher. The Foundation planned to sell them to wealthy clients looking for super powered security guards. Like any other symbiote, Riot can become more powerful when he's paired with the right host, but throughout his history, the character is more often than not a loser. He's faced off against other symbiotes like Venom and Carnage, but has never beat any of them in a fair fight. Because of that, Riot lands at the bottom of our symbiote power rankings.

Phage was created by the Life Foundation at the same time as Riot, and the two are roughly equal in power level. Both have the usual array of strengths and weaknesses, like superhuman reflexes and a susceptibility to loud noises. In a one-on-one battle Phage would be evenly matched with Riot, but in the world of Marvel Comics, Phage has repeatedly shown that his real strength is his ability to work alongside other symbiotes.

In "Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety" issue 11, Phage and the other Life Foundation symbiotes fall under the thrall of a powerful godlike being called Knull. After finding a young human host, Phage helped his Life Foundation family bring about Knull's reawakening. In the "Extreme Carnage" storyline, Phage did undercover work posing as a human, and when it was time for violence, he easily defeated Marvel hero Andi Benton. In both instances, while Phage cooperated with others somewhat against his will –- both Knull and Carnage took control of Phage and overrode his own desires –- he still played an integral role in two different supremely important evil plots. While a symbiote working alone is a serious threat, these creatures become truly formidable when used as weapons by someone with larger, more well thought out goals. 

Silence is a relatively new addition to the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in "Extreme Carnage: Phage" in 2021, though readers didn't learn her name until the following month's "Extreme Carnage: Lasher." Much like Phage, Silence owes her existence to a human being.

Dr. Steven began experimenting with symbiotes and had a major breakthrough when he obtained a sample from the corpse of Scream, a symbiote who didn't make the cut for this list. Combining those samples with some Anti-Venom Serum, Steven created a new, extremely dangerous symbiote. Later Andi Benton, after being defeated by Phage, bonded with Silence to keep herself alive. Andi turned out to be a perfect host, and together the two were much more powerful than either alone. 

With her newfound host, Silence became just as strong as any other symbiote, with the ability to tap into some Anti-Venom powers as well. That gave Silence the edge when she and Andi squared off against Phage. With the help of her new host, Silence defeated Phage, cementing her place on this list.

Venom is, of course, the most famous symbiote in any version of the Marvel universe. First appearing in 1984's "The Amazing Spider-Man" issue 252, the symbiote hasn't stopped terrorizing Spidey and other Marvel heroes ever since. Throughout his long tenure, Venom has had quite a few hero turns, to a point where it'd be fair to call him an anti-hero. That said, anyone whose had their lives upended by Venom's violence would probably disagree.

Venom's powers have changed slightly over the years, but he has the standard symbiote power set. Venom has enhanced strength and improved senses, which is how he can fight toe-to-toe with Spider-Man, while picking up other tricks, like web-swinging, by studying other Marvel characters. In almost every fight, Venom comes out victorious, but that doesn't make him the universe's strongest symbiote. Venom often fights against other more powerful symbiotes, helping raise the stakes of his own stories. But while Venom has defeated some of the symbiotes that outrank him on this list, he still lands at this spot because we can't overlook the importance of plot armor to his survival. While we don't want to see harm come to Venom either, we can't honestly include his extra layer of survivability as an official power.

Carnage's history isn't nearly as long as Venom's, but he's easily the second-most well-known symbiote. That's partly from his unique, blood-red design, but Carnage's infamy also has everything to do with the symbiote's unrelenting ferocity. Carnage is more violent and destructive than almost any other symbiote, and when partnered with serial killer Kletus Casady, his most frequent human host, he becomes a true menace.

Carnage is the offspring of the Venom symbiote. In the comics, Venom snuck into a prison to rescue Eddie Brock, and accidentally left a piece of itself behind. That bit of symbiote residue found Kletus, and together the two caused chaos all over New York City. Both Venom and Spider-Man have fought against the Carnage/Kletus duo, and Spidey even faced off against a version of Carnage that bonded with Norman Osborn, a.k.a. The Green Goblin.

Regardless of who he's bonded to, Carnage is an immensely powerful symbiote. He's stronger than both Venom and Spider-Man, which is why they've sometimes had to work together to defeat him. Carnage also has incredibly powerful regenerative abilities, meaning that if even a few cells survive an attack, he'll make a comeback sometime in the future.

Toxin made his debut during the 2004 "Venom vs. Carnage" storyline. Toxin is another Venom offshoot, as he was created from symbiote cells that split off Carnage, Venom's first offspring. As symbiote genetic lines only get stronger as they progress, even Venom and Carnage's combined forces couldn't defeat Toxin entirely.

Toxin essentially has the same abilities as Venom, but with a power boost. He's a little stronger, a little faster, and a little quicker to heal. Toxin is also somewhat more resistant to sonic attacks, so it's safe to say he doesn't have a truly debilitating weakness to exploit. Luckily, there may not be a need to find one. After his emergence in the "Venom vs. Carnage" storyline, Toxin experienced a bit of a hero arc when he bonded with a new host -– a young boy named Bren. Together, they survived Knull's invasion of Earth and the Venom war. 

One small detail many missed in "Venom: The Last Dance" hinted that a version of Toxin's hero arc might make it to the big screen. Whether or not we get to see Toxin fighting the forces of evil in a future movie, the fact that the symbiote is still alive in the Sony universe shows just how survivable he is.

There's a big power jump between the symbiotes we've talked about and Grendel. The symbiotes we've discussed so far have a wide range of powers, that are enhanced when bonded to a human host. Grendel, on the other hand, is a fully fledged symbiote dragon created by the god Knull billions of years before Venom ever existed.

Unlike other symbiotes, Grendel doesn't need a host to be immensely powerful. Its greatest strength lies in its natural physiology. Knull created Grendel with a dragon body capable of not just flight, but navigating the stars and traveling between worlds. Grendel also possesses super strength, heightened reflexes, and a healing factor that puts most other symbiotes to shame. In fact, Grendel is virtually immortal, and can even use its symbiote tendrils to bring others back from the dead.

You need the strength of a god to face off against Grendel. Its immunity to heat and sound means the usual symbiote fighting tricks won't work here. Grendel does have some vulnerability to electricity, but it's taken the likes of Thor's hammer to cause any damage to the creature. Simply put, Grendel is one of the most terrifying symbiotes in Marvel history.

What could be more intimidating than a symbiote dragon? How about a symbiote dragon infused with Stark technology? "Extrembiote" is the name given to a separated piece of a symbiote dragonthat was later experimented on by Tony Stark. Wanting to separate the symbiote dragon from Knull's hive mind, Stark thought giving it a dose of the Extremis virus would do the trick. It didn't.

Instead, Iron Man inadvertently created a suped-up dragon with Extremis healing and heat blast abilities. It's not the only mistake Stark made, as while experimenting on the symbiote, he also allowed it access to his private lab. The symbiote found its way to a suit of Iron Man's armor and used the metal husk as a brand new host. The result was a symbiote dragon with access to Extremis powers and a full suite of Iron Man weaponry. 

Under Stark's supervision, the Extrembiote became a powerful tool in the battle against Knull, while remaining an immensely powerful weapon that technically has a mind of its own. Since its emergence, the Extrembiote has had run ins with other symbiotes like Carnage. While not quite a villain, the Extrembiote is such an incredibly powerful creature that it will forever remain a quietly looming threat over the entirety of the Marvel universe. 

The Anti-Venom symbiote was created entirely by mistake, which is surprising considering just how strong it is. In the comics, Eddie Brock separated from the Venom symbiote, but the remnants left behind gave him cancer. Eddie sought help from Mr. Negative, one of the villains we might see in the MCU's Phase 6. Mr. Negative used his powers to cure Eddie's cancer, but made some unintended changes to the symbiote traces in Eddie's body.

The result was the Anti-Venom. Unlike all other symbiotes, the Anti-Venom doesn't have a mind of its own, meaning its host is in full control, and there's no need to negotiate power. That fact alone makes the Anti-Venom incredibly valuable, but the symbiote's powers are also super-charged. The Anti-Venom possesses greater strength, durability, and regenerative capabilities than virtually every other known symbiote.

On top of that, the Anti-Venom has a pseudo Spider-Sense and enhanced matter manipulation abilities that allow it to cure diseases. The Anti-Venom can even cancel out Spider-Man's powers, and is immune to fire and sonic attacks. With few known weaknesses and an unstoppable array of powers, the Anti-Venom is a fearsome creation. Marvel's heroes are just lucky that Eddie Brock became one of the good guys before becoming this symbiote's host.

By now we've hopefully made it clear that not all symbiotes rely on human hosts. In fact, those that don't tend to be stronger than the ones that do. But even greater than devastating Symbiote dragons is a different non-humanoid being undeniably more powerful than any other.

The god Knull created the symbiotes, but kept the strongest of his creations for himself. All-Black is the name of Knull's Necrosword, though it's way more than a weapon. Knull transformed his very first symbiote into a sword, and used it to behead a Celestial. After that, Knull harnessed the energy from the dead Celestial's head and channeled it into his firstborn symbiote. That combination became All-Black, quite possibly the most powerful weapon in the entire Marvel universe.

Knull used All-Black to slay gods. Later in the symbiote's life, Gorr used the weapon to earn his "God Butcher" moniker. All-Black's god-slaying strength and regenerative powers transfers to whoever wields it. The sword can also manipulate matter and use powerful blasts of dark energy to destroy its foes. All-Black is responsible for the deaths of countless gods, Celestials, and minor Marvel heroes. When a host properly wields the symbiote, they are all but unstoppable — though they risk falling victim to its corrupting energies. For that reason, All-Black is our pick for the strongest symbiote in the Marvel universe.