Thanks to Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a whole new generation of fans have been introduced
to the Marvel villain Shriek.
But who is this elusive criminal, and just what makes her tick?
This is Shriek's story in the Marvel Universe.
It may seem obvious, but it's worth emphasizing nonetheless: Shriek's association with Carnage
is indelible.
In fact, she rarely shows up in the comics without him.
The character was created by writer and editor Tom DeFalco and introduced in Spider-Man Unlimited
#1, the first installment of the sprawling "Maximum Carnage" storyline.
In fact, it's Carnage himself who first introduces us to Shriek, during his escape from the Ravencroft
Institute for the Criminally In sane.
As he is slaughtering guards and orderlies, Cletus hears another Ravencroft inmate cheering
him on.
Curious, he discovers Shriek in a nearby cell, wrapped in a straight jacket and very excited
about his on-going horror show.
She convinces Carnage to free her, and the two of them engage in a twisted romance and
a campaign of chaos that stretches across 14 more issues.
While there have been occasional attempts to utilize Shriek as a character in her own
right, none of them have ever stuck.
From her first appearance in 1993 to her apparent death in 2019, she has been almost entirely
defined as Carnage's love interest, inevitably turning up whenever he does.
So maybe it's no wonder she turns up in Let There Be Carnage — after all, wherever Cletus
Kasady goes, Shriek inevitably follows.
"There's gonna be carnage."
The movie version of Shriek will likely be different from the comic book version in a
number of ways, but the biggest involves how she actually gets her superpowers.
In the comics, Shriek is supposedly a mutant — or at least that's what her rendition
of an origin story would seem to indicate.
The exact events have never actually been shown, but according to Shriek herself, she
was a drug dealer whose powers were awakened by the hero known as Cloak.
Famously, Cloak's body acts as a portal to an alternate plane of existence called the
Darkforce Dimension.
Being enveloped in Cloak's cloak often results in criminals experiencing terrifying visions
of their greatest fears, and can lead to them losing their minds.
That's exactly what happened to Shriek, too — only in her case, the loss of her sanity
coincided with the emergence of her newfound abilities.
Don't expect to hear about any of this in the movie, though, as both Cloak and mutantkind
in general are currently the property of Marvel Studios.
Speaking of Shriek's superpowers...
What are they?
You'd probably guess it has something to do with her voice, and you'd be right.
Shriek's primary power is her ability to manipulate sound, which usually takes the form of blasts
of sonic energy.
As you might expect, this is bad news for symbiotes, who are vulnerable to sound, but
the concussive force of Shriek's attacks can do extreme physical damage to normal people
as well.
Despite being her signature power, in the comics, Shriek's sonic abilities are actually
the least terrifying weapon in her arsenal.
Beyond sound manipulation, Shriek also seems to have an undefined degree of psychic power.
She has demonstrated limited telekinesis by levitating people and objects, but more interestingly,
she can reach into the minds of others, locating and drawing out the darkest parts of their
personalities.
Shriek has used this ability on Spider-Man in an attempt to turn him to the dark side,
and on the Ravencroft inmate Malcom McBride as well, re-awakening his villainous alter
ego, Carrion.
Over the course of "Maximum Carnage," her powers even affect the entire city of New
York, plunging it into a chaos driven by humanity's darkest impulses.
At first glance, Shriek may seem like your run-of-the-mill psychopath, but there's actually
a lot more to her than that.
While she didn't do a whole lot in the wake of "Maximum Carnage," the character was fleshed
out in a four-issue Spider-Man story called "Shrieking," which played out over the course
of Amazing Spider-Man #390-393.
DeMatteis' tale digs deeper into Shriek's most interesting character trait: her desire
for a family.
"Maximum Carnage" had already introduced this idea, with Shriek and Carnage serving as twisted
parental figures for fellow villains Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion, but "Shrieking" takes
it much further.
Here, Shriek essentially kidnaps Malcolm McBride from Ravencroft.
Shriek still considers Carrion her son, and moreover, she's convinced McBride's actual
mother doesn't really love him.
As it turns out, this is because Shriek herself did not have loving parents.
Her childhood was filled with a wide variety of abuse, and the trauma she endured at her
family's hands left deep scars on her psyche.
Her need to be a mother to Carrion is rooted in her desire to embody the kind of mother
she never had — which is why, when she finally realizes that McBride's mother does actually
love him, she lets him go.
It's a surprisingly moving and compelling story; one made even more impactful considering
Shriek would essentially be absent from comics for the next 15 years.
After "Shrieking," Shriek's status as a tragic villain was already pretty well established,
but the real tragedy was yet to come.
Minus one or two extremely minor appearances, Shriek didn't appear in Marvel Comics from
1995 to 2010.
She was then brought back for a five-issue Carnage mini-series starring Spider-Man and
Iron Man, which begins with Shriek having made some real progress in her therapy thanks
to Dr. Tanis Nieves.
However, when the ruthless corporation Hall Industries makes her a pawn in a scheme to
weaponize the Carnage symbiote, Shriek ends up relapsing into her violent ways and returning
to Carnage's side.
But then Nieves, who by then has merged with a symbiote of her own to become Scorn, turns
on Shriek, comparing her to a dog who needs to be put down.
Before long, Shriek has wound up in a coma.
After that, Shriek's main appearances usually involve her coming back to Carnage again and
again, no matter how abusive he is towards her.
Finally, in Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1, she willingly sacrifices herself to Carnage's
newfound religious cause, allowing him to rip out her spine.
All things considered, it's not the kindest of endings for poor ol' Shriek.
Of course, no one is dead forever in comic books, and despite the traumatic end to her
story, there's actually a very clear path set for Shriek's eventual return.
In fact, you could argue that she's returned already.
After Shriek's sacrifice in Absolute Carnage, Carnage himself resurrected the character
known as Demogoblin, an old Spider-Man foe who comes from the infernal realm of limbo.
To do this, Shriek's body was offered up as a vessel.
Having possessed Shriek's body, the demon began presenting as female, calling itself
Demagoblin.
Between Carnage referring to Demagoblin as being "merged with Shriek," and the two immediately
engaging in a romantic relationship, it seems logical that Shriek is still in there somewhere.
And it's worth knowing that Demagoblin has a history of ripping free of its host body,
restoring the host's original form in the process.
Whether or not we'll ever find out for sure if Shriek is still in there depends on what
happens with Demagoblin.
After Absolute Carnage, she appeared as a last-page reveal in Scream: Curse of Carnage
#6, but that turned out to be the last issue, as the book was delayed due to the COVID-19
pandemic and subsequently canceled.
Shriek fans can only hope that her debut in Let There Be Carnage might make her popular
enough to one day warrant a full return in the comics.
Just because Shriek is primarily associated with Carnage, doesn't mean she has only appeared
in Carnage's comics.
Aside from "Shrieking," the one story that actually centers around her, she has had scattered
cameos in a wide variety of books.
Following the Carnage miniseries, she was one of Caroline Le Fay's Doom Maidens in the
2013 series Fearless Defenders before becoming a member of the Sinister Sixteen in the pages
of Superior Foes of Spider-Man.
Both series were excellent, but Shriek didn't get much of a chance to shine in them, as
in each instance she was just one part of a much larger team.
In 2016, she briefly appeared in Spider-Woman #1, and later got a slightly larger role in
the first couple of issues of Great Lakes Avengers, in which she can be seen working
as an enforcer for Detroit villain Nain Rouge.
In 2018, Shriek finally came full circle, returning to symbiote territory by attacking
Venom in Venom #157, before reuniting with Carnage one last time in the Absolute Carnage
storyline.
The first Venom movie wasn't exactly what you'd call a prestige film.
Eddie catching and eating the lobster
And the sequel appears to be carrying on in the same bizarre tone.
That said, it's interesting that the movie stars English actor Naomie Harris as Shriek,
who is famously selective about the roles she takes.
Harris burst onto the cinema scene in 2002 as Selena in the zombie movie 28 Days Later,
for which she won the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance.
In the two ensuing decades, she has appeared in some blockbuster franchises too, including
the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the James Bond franchise.
In 2016, Harris earned an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Paula, the lead character's
abusive mother in Moonlight.
Considering Harris' obvious talent as a performer, her portrayal of Shriek could be a very special
one indeed.
If nothing else, she might just make a household name of a character deserving of more attention
than she has previously received.
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