The newest Venom trailer has dropped and it contains a lot of new symbiotes and a line of dialogue that took me a few listens to understand. But who is that symbiote fighting Venom at the end of the trailer?
The symbiote at the end of the trailer would eventually be known as Riot and it made debut in Venom: Lethal Protector #4 back in 1993. Using Venom, Dr. Carlton Drake created five symbiotes, one of which was Riot. He looked like a slightly larger version of Venom but colored grey. Strangely enough, Riot only appears in eight total panels in the entirety of the Lethal Protector miniseries, and readers knew nothing about the character or his backstory.
The following year, the five symbiotes were back in the four-issue miniseries Venom: Separation Anxiety. We learn the person inside the Riot symbiote is named Trevor, and that he was a volunteer at the Life Foundation. Drake made Trevor and the other symbiote volunteers believe Venom was a villain who needed to be stopped. However, at the tail end of Separation Anxiety, Riot and Trevor are killed by Donna (Scream) as she believes the symbiotes all need to die. This would be the last time we ever see Trevor. Goodbye, we hardly knew thee.
In Venom: Along Came A Spider #1, the Riot symbiote popped back up, along with the four other symbiotes from the previous miniseries. A testing facility merges all the symbiotes into one called Hybrid. After a few years, the Hybrid was split back into its five separate symbiotes.
While we all call the symbiote Riot, it wasn't until 2012's Carnage, USA #2 when Trevor's symbiote was officially named Riot. The name originally comes from the 1996 Toy Biz line "Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes." The figure didn't look much like the character though. In Carnage, USA, the Riot symbiote is given to Howard Ogden, with the hopes of taking down Carnage, who made his symbiote possess the Avengers.
Riot popped up one more time in 2014's Deadpool vs. Carnage miniseries. All five of the Lethal Protector symbiotes bonded with Deadpool, so he could take down Carnage. That's the last we've seen of the Riot symbiote.
Because Riot is the "child" of Venom, he has pretty much the same powers. In Deadpool vs. Carnage, Wade Wilson mentioned that the Riot symbiote gave him increased speeds. However, that's all we really know about the character. While Riot has existed for 25 years, he is not a well-defined character by any means.
While the trailers don't give too much away about the character, we do know that Dr. Carlton Drake is the person inside the Riot symbiote. That's a bit of a departure from the source material, but it makes sense for the story. We can assume Drake is of the mindset of "if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself."
Find out more about Riot when Venom comes to theaters on October 5.