Andi Benton

Origin

Andi was one of the first neighbors Flash Thompson met in Philadelphia. She lived upstairs from his new apartment and happened to attend West Philadelphia High School, where Flash started working as a P.E. teacher. She usually skips gym, but one day she was the only witness to Flash using his symbiote-enhanced arm throw a ball to a bully. This led her to the conclusion Thompson was Agent Venom.

When mob boss Lord Ogre put a price on Venom's head, Andi was targeted by Jack O'Lantern, a villain who knew Flash's alter-ego. Venom couldn't save Andi's father from being stabbed by the maniac, but when Jack released a poisonous gas, Flash protected Andi with a portion of his symbiote, which ended up bonding with Andrea rather than only protecting her from her death.

Creation

Andi Benton made her debut appearance in Venom #31 by Cullen Bunn, Declan Shalvey, and Pepe Larraz. Her surname was first revealed on Bunn's blog.

Major Story Arcs

Mania

When Andi bonded to the Venom fragment, she proved to be a natural. She took to the agility and strength like she had been wearing the symbiote for years. She also let her anger get the best of her, especially because Jack O’Lantern killed her dad. Flash did his best to try and call back the fragment, but it was staying put. So, he reluctantly let her tag along as he went after Lord Ogre’s hitmen, as if he had a choice. Once they caught them all, Andi moved out of the apartment and in with her aunt, but she kept in touch with Flash with an untraceable Starkphone.

Three weeks later, the duo have no leads on Lord Ogre, and Flash gets a call that will take him out of town. Andi is extra angry over it and refuses to lay low like Flash suggests. She takes to the streets alone, announcing herself as Mania, a word Flash used to describe her new attitude. She made enough noise to get Ogre’s attention, but she also got the attention of Crossbones, who was working for the Department of Occult Armaments. They were interested in the Hell-Mark that Mephisto had branded Flash with and was passed to Andi with the symbiote fragment.

They sought out Mephisto for answers, who informed them that the Venom symbiote purged the Hell-Mark by passing it to the clone it had previously absorbed, which is the symbiote Andi is currently connected to. Mephisto refused to do anything about it. Technically, the bargain wasn’t with Andi or Flash but the symbiote, but Mephisto trusted Flash to guard Andi.

Hell-Marked

When Flash went to space to work with the Guardians of the Galaxy, he left Andi alone with the Mania symbiote. They continued to fight crime without Flash while living in the sewers without their mentor. In addition, the Hell-Mark grew more and more painful. Flash witnessed as much from space, and with help from Klyntar, the symbiote’s homeworld, Flash and Venom figured out a way to purge that from her too.

Back on Earth, Andi was confronted by Flash and Superior Spider-Man (Doc Ock possessed Spider-Man), who were working together. They were able to put Venom and Mania into a symbiote container until they could apply a special alien elixir to cure the Hell-Mark. However, once Venom had cleansed Mania, it informed Flash that it didn’t have the Hell-Mark anymore. Andi Benton was now fully in possession of the Hell-Mark.

Andi was angry and resentful, made worse by the mark. She attacked Flash with an army of demons, but he was saved by his friends, who had attained the alien elixir for him. After more fighting, Flash was able to inject the elixir, returning Andi to her usual self. Unfortunately, it was only a temporary fix, and the two of them would have to continue looking into it.

Venom Inc

Hearing that Flash and Venom had been separated and Venom returned to Eddie Brock, Andi offered to help Flash track them down, so he could be Agent Venom again. Unfortunately, Andi would be attacked by former Venom host, Lee Price, and have her symbiote stolen from her. The ambush and separation would put her in the hospital where she was visited by Flash.

As Maniac, Lee Price was enslaving people into his symbiote army. Andi believed she could use her connection to Mania to track them, as well as, using her Hell-Mark powers to defend herself and others. This would cause her to cross paths with Flash, who was now the new Anti-Venom. Eventually, the heroes would defeat Price, but the Mania symbiote couldn’t be returned to Andi.

Andi didn’t mind though. Andi was feeling confident with her Hell-Mark powers and returned to Philadelphia satisfied.

Absolute Carnage

Andi was settling into a symbiote-less life in Phillie with her aunt. This included having nightmares and waking dreams of an attacking symbiote that pledged to always be a part of her. They got so bad that when Carnage attacked and killed her aunt looking for Andi, Andi didn’t believe it was happening at first. When she got her composure, she led Carnage away from town and then conjured the Monsters of Evil to counterattack. Unfortunately, Carnage was immune to fire after getting an upgrade from Knull, god of the symbiotes. He fights through her monster army so he can suck symbiote remnants from her blood. In an act of demonic preservation, the hell-mark teleports her to New York City, away from Carnage.

At the same time, New York was overrun with Knull possessed symbiotes. Andi would confront them in the streets taking them on with her hellfire, but she found a challenge when she came across Patricia Robertson hosting the Scream symbiote. Carnage could see through Scream’s eyes and demanded they bring Andi to him. Andi is able to connect to Scream and her host, convincing them that Carnage intends to kill them too. They fight off his influence and decide to partner with Andi.

Carnage hunted them down personally after Scream broke his influence. He fought them both, killing Robertson and hanging Andi from the rafters of a warehouse in really rough shape. The Scream symbiote leaves Robertson’s dead body and quietly bonds to Andi, reviving her. Andi is able to fight him off and lock him in a meat locker, giving her a head start to get away.

Curse of Carnage

Ever since Carnage’s attack, Andi has been homeless in New York as the host of Scream. She spent nights at F.E.A.S.T. resenting her new symbiote and its spiral-induced freak-outs, until a woman came by the shelter claiming to be her long lost mother. Andi was swept up in the excitement of seeing her, but Scream didn’t buy it. Her “mother” proved to be a symbiote puppet from Big Mother, who also sent a number of symbiote slugs into the shelter to control the homeless.

Angry that Big Mother brought the fight to the shelter, Andi jumped into the bay to find Big Mother, but she was no match for her. Big Mother was only interested in Scream, not Andi, and was willing to kill Andi to keep Scream. Scream chose to protect Andi over joining with Big Mother. Big Mother was able to separate them multiple times, but Scream was determined to stay bonded to Andi. The last time they were separated and re-bonded, they had been swallowed by Big Mother and burst out of her stomach.

Andi and Scream led Big Mother out of the bay and on to dry land. They were chased up a building where they were able to hang Big Mother by the neck from a construction crane.

King in Black

When Knull invaded the Earth, Scream confronted the other members of the Life Foundation Five. They were in the midst of a spiral-induced breakdown while hunting Dylan Brock for Knull. They were chasing the wrong kid when Scream showed up to protect this young boy. Angry, the other symbiotes became Hybrid and Knull spoke to Scream through them. These symbiotes didn’t have the same fire immunity that Carnage recently received, so Andi was able to burn them out with the Hell-Mark.

Scream was in the middle of another investigation when Knull had invaded. A detective came by FEAST when a number of homeless kids had gone missing. They were all being abducted by Demagoblin, Shriek possessed by Demogoblin. She had been brainwashing them into her acolytes. When Scream finally tracked her down, the church they were hiding out in started to burn down in the fight, and Demagoblin made her getaway to continue preaching her crooked gospel. Andi chose to stay behind and save the children.

Unfortunately, Demagoblin doubled back, and Andi was forced to fight her in the streets. Their fight was interrupted by Knull himself. He threw Demagoblin afar, not considering her worthy of his time, but he was very interested in Scream. Because Scream was stunned, Andi needed to convince her to fight Knull. Their shared history of pain, the same thing that drew them together in the first place, gave them the power to fight Knull’s influence and attempt to cook him with the hell-mark. They couldn’t defeat Knull, but they did get him to run away when he was sick of trying to fight them.

Extreme Carnage

Without any leads on Demagoblin, Andi tracked down Doppleganger to interrogate him. He had just escaped Alchemax, where he was being experimented on, and the Guardsmen were after him. While she switched her interrogation from Doppleganger to a Guardsman, she was interrupted by a newscast by Sen. Peter Krane. Scream sensed that Carnage was possessing Krane, and his influence became too much for her. She was connected to the symbiote hivemind, and Carnage took over and took Andi for a ride. She has no choice but to burn the symbiote with her hell-mark, freeing her not only from Carnage but Scream too. This leaves her vulnerable to be apprehended by the Guardsmen.

While locked up at Alchemax, Andi got the attention of a couple people. One was Bullet, now Krane’s personal security, who had bonded to Phage. The other was Flash Thompson as Anti-Venom, her old friend she didn’t know was back from the dead. Flash was too late though, Phage stabbed her through the chest. Flash brought her body to Doctor Steven. According to him, there wasn’t enough of Scream to save, but he was able to splice the Scream symbiote with Flash’s Anti-Venom symbiote, creating a new symbiote called Silence. Andi bonded to this new symbiote, saving her life.

As Silence, Andi had some new abilities. She was able to kill Phage’s host, forcing Phage to flee, but briefly disconnecting them from the hive-mind. She was also able to connect to Toxin's void, thus inviting Toxin and his new host, Bren, to join Flash's mission.

When Flash's friend, Hank, who got a job with the Krane campaign, told them about a counter-demonstration to the President's memorial for the victims of Knull, they believed Carnage was planning to assassinate the President. However, Carnage's actual target was Peter Krane, his presumed host, since Carnage was actually bonded to Arthur Krane, Peter's son. When Andi and her new team is joined by Sleeper and Iron Man, they tried their best to contain Carnage and his siblings, but Carnage and Agony got away. With symbiotes still free and alien paranoia at an all time high, Andi vows to stick with Flash and Bren.

Death of the Venomverse

Andi was recruited by a multiversal Ann Weying, who was recruiting all sorts of heroic symbiote hosts to join The Resistance, to stand against the Carnage symbiote from Andi's homeworld. That Carnage had figured out how to steal metahuman powers and was travelling the multiverse increasing his strength. Ann had hoped that Andi's new hush abilities would have an affect on Carnage, however, the power he stole from Spot stopped her from touching him.

Despite not being their ace in the hole, Andi stayed with the team, especially after she saw a variant of Flash get killed. They eventually tracked Carnage to an Earth that was experiencing the invasion of Knull where Carnage hope to steal from the god of symbiotes. The Resistance fought Carnage the best they could, but it was no use. Ann ultimately triggered her dimensional travel device which sent everyone to their respective homes before Carnage could kill any more of them, thus Andi was sent home.

Character Profile

• Height: 5'8"
• Weight: 140 lbs
• Eye Color: Blue
• Hair Color: Black, dyed purple
• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Student
• Known Relatives: Mr. Benton (father, deceased), Mother (whereabouts unknown), Sarah (Aunt/Legal Guardian, deceased)
• Distinguishing Features: Multiple face piercings and a glowing pentagram symbol on her chest when using her demonic powers.

Powers

Mania Symbiote: As Mania, Andi had all the powers of Venom.

• Superhuman: Her strength, speed, and agility were all increased.
• Spider-Hero: She produced webs from the back of her hand to swing around the city and was capable of clinging to most surfaces. The symbiote could also stretch and transform into tendrils and various weapons temporarily.
• Immunity: While wearing the symbiote, she was immune to poison and toxins. She was also immune to Spider-Man's spider-sense
• Camouflage: The symbiote could change its color to match its surroundings. It can also take the shape of clothes.

Hell-Mark: The Hell-Mark made Andi eligible to be a Hell-Lord. If Mephisto was the one to descend to the role of Satan, Andi would inherit his current Hell.

• Teleportation: With the mark, Andi was able to open portals to hell. This allows her to physically teleport to and from hell.
• Demonic Magic: It also allows her to conjure hellfire, demonic armaments, and demon soldiers to use offensively. Her control of hellfire makes Andi immune to fire in general and allows her to make symbiotes immune to fire at her discretion.
• Demonic Form: She can also shapeshift into a demonic form with horns, claws, and goat-like legs.

Scream Symbiote: As the host of the Scream symbiote, Andi had all the same abilities as she did when hosting Mania.

• Prehensile Hair: Scream's hair could be moved and used for grasping.
• Shapeshift: has shown the ability to shapeshift animal features like wings and webbed appendages.

Silence Symbiote: As the host of the Silence symbiote, Andi presumably has all the same abilities as she did when hosting Scream, including the prehensile hair.

• Hush: Silence can infect her enemies with a piece of her symbiote causing frothing of the mouth and death by choking to the host, while disconnecting the symbiote from the hive-mind.

Variants

Venomverse

When the hostless Carnage symbiote of Earth-616 learns to steal superpowers at a cellular level and incorporate them into his own body, he travels the multiverse looking for symbiote hosts to steal from. He comes across a version of Andi who was still bonded to the Mania symbiote. Sensing her Hell-Mark, he targets her to steal control over hellfire. A variant of Ann Weying, bonded to a Venom symbiote, tries to recruit her to an all-Venom Resistance to stop Carnage, but she is too late. Andi is killed by Carnage, who steals her demonic powers.