Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)

History

Early Life

One of a fleet of dragon-shaped symbiote-conglomerates under the control of Knull, Grendel and its brethren travelled the cosmos devouring entire civilizations.^[3][2]

Viking Age

It attacked Earth in the early medieval period, devouring several Norse soldiers before being blasted by Thor's divine lightning and trapped inside a glacier,^[4][2] forming the basis of the legend of Beowulf slaying a dragon.^[5] Ancient carvings indicate that pieces of the Grendel fell to earth after its defeat and bonded to human hosts, founding a secret apocalyptic cult dedicated to the worship of Knull and the symbiotes.^[1]

Vietnam War

In late April of 1966, the Grendel's frozen body was discovered by S.H.I.E.L.D.,^[6] who excavated it and used samples of its living abyss to create a symbiote super-soldier program.^[3] Upon realizing it was still alive, S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately began searching for a way to kill it, subjecting it to torturous experiments. However, they were unsuccessful, and these efforts only sent its enraged offshoots on a killing spree in Vietnam.^[6]

Modern Age

Following the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D.,^[4] the Grendel was awakened by Knull and started wreaking havoc in New York, reclaiming all but one of its offshoots. It was subdued by Venom and Spider-Man until Knull used its living abyss to manifest an avatar.^[7] Knocking Miles unconscious, Knull reformed the Grendel around himself, Spider-Man, and Eddie Brock - distracting the latter by telling him the history of the symbiotes - and flew into space, intent on recovering its missing piece and using it to free himself from Klyntar.^[2]

After Venom merged with the Grendel's missing piece, the Tyrannosaurus symbiote called out to Knull, who attacked Rex's base. Despite the Grendel symbiote being destabilized using the Jury's sonic grenades, Knull's manifestation managed to rip the Venom and Tyrannosaurus symbiotes from Eddie and tried to assimilate them, but Eddie detonated all the sonic grenades at once. With Knull's manifestation weakened by the resulting explosion, the Tyrannosaurus symbiote was able to rebel and drag him into the blast furnace; sacrificing itself to immolate the Grendel symbiote -- seemingly killing Knull in the process.^[8] However, the Grendel symbiote survived and its remaining biomass was harvested by The Maker's organization, Project Oversight, before being stolen from his lab by the symbiote-worshipping cult.^[9]

The cult's leader, Scorn, bonded the remnants of the Grendel symbiote to Cletus Kasady in hopes that Knull would be able to use him as an avatar, causing him to take on an appearance identical to Venom and the Sym-Soldiers' berserk forms. However, the connection was severed when the Grendel symbiote assimilated the codex - trace remnants of symbiote matter left in former hosts - that the Carnage symbiote had left in Scorn; causing it to take on the Carnage symbiote's appearance. Carnage decided to free Knull, and was told that in order to do so he would have to consume the codexes of all the other symbiotes, thereby making the Grendel symbiote complete.^[1]

In order to accrue an army of minions, Carnage began infecting homeless people and animals with pieces of his symbiote, making them subservient to him; and sent his minions to locate those who had bonded to symbiotes.^[10] While harvesting the codexes of Doverton, Carnage bonded offshoots symbiote to Eric Morell and John Jameson, killing the former to harvest its codex.^[11] Returning to New York, Carnage used the symbiote to impersonate Eddie Brock in order to discredit him and get close to Lee Price, ripping the Mania symbiote out of him and absorbing it into the Grendel symbiote.^[12]

Personality

Like most corrupt symbiotes, Grendel is a bloodthirsty predator and is responsible for the destruction of entire civilizations.^[3][6]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Like other Klyntar, Grendel is capable of manifesting tendrils from its biomass, using them to attack prey.^[4] Its biomass is capable of being separated into individual symbiotes that can be bonded to hosts.^[6] When bonded to Cletus Kasady, it can embed "brain worms" of symbiote matter into targets to control them.^[10]

Weaknesses

Unlike most symbiotes, Grendel is not vulnerable to intense heat or sonics. However, it was incapacitated by Thor's divine lightning and Miles Morales' Venom Blast, causing it to temporarily destabilize and unravel into an amorphous mass.^[13] Venom was able to use sonic grenades to incapacitate it, and Tyrannosaurus attempted to immolate it using a steel-smelting blast furnace described as feeling like touching the sun.^[8]

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Due to having manifesting a draconic shape, Grendel is capable of interstellar flight.

Weapons

Grendel uses its fanged jaws, talons, wings, and tendrils as weapons.

Links and References

• Appearances of Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)
• Minor Appearances of Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)
• Media Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616) was Mentioned in
• Images featuring Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)
• Quotations by or about Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)

Footnotes