Sleeper (Symbiote) (Earth-616)

Birth[]

The seventh spawn of the Venom symbiote, Sleeper was the result of an unusual and difficult pregnancy. Delivered by Doctor Steven at Alchemax's astrobiology laboratory, the infant symbiote narrowly avoided being captured by the Symbiote Task Force and bonded to the Scorpion. Worried that bonding to a host at such a young age would corrupt it into a monster like its siblings, the Venom symbiote and Eddie Brock opted to leave it in the care of Alchemax; stipulating that it could only be studied in a non-invasive fashion.^[4]

First Host[]

As Sleeper matured and began developing unique chemokinetic abilities, Alchemax CEO Liz Allan proposed harvesting its secretions to turn a profit, though Eddie and Venom refused the offer and threatened to take action against Alchemax if Liz did so.^[5] When the Venom symbiote refused to return to its original host, the Kree soldier Tel-Kar, he took the Sleeper symbiote hostage and threatened to bond with and corrupt it unless it complied.^[6] Angered by the loss of its parent, the Sleeper symbiote used its pheromone manipulation abilities to interject into Eddie's thoughts and proposed bonding to him in order to save Venom. While Eddie was initially reluctant to do so, Sleeper broke free of its container and bonded to him, accompanying the Skrull Warbride M'lanz into space to track down Tel-Kar.^[7]

Insulted by M'lanz questioning its abilities, Sleeper knocked her out and - upon observing Tel-Kar had unleashed the bio-weapon on the Skrull space station it was contained within; set out without her. Tel-Kar attempted to immolate Sleeper, but the symbiote used its superior invisibility to catch him off-guard. Incapacitated, the Sleeper symbiote interfaced with its progenitor, who broke free of Tel-Kar's control. When Tel-Kar punctured M'lanz's hazmat suit to expose her to the bio-weapon, the Sleeper symbiote left Eddie to plug the hole.^[1] Temporarily bonding to M'lanz, the Sleeper symbiote returned to Earth while the Kree armada arrived and destroyed the facility. When Tel-Kar escaped and tried to kill Eddie and the Venom symbiote, the Sleeper symbiote bonded to and lobotomized him as revenge for what he had done to the Venom symbiote. Despite Eddie being dismayed by this, Sleeper bid him farewell and set out to explore the cosmos, using Tel-Kar's mindless body as a puppet host.^[8]

Absolute Carnage[]

At some point during its travels, Sleeper killed an alien monster as a planetary king asked. When the king asked Tel-Kar to reveal himself, it revealed his putrefied face. The royal guards attacked him, leaving Tel-Kar to perish as he was shoot by one of them. Ever since, Sleeper puppeted his desiccated corpse,^[9] eventually being drawn to Klyntar and learned of the existence of Knull, who tried to assimilate it into his dark hive-mind. Escaping, Sleeper realized that Eddie was in danger and returned to Earth as quickly as it could.^[3]

Arriving on Earth, Sleeper protected Eddie's son Dylan and Normie Osborn from the Phage symbiote -- who alongside its siblings Riot, Agony, and Lasher had been corrupted by Knull and were serving Carnage; who had bonded to a piece of the primordial Grendel symbiote and was seeking to free Knull.^[10] It tried to transfer to Dylan, but was subdued and captured by the Maker, who decided to kill it alongside is siblings despite Dylan's protests. When Dylan unleashed the Life Foundation symbiotes in an attempt to stop him, Sleeper was left trapped and powerless to help as the Life Foundation symbiotes merged into Hybrid and took over the Maker.^[3]

Upon the arrival of Captain America, Thing, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Bruce Banner, Dylan freed Sleeper from containment. The symbiote attempted to bond to him, but was repelled by Dylan's symbiote powers. Dylan forcibly seized control of Sleeper and shaped it into a wolf, siccing it on Hybrid. Controlled by Dylan, Sleeper doused Hybrid in napalm, which was set ablaze to Hawkeye. After the battle Sleeper berated Dylan for forcing it to do things against its will, but was called out on its hypocrisy for having done so to Tel-Kar. Reconciling, Sleeper asked why Dylan had chosen the form of a wolf before shaping itself into the form of a cat.^[11][12] After Carnage and his forces ambushed the heroes at the warehouse, Sleeper, along with the other heroes, fought them, while Eddie who had bonded to a symbiote formed from the extracted codices, fought Carnage.^[13] Afterwards, Sleeper in its cat form, begun living with Eddie and Dylan in Liz's home.^[14]

After Eddie went to Isla de Huesos to keep Carnage away from his loved ones,^[14] Dylan began succumbing to influence of Knull, and used his powers to hide from Sleeper the piece of the Carnage offshoot that he got. When an enraged Dylan lunged at Normie during an argument, they went through the window, causing Sleeper to go save them and discover Dylan's secret. He wanted absorb the piece in order to keep the children safe, but Dylan convinced him to keep the symbiote piece and promised to tell Eddie.^[9]

Sleeper then assisted Dylan in using his powers on the Carnage offshoot in order to better understand them and find a way to defeat Knull,^[15] as Dylan began to unintentionally inflict pain to the offshoot, Sleeper also felt the pain until he turned it into a portal.^[16] Dylan went on to possess the Venom symbiote during the fight between Eddie and Carnage and was eventually thrown out of the portal where Sleeper caught him, but began burning from Dylan's influence before he ripped the offshoot off him.^[17]

Extreme Carnage[]

After Knull's defeat, Sleeper went to live with Eddie and Dylan in a house that Tony Stark bought in appreciation for saving the world.^[18]

Flash Thompson later contacted Sleeper for help after Cletus Kasady returned and started piloting the Dark Carnage Symbiote through the Hive-Mind in order to get people to follow the Friends of Humanity in a campaign against the symbiotes and other aliens. He sent Sleeper to bond with his friend Hank Hensley while he was playing double agent for him so that he wouldn't be without backup in case something happened. After Hank's cover was blown, Carnage (revealed to be Arthur Krane) stabbed Hank and left him for dead but Sleeper saved him and attacked his brother Riot in the process.

While Hank's body was unconscious, Sleeper piloted it to the stadium where Carnage's Hive was reeking havoc and helped the heroes contain some of the Life Foundation symbiotes, though Carnage and Agony managed to get away. After Hank woke up and went to the hospital, Sleeper presumably stayed in him, though he was still unaware of having a symbiote inside of him as Flash never told him.^[19]

The Absent Throne[]

Sleeper later left Hank and returned to live with Eddie and Dylan, leaving a piece of itself inside him as a contingency plan.^[20] After another Eddie arrived on their house, with his father's instructions, Dylan and Sleeper left it and went to visit Eddie on a motel. It was destroyed by the Absent Throne, whose henchmen Dylan slaughtered with the help of Venom.^[21] After escaping the scene, they were targeted by another organization, Life-Foundation, whose agents Sleeper helped Venom to defeat.^[22] After meeting an old colleague of Eddie, Archer Lyle, she revealed to them her investigation on Absent Throne, an organization pulling the strings of corporations and politicians. Dylan and Sleeper followed Archer on investigating a research facility in Plymouth while leaving the Venom symbiote behind, but this turned out to be a trap set up by Alchemax CEO Liz Allan, whom Archer was working with, to capture Dylan and Sleeper.^[23]

Fortunately, Sleeper had left some pheromones behind at the place where they left Venom, which allowed him to release a pheromonal distress signal to its father.^[24] After being rescued by the Venom symbiote from the facility, the three started to live at the Renegades Bar on Baywater, where Dylan started to work for Jake Yahkin to earn his keep. One night they saw that a violent rival gang called the Hell Hounds started a rampage through Baywater.^[25] When Venom started to fight the Hell Hounds biker gang, Sleeper told Dylan that the Life Foundation operative known as Spearhead was getting closer. Sleeper said that it would keep the Life Foundation's forces occupied and meet up with Dylan later.^[26] With Dylan dying and captured by the Life Foundation, Sleeper escaped and tracked down Archer, recruiting her into helping rescue him while also activating the piece of itself bonded to Hank - who it had compelled to join the Life Foundation as a security guard.^[20] Arriving at the Life Foundation Medical Research Hub, Sleeper fought Spearhead and retrieved Dylan's body, which Sleeper later rebonded to Venom in order to save the boy's life, who took the form of Codex.^[27]

Recovering, Dylan explained to Sleeper and Archer his nature as a Human-Symbiote Hybrid and the effect he had on symbiotes. He then proceeded to manifest All-Black and stabbed Sleeper with it, severing it from the Symbiote Hive-Mind and as a result freeing it from the influence of the King in Black.^[28] Sleeper later assisted in rescuing the host of Toxin, Bren Waters, who had been kidnapped by the terrorist group Noname due to him being the son of Alchemax employee.^[29]

Venom War[]

Some time later, Sleeper and Dylan's allies, Toxin, Normie Osborn with Rascal, and Flexo, saw that Eddie had returned with a team of his temporal counterparts, and went to confront them in the Grand Garden Arena. They were able to break inside the building thanks to Sleeper engulfing Dylan's team and using its invisibility power to bypass law enforcement.^[30] After Eddie bonded to Bedlam and devoured his other temporal counterparts, Sleeper and Flexo merged together and bonded to Dylan. Refusing to fight his son, Eddie separated from Bedlam, but in that moment Flexo used Dylan to mortally wound Brock by shooting with bullets that trapped his consciousness in his wounded body. Sleeper attempted to stop Flexo to no avail, prompting the robotic symbiote to rip it off Dylan and throw it aside, grievously injuring it.^[31]

Sleeper slowly reformed itself as Toxin tended to it, leaving unable to participate anymore in the battle. Sleeper was forced to stand aside as the Zombiotes and their master Meridius, Eddie's evil self from an alternate future, broke inside and attacked the Brocks and their allies. Fortunately, Meridius and his Zombiotes were defeated, but both Eddie and the Venom symbiote were lost, leaving Sleeper and Dylan to be escorted out by Alchemax.^[32]

Iterations and Offshoots[]

• Hank Hensley's Offshoot: After Carnage's escape, Sleeper decided to return to the Brocks but left a piece of itself in Hank Hensley as a precaution in case Carnage returned, using it to influence Hank's actions. When the Life Foundation attacked it and Dylan, Sleeper compelled Hank to join the organization as a security guard, and later activated him to help rescue Dylan as the Sleeper Agent.^[20]

Despite its young age, the Sleeper symbiote has developed a smug personality, boasting of its superiority and describing itself as confident due to having been nurtured by its parent and raised by Dr. Steven, who it calls a genius with great taste in music. While it's quick to anger and easily offended when its capabilities are questioned, it cares deeply about its parent and abandons Eddie to save M'lanz's life.^[1] After being raised in closed doors, Sleeper wanted to explore the world and headed off to do some heroic work on space as soon as it could.^[8] Though Sleeper still had an attachment to both Eddie and Venom, as it returned to Earth when it sensed that they were in danger due to the presence of Knull.^[3]

Sleeper has a special connection with Dylan Brock, the son of Eddie Brock, taking care of him when needed.^[3][17] He also talked to him and stayed by his side when both Eddie and Venom left Dylan alone for weeks.^[21] Sleeper encouraged Dylan to be a hero when he was bonded with the Venom symbiote, and protected both of them from the Life Foundation.^[26] After Dylan was captured by the Life Foundation, the symbiote went to extreme lengths to save him, even threatening to kill Spearhead if they went after Dylan again.^[27]

Symbiote Biology: Sleeper can amplify the physical characteristics of its host when bonded to it, it can also grant it the ability to produce chemicals although this is limited to Sleeper alone.^[7] Even without a host it can manifest a human form or any other.^[11]

• Superhuman Strength
• Superhuman Durability
• Superhuman Stamina
• Regenerative Healing Factor
• Genetic Memory
• Wall-Crawling
• Constituent-Matter Generation
  • Offshoot Generation: Sleeper is capable of being separated into offshoot symbiotes that can be bonded to other hosts while being remotely piloted by the main one.^[20] It can also use self-assembling, remote-resonant ectoplasm to create a working copy of itself while doing another thing on the sidelines.^[27]
• Constituent-Matter Manipulation
• Webbing Generation^[9]
• Camouflage Capabilities: Like many symbiotes, the Sleeper symbiote can shift its physiological semblance into a host of different shapes and forms i.e. mimicking forms of clothing, camouflaging with its surroundings, emulating other people's visages, etc. What makes this particular Symbiote unique is its ability to manipulate ambient light in order to become invisible. This in conjunction with using its hormone abilities enables it to confuse the sensory systems of others, thereby making it the perfect stalker.^[1]
• Augmented Visual Senses: The Sleeper symbiote was capable of seeing M'lanz's ship, despite it being cloaked and invisible to both the naked eye and human technology.^[7]
• Chemokinesis: As a result of its unique biology, the Sleeper symbiote is capable of producing liquid and aerosol chemicals with a variety of effects - including inducing various emotional states, tranquilizing targets, psychological manipulation, and secreting corrosive chemicals for offensive purposes. This also affords it a form of telepathy, using pheromones to interject its thoughts into others' minds.^[7] This also grants it a superior cloaking ability to other symbiotes, generating pheromones to almost-completely mask its presence.^[1] It is also capable of using chemokinesis as a means of rocket propulsion, enabling it to traverse space,^[3] and produce acid.^[9]

Sonic and Heat: Like most symbiotes, he is vulnerable to sound and fire, leaving him unable to use his powers.^[8][3] Though Sleeper is capable of creating some chemicals to prevent said weaknesses from reaching him.^[27]

In addition to fangs and claws, the Sleeper symbiote is able to utilize its chemical secretions to incapacitate opponents in a variety of manners.

• Unlike the rest of its family, Sleeper doesn't have its eyes shaped as the eyes from Spider-Man's Suit.

• Carlton Drake claimed to have extracted all of the seeds from the Venom symbiote.^[33] As a result, Sleeper's birth left Eddie Brock confused, and Dr. Steven speculated on various stimuli that could have induced another pregnancy.
• According to the Maker's theory regarding symbiotes spawning, the Sleeper symbiote was spawned in response to the threat posed by the Grendel symbiote awakening.^[34]