WARNING: The following contains spoilers for King in Black: Scream #1 by Clay McLeod Chapman, Garry Brown, Rachelle Rosenberg and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
King in Black has shined a light on many dark new corners of the Marvel Universe, including on the nature of symbiotes themselves. While they all originate with Knull's living darkness, some of them are less fond of the shadows, namely Scream. Andi Benton and the titular symbiote she is bonded to are something far greater than the rest of their symbiote brethren, and she's just shown off even further incredible feats while continuing to outshine the opposition in King in Black: Scream #1.
When Knull's invasion began, Scream found herself facing off against her sibling symbiotes from the Life Foundation in order to save a child. This encounter also led to her direct introduction to the dark god of the symbiotes himself, who spoke to her through her merged brethren before burning them away with Hellfire. Since then, she hasn't stopped fighting through the darkness that has shrouded the world for the past week, all to hunt down Demagoblin, formerly known as the villain Shriek.
Demagoblin has been kidnapping and hypnotizing children in order to induct them into her cult. Scream catches up with Demagoblin easily enough, but fighting against her nemesis while bringing no harm to the villain's child army proves easier said than done, especially once Demagoblin sets the building on fire to make her own hasty exit. Stopping Demagoblin is the end goal for Scream, but that doesn't mean she can abandon the children left behind.
Scream adapts to the situation by taking on an insectoid form in seconds. The extra limbs prove to be exactly what she needed as Scream is able to hoist all of the kids to safety before the burning church collapses around them. It only takes a moment for Demagoblin's hypnosis to wear off, and Scream instructs the children to go to F.E.A.S.T. and ask May Parker for assistance. Before she can help them any further herself, Demagoblin makes one more appearance, attacking Scream from behind on her glider. The villain is certain that she has gained the upper hand now that the fight has been taken outside and to the skies, and she makes a point of taunting Scream while unleashing waves of pumpkin bombs from above. But much like Venom when he encountered his first symbiote dragon, Scream sprouts symbiote wings to take to the skies.
Plenty of symbiotes have shown transformative properties, including Scream's fellow Life Foundation symbiotes. Turng a symbiote into a blade or bludgeon is far different from shapeshifting into something barely resembling human, though.
Even in his most complex moments, Cletus Kasady has never strayed far from being a one-note serial killer, and it took a long time for Venom to evolve beyond a maniacal brute who only wanted to terrorize Spider-Man. Scream has already proven that she is one of the strongest symbiotes there is, and her latest showing has only made that distinction more certain.
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