Frances Barrison (Earth-616)

Early Life[]

During her childhood, Frances Barrison was abused by her mother for being overweight, driving her to drugs and leading to her later fixation on becoming a mother herself.^[7]

Barrison became a drug dealer, which exposed her to situations that ultimately damaged her sanity; namely, being shot in the head by a police officer, and exposure to the Darkforce Dimension via Cloak's containment.^[8]

Maximum Carnage[]

During Carnage's violent escape from the Ravencroft Institute, he came across Shriek, who was also incarcerated and wished to join him. He freed her, and the pair embarked on a killing spree. They attracted the company of several other homicidal supervillains: Demogoblin, Doppelganger, and Carrion; and formed a "family" with Carnage and Shriek as the "parents" and the others as their "sons". Shriek also used her psychic powers to increase the chaos by causing several New Yorkers to violently turn on one another, although some heroes were able to calm the people down before they did anything too serious, such as killing their children. The killers fought a number of heroes, led by Spider-Man, but succumbed to in-fighting. Carnage slew the Doppelganger and left the others to their defeat and capture, although he was subsequently contained by the Avengers after a clash with Spider-Man, Venom, and Black Cat.^{[9][citation needed]}

Shriek was returned to the Ravencroft Institute, and attempted to escape twice. Once, alongside the vigilante Mayhem and a handful of other inmates, she was defeated by Spider-Man and John Jameson before they managed to escape.^[10] The second time, she and Carrion escaped and tried to become a family. In the end, she absorbed the Carrion Virus into herself to release her "son" from his suffering.^[11] She was returned to Ravencroft, where the virus (which she had been treating like an unborn child) was taken from her by the Jackal.^[12]

Scorn[]

After not being seen for a long time, she turned up at the Bar with No Name. At the Bar, several super-villains were betting on what was in a chrysalis recently formed. This chrysalis happened to be a homeless man nicknamed Freak after he had visited Dr. Curtis Connors' laboratory and injected himself with one of Connors' experiments.^[13]

After Carnage was returned to Earth by Hall Industries, the company purchased Ravencroft with the intention of using Shriek (who had been responding well to the treatment being administered to her by Dr. Tanis Nieves) as a power source for the Carnage symbiote, which had been separated from Cletus Kasady. Shriek was brought to Hall Industries, where exposure to the Carnage symbiote, coupled with her witnessing guards beating Doppelganger (who had been attempting to rescue her) caused her to snap, and return to homicidal mania. After Cletus reunited with his symbiote, Shriek and Doppelganger aided him in causing chaos throughout New York City, with Shriek gaining additional powers from another symbiote that Carnage had spawned. Growing fearful of Shriek, the symbiote left her in favor of Nieves, its initial host, to create Scorn, who forced Shriek to use her powers to weaken Carnage, allowing Spider-Man and Iron Man to defeat him. In the aftermath, Shriek was put in a coma, Scorn having done some unspecified damage to her brain.^[14]

After she recovered, Shriek was recruited by Caroline Le Fay to join the Doom Maidens to battle the Defenders.^[15]

Carnage vs. Deadpool[]

Shriek reunited with Carnage and was forced to save him from Deadpool in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was during the ensuing car chase that they crashed, injuring Shriek. Enraged by this, Carnage attacked Deadpool, throwing him a great distance. Carnage took Shriek to recover at the Mercury Team's base, where Deadpool's craziness caused him to question his own sanity. They later broke into a psychiatric hospital, where they forced the patients and staff to answer questions on nihilism. After Deadpool obtained the merged form of the Mercury Team's symbiotes, he used his new shapeshifting abilities to attack Shriek. Following a skirmish with Carnage, Deadpool captured Shriek, used his symbiotes to disguise her as himself, and tricked Carnage into attacking her; this caused Carnage to suffer a mental breakdown, and, as a result, he willingly handed himself over to the authorities.^[16]

Following Exploits[]

Shriek recovered and joined the Sinister Sixteen created by Boomerang.^[17] After their defeat they were abandoned by Boomerang. They plotted their revenge at the Bar with No Name. They were however easily defeated by the Boomerang's new allies: Speed Demon, Beetle, and Overdrive.^[18]

Shriek teamed up with Griffin, Gibbon, and Ruby Thursday to attack a police station. The team was however defeated by Spider-Woman's new apprentice, the reformed criminal Porcupine.^[19]

Detroit-based supervillain Nain Rouge hired Shriek and a new Firebrand to be his enforcers, bringing them into conflict with the Great Lakes Avengers.^[20]

Shriek later appeared as a secret ally to Kraven the Hunter at the time he was leading the NYPD's SWAT Team into hunting the human-dinosaur hybrids living beneath New York City. She made herself known where she used her sonic attack on Venom and then collapsed the ceiling on him much to Kraven's annoyance. Shriek stated to Kraven that he can have the head of Eddie Brock after their mission.^[21]

Absolute Carnage[]

Recruited by Carnage into the Cult of Knull, Shriek resumed her Sandra Deel persona and served as the cult's public face during their takeover of Doverton, Colorado. After an altercation with John Jameson, Shriek assisted Carnage and the Doppelganger in sacrificing the citizens of Doverton to Knull, claiming their codices.^[3]

After Carnage's takeover of the Ravencroft Institute, Shriek offered herself as a sacrifice to revive Demogoblin, allowing Carnage to rip out her spine to claim her codex of the Scorn symbiote. Her corpse was subsequently possessed by the Demogoblin, who changed its name to "Demagoblin" to commemorate having a female host.^[5]

Venom War[]

In need of a safety measure to use against the symbiotes they were experimenting on, the revitalized Life Foundation regrew Shriek in their laboratories due to her sonic powers, and kept her in stasis inside a tank for when she would be needed. When the Zombiotes of Alchemax began to spread across New York City, Liz Allan, C.E.O. of Alchemax, hired the international mercenary organization known as the Wild Pack, who she equipped with the original Life Foundation symbiotes, to secure the tank containing Shriek for her. During an altercation with the Zombiotes, Shriek was accidentally released from the tank, but Tarantula was able to subdue her.^[22]

Shriek is a mutant^[4] who possess the following powers:

• Sonic Beam: Shriek can generate sound waves, that she can utilize in the form of blasts, with which she can fly and damage her enemies. These sound waves can propagate in the dimension of Cloak, causing it great damage.^{[citation needed]}
• Dark Empathy: She can bring to light the dark side in people. During Maximum Carnage, she used this power to cause the city to go mad, causing, for example, a woman who would like to kill her children, a man raping a girl, and acts of anger, vandalism, and general mayhem. Her left eye shines as she uses this power.^{[citation needed]}
  • Emotion Inducement: She can induce fear, hatred, and despair.^[23]
• Telekinesis: She is capable of psionically levitating objects and people.^{[citation needed]}

She is vulnerable to mental assaults by psychics.^{[citation needed]}

She is propelled by the air directing their sonic bolts to the ground.^{[citation needed]}

• She likes heavy metal.^{[citation needed]}
• Her diamond mark may be a parody of the Czarnian alien race from DC Comics, of which Lobo is a member.