Height:
6'4"Weight: 250 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White
TEL-KAR
Real Name: Tel-Kar
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Kree) bonded to Klyntar symbiotes
Occupation: Meat puppet;
former fugitive, Skrull soldier (infiltrator), Kree
undercover operative, Kree soldier
Group Membership: Formerly Kree military (Lesser Magellanic Special Tactics Division, Fleet of the Third Spiral Arm), Skrull military (infiltrator)
Affiliations: Sleeper (symbiote)
formerly the Venom symbiote
Enemies: Liz Allan, D'lutz, M'lanz, Venom (Eddie
Brock) (see comments);
enemies of Sleeper while Tel-Kar was alive within
him: LaMarche "demon"
enemies of Sleeper while Tel-Kar
was within him but dead: Maker (Reed Richards of
Earth-1610), Phage
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Sleeper (albeit only while a mindless
husk possessed by same);
impersonated M'lanz
"Papa Smurf" (insult used by
Liz Allan)
Base of Operations: Mobile across the cosmos
First Appearance: Venom: First Host#1 (October, 2018)
Powers/Abilities: Tel-Kar was a skilled
combatant, proficient with firearms, unarmed combat and various bladed
weapons. Like all Kree, he was naturally stronger than humans, and was
himself an above average physical specimen even among his own people. He
was a capable interstellar pilot.
When bonded with his original symbiote,
before it met and copied Spider-Man's powers, his
strength, agility, durability and endurance were all boosted to
unspecified levels. He could also extend the symbiote to integrate with
technology, such as spaceship navigation systems, allowing him to
operate the vessels as extensions of his own body. He could use its
shapeshifting abilities to not only form the appearance of different
clothing and even armor, but to impersonate individuals of at least
vaguely similar height and build. He could also extend tendrils from the
symbiote to impale people, and was adept enough at this that he could
keep an impaled victim alive while probing their mind to extract
information or puppet their bodies. Tel-Kar also extruded weapons such
as swords from the symbiote.
When re-bonded with his original symbiote,
after it had become part of Venom, he gained access to its newer
abilities that it had accumulated in his absence, such as generating
webbing.
When bonded with Sleeper, his strength,
agility, durability and endurance were all boosted to unspecified
levels. Sleeper possessed chemokinesis, allowing it to generate various
chemicals within its body, such as highly corrosive Badoon acid it could
spray a few feet or noxious Brood pheromones that caused disorientation
in some humanoids. The symbiote could fly, apparently generating some
unspecified combustible chemicals to power rockets it could grow from
its back; he seemed capable of flying at interstellar speeds, and could
survive in the vacuum and radiation of space. Sleeper could also see
cloaked spaceships invisible to radar, and had advanced camouflage
powers, allowing it to become effectively invisible.
Height:
6'4"
Weight: 250 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White
History:
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) - BTS) - Tel-Kar was a soldier in the Kree
military.
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) - BTS) - When
the Kree-Skrull War reignited (see comments),...
(Venom: First Host#2 (fb) - BTS) - Tel-Kar was selected from a pool of hundreds of recruits...
(Venom: First Host#5 (fb) - BTS) - ...to join
the Lesser Megellanic (sic) Special Tactics Division...
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) - BTS) - ...and
bond with a recently discovered species of alien symbiote which could
reshape its outward appearance according to his desires.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) - BTS) - He underwent
experimental procedures, including intensive training and gene
therapies, to make him a more perfect host. His body and mind were
modified to more fully integrate with the symbiote. Implants altered his
body chemistry to make the symbiote more reliant on him, while he was
physically trained to be immune to the symbiote's psychoactive effects
and psychologically trained to manipulate its memories, so it would only
remember things as and when he wanted it to.
(Venom: First Host#2 (fb) ) - Tel-Kar was exposed to the symbiote for the first time.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) - BTS) - Wearing the symbiote gave him a sense of mass
and strength that he swiftly became accustomed to, while its mental
presence was a single sustained note in the back of his mind that he
could tune in and out of with subtle grace.
(Venom IV#18 (fb) - BTS) - Like everyone who bonded to a
symbiote, the process attached a symbiote codex to his DNA.
(Venom: First Host#2 (fb) ) - He adopted the appearance of a
Skrull...
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) - BTS) - ...and was sent undercover to infiltrate the Kree's enemies. In case he was captured, a cover story was concocted, and the other soldiers serving with him were told he had deserted, fleeing the war.
(Web of Venom: The Good Son#1/2 (fb) ) - His natural fighting talents boosted by the symbiote, Tel-Kar slaughtered Skrulls whenever he dropped his disguise.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) ) - The Skrulls came to consider Tel-Kar one of the "great terrors" of the war, as he sabotaged missions, uncovered classified intelligence and performed assassinations during his months undercover within their ranks.
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) - BTS / Venom: First Host#2 (fb) )
- In the early days of the revived conflict he joined a Skrull
unit led by D'lutz, staying with them several years.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) ) -Tel-Kar learned
of a secret Skrull research facility that was developing weapons of
last resort, including a plague so devastating that the Skrull rulers
had decided never to release it. Programmable to target specific DNA
or species, the extremely contagious plague had no known immunity nor
cure, ensuring that once unleashed it wouldn't stop until the entire
target species was dead.
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) -
BTS) - Tel-Kar knew he had to report this back to his
Kree superiors, even if it meant sacrificing his cover. As the team flew
back to the Skrull Throneworld, they detected a Kree refugee ship.
(Venom:
First Host#1 (fb) ) - Bloodthirstily deciding his
team deserved some R&R killing unarmed civilians, D'lutz diverted to
first fire upon and disable, and then board the transport. The Skrulls
split up to search the vessel, with Tel-Kar joining D'lutz and two
others who soon came upon a group of terrified passengers. Watching
D'lutz reject the refugees' pleas for mercy, Tel-Kar decided he would not
kill fellow Kree to maintain a cover he would soon abandon anyway, and
as D'lutz gloatingly told his helpless targets they should have armed
themselves, Tel-Kar gunned down his Skrull squad-mates. Last to die,
D'lutz only had seconds to query Tel-Kar's actions before being shot in
the face, with Tel-Kar responding to D'lutz's earlier remark, noting
that he had armed himself.
As the confused refugees watched,
Tel-Kar's symbiote morphed from its Skrull facade into a helmeted Kree
uniform; one of the refugees, a Kree officer, tentatively asked who he
was, and Tel-Kar reassured him that the refugees were safe and that he
was, in fact, Kree like them. His helmet melted away to reveal his true
face, and he instructed them to quickly get to the escape vessels and
contact Hala, as more Skrulls were behind him, adding that his cover was
now blown as the new arrivals would see recordings of what he had done.
As he moved closer to the refugees the officer recognized Tel-Kar with
surprise, noting that they had shared the same barracks. Leading the
refugees in their evacuation, Tel-Kar explained about his cover story
and that he had really been spying on the Skrull, and when the officer
expressed surprise that he had thrown away a cover maintained for years
in order to save them. Pausing, Tel-Kar looked at him, and simply stated
"I will not kill Kree."
Halting the group following as they
approached a junction so that he could check if it was safe to proceed,
Tel-Kar added that his mission was over anyway, as he needed to report
what the Skrulls had discovered...but before he could finish his
explanation, a much larger squad of Skrulls rounded the corner. As
they began shooting, Tel-Kar returned fire, leaping above the Skrull
blasts to rain death upon them. The refugees fled down the corridor with
Tel-Kar taking the rear, continuing to fire upon the pursuing Skrulls
until they made it through a heavy door which Tel-Kar sealed off.
Informing the officer that the door would not stop them, Tel-Kar ordered
him to get everyone else off the ship while he stayed behind to keep the
Skrulls distracted. Turning away from the officer, Tel-Kar then ordered
his symbiote to go with them too as he didn't want them both captured,
instructing it not to argue and promising that they would be reunited on
Hala. Still unaware the costume was sentient, the officer asked if
Tel-Kar was addressing these instructions to him, but Tel-Kar stated he
wasn't as the symbiote poured off Tel-Kar's body, becoming a black
sphere in its now-naked hosts' hands.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) - BTS) - As he divested himself
of the symbiote, he hid most of what he had learned about the Skrull
research facility, as well as other secrets, within its memories,
erasing them from his own mind so the Skrulls would not be able to
torture them out of him. He also locked away the symbiote's memories of
being with him, ensuring any future host would not learn his secrets
before he could reclaim his symbiote. However, he retained knowledge
that the Skrulls possessed a plague, holding on to this in order to
motivate him to eventually regain his symbiote and thus learn its location
again.
(Venom: First Host#1 (fb) ) - Tel-Kar handed the symbiote to the officer, telling
him to deliver it to an admiral once he reached Hala. The shocked
officer asked what Tel-Kar would do, and he reiterated his intention to
hold the Skrulls off while the refugees escaped. Incredulous, the
officer stated that Tel-Kar couldn't take on the Skrulls naked,
prompting Tel-Kar to grin and insist he wasn't naked, as he had his
blasters.
(Venom:
First Host#3 (fb) ) - Tel-Kar tried to destroy the ship, presumably
intending to die rather than be captured, but a trio of Skrull Warbrides
led by M'lanz captured him before he could do so, though he put up a
valiant fight. The Skrulls held him captive for years, alternating
between periods of isolation and enhanced interrogation in an effort to
break him.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) - BTS) - During his captivity
Tel-Kar swore to his captors that were he ever to escape, he would loose
their own plague on them.
(Venom: First Host#3 (fb) ) - The Skrulls learned all they could about his infiltration, including the experiments he had undergone to make him a more perfect host and how they might prevent another from infiltrating their ranks with such ease. They thought they had learned all Tel-Kar knew, but even after all this he was merely waiting for an opportunity. When the security protocols were finally lessened, he struck, slaying many Skrulls including two of M'lanz's War Sisters in his escape.
(Venom: First Host#5 (fb) ) - Tel-Kar returned to Kree space, but found himself declared a traitor.
(Venom: First Host#2 (fb) ) - Captured
by a Sentry, he was brought in chains before an Accuser and traded
back to the Skrulls, who still wanted to punish him further as they
deemed him a war criminal. After more years imprisoned, he again
escaped.
(Venom: First Host#2 (fb) ) - After escaping, Tel-Kar fled across the galaxy, until he heard of the exploits of Venom across a variety of worlds. Recognizing that it was someone wearing his old symbiote, he headed for Earth.
(Venom:
First Host#1) - Tel-Kar found his symbiote just as M'lanz had stunned
its current host, Eddie Brock, and was standing over it, her back to
him, about to deliver a killing blow to the creature. Seizing a nearby
manhole cover, Tel-Kar threw it at her, striking the back of her head.
Turning, she recognized him with incredulous shock, as he warned her
to get away from his symbiote.
(Venom: First Host#2) - Using a trash can
lid to block the strikes from M'lanz's power axe, Tel-Kar
battled his Skrull nemesis, holding his own long enough for Brock and
the symbiote to recover. M'lanz's axe finally sliced
through Tel-Kar's impromptu shield, knocking him to the ground, and
she leapt above him, intending to deliver a final strike and berating
Tel-Kar for his foolish loyalty in coming to save his symbiote when he
could have gotten away cleanly. Before M'lanz could land,
however, Venom snatched her in mid-air and threw her into an
electrical junction box. Mistakenly assuming that had ended the fight,
Venom turned and demanded Tel-Kar explain who he was, disregarding
Tel-Kar's warning to fight first and get his answers later.
M'lanz struck Venom from behind with a cable ripped from the junction, electrocuting him, but as she moved to do the same to Tel-Kar, he struck it from her hand with the axe she had dropped. Menacing her with her own stolen weapon, he declared that the Skrulls would pay for their crimes, adding that she should not have followed him to Earth. However, with his attention focused on her face, Tel-Kar failed to notice M'lanz using her shapeshifting powers to stretch her arm and retrieve the power cable. She electrocuted him, but he was snatched from her by webbing and yanked atop an adjacent building by Venom, who had retreated there while the two aliens were distracted by one another. While Tel-Kar caught his breath, Venom emptied a water tower on M'lanz; still holding the cable, she was shocked and washed away. Tel-Kar examined Venom's webbing with a mixture of shock and incredulity, wondering aloud how his symbiote's new host had even come up with such a bizarre thing for the symbiote to create. However, Venom insisted he was asking the questions now, demanding to know who Tel-Kar was and why it felt like he knew the Kree. Tel-Kar stated that one part of Venom did, long ago, but then began to feel faint and realized that he had suffered a large abdominal wound. Losing blood rapidly, he collapsed into Venom's arms, weakly stating it was good to see him again before passing out.
Venom took Tel-Kar to the Alchemax skyscraper and had Doctor Steve sew up his wound, and afterwards Tel-Kar overheard Brock and Alchemax CEO Liz Allan mention that there was a symbiote spawn on site. Meeting with the pair in Liz's office, Tel-Kar explained his history (leaving out any details about the plague or his genocidal plans) to Brock and Allan, and he unlocked some of the symbiote's suppressed memories to prove the veracity of his tale. Now recalling him as an old friend, the symbiote extended tendrils to him to greet him warmly; during their brief contact Tel-Kar sensed that it cared deeply for its newborn offspring being held in the nearby lab. Stating that there was much good that he and the symbiote could do for the galaxy if they were together again, he asked Brock to relinquish it to him, but Brock noted that it was the symbiote's choice. The symbiote thanked him for the offer, but informed him that it had already made its choice. Aware that a mature symbiote could only be bonded with of its own volition, Tel-Kar feigned acceptance and began to broach the topic of the symbiote spawn, then before either Liz or Brock could respond he lunged forward, grabbed Liz and hurled her out the window. Tel-Kar paused only momentarily to watch Venom leap out after her, then while Venom was saving her, Tel-Kar raced to the lab. He reached the newborn spawn moments before Venom caught up with him; noting that because of its youth he could force it to bond with him, he threatened to twist it into something fearful unless the elder symbiote willingly return to him. Ignoring Brock's protests, the elder symbiote immediately acquiesced, and Tel-Kar rebonded with it, then departed in triumph, pausing only to throw the infant symbiote back to Brock.
(Venom: First Host#3) - Tel-Kar returned to his stolen Skrull craft, shooing away two boys who had discovered its hiding place within an abandoned building. The symbiote objected as he tried to enter the vessel, insisting it had agreed to help only to save its offspring, and that it would not leave for space with him. Tel-Kar chastised the symbiote, noting it was more chatty than he recalled, a detail he blamed on "sloppy, untrained hosts" it had been with in his absence. Declaring that it must have been allowed to run riot, he informed the symbiote that this behavior would end now that it was back in his possession. Rebelling, the symbiote tried to separate from Tel-Kar, announcing that it would fight and leave him, but Tel-Kar easily asserted his mental domination, silencing its voice within his mind. Heading out into space with the memories he had hidden within the symbiote restored, he set off for the Skrull weapons research facility, hidden within the D'karr Nebula.
Arriving at the
facility, Tel-Kar got through its considerable defenses by
impersonating M'lanz. Though this got him by the exterior defenses,
the Skrulls detected that the vessel was carrying an unclassified
life-form, and this, combined with the lack of official communiques
regarding "M'lanz's" arrival made them suspicious. The disguised
Tel-Kar was greeted upon disembarking by guards with their weapons
already drawn and trained on him, one of whom noted that M'lanz
lacked the clearance to even be aware of the facility's existence.
Taking that revelation as excellent news, since he presumed it meant
M'lanz wouldn't be following him there, Tel-Kar surreptitiously
extended tendrils from the symbiote and impaled the guards before
they were even aware they were under attack. Dropping his disguise,
he kept the impaled guard captain alive to access the palm print
I.D., voiceprint monitors and eyeball scanners in the installation.
(Venom: First Host#3 - BTS) - Tel-Kar slaughtered his way through the facility's personnel until he reached where the plague was stored.
(Venom: First Host#3) - He left a trail of corpses in his wake.
(Venom: First Host#4 (fb) - BTS) - Having programmed the bioweapon to target Skrulls, Tel-Kar unleashed it within the facility, swiftly killing all surviving Skrulls therein. However, before they died, they managed to destroy his ship, stranding him on the facility.
(Venom: First Host#5 (fb) - BTS) - He stored away one spare culture of the bioweapon on his person as a back-up, then, believing that delivering his people victory would restore his good name in the Kree Empire, he...
(Venom: First Host#4 (fb) - BTS) - ...signaled the Kree Empire to inform them of his prize, and awaited their arrival, but M'lanz and Brock, now wearing the symbiote spawn (Sleeper), reached the facility first. Brock and Sleeper boarded the spacestation, leaving M'lanz on board their ship so she would not be killed by the plague.
(Venom:
First Host#4) - Noting Brock's arrival via the
facility's security cameras, Tel-Kar activated the
outbreak antimeasures, engulfing the corridor Brock
was traversing in fire. Once the flames went out, he
entered the corridor to inspect the remains, but was
caught off guard by Brock, who had survived thanks to
Sleeper and then utilized the infant symbiote's
camouflage powers to render him effectively invisible
until he attacked. Knocking him away, Tel-Kar extended
tendrils into the facility's systems and again
activated the outbreak countermeasures, hitting Brock
with another fire blast, then extruded a sword from
his symbiote, intending to finish the wounded Brock
off while he was still stunned.
However, Brock managed to grab Tel-Kar's ankle, allowing the symbiotes to commune directly with one another. Sleeper's pleas to its parent gave the elder symbiote the will to fight Tel-Kar's control once more, and it reabsorbed the blade. As Tel-Kar fought to bring it under control, he drew his blaster to shoot Brock, but was shocked from behind by M'lanz, who had boarded unnoticed, protected from the plague by her spacesuit. With the symbiote still battling him, Tel-Kar seized M'lanz's war axe; declaring that he had no use for the symbiote if it wouldn't obey him, Tel-Kar burned it off with the axe's electroshock power, scarring himself heavily in the process and leaving the seemingly lifeless elder symbiote puddled on the floor.
Declaring that her spacesuit rendered her clumsy and unable to use her shapeshifting, forcing her to rely too much on her axe, Tel-Kar snapped its shaft and pierced M'lanz's suit with one splintered end. As air rushed out the pressurized suit, giving her a few moments grace during which the plague-tainted facility air couldn't enter, Sleeper transferred itself from Brock to the Skrull, sealing the suit to ensure the plague had no access. Ignoring this, Tel-Kar moved to kill Brock with the axe's remains, taunting the human as Brock reached out in distress towards his original symbiote. As Tel-Kar brought down what was intended to be the fatal blow, his arm was grabbed by Brock, coated again by the symbiote, still alive albeit badly hurt. With M'lanz also active again, Tel-Kar found himself confronted by all his foes, but he dismissed their demands he surrender, noting that all four of them were half dead, and taunting them that his people were on the way, just as four Kree ships appeared outside.
(Venom: First Host#5) - Peering out a
viewport, M'lanz declared the newcomers as four Nenora-class
destroyers, and Tel-Kar pronounced that they would be
readying boarding parties, gloating that she had lost.
However, to Tel-Kar's shock, they fired missiles instead.
Opening comms channels as the first missiles struck, he was
stunned to be informed that he was still considered a
traitor, and that the Kree intended to destroy the
bioweapon, as they had lost the stomach for doomsday devices
following the recent destruction of their throneworld, Hala.
Tel-Kar tried to offer the Kree captain his "hostages"
instead, but realized that they had departed aboard M'lanz's
ship while he had been distracted.
(Venom: First Host#5 - BTS) - Tel-Kar escaped the facility before it was destroyed and made his way back to Earth, determined to revenge himself against Brock and the symbiotes. He located Brock's apartment and broke in while Brock was out, finding the younger symbiote there but seemingly too weak from it's recent ordeal to impede him.
(Venom: First Host#5 (fb) - BTS) - Finding a few drops of Brock's blood, Tel-Kar programmed his remaining bioweapon culture with it, intending to exterminate humanity. Wanting to make Brock suffer, he then waited for the human to return.
(Venom: First Host#5) -
When Brock returned to his apartment, he found Tel-Kar
standing over the Sleeper symbiote with the bladed half of
M'lanz's busted axe raised. He warned Brock that the axe
retained enough charge to slay the infant, but denied
wanting his symbiote back, declaring it broken and
disloyal. Denouncing Brock for taking away his world,
people and mission away from him, Tel-Kar informed the
human of his intention to unleash the plague, but when he
tried to smash the vial containing the plague, Sleeper
suddenly shot out tentacles to catch it.
Tel-Kar tried to
blast the young symbiote with the axe, but the elder
symbiote leapt from Brock and intercepted the blast with
its own body. With Tel-Kar momentarily distracted watching
the elder symbiote damaged and burning, Brock struck the
Kree in the face with a dumbbell, then tackled him out the
window. The pair fell to the street below, but even though
Tel-Kar took the brunt of the impact he easily threw Brock
off him, derisively pointing out to the human that even
without a symbiote he was stronger, faster and better
trained.
However, not being a local, Tel-Kar failed to watch
for New York traffic, and so seconds later was struck by a
taxi. Seizing the opportunity, Brock hit him several times
with a trash can, but Tel-Kar rallied and sent Brock
flying with a backwards blow. Picking Brock up by his
head, Tel-Kar prepared to snap his neck while promising he
would kill the symbiotes and eradicate mankind, but was
interrupted when Sleeper dropped onto his head. Trying to
pull the symbiote off his head, Tel-Kar protested that he
was gene-edited to control symbiotes, but the infant noted
that he was different from his parent.
Infiltrating Tel-Kar's skull, Sleeper noted the artificially enhanced structures within Tel-Kar's brain, then lobotomized him. Now piloting Tel-Kar's brainless husk, Sleeper informed Brock that he now had access to the Kree's knowledge and memories of worlds and galaxies beyond Earth, which he desired to see for himself. Thanking Brock and asking him to say goodbye to his symbiote parent, Sleeper (and Tel-Kar) departed.
(Venom IV#18 (fb) - BTS) - Sleeper piloted Tel-Kar across the cosmos for some time in search of answers, unsure of his place in it.
(Web of Venom: The Good Son#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Sleeper
continued to pilot Tel-Kar's decaying but still living body as he
traveled across space, but he did not consider Tel-Kar a true host;
though the symbiote could hear his veins pump, muscles tear, bones crack
and teeth gnash, he shared no bond with his host. Tales of his exploits
spread, though many dismissed the stories of a symbiote puppeting a Kree
warrior as merely being rumors. When Sleeper arrived on an unidentified
alien world, the monarch requested he "liberate" the planet from the
crab-clawed, multi-eyed and tentacled "dreaded LaMarche demon." Upon
being promised an unspecified reward, Sleeper slew the beast in the
king's presence.
(Web of Venom: The Good Son#1/2) - Wanting to confirm his
suspicion that Sleeper was the symbiote rumors spoke of, the king
demanded Sleeper show the face beneath the symbiote's coating. Initially
declining, Sleeper reluctantly acquiesced when the king's guards
threatened to shoot him, revealing Tel-Kar's now desiccated, nearly
skeletal skull. Wanting to claim the valuable symbiote, the king ordered
his men to open fire. Though the symbiote protected Tel-Kar from many of
the shots, one ripped through Tel-Kar's vocal chords, and that, plus
perhaps some of the others, fatally wounded Tel-Kar beyond Sleeper's
ability to repair him.
As Tel-Kar bled out inside Sleeper's sheathe,
Sleeper piloted his dying body to attack the guards, spraying them
with highly corrosive Badoon acid and disorientating them with Brood
pheromones. As Sleeper cleared the palace, Tel-Kar finally expired, with
Sleeper feeling his host's eyes rolling back into his skull, his feet
give way, his skin go numb, and his heart stop. Generating rockets,
Sleeper rose out of the atmosphere, feeling the cold of space instantly
cool Tel-Kar's corpse and congeal its blood. Advanced decomposition set
in without warning, and the symbiote automatically absorbed the
resultant fluids, taking nutrition but also triggering flashbacks to
Tel-Kar's memories of fighting Skrulls.
As Tel-Kar fell finally silent, Sleeper heard the call of other symbiotes in his mind, calling on him to return to the symbiote homeworld, Klyntar. With Tel-Kar little more than a skeleton frame giving Sleeper form, the symbiote heeded that summons and flew home.
(Venom IV#18 (fb) ) - Landing on Klyntar, Sleeper was attacked by other symbiotes seeking to absorb him and add them to their horde, in the thrall of Knull, the King in Black held prisoner at the planet's core. Burning free by generating Badoon acid, Sleeper felt instinctively that he would be needed on Earth when Knull reached there, and fled back to his planet of birth at speed.
(Venom
IV#17) - Reaching Earth, Tel-Kar went to Eddie Brock's safe house.
Arriving to find Dylan (Eddie's son) and his friend Normie Osborn under
attack by the Phage symbiote. Considering Dylan family, Sleeper broke
Phage's neck (presumably slaying the host within, but likely only
incapacitating Phage).
(Venom
IV#18) - Sleeper identified himself to the boys and explained who he
was. When Dylan asked what he was like beneath, Sleeper showed him
Tel-Kar's decayed face and explained that his host was long dead. Seeing
the children's horrified and sickened reactions, Sleeper swiftly covered
up the gruesome visage and apologized, then began to wonder aloud if he
might not be more useful bonded to Dylan instead, as he would be
stronger if with a living and willing partner.
Sleeper extended a tentacle towards Dylan, who appeared to be considering the offer, reaching out tentatively in turn, but before they made contact Sleeper was struck by a sonic blast fired by the Maker, who had been asked by Eddie Brock to protect the boys and finally finished fighting Phage's symbiote siblings in an adjacent room. Stunned and detached from Tel-Kar's corpse, Sleeper was placed in a containment unit by the Maker.
(Venom IV#18) - The Maker intended to, and presumably did, remove the symbiote codex from Tel-Kar's corpse's DNA and destroyed it.
Comments: Created by Mike Costa, Mark Bagley and Andrew Hennessey.
Per the Kree soldier that recognized Tel-Kar, he "deserted" after the outset of the war; Tel-Kar later makes a similar claim to Eddie Brock that he was deployed at the "very outset" of the war. Since the Kree-Skrull War raged for literally millions of years, and Kree, though long lived, normally do not live anywhere near that long, this can't have been the actual start of the conflict. Since the war has been acknowledged to have ebbed and flowed, with brief periods of ceasefire, presumably they meant that the Tel-Kar vanished from barracks after the war RE-ignited following one of those lulls in the conflict.
This profile was completed 9/27/2020, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Tel-Kar has no known connections to:
D'lutz was a Skrull soldier during the Kree-Skrull War.
In
command of others soldiers, he was unaware his unit had been infiltrated
by the disguised Kree Tel-Kar. En route to report a discovery
(presumably related to the programmable plague designed by the Skrull
weapons research facility in the D'karr Nebula), his vessel detected a
Kree refugee transport. After his ship fired on and disabled the Kree
vessel, he led a boarding party, describing his intention to slaughter
the refugees as "R&R" for his men.
When they found a group of the
refugees huddling in one of the compartments, D'lutz listened to their
pleas for mercy with sadistic delight, then informed them that his
people and theirs were at war, suggesting to the refugees they should
have armed themselves as he raised his own weapon in preparation for
firing on them.
In response Tel-Kar swung round and swiftly gunned down
the two other Skrulls present, to D'lutz's shock and horror.
While D'lutz
was still struggling to comprehend what was happening, Tel-Kar rounded
and shot him in the head, presumably killing him.
--Venom: First Host#1 (fb)
(Venom: First Host#1-2 (fb)
unidentified Kree officer from Tel-Kar's barracks
An unidentified Kree officer who had been barracked
alongside Tel-Kar, and who had been informed that Tel-Kar had deserted
when war broke out (again) with the Skrulls, coincidentally ended up on
the refugee transport boarded by D'lutz's forces. His pleas to spare the
refugees were rejected by the sadistic D'lutz, but Tel-Kar intervened
and saved them.
When Tel-Kar dropped his disguise, the officer
recognized him and expressed surprise given what he had previously been
told about the undercover operative. With other Skrulls close by,
Tel-Kar led the officer and refugees in an evacuation, and when it
became clear that someone had to buy the refugees time by staying behind
to keep the pursuing Skrulls busy, Tel-Kar elected to do so, and handed
his symbiote to the officer, instructing him to deliver it to an admiral
once he got back to Hala.
As the officer led the refugees away, the
symbiote leapt from his hands; he was about to pursue it when an elderly
refugee halted him, pointing out there were still other refugees needing
to be rescued from the transport's lower levels, and that only he could
pilot the escape craft. Later, as they flew from the transport in said
craft, a refugee consoled the officer, saying he had made the right
decision, calling the symbiote a weapon and stating that they were
better off without it among them, as they had children aboard.
Staring
back philosophically, the officer stated he did not believe the symbiote
was a weapon, but now it was trapped aboard a ship about to scuttle on a
nameless world. He added that he thought it had been alive, and that it
only wanted to do good.
--Venom: First Host#1 (fb)
images: (without ads)
Venom: First Host#3, p4, pan1 (main image)
Venom: First Host#1, p4, pan2 (headshot)
Venom: First Host#2, p13, pan4 (assuming Skrull disguise)
Venom: First Host#1, p3, pan2 (Skrull disguise)
Venom: First Host#2, cover (in space, in uniform)
Venom: First Host#1, p20, pan1 (fugitive)
Venom: First Host#5, p11, pan3 (scarred headshot)
Venom: First Host#4, p18, pan1(scarred body)
Web of Venom: The Good Son#1/2, p1 (25 overall), pan1 (Sleeper)
Venom IV#18, p5, pan2 (dead headshot)
Venom IV#18, p6, pan1 (corpse)
Venom: First Host#1, p2, pan2 (D'lutz)
Venom: First Host#1, p3, pan3 (D'lutz shot in face)
Venom: First Host#1, p8, pan3 (Kree officer)
Appearances:
Venom:
First Host#1-5 (October-November 2018) - Mike Costa (writer), Mark
Bagley (pencils), Andrew Hennessey (inks), Devin Lewis (editor)
Web of Venom: The Good Son#1 (March 2020) - Zac Thompson (writer), Juan Gedeon (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
Venom IV#17-18 (October-November 2019) - Donny Cates (writer), Iban Coello (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
First Posted: 09/13/2021
Last updated: 09/11/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
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