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Attributes

Height: Unknown.

Weight: Unknown.

Eyes: Black or blue. Her left eye can produce a yellow glow, when she's using her powers.

Hair: Black and long.

Features: White skin.

Summary

Created By: Tom DeFalco, Mike W. Barr, Terry Kavanagh, Ron Lim, Jerry Bingham, Mark Bagley, Jim Sanders, III, Tom Palmer

Real Name: Sandra Deel in Maximum Carnage. Frances Louise Barrison from Shrieking onwards. Continuity goof-up.

Current Aliases: None.

Former Aliases: Unknown.

Dual Identity: Known to the authorities.

Current Occupation: Imprisoned.

Former Occupation: Rock band groupie and small drug dealer (before Shriek); mass-murderer (Shriek).

Citizenship: American.

Legal Status: Has a criminal record for hundreds of deaths.

Place of Birth: Somewhere in America.

Marital Status: Single.

Known Relatives: Carnage (adopted husband), Carrion II - Malcolm McBride - (adopted son), DemoGoblin (adopted son) and Doppelganger (adopted pet).

Known Confidants: Carnage, Carrion II, Dr. Kafka.

Known Allies: Carnage, Carrion II, DemoGoblin and Doppleganger.

Major Enemies: Spider-Man, Venom, Cloak & Dagger and the Jackal.

Usual Bases: The Ravencroft Institute for Insane Criminals.

Former Bases: All over New York.

Current Groups: None.

Former Groups: "Maximum Carnage".

Education: Unknown.

Powers & Paraphenalia

Strength Level: Slightly above human. Enough to easily raise someone with one hand, but not enough to get rid of a straightjacket.

Powers: She fires sonic blasts from her hands.

Abilities: She is able to tap into people's minds, and bring out their inner darkness (fears, anger, hate), making them act in violent and evil manners. She can also use her powers to fly and to levitate objects/people, as if she has weak psionic abilities. In fact, that would explain her darkness powers as well.

Equipment: None.

Weapons: None.

Limitations: Her obssession with families.

Background

Pure speculation: Shriek could already have latent powers that were triggered by Cloak's darkness, by some drug side effects or by the near-death experience (assuming the cops really shot her on the head). Or her powers may have been created by one/two/all of those factors. What we do know is that her sound powers were only fully developed after her meeting with Cloak. I wouldn't be much surprised if she was a mutant with some psionic abilities, and her troubled childhood, the drugs and Cloak's darkness shaped them this way. Not a clue about the white skin, though.

The story: when Carnage escaped from Ravencroft, at the beginning of the Maximum Carnage storyline, Shriek talked him into taking her with him. After that, they met with Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Carrion II. Shriek's childhood problems started to surface, when she talked them into becoming a family, where she and her 'husband' (Carnage) taught their 'children' (Carrion II and DemoGoblin) the evil ways. And Doppelganger was their 'pet'. Her powers induced everyone to be evil, including the citizens of New York. By the end of Maximum Carnage, Carnage had killed Doppelganger, Malcolm McBride was rid of the Carrion virus (actually, he wasn't), Carnage was dead (nope, he wasn't either) DemoGoblin had seen the error of his ways (which didn't make him alter them much) and Shriek had seen the light (no she hadn't).

Shriek's next appearence was in "Shrieking", a creepy tale from J.M.DeMatteis in Amazing Spider-Man #390-393. While she was inprisoned in Ravencroft, Dr. Kafka was having a hard time convincing Malcolm McBride he wasn't insane, neither he was responsible for Carrion's actions. To show him what "insane" is, she took him to Shriek's cell. When Frances saw him, she broke out of the cell specifically built to resist her powers, and escaped with Malcolm. She tapped into him with her powers, and re-activated the Carrion virus. Carnage was in a coma by then, and DemoGoblin had been killed while saving a kid from falling debris, so Malcolm was all Shriek had left, and she wasn't letting him go, no matter how much he asked for it.

Spider-Man, who wasn't very happy by then (this story follows the conclusion of the Return of the Parents storyline, Lifetheft and Pursuit), beat her without saying one word. When she begged him to stop, he hesitated, and she KO'ed him with a sonic blast. After that, she realized that the darkness in Spider-Man's mind was growing, and that if she could work it right, she could make him replace Carnage as her evil 'husband'.

By this time, Carrion was already taking over Malcolm's mind, but Malcolm was still attached to his mother. So, Shriek took him to visit her, and while she was trying to persuade her that Malcolm was hers (Shriek's), Spidey arrives to save her (Beatrice McBride). A confused Carrion attacks Spider-Man, because not knowing who to love, he sure knew who to hate. Spider-Man bursts in anger at Carrion's ingratitude ("I turned the city upside down to find you, and this is what I get in return? I should let this virus devour you to death. Tell me Malcolm, why should I care?").

While Spidey vents his anger at Carrion, Shriek smiles, realizing he's close to his fall. But Beatrice McBride stops him, appealing to his conscience. Now it's time for Shriek to get angry. Realizing Spidey could never be a "good" father to Carrion, she blasts him with a sonic burst. Then she tells Carrion to choose between her and his mother. He uses his power against himself in return. When Shriek sees that Beatrice is ready to die just to embrace her son before he dies, something triggers inside her. She absorbs the Carrion virus from his body and collapses, leaving Malcolm free of the Carrion curse. Spidey takes her back to Ravencroft.

In the beginning of the Clone Saga, the Jackal invaded her cell and removed the virus, she was nurturing like an unborn child (this woman has severe issues), from her body. Shriek was never seen since, apart from a cameo or two in Ravencroft, where she is presumably still held today.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

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